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Fourth generation iPhone. Repair is straightforward, but the front glass and LCD must be replaced as a unit. GSM / 8, 16, or 32 GB capacity / Model A1332 / Black and White. This page aims to help users troubleshoot, fix, and seek help for the iPhone 4.

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No sound from speaker for 'most' apps like Music, Pandora, Games

My iPhone 4 won't output sound from the speaker for 'most' apps like the Music (formerly iPod app) app, Pandora, and YouTube. Also, keyclicks and lock sounds don't come out of the speaker.

The mute switch isn't on, I've switched it back and forth. I've tried plugging and unplugging headphones into the headphone jack numerous times to see if some debris is in there. Nothing. I've tried cleaning the headphone jack with a cut Q-tip and a little bit of electronics cleaner, still nothing—though the first spin of the Q-tip looked pretty dirty since I've never cleaned it before. (The iPhone is about 1 year old.)

The iPhone 4 will play via headset, Bluetooth, dock connector and via the earpiece for phone calls.

And the weirdest part is that the iPhone 4 speaker WILL playback normally through the speaker when running Voice Memos, Skype or Talkatone apps. And if I move the ringer slider in Sounds prefs it works normally and produces the different levels of ringtones.

The iPhone 4 will also produce keyclicks if I remote-lock the phone via iCloud and press the passcode, which has the keyclick sounds.

Alerts through the speaker don't work for SMS or TextFree. Keyclicks don't normally work via TextFree—but for some reason it worked normally once and even got an SMS alert through the speaker. But after going to Music.app volume control, it disappeared again.

Weird workaround

If I have both Skype and Apple music app going, make a Skype call, put it into speakerphone mode (sounds comes out of the speaker), open the App Dock, switch to Apple Music app and hit play, the volume control remains up and works normally (though the audio is playing over the Skype call's audio).

I'm running an iPhone 4/32GB iOS 5.0.1 on an unbroken iPhone. I've already done a full a restore three times. One of those times I remote-wiped the phone and restored.

UPDATE 12/16/11

Ran it without loading backup after yet another restore (actually two restores) and there are no sounds from the device, which was plain without loading any extra apps onto it. No keyclicks. Once, after a restore, it made the 'hey I'm plugged into power' chirp, but that was it. Of course, after full restore from backup, sound still has the same weird problem as above.

Yes, the Phone app works via speakerphone, and I can control the volume. And like Skype, once this audio channel is open, the Music app can play through the speaker—but as soon as the phone call hangs up, the audio from the speaker for Music app is gone, just like my test with Skype.

It seems like a programming call is routing audio in different ways in the iPhone 4. The app Recorder does not play via the speaker, but maybe it uses the music programming call to go through the speaker instead of the voice one.

The phone is out of warranty, as it was bought a year and a few months ago.

Could this really be a bad headphone jack causing all of this?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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4 Comments

Did you make sure to test it before you restored to the backup of the iPhone?

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Does the speaker phone work when using the phone app? What i find interesting is that all the working apps are meant for dealing with voice. Maybe there is two separate audio encoding chips for the iPhone and the one meant for voice is working while the one meant to play music is broken? Will take a look around google to see if can find any information that might support this.

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anyways you should first check if it is under warranty. https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWar...

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In my iPhone 4s is suddenly phone hearing speaker and audio speaker and head phone is not working ..and I will use my by Bluetooth headset how to solve plse help mail me solution at pradeepvenu96@gmail.com

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20 Answers

Chosen Solution

Okay, I got my iPhone fixed by a 3rd party shop, not Apple. Turns out it was the dock connector. I had that replaced and now my iPhone 4 speaker works fine. Even my unresponsive home button problems went away. (I don't know why but it did.)

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Voting your answer up, Recently came to the same conclusion with another iphone, and this fixed the issue.

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I think it might be something to do with the dock connector getting something in it that holds it open and the software tells the phone it is docked. I found a small bit of paper in one side of the connector holding the small metal thing in. Will see if it stays fixed.

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Yes, I went to the Apple Store and they wanted to charge me $149 for a refurbished iPhone 4 and also said I could early upgrade at AT&T to the new iPhone 4S for $199 (for the base model).

I sent it into a 3rd party shop (see my comment just below the original post above). Cost me $49 to have the charge connector replaced. Works fine now.

by

Thank you Baron, i think i'm going to have to take it to a 3rd party to see if they can help me with this issue.

This really sucks!

by

Its Charging port , had same issue, change charging port , works great..

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Most Helpful Answer

All you have to do is to start playing a song from ipod or youtube while having your earphones pluged in, than plug your charger cable in and remove headphones.

press play again and remove charger cable.

Repeat if is not working firs time.

I had same problem. it's stuck in charger mode or in docking station with external audio.

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ionut cretu fixed my problem!! his solution works 100%!!!! try it twice!

== Update ==

If it messes up again just keep headphones OUT and put charger in and out. FIXED

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Thank you! Still limping along with 4s till upgrade. Tried above solution and still works 2 years later after post. Thank you as very sad when pandora isn't playing.

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Thank you so much

Ionut Cretu . All though it's been years. Your answer helped me out. So thank you

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At last it worked for me .. I tried all the above .. But there was no use . What I did was that , I turned it into silent, ( left top key to down) plugged in the charger and removed suddenly deactivate silent ( left top key to top ) and (it showed the volume bar on the screen ) suddenly plugged in the charger . I heared the sound of plugging in. And the music also working . Try it .. May help you .. Best of luck. Sebin zacharias

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Sebin, I tried air, unplugging, plugging, Q-Tip, pressing, squeezing, begging, pleading and praying.

YOUR solution WORKED!!!

Thank you, thank you!

Sebin's Solution: "At last it worked for me .. I tried all the above .. But there was no use . What I did was that , I turned it into silent, ( left top key to down) plugged in the charger and removed suddenly deactivate silent ( left top key to top ) and (it showed the volume bar on the screen ) suddenly plugged in the charger . I heared the sound of plugging in. And the music also working . Try it .. May help you .. Best of luck. Sebin zacharias"

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Sebans method worked for me!! Thank you.

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Sebin's worked for me also -

1. set the switch to silent

2. plug in the charger

3. suddenly deactivate the silent switch

Music apps play through phone now instead of headphones.

thanks!!!

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Thank you..guys ..

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I had same problem as everyone above. the answer was simple. Can of air. I spent hours trying every answer listed above and none worked. so i used a can of air and blew out charging port, mic, speaker, and the wonderful phone jack. Hope this helps someone.

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Yes. Now that you mention it I think a headphone jack is fairly likely. Headphone plugged in overrides speakers but not Bluetooth and dock connector. Voice memos only work when you press the speaker button right? The slide and the button clicks are not played when you have headphones in. I guess one way to check for sure is to press the volume up and down buttons on my iPhone 4s iOS 5.0 it will say headphones under the volume bar, but keep in mind this might be different on a different phone/iOS. What I would do is open up the phone and actually disconnect the headphone jack flex cable, start it back up and see if it is working. Here is a guide you can use iPhone 4 Wi-Fi Antenna Replacement when you get the wifi antenna off there will be 5 cables under it, the headphone cable is the 3rd one from either side. Just disconnect it, Turn your phone back on and test it. You don't have to put it all back together as long as your carefully not to touch anything to the backside while it's on. Good luck!

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I had the same issue. After a lot of hard work, i found that there was a button on the upper left side of my iphone. I just pushed it up and everything was ok. Now all sounds are working perfectly.

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There is an Air Play button that alows you to transfer to another source like Apple Tv or home computer. It appears as a small box with a triangle pointing up. Try opening this if the icon appears while playing music or videos. If It shows the dock connector as an option. The connector may be bad or may need cleaning if it is not plugged into a dock @ the time of evaluation.

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i had the same problem turns out that it damage to the charging point the make the iphone think that it connect to a docking station mine was due to water damage need to get it replaced

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I had the same problem as well. Have been trying to get it to work all afternoon. Granted it was very, very humid today but eventually I tried the toothbrush method and then I did what Sebin mentioned. I think the force of sticking the plug in and out makes a difference. Either way, I did it hard and it dislodged whatever was in there.

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I had the same problem on my 4s......tried blowing hard into the charger port and it fixed it...not great technolgy is it?

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I tried every suggestion here. Blowing into the charging port is the one that worked for me.

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I just had the same issue with daughters iphone4. I tried all the fixes listed. The one that worked was blowing in the charging port then the ear plug. It came on after doing that.

Thanks for the help everyone!!

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Had the same problem. I tried blowing on the charging port and it worked like magic! I'm so relieved. LOL! Thanks for the suggestions! =)

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I just used my mouth to blow in the charge port, plugged it in and now it plays music

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I did the same as David Calk and it works!!!!

i tried EVERYTHING!! i was in the verge of taking it to a 3rd party to fix it...

but then i blew as hard into the charge port and the head phone port. THen as the music was playing.. i plugged in the charger and took it off few times and the music started playing.

So far it is working.. i am praying that this isnt a temporary fix!!!

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I gave my son my IPhone 4 when I upgraded to the 4s he started to have problems with the sound with apps and music too well anyway he called me today and told me that he found a app that I had on the phone called Memory Manager.He started the app and now he has sound on his apps and music now. I use the app on my iPad to clear the unuse data in the ram to buffer movies easier. I hope this answer will help. Again the app is called. memory manager

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just check if you have not kept your phone at mute ...

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I had the same issue with my iPhone 4S. Music Player was not playing the song through the inbuild speaker , it was working fine with ear-phones.

While playing the song connected with earphones, I plugged in charger cable (dock) and then removed the earphones. After three attempts problem is fixed. I can hear songs through the speaker now :)

Rajendra

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yay can of air!! tried the q-tip thing, tried scraping lint out with a safety pin, but low and behold a blast of the jack, mic and doc connector with the can of air and all the sudden she's back. Good call to whoever suggested the can of air. we're back baby, we're back!

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ditto on the blast of air from the can!!!..tried everything else and remembered i had a can of air for keyboards....and presto like magic my sound works again. wtf?

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thanku, guys... i tried all of 'em. nd one by one my sound gradually came back. firstly on earphne then through speakers too..

hats off to u guys..

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Very strange that people find different ways of fixing the EXACT same problem!

My iPhone 4S has had the same problem over the past two days and has lost the sound on four occasions then came back. Whether it comes back by coincidence or not, I do not know, however the first time the media sound started playing after pushing a small piece of card into the dock connector. The two times after that I was just messing around with the volume controls in the settings. This last time, I locked my phone and switched the mute on/off button a few times then unlocked my phone... And hey presto the sound was back. I have no idea what's causing this problem to occur over and over again with different solutions curing it! Baffling!

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This worked for me ---> http://www.luckow.com/iphone/

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Fixed my problem this morning after 4 days of trials and tribulations. Noticed this morning that I also could not clear all my voicemail deleted messages. Held down the "1" key and deleted 15v messages, then Turned phone off by holding down the off button, then swiping right to power off. Turned it back on and my music, and Siri's voice in GPS, and the " Clear all" feature in voivemail all started working and have been working for about 20 hours now. I wanted to tell someone about it and save you some time or money. Below, I willl tell the story from the beginning.

Last summer, I dropped my Iphone 4S in a hot tub. as soon as Possible, ( 4 hrs later) , I removed the battery, and used a hair dryer on low for about 10 minutes blowing gentle hot breeze into speakers, power dock, and Headphone jack. That fixed it for months. Recently, I needed a new battery, and I purchased and installed it from the wonderful folks at IFix it. I also downloaded the new 7.6 operating system from Apple. That's when my troubles began. The next morning, my Music did not play from my speakers, my Siri voice on GPS no longer worked, and my ringer and volume control for the phone would not make any sound and the bell Icon was missing the sound bar icon if you know what I mean. I first thought I must have done something when I installed the battery. I did it all over and inspected everything with a magnifying glass and put it all back together. It still did not work.

I tried resetting the phone, turning off all apps, and a bunch of other things to no avail. I made an appointment at the Apple store that night and they inspected it and said the headphone jack and docking connectors had corrosion on them and I could buy a new phone for only $199. It was true that the two area's had corrosion, and I had seen signs of it, and it was to be expected from the dunk in the hot tub months before, but I suspected I could clean it, and also wanted to be sure it was not software related. I tried every possible thing I could think of in settings, and researched the net, and learned all about this new operation system. I discovered that I could no longer use my favorite 2005 macbook laptop to sync my phone, and apple told me that once I update, I cannot revert back to my old system. Luckily, I have a newer Macbook pro, so I will have to transfer my music, data and stuff to the new one, making my favorite white macbook not much more than a coaster to put my coffee cup upon.

Getting back to the no sound issue, I noticed this morning that I also had a problem with my voicemail and the "clear all" icon was not responding. When I fixed that by erasing the messages stored at ATT server, and restarted, my sound came back. I do need to replace the docking connector and the headphone jack, and will be buying the parts from Ifix it. I'm imagining how disappointed I would be if I had done all that complicated repairing and the sound was still bad? I am fairly certain that most of these problem's are software update related. I sure miss Steve Jobs.

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What my solution are? Jailbreak your devices and use iFile which can get from Cydia and then delete the file name called com.apple.iapd.plist

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I also have same problem. Only started happening recently.

It seems most commonly after trying to run Pandora, however had been working fine until recently. I don't recall doing any upgrades which may have precipitated the problem.

Often I'll get the audio for the key strokes back, and that is my indicator that I can use other apps utilising the speaker such as podcasts or Skype.

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Baron will be eternally grateful.
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