You are listening to music or watching a video, and now you are done hearing, but you notice that even after unplugging your headphones, the phone isn’t playing the sourced audio through the speaker. This means it’s stuck where you left it; you notice a slightly larger headset icon on the notification bar.
You do a little more inspection as the headphones aren’t plugged in; you push the volume buttons and again see the “headphones” label above the speaker icon. Now you wonder what has happened to the audio while still not knowing the basics of it.
In your panic, you examined the headphone jack, charging port, and Bluetooth connections. While also doing a hard reset and plugging the headphones back and forth, but still don’t get any successful results. Your smartphone still thinks a headphone has been plugged in.
Nonetheless, headphone mode may seem insignificant to some, while others complain to the technician because they can’t make or take an important call without repeatedly reaching for their headphones. You also can’t hear notifications, enjoy your favorite music, or watch videos.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to fix this problem, and you can apply these to Android and iPhone too.
Why is my phone stuck in headphone mode?
The headphone mode is for user convenience, as it detects headphones whenever they are plugged in, and rather than through speakers, it delivers the sound through headphone wires.
This happens now and then, but it drives you insane. There can be so many reasons for it; it can be only the hardware or software of your device or both. Some major but basic causes of headphone mode being stuck include:
- Multiple tasks were going on when listening through headphones.
- You rudely unplugged your headphones.
- The device’s operating system is misbehaving.
- Wrong settings or defaulted on its own.
- Lint, dust, or water drops in the jack.
| Is troubleshooting apply to any device? | Definitely. |
| Can I repair it with an app? | Yes, 3rd party app can help. |
| Can a bad headphone product affect it? | Yes. |
How to fix the stuck headphone mode?
There are several solutions to it however it is better to start with the essential, quick, and simple fixes that you can do on android and phones too. This will help you narrow down the cause and list check so you know if you need deep solutions.
Plug and unplug the headphone set again:
A straightforward solution is to try to plug and unplug the headphones yet again, this helps your device to recognize that a headphone has been plugged out so that it can start to play through the speakers of the device.
- Insert the headphone plug into the respective jack.
- Gentle but requires a little pressure to rotate into the jack.
- Remove the plug and see if the problem is solved.
If the issue persists then try further.
Clean the jack:
If you are used to keeping your phone in your bags, tabletops, and pockets, then there might be dirt and lint collecting in the jacks. The headphone plugins push it even further, fooling phone operations into believing it’s a headphone plug.
While the iPhone banned the headphone jack a long time ago, they transferred the headphone operation to the charging port, meaning you can listen to music by plugging in the charging port. Hence, these steps can be followed to clean the charging port and headphone jack.
With Q-tip:
- Take a dry q-tip and pull most of the cotton wool so that it can be fitted into the headphone jack.
- Insert the tip until it reaches the jack completely and rotate it with a little bit of pressure (you can also attach a little double-sided tape to the tips).
- Do it until there is no dirt residue coming through the jack.
The residues can be caused frequently so you can stop the issue by using a headphone dust stopper.
A cartridge trick:
- Take a standard pen and pull the cartridge from the plastic pen housing with pliers.
- From the opposite end (where the cartridge is empty) insert it into the headphone jack.
- Slowly rotate it so that the debris can loosen up and you can shake it out.
Air:
- You can blow the debris by using a compressed air container so that dirt can unstuck from the place and you can shake it again.
A small brush:
- A little slim bristle brush that may be laying in your house somewhere, can be used to dust out through the charging port of your iPhone.
Tweezers:
- The tweezer method is by far the riskiest of all but if you use a thin tweezer that can reach just the jack then you can safely do the cleaning. Try not to push it deep into the jack or it can mess up with the chip or internal digital setup.
When you have a checklist for every external fix then it’s time to look out for the issue in your devices. Try these:
Restart your phone (for android):
- Hold the one button present on either side of your phone (use to lock your device).
- Press it until there is a restart button displayed on the screen, click it.
- The phone will automatically restart on its own.
Phone’s soft reset:
For Android:
- Locate and hold the lock button on side of the phone, and press the option ‘power off’.
- Wait for almost 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Again, hold the lock button until the company’s logo appears.
For iPhone:
- Hold the sleep or wake button on the side.
- A slider will emerge, pull it to the right side.
- Wair for 1 minute before restarting the iPhone by pressing the same button until the logo appears.
Install an app:
The next easiest step would be downloading an audio app to fix all the sound-related problems that aren’t coming forward. Simply search for the Sound Fixer app in the Google tab on your computer and install it.
Once the program is downloaded, connect the PC to your mobile device through a USB cable. Then,
- Run the diagnostic program for your mobile.
- Let it check for the problem.
- The program will fix the problem by itself.
A hard reset:
When everything is up to par and you wonder why the headphones symbol is showing up on the screen, you might need a hard reset. Unlike the soft reset, a hard reset will delete all the files, audio, and videos, thus resetting it into factory reset mode.
Not only that, but it will eventually solve unsolved issues like bad apps, unwanted or corrupted files, buffering, system glitches, and viruses on your phone, causing it to cling to the headphone mode. But first, make sure to back up the data that you want to store in your account and also have enough battery power for the method to proceed.
- Open the settings app.
- In the menu, scroll down to ‘General management’.
- From the listed options, choose ‘Reset’.
- Under this, you will find ‘Factory data reset’.
- Now you will be shown all the apps, accounts, and files that will be new once you reset.
- The program will once again ask you to confirm if you want to do the reset and select ‘Delete all’.
- Once the reset is done, it will be ‘switched on’ on its own and will ask you to fill in the information.
Why Is headphone mode still showing?
Even after doing all the necessary troubleshooting, if the symbol is still showing and audio is not coming through the speakers, there are good chances that your mobile needs a repair.
There may be three possible reasons: physical damage, water damage, or damaged programming chips. Try to contact your company’s customer care or book an appointment so a professional can look deeply into your smartphone device.
SUMMARY:
- There is no doubt headphone mode is a good feature to be detected whenever a headphone is plugged in but it can become frustrating once your daily tasks are getting interrupted.
- It is too much to think but this mode can be provoked because of debris, a drop of water, and even lint stuck in your headphones or charging ports (in the case of your iPhone).
- By reading this blog, you would have come across some effective solutions to keep up with the headphone mode issue.
- These work in every smartphone, but still, if it persists then your device might go through a serious hardware issue.
- You can then finally go to the nearest tech guy, or customer care or change the mobile in some cases.