When you find your iPhone speaker not working, don’t dismiss it as a simple issue; it could signal a bigger or worse problem than you expect it to. Maybe you don’t listen through the speaker and you use a pair of headphones on your iPhone but this could mean not being able to hear incoming calls, or ringtones for notifications or messages. It could also mean no sound when you’re watching movies or playing games on your phone.
It’s a bit tricky to fix an iPhone’s speaker when it won’t work, because there are many things that could cause the sound not to come out. Thankfully, you can use some easy fixes to resolve the most common reasons of the speaker not working.
How to fix iPhone speaker not working
Check volume and iPhone ringer
This is the first place to start when the iPhone speaker won’t work. You may have set your iPhone on silent mode, or used the ringer/mute switch to disable sounds for notifications or calls. Try to toggle the ringer switch by flipping it down and then back up, and then try to raise the volume on your iPhone as high as it would go, and see if it resolves anything.
Check iPhone speaker software settings
To do this:
- Open Settings
- Tap Sounds & Haptics. Check the settings here as they control the phone’s overall volume, whether the volume buttons work, and the sounds you get during calls, as you send emails, or even set new text tones.
If your iPhone is stuck in headphone mode instead, it can only send audio output one way at a go. This is caused by a bug that sends audio only to the headphones even when they’re unplugged.
Turn off Bluetooth
When you find your iPhone speaker not working, the audio could be going to another device so it won’t play sounds. If you’re not hearing anything, the iPhone could be sending audio via Bluetooth to another speaker and the latter could be playing the sound. Try to turn off Bluetooth to break that connection and play via your iPhone speaker.
To do this:
- Open Settings
- Tap Bluetooth>move the slider to white/off
Check Audio settings
Your iPhone could also be connected via AirPlay to an external speaker and you’re not aware of it. Switch audio output settings from the AirPlay speaker to the iPhone’s speaker to hear sound again. To do this:
- Open Control Center
- Tap the right side of music playback control
- If there are no audio output options, tap AirPlay on the upper right side
- Tap iPhone
Restart your iPhone
If nothing else works, restart your iPhone as it may fix software glitches that cause the speaker or audio output not to work.
Update iOS version
Besides restarting your iPhone, updating the iOS version can help solve software issues as it comes with bug fixes for your iPhone that resolve bugs in your current iOS version.
Elsie is a tech writer with 8+ years professional experience. For Tech News Watch, she brings rich experience contributing to topics such as Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS among others. In her spare time, she loves checking out the latest tech trends, gadgets, and news, listening to music and cars.