How to Fix It When There is No Sound on Your iPhone

When you don't hear any sound on your iPhone, there are 13 troubleshooting steps you can take to fix the problem.

Reasons Why There is No Sound on Your iPhone

The issue may be universal throughout your iPhone, or it may only occur within a single app. The lack of sound can happen, for instance, when you are connected to a Bluetooth device that isn't turned on, alerts are defaulting to no sound, or your iPhone is on Do Not Disturb.

There are other things, too, that can cause your iPhone to go silent; the precise issue will likely reveal itself with the corresponding fix.

How to Fix No Sound on iPhone

The steps below are listed from easiest to hardest to help you remedy the problem and identify its root cause so you don't run into this problem again. Follow these troubleshooting steps in the order presented to get your iPhone working properly again:

1. Test the iPhone speaker. Select Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Under Ringers and Alerts, move the slider to the right to increase the volume. If you hear a sound, the iPhone speaker works. If you don't hear a sound, the device may need a hardware repair.

2. Unsilence calls on your iPhone. The Ring/Silent switch, also called the Mute switch, has two positions. When the switch is pushed toward the back of the device, the color orange indicates that the switch is set to silent mode. Push the switch toward the screen to enable sound.

3. Turn off Do Not Disturb. Do Not Disturb mode silences many sounds and alerts. Turn it off if you don't hear any sound. Open the Settings app, select Do Not Disturb, then move the toggle switch to the Off position.

4. Disable Bluetooth. When your iPhone is connected to a Bluetooth audio device, it sends sound to the device and not to the speaker on the iPhone. Turn off Bluetooth so that sounds play from the iPhone.

5. Adjust the volume buttons while in an app. Sometimes the sound volume in an app may be turned down too low to hear. Open an app, such as Music, Podcasts, or any other app that uses sound. Use the hardware volume buttons on the side of the iPhone to turn up the volume.

   It may also be that the sound setting in the app is too low. Open the app and navigate to the page with the Play/Pause button. Move the slider to the right to increase the volume.

6. Check third-party app sound settings. Many third-party apps offer customized volume and mute sound settings. For example, some games offer separate settings for volume, music, sound effects, ambient audio, and more.

   In the app, look for audio or sound settings. Turn off any customized mute options, enable audio, and adjust the volume sliders to increase volume. Depending on the app, either move sliders up, move sliders to the right, or tap an icon to make it active.

7. Check notification settings for the app. Check the iPhone notifications' sound settings for the app. Some apps, such as Reminders and Messages, let you choose a notification sound. If this sound is set to None, the alert is silent. Choose None and select a sound.

8. Try headphones. Find the headphones that came with the iPhone. For older iPhone models, plug the headphones into the headset port. For newer iPhone models, plug the headphone into the Lightning port. (The charging cable also connects to this port.) Listen for audio with the headphones while using an app that has audio.

   Alternatively, plug in and then remove the headphones, then listen for audio. It could be the iPhone is stuck in headphone mode.

9. Restart the device. If you still don't hear any sound, restart the iPhone. To restart, turn the iPhone off and then back on.

10. Make sure iPhone apps are up to date. In rare cases, the lack of sound may be the result of an app developer error. Go to App Store > Updates to check if an app update is available. If you see only apps in the Updated Recently section, no additional updates are available.

11. Check for iOS system updates. An iOS update might fix a sound problem. Check for any system software updates from Apple, then download and install the available updates.

12. Reset all settings. If none of the above steps resolve your sound issue, reset the iPhone settings. This resets the sound, display, and network settings to the iPhone defaults. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings.

13. Contact Apple Support or make an appointment at an Apple Genius Bar. If none of the above steps works, you may have a hardware problem. Whatever the issue, your only course is to contact Apple.