Technology is great, but not when you have to deal with finicky glitches. For example, have you ever had the experience that your headphone symbol won’t go away on your phone, even after already unplugging them? It’s one of those irritating glitches that can push up anxiety levels.
In most cases, little glitches like these can be easily fixed within a few minutes. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can go around in circles forever. So, I decided to take an in-depth look at how you can quickly fix this issue to bring down your stress levels.
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Why Won’t My Headphone Symbol Go Away?
If you unplug your headphones and the symbol won’t go away, is, in fact, quite a common issue. Android and iOS device users are constantly complaining about this glitch. The symbol is informing you that your phone still thinks the headphones are plugged in and in active mode, even if they’re not.
In active mode, all your device’s audio is still being routed through the headphone jack socket and not your phone speakers. So, what can we do? Is the jack broken or faulty? Is there a way to fix this issue without taking my phone or device apart? Here are some things you can try to initially fix the headphone symbol not going away.
Plugging Your Headphone Jack In and Out
Turning things on and off is like the ultimate reset for anything electrical. And the same approach can be taken with your headphones jack. Simply try plugging your headphones in and out again. The error is sometimes caused because your phone is not sending the signal to the headphones.
I recommend that you slowly insert your headphone jack back into your device. Then follow the same procedure removing the jack, and that might kick-start the connection between your phone and headphones.
Resetting Bluetooth Headphones/Speaker
You can perform this same process if you have a similar issue with your Bluetooth headphones or speaker. It’s not possible to slowly remove Bluetooth headphones. But you can use a similar procedure to disconnect and reconnect your speakers.
Make sure you don’t turn the device off during this process. You can disconnect your speaker/headphones via the Bluetooth settings, or you can manually turn your device’s Bluetooth on and off.
Resetting Headphone Jacks
If you’re still experiencing problems, we recommend that you attempt to reset your headphones jack. Plug in your headphones jack at about two-thirds of the way in and twist it around a couple of times. This should reset your jack and force it to send out another signal. Your phone might think your headphones are still plugged in due to a short circuit in your jack.
Turning Your Phone On and Off
The last port of call, if everything else fails, should be turning your phone or device off and on. Doing this with your Android or iOS device should reset the hardware and possibly make the headphone icon disappear.
How to Clean Your Headphone Jack?
One way of fixing the problem when the headphone symbol won’t go away could be to clean your headphone jacks. Dust build-up can be an issue, causing blocked sensors and signals. It’s common for the dust to gather in your device’s nooks and crannies. So, a quick clean might be a viable solution.
Dip a cotton swab in an isopropyl alcohol solution such as Amazon Brand – Solimo 99% Isopropyl Alcohol For Technical Use,16 Fl Oz, and then dab the swap in and around your headphone jack port. Wait a few minutes for the solution to dry or evaporate before plugging your headphones in.
The demand for waterproof phones is currently huge. However, using waterproof phones can cause a knock-on issue with the connector area as water can easily get in. You could leave your phone in a dry place overnight to fix the problem. Or you could use a hair-dryer on the wet area to evaporate the liquid remnants.
Configuring Headphone or Audio Settings
It’s possible to bypass the headphones symbol by changing your headphone and/or audio settings. You can choose to either play sounds through your device’s speaker or even manually reset the jack. Let’s take a look at how you can change your device settings.
Android Devices
To configure your Android device settings, please follow these steps.
- Navigate to ‘Settings.’
- Go to the ‘Sound & Vibration’ section.
- Choose ‘Advanced Sound Settings.’
- You need to separate app sound.
At this point, you’ll need to choose between the ‘App’ and ‘Audio Device’ settings. To reroute the sound to play on your phone, follow the below process.
- Choose ‘App.’
- Select your ‘video or music player’ and the ‘Phone App.’
- Turn it on and select ‘Phone.’
All the audio should now be playing directly through your phone/device speakers as normal. But the headphones icon will still be there. You’ll now have to reset the jack.
Resetting the Headphones Jack
Resetting your headphones jack is relatively simple. Select the ‘Audio Device’ option and plug your headphones in. You should now see your headphone’s name, and if so, tap on the option and then go back.
Now you can turn it on and play some music. Wait a few moments and turn it off again and pull out your headphones jack. This little reset trick should fix the problem.
Rerouting iOS Devices
If you need to reroute audio on an iOS device, you can follow these simple steps below.
- Swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone X to the top-right corner.
- Press and hold the ‘audio button’ to find the connected devices list.
- Choose the device to play the audio on.
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Headphone Symbol Won’t Go Away – Final Thoughts
You should now be playing music on your device because the headphones symbol has finally gone away. But if you’re still having issues, the next resort would be getting your phone checked by an expert. There is a chance that your headphone jack has been shorted, and if that’s the case, your phone needs fixing.
If you followed our simple processes, you should already be back to normal. Nothing is worse than dealing with glitches on your phone. But thankfully, this issue is usually easy to fix and doesn’t cost you any money, just a small amount of time.
Until next time, happy listening.
