IOS – Music app suddenly switches to speakers

iosiphonemusic.app

With the new iPhone 7 and iOS 10, I came across a problem that I ran into very rarely with the iPhone 5s/6s.

Recently, I was sitting in the bus, when suddenly the Music app switched from headphones to speakers. It's not a pleasant way of getting attention. (I think I pressed the home button, activating Siri and then pressed it again)

Just two days later, I plugged in my headphones and started to play music and again, it started playing using the speakers until I unplugged the headphones and plugged them back in. (This time, I didn't do anything wrong)

Basically, I can't diagnose this issue, because it is non-deterministic and I don't see a clear pattern for this. However, from a personal perspective, I slowly develop the phobia of people in the train being annoyed because my music is on speakers without me even noticing. This information may not contribute to solving the issue, but I just wanted to point out the personal aspect that comes along with it.


Hardware / software used:

  • iPhone 7
  • iOS 10.0.2
  • Headphones connected using the lightning adapter that came with the phone
  • The default music app
  • No jailbreaks or any other modification

Best Answer

This sounds like a serious issue with the iPhone 7 lightning-to-audio adapter.

You're going to have to diagnose the issue:

Try buying a new adapter to see if that fixes the issue, and also try using the native lightning earpods to see if those consistently work right. If a new adapter fixes it or if the issue can't be reproduced while listening with lightning earpods, it's the audio adapter's fault. If the issue isn't fixed by the new adapter but is fixed with the lightning earpods, you probably have some headphones that aren't compatible with the iPhone 7 (for whatever reason). If all else fails, just talk to apple at https://getsupport.apple.com and try to get yourself a hardware replacement.