Exorcise the volume control on my possessed iPhone 4S!

January 13, 2014 6:32 PM

My iPhone 4S keeps turning the volume down on itself. How can I fix this?

I was trying to listen to some music on Rdio when it first happens today. The music started, and then cut out. I tried my local music collection, and still no volume. Then I noticed the volume was turned all the way down somehow, so I turned it back up. Lo and behold, right before my eyes, the volume went back down--I saw the little display tell me so.

It happens regardless of the app and regardless of whether headphones are plugged in or not. Sometimes I get a few seconds before the volume drops again--it isn't instant.

Any ideas? This is really annoying.

posted by synecdoche to Technology (5 answers total)

This is happening constantly on my 4s. I assume it's due to the phone aging badly, ie the ghost of Steve Jobs telling me I need to get the latest version of the iPhone.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 6:44 PM on January 13, 2014

(You're not imagining it - it happens to me, too.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:05 PM on January 13, 2014

The buttons are wonky. Go to AppleStore and get it fixed. They can open it up and put a shim beyond the buttons.

Same thing happened to me. AppleStore fixed it.
posted by schwa at 9:23 PM on January 13, 2014

My old iPhone 4 did the opposite, randomly cranked the volume. I found it was the volume switch on the headphones. New headphones: fixed. Maybe that's causing it?
posted by General Malaise at 5:52 AM on January 14, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks all. Took it to the Apple Store today. The guy checked it out and said the volume buttons seemed fine--he had performed the shim operation before and he said he button didn't feel like it was having the same issue. He took the phone apart to clean the contact at the docking port and noticed the water sensor had been tripped (I dropped my phone in the snow a couple of weeks ago) and also that the diagnostic tool was showing a memory error related to the iPod app. He did a full restore and said to try it out to see if it works better. If it is because of the water issue, the only solution would be to replace the phone.
posted by synecdoche at 9:22 AM on January 18, 2014