iPhone4 does not play music with docking station

spider2012 · May 13, 2012

Hi all,

I am a noobie to this forum and apologize if this has been covered else where. I spent sometime searching online and couldnt find any solutions to my problem. So here goes...

My iPhone 4 does not play music when connected to a docking station. The first docking station I tried it with was a Fidelio DS3000. When I first connected it, it worked great. I was very happy. But on another day when I connected it would play but I wouldnt hear any music. so I thought this was a problem with my Fidelio. I even went ahead and ordered a replacement player and still had the same issue. Eventually I tried one of my friends iPhone4 on both my Fidelio's and it plays just fine.

I have tried a few different options. Placing the iPhone in the dock and then turning on music, turning on the music and then connecting to the dock. No luck, I dont hear anything. I can see the music progress bar tracking on my iPhone and I know it is playing I made sure the volume on the fidelio is max

)). For instance in the troubleshooting option2 above, when I am not connected and click play, I hear the music from my iPhone speakers then as soon as I connect it, I lose the audio.

I dont have any trouble charging my iPhone using the Fidelio docking station (so I got my self a big and expensive charger) so I cannot blame it completely on my iPhone charging port.

I even tried it out on a couple of other brand docking stations at some targets, best buys and some hotels I was staying in. Just does not play music.

I took it to an iPhone repair shop, but they had never heard of that problem before. He tried connecting my phone to a docking station keyboard (apparently something for an iPad) and tried typing using that keyboard and it did not work. I dont even know if that gadget is supposed to work with the iPhone (just because the ports are the same connectors). Unfortunatelyhe did not have a sound docking station so no first hand analysis of the problem.

His only solution was to change my charging port entirely to see if it would solve my problem (damage $50). He was also nice enough to propose taking it back if it did not work. I wanted to see if some of you experts out there had other suggestions before I tried this one.

Just to be clear, no trouble playing music on my iPhone using headphones, aux cable (to my car speakers), charging, syncing etc. I use iOS v5.1.

Regards,

minoraa · May 18, 2012

I am having the same problem and I am really worried. I bought a stereo system with an iPhone dock and planned to use it for the music for my upcoming wedding. We have used it at our house to play pandora and its worked fine for two weeks. Now when I place the iPhone in the dock it says that it this accessory is not supported by the iPhone. It still charges the phone but it won't play the music through the speakers. I don't know what to do, my wedding is a week away and I don't want to have to buy a whole new system and just hope it works.

zig9449 · May 18, 2012

What iOS are you guys on?

minoraa · May 18, 2012

I have an iPhone 4 with iOS 5.1.1

zig9449 · May 18, 2012

minoraa said:
I have an iPhone 4 with iOS 5.1.1

Hmmm. I just don't know.

Hopefully the other OP will post what iOS he is on...if he/she is on 5.1.1 then it could be possible it's a 5.1.1 bug.

Only solutions I could think of is respringing(jailbroken iPhones) or hard rebooting(hold both home and power/sleep buttons til you see the Apple logo) or last resort....restoring...and see if the problem persist.

minoraa · May 18, 2012

I also just tried using headphones and that won't work either.

zig9449 · May 18, 2012

minoraa said:
I also just tried using headphones and that won't work either.

Who suggested using headphones?
How would that help the audio work through the dock station?.

spider2012 · May 19, 2012

Didn't see the posts until now.

I am also on 5.1.1. However I only upgraded recently. I have been having this problem even before that. Unlike Minoraa I don't have any issues using headphones or aux cables. Also my iPhone doesn't give any error message about not recognizing audio devices, it plays ( I can see the pause symbol on the bottom of the screen and play symbol at top indicating the music is playing) I just don't hear anything no matter how much the volume.

So I guess this is yet another problem probably not replated to iOS.

Jailbreaking is a good idea, I just didn't go that route as I didn't see a need for it. I will probably try hard reset first and report back in the forum, and then go for the more involved jailbreak.

Not to hijack this forum, but my charging port is extremely dirty. What is a good way to clean it?

Thanks.

spider2012 · May 19, 2012

ok, quick update...restored to factory settings but to no avail.
tried to understand what the problem might be. The volume slider disappears as soon as I plug into the docking station. I recall when I first tried it out, controlling the volume button on the docking station would bring up the iPhone vol slider and it would increase or decrease depending on which button I pressed. Now pressing the buttons does nothing.

There is an app for this fidelio player, but that shows up with the same problem.

I am looking into jail breaking but appears there are no untethered jailbreaks for iOS 5.1.1 just yet. I would need to downgrade OS to 5.0.1 and then go for absinthe. Any thoughts?

zig9449 · May 19, 2012

spider2012 said:
ok, quick update...restored to factory settings but to no avail.
tried to understand what the problem might be. The volume slider disappears as soon as I plug into the docking station. I recall when I first tried it out, controlling the volume button on the docking station would bring up the iPhone vol slider and it would increase or decrease depending on which button I pressed. Now pressing the buttons does nothing.

There is an app for this fidelio player, but that shows up with the same problem.

I am looking into jail breaking but appears there are no untethered jailbreaks for iOS 5.1.1 just yet. I would need to downgrade OS to 5.0.1 and then go for absinthe. Any thoughts?

You cannot downgrade unless you manually saved your 5.0.1 SHSH blobs with Tiny Umbrella...while 5.0.1 was the latest iOS.

If you didn't do that then you cannot downgrade.

The jailbreak for 5.1.1 will be out in a week or so.

I'm starting to think this problem is a hardware problem, and that you would need to get the phone replaced.

But if you cannot get the phone replaced for whatever reason, then...

Well you could play music through an HDTV.

That is what I do.

I use a tweak called "TVOut 2".

Then an AppStore app called "iTunar".

Plug phone into TV, and you can see your iPhone screen on the TV. ...and use iTunar to have a cool music display your on your TV.

That really all I can think if besides getting the phone replaced.

spider2012 · May 20, 2012

Thanks for your thoughts Zig. I am thinking the same that this is a hardware problem. I am at almost the end of my 2 yr contract so I don't think they Apple will replace my phone.

I did some researching last night and realized the untethered JB is not yet available. So I just saved the SHSH blobs for the 5.1.1 and am waiting...

I m also consisting replacing my charging port to see of that would address the problem. The replacement is available in Amazon for ~10bucks so if I do it myself don't hae much to lose. Hopefully I won't screw up the phone anymore LOL.

zig9449 · May 20, 2012

spider2012 said:
Thanks for your thoughts Zig. I am thinking the same that this is a hardware problem. I am at almost the end of my 2 yr contract so I don't think they Apple will replace my phone.

I did some researching last night and realized the untethered JB is not yet available. So I just saved the SHSH blobs for the 5.1.1 and am waiting...

I m also consisting replacing my charging port to see of that would address the problem. The replacement is available in Amazon for ~10bucks so if I do it myself don't hae much to lose. Hopefully I won't screw up the phone anymore LOL.

That is honestly exactly what I would do.

Stuartlsaunders · Oct 2, 2012

I have the exact same problem and have had it for well over a year! I have tried all re boots and resets and it has never fixed it. I too disposed of my old docking station thinking it was faulty (rather prematurely I guess!) and it still happens on the new one.

To be honest, it's just one small part of a very long list of problems I have had with this I Phone 4 so I have kind of given up on it ever working properly. The crazy thing is, I am due an upgrade and I'm considering an I Phone again!

Any news on anything that has worked would be great

spider2012 · Oct 3, 2012

Stuartlsaunders said:
I have the exact same problem and have had it for well over a year! I have tried all re boots and resets and it has never fixed it. I too disposed of my old docking station thinking it was faulty (rather prematurely I guess!) and it still happens on the new one.

To be honest, it's just one small part of a very long list of problems I have had with this I Phone 4 so I have kind of given up on it ever working properly. The crazy thing is, I am due an upgrade and I'm considering an I Phone again!

Any news on anything that has worked would be great

Hi, unfortunately I have not had a chance to try out anything. I did the jailbreak as soon as it was available. No advantages as far as fixing bugs, if anything my phone is many times slower. Contrary to what people may think, I feel Apple has a good reason to not support many of those apps that are available on jailbreak(though I must admit there are some fun stuff out there)

I dont feel like upgrading to iphone5 because of all these issues....