The iPad has an interesting mute quirk, which can result in no sound coming from certain apps over your iPad speaker, even though volume is turned up and you can hear the sound with headphones.
This Soft Mute “feature” mutes app music and sounds, but not the audio from Hulu or Netflix, which makes it difficult to diagnose, especially since your headphones still work, but thankfully it is easy to fix.
Why you have no App sounds on the iPad
In order to fix this, you need to follow the instructions below
- Double tap the home button
- Swipe from left to right
- Tap the speaker icon to the far left
- It should show “Mute Off” below the play button
- Listen to app sound once again
This should fix your selectively silent iPad.
Awesome! Thanks for the help! This has been bugging me for SO SO long.
how come no one who works for Apple know this?? I have been trying to fix this for the last 4 months and took me 10 secs with this advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Works instantly!
I don’t have a speaker icon. I have a landscape orientation icon. Everything else looks the same as the image above.
Thank you very much!
No, still there is no sound coming out from the inbuilt speaker. Please help. Email saikiaauto@gmail.com
Palash Saikia
Assam, India
Cleaning the charge port and the audio plug in port with air/small toothpick fixed this for me.
Thank you very much for the tips. I almost wanna go to the Apple store to get their help, your tips was such a relieve to me, thanks again
thank you!!! after resetting, restoring, re-booting, I finally found your thread! thought I was going to have to get a new ipad!!
Nice..even i was wondering where speaker button has gone.thanks for letting me know hoe to get it.Josh it worked superawesome tks :)
After hours of hair pulling I discovered you must have the hard button orientation lock in settings ON to see the soft mute button onscreen
Otherwise you see the orientation lock button onscreen in the lower left
Thanks, your comment helped me, thanks again
Thank you for the tip! It worked!!! My kids were having a cow. Thank you! Thank you!
im looking for the hard button orientation but can’t find it in settings, where is it??
cheers
lol never mind got it, haha thank you xD
GENERAL : Use Side Switch To : Lock Rotation
It took me forever to find it also.
Thanks!!!
Thanks. Your post saved me some hair.
I had the same problem great to have found this thread.. Especially the tips and responses like the orientation lock under general settings was set to mute had to change it and then i was able to view the sound icon after double tapping the home button..
Dlee – you are a LIFE SAFER – I was going bald quickly! :)
THANKS! This was the tip I needed!
Thanks Dlee – you provided the final solution to a very annoying problem. What did we do before Google!
Your solution about sliding the horizontal button turned on my iPad3 apps to play thru my speakers and not jut my earbuds. Thanks!
Thank you so much…to both you and Josh. I have never been a “tech” person. I leave that for my kids. But I’m learning to not be so intimidated by all of this. I have just started adding apps to our IPAD and was continually frustrated by this problem of no sound. Thanks to both of you and your advice, everything is working fine now. I agree with all the others’ comments-how amazing that a short 5-second fix was all we needed! Thank you again!
Leena india 12/21/2012 at 6:52 pm
Nice..even i was wondering where speaker button has gone.thanks for letting me know hoe to get it.Josh it worked superawesome tks :)
Reply
Thank you, Dlee…I was having the same problem and didn’t know about this setting. Problem solved!
Thank you for this info. I was having issues with my apps no sound, but movies & music played fine. Did not know about “hard button orientation” so none of it worked until this last comment. Although my “mute” was not “on”, toggling it off & on seemed to do the trick! Saved me a 45 drive to Apple store.
It din’t work for me my ipad is now locked in landscape!!!Where do I find the hardbutton orientation lock!!
Thanks for the advice. You saved me the amount of hair pulling that you experienced.
Thank you. I have been going crazy trying to get the apps sound back and you are the ONLY who made suggested this suggestion. IT WORKED!!! Thank you
polmec
U r smart. I went to the apple store. They couldn’t figure it out either.
Such a simple fix for such an annoying problem. Genius! Thx so much
Thanks so much. It’s not often that I can get good, accurate, and quick service that actually works. Once I rebooted after following your instructions, my iPad responded perfectly. Thanks again.
Thank so much! Once I restarted my ipad it worked! Sound once again!
Fantastic! Your post helped us to resolve this problem on 30 iPads to be used at a conference!
Yeaaahhh thanx didnt think about that my 18 month old had it and then no sound i was worried he broke something :)
THANK YOU! I’d tried everything!
Thanks it worked for me
Thank you !!!!
You are absolutely brilliant!! No other resource on the web forums gave workable advice. I followed your directions and it worked like a charm immediately. The solution was not intuitive. Thanks!!
Thanks for your help! I was getting really frustrated with no sounds coming from my apps.
I have tried that and it still doesn’t work. Now what.
thank you… it is very help full for us, now my sound already working normaly.
Thank you so much, I bought my iPad off of Ebay and was thinking I got a bad deal…You saved me so much trouble I greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for posting this. Very helpful.
Brilliant!!! I hate when things bug me for so long and the solution is so simple.
My iPad frequently goes soundless. No apparent reason. I power down and then power back up and it is fixed. It’s tiresome, but it works. The problem is Apple. They need to fix this. THey know about it, but ignore it.
They should come clean and admit the problem and give us a fix
hey, i used your advice and the sound came back, however it continuously goes mute, and doesnt let me adjust the sound without earphones again and again.
any tips would help please??
I cannot adjust the sound without the earplugs plugged in. When the earplugs are not plugged in, there is no slider to adjust the sound. This just started happening and it makes no difference whether the sound is muted or not. Is there any way to fix this?
Thanks in advance.
Thanx very much, i have. Read a hundred ideas, but you were the only one to explain so clear, my apps has sound again, and also i discoverd how to continue hearing music from you tube while navigating through other apss and safary.
Ta very much , this was soooo annoying ….
Thanks for your informative help. I was so frustrated and was ready to redo a complete restore again with i tune. Thanks again. You have been a great help
It has a icon for the light and for a I pod what should I do for that
Thank you so much! What a simple fix for a baffling issue. :)
Hi. My iPhone 4 is having the same problem but the mute button doesn’t appear there. Any suggestions. Cheers r
OMG. thank youuuuuuuuuu
THANK YOU! I can’t tell you how long this has been bothering me!
Amazing thank you!!
My Video App’s sound was cutting out after a minute or less and sliding the progress bar back would fix it for a few seconds. This Fix worked like a charm. You are my hero!
You are a gem!Thank you so much!
Great!! Thanks for your help!!!
Thank you. This was driving me nuts! I have nine machines I’ve been using for iPad classes and two of them were muted. Such a simple thing.
Sidric
greaattttttt
Thank you but I cannot find speaker icon on the far left of my iPad
I didn’t have one either until I “locked rotation” then it appeared. Go figure!
Thank-you thank-you thank-you !
I called vodafone who referred me to Apple for this problem. Apple employees advised me to restore my iPad. I expected a simpler solution and you provided it. It is astonishing that Apple pay people who cannot solve such an easy problem. Thank you for saving so much hassle as I planned to send it back. Thank you. apple should give you a job training their staff
Thank you. I thought I broke my iPad plugging it into a dock yesterday for the first time. Phew
Thank you so much! Such an easy fix (once you know about it).
Boom!!! exactly what I needed
Thank you so much! I thought my earphones were busted.
Thanks in a million
Yea…I have been having this problem for much…what a quick and easy fix…duh! THANKS!
Wow. Thanks! This is crazy stuff. I had to go into General Settings and change “Use Side Switch to:” from “Lock Rotation” to “Mute.” Why in the world would that make a difference? But the change seems to have worked. Yay!
Instant fix you are a star!
You are awesome!!!!! I was going crazy not having app sound!!! Woo hoo ty Ty Ty !!!
I don’t have a speaker icon only, sorry just found how to change it and yep,it was muted. Thank you so much. This was so easy to fix once I knew how.
This is the same for me. Can I ask how you changed it? Thank you
Awesome. This was the only suggestion that actually worked…out of all the forums. Thanks!!
I still need help
Fixed – Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you – it was so perplexing why the kids’ apps weren’t working yet my music was! Problem fixed, very grateful.
Thank you! That was so easy and helpful!
Thank you so much! My 3 year old accidentally muted all of her educational apps and I could not figure out how to fix it for weeks! How she managed it I will never know, but I greatly appreciate you for knowing how to fixit.
Thank you
thanks a lot, it really helped.
thanks very much my 8 year old changed something and i called apple and they told me they could help but it would cost 29.95 to fix you fixed it for free thank you thank you
I had this problem and your advice really helped but now when I turn the volume down on the iPad it doesn’t change?? The volume stays the same even when the volume is completely down?? Please help!!!
Still having trouble I did what u said but there’s no picture of a speaker. it has a circled arrow and it say when tapped on it portrait orientation locked or unlocked please help still no sound out of apps
You said, “Double tap the home button” —– I have an iPad — but do not understand what the “home” button is. I have a power “button,” audio “button” and a lock “button.” What am I missing??
Thank you. I downloaded a bunch of apps for my grandchild and could not get the sound. This worked!!
Much respec my boss
wow, that was soooo easy! Thanks so much!
Thanks this really fix the problem!,
Thanks for the help getting my sound working with my language apps! It was driving me crazy!
Thank you for this. This article helped me!
Thank you!
This was driving me crazy, now its fixed!
Thanks, Josh: your suggestion to double click home and unite the speaker solved my silent iPad problem. M
For those of you that do not see a speaker icon, simply go to the settings icon and the go down to the section where you will see rotation and probably mute. The mute is probably checked. Click on the rotation and the once again following the instructions on this site and you will now see the speaker icon with a slash on it. Click on it and try your app and it will work now
Found the speaker icon. Still no sound. =-(
Thank you SO much! I wonder how the settings got changed in the first place?
Wow, thanks! My three year old changed something, he has a knack for changing the weirdest most obscure settings and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to fix them.
Your solution worked the first time. Thanks again.
Thank you. I wasn’t sure which button was “HOME”. And then I tried to swipe Left to Right on the screen rather than at the bottom with the icons.
Third try, it worked. Many thanks.
I looked at the settings, mute is checked but I still don’t show speaker…. Help I have the new ipad
Thank you! I was going crazy trying to figure out the lack of sound. I appreciate your assistance and clear instructions.
Don’t seem to have the mute icon although have found mute in settings and it is checked but am unable to uncheck…help!
THANKS ALOT!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS BROKEN!!!!!!!!!! Mute was already checked, however, the rotation lock button appeared when I double-tapped the home button, so I check the ‘rotation lock’ & the mute button appeared. Apple must have made a mistake and switched them around, hopefully the next update will fix this issue!
Thank you…it was such a mystery because some things had audio and some didn’t…the mute option solved the problem!!
Hat off to you Josh. I was going through all the usual menu settings and no clear sign of why volume on games wasn’t working. Such a simple fix but not obvious since other apps worked with volume!
Thank you!
I’ve been up all night trying to figure this out and that was it!
You saved me a night’s sleep and a nervous breakdown!
TO CLARIFY WHAT Asa SAYS: If it’s only showing the ‘rotation lock’, go to SETTINGS and you will find it has a toggle for bottom swipe, either ‘rotation lock’ or MUTE. Change it so MUTE is checked instead. Then go back to the original instructions above!
Double tap the home button,
Swipe from left to right,
Tap the speaker icon to the far left
It should show “Mute Off” below the play button
Listen to app sound once again
Awesome solution. never would have figured that out in a million years. Thank you so much!
LOVE U
Oh my goodness!!!!! You are an absolute lifesaver!!!!!!!! I have been fighting with my ipad for days on this. Somehow all of my kids programs were muted, but my video ones were fine. Of course this led to “mommy fix it” which led to “hubby fix it” which didn’t work. I would pay you if I could!
Thank you so much, I was going crazy! My mute / rotation is switched too, would never have sussed it so I’m happy as larry now. You are all stars! X
Aesome, this totally did the trick!!!
tnx worked
I had been worried about my ipad and dont wat to do on how to fix the sounds. Thankyou soo much. I
U r awesome!
Thank you so much,it’s been me crazy!!!
I have the grunts and groans in Temple Run back!!! Thanks!!!!
Yayyyyyy it worked thank u
Thank you so much! Hulu volume wasn’t working and i was considerring unsubscribing!
I have done this, even changed the options . Still I has no sound. There is no option to slide the volume up or down.
Same problem for me too
Thanks!
thank you!!! now my baby will enjoy the sounds of the books that i downloaded for her.
I’m facing sound problem also. When I fix the sound, the screen can’t rotate. When I fixing the screen, the sound can’t work. Any idea how to set it got sound and the screen can rotate?
You need to turn the slide switch on. It is next to the volume buttons on the side of the iPad 2. Then follow the directions above.
I am new to apple os. I was also having sound issues, but got it figured out inside settings to get the sound icon to show up. Then the screen orientation was locked. I never noticed the small switch just above the volume buttons. Turned it on its side, bam, there it was. Now my volume AND screen are fixed. THANKS
Thank you so much! My iPad is just out of warranty and this was something I have reset several times in settings and it never took. Do u have any ideas how many times I have reset this ipad back to factory settings? 6 times toooo many
THANKS JOSH!
Many thanks for the useful tip
A BIG THANK YOU! Thanks for the tip. It solved my problem.
Big thank you, glad to have found this simple tip after trying several restarts!
Thank you sir, This was so easy yet hard for us that have no clue how it was turned on in the first place, I had never seen that sound bar before.
What happens in my case is that there is no slider for the sound in the controller. The slider grove is there but not the slider. Any ideas?
Thanks! This article saved me!
Thanks for your help!.it solved my problem!
Thank you! Gracias.
Thank you so mush. This worked after reboots and syncs didn’t!
Thanks, worked wonderfully!
I tried that. When I slide to the left I dont have a sound icon but rather a lock logo that I can select to lock it to portrait mode or not. Why is mine different?
Im experiencing the same thing
If you are like me, you have iPad 1. Have not found fix yet – please let me know if you do!
Seconds after posting, I fixed the problem, which has been going on for over a month! It was the little lock slider button above the volume control on the side that I never use! This controls strictly the app sounds, I guess… when it is on, the on-screen volume indicator will continue to go up & down, but it is not referring to app sounds.
THANK YOU!! SO GLAD!
Lifesaver !!!!!!
Awesome…so simple and it helped with the car trip!
Tried the fix for no sound. But when I slide to left I have an orientation lock button. Guess i am stuck with earphones?
Thanks. Problem solve
Thanks. Problem solve!
Heads up, if you look at the bar and only have the “orientation lock”, try going to Settings > General > then USE SIDE SWITCH TO: and change that to “Lock Rotation”.
Then look at the bottom bar again and you should have the mute icon.
WOW, mine had the orientation lock also, so I followed your instructions and I am a VERY HAPPY CAMPER!!! Thank You so very much. I was at my wits end, thinking my little Grandson had surely ruined my IPad for good! WHEW!!!!!:)
i did what you said but whenever i turned off the mute the rotation is on so i couldnt rotate then if i turn off the lock rotation then there is no sound! what to do???
Yay..Ithoughtibwas solo stupid!
Thank You! Very! Much!
I thought there is a problem with the hardware but you reinforced my confidence in the hardware of Apple!
I Hope Apple is equally thankful to people like You!
Thank you so much!
There is a small button on the right where the volume control is…switch that to where there is no red dot showing and your problem of “not rotating but has volume’ should be solved :)
A million thank you……. Everything else failed. Thanks
You were more helpful than my IPad help site! Thank you! My granddaughter will enjoy her children’s songs so much more with sound!
Thank you soooooooo much! You’re our hero.
Hi, I was having this problem and followed your instructions, and it worked!!! Thank you so very much.
Awesome I solved sound problem with your instructions.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for your tip
It has worked for me
Thank you so much for your tip. It was extremely helpful and definitely fixed the problem.
This didn’t work at all, to start off, my iPad doesn’t even have the button on the picture shown, instead of a music note and sound button, I have a rotation sign and an iPod?
You rock! I’ve been trying to fix this problem for 2 weeks.
Now that I have sound back on my apps it seems that I am stuck in the position where I have to put up with my rotation being turned off or my mute (as shown in your pic) being turned on. Up until today I was able to have rotation plus the sound on all my apps. Can you explain why this issomebody please.
There is a lock rotation button on a part of your iPad or iPad a switch
Now that I have sound back on my apps it seems that I am stuck in the position where I have to put up with my rotation being turned off or my mute (as shown in your pic) being turned on. Up until today I was able to have rotation plus the sound on all my apps. Can you explain why this issomebody please. So pleased to tell you that I just saw my answer a few posts back by azra and moved the little button above the volume button on the upper right side of the iPad and lo and behold I have my rotation back. What a performance! Thankyou all!
It seems that if you go to settings on iPad you can swap the actions of the little switch located just above your volume control from controlling mute (on/off) to controlling rotation (on/off) and when you tick rotation off in general settings your little switch controls rotation and when you tick mute in settings your little switch controls mute. Hence the appearance of either symbol on the left of your music control when you swipe from left to right after double tapping your Home button. The symbol will indicate rotation if your little switch controls mute and the symbol will indicate speaker if the switch controls rotation. Therein lies the answer to all the puzzlement. It makes me laugh to think that even apple people couldn’t help some of you suffering the frustration of not knowing what was going on.
Please update the instructions at the top to include info about changing the side lock switch in settings from “Lock Rotation” to “Mute”. Some of us don’t get the Mute icon, but get the Lock Rotation icon until this setting is changed!
There is a lock rotation button like a switch on ur iPad or iPod
Thanks for the help. I was going crazy trying to fix the sounds on certain apps. It worked fine for music, but that was it. After reading and following your instructions listed here, every app sound is back to working the way it should be.
Finally my iPad has sound! After I downloaded the new iOS software and lost all sound on apps. I have spent so much time on trying to figure why sound did not get downloaded. Apple/ iPad’ troubleshooting had no solutions until I found your website! Did not know I had this hidden feature. It would be great if apple would tell people about iPads hidden features
Thanks a million!!!!
Can’t get back the ringer vol. Keep showing headphone vol. No sound :( Help…
I have been going crazy for months trying to figure out what was wrong. I came here and you helped me fix it in seconds. THANK YOU SO MUCH JOSH.
DDC
Appreciated. Much better than apple website. Thanks
Thank you – strange but true.
If your Pad refuses to change orientation in certain apps this can be rectified by double-tapping the home button, closing all apps, and swiping left to right a couple of times. Also strange but true.
Thanks so much!! I was getting super frustrated before reading this.
Many thanks… my ears work much better now! ;-)
Awesome iPad3 iOS 5.1.1 hint, also what a stupid and annoying little quirk. Boo on Apple for such a useless feature. Thanks a million mate!
Thank you so much!!! I’ve been trying to figure this out for a couple of months!
Thanks, Your advice worked and is greatly appreciated.
Thank you! My 18 month old daughter just got hear app sounds back! lol
All this did not work for me. Here is what I did. I powered off completely by holding the standby button for about 5 seconds. The power off option came on and I powered off. Wait arbour 30 seconds, then power on again by holding the standby button for about 5 seconds, a broken apple sign comes up, wait a few seconds for your pin no request to come up and follow the instructions to power up again. My sound came back. It is just like rebooting your computer. Awesome. I hope this helps someone.
thank you!!
You rock! Thanks!
Worked. Thanks! But now my orientation is locked. Is it possible to unlock it AND have the sound work?
Oh my goodness. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! This is the most ANNOYING problem I’ve had with my son’s iPad – he depends on his apps to communicate and learn at school – and now it’s FINALLY FIXED!! I’m bookmarking this solution for the future. Wonderful help!! THANKS AGAIN!!
Thank you so much.
Amazing. Thank you SO very much! This has been stumping me forever!
I can hear sound with music, Skype, you tube, etc, but am unable to record any sound eg with movies on my camera, and no sound being sent from me when I Skype?
Guys if you’ve tried all this and still didn’t work, just turn your iPad on and off and voila, worked like magic
Jamie, THANK YOU SO MUCH !! Nothing was working for me ! Apple-people told me to restore, what I found stupidly heavy for one six-months old ipad3 ! I tried your advice and IT WORKS ! Jamie, thank you so much !
I cannot Thank you enough . we tried everything. reboot,u name it.. almost gave up
You made my 8 year old son happy.. Thank you so much…
ur great! thanks a lot
Need we say more? Joe Smith es lo mejor! Gracias amigo.
Thank you very much for your generosity in sharing your knowledge with us.
I don’t see a mute button where you say. I only see what looks like a rotation lock. I’m having the sound problem in my Facebook app, but I don’t have a soft mute button like you say I should.
R
Muchas gracias por el tip!
I don’t have a volume adjustment.. Heeeeellllpp
Thanks a million for the fix, you just made my four year old sons day,
I dont have the ‘speaker / mute button” just the lock screen orientation button ;-)
Me either, this is driving me crazy
Thank you soooooo much, like the others I thought I was going mad, you deserve a Star. My twin grandaughters would have been very disappointed at not being able to hear their stories and songs.
got it thanks a lot mabuhay
you’re a genius! thanks for sharing…
Awesome thanks!
Did all that, and restored it, still broken….off to applestore…
Thank you for knowledge & clarity of expression. & for sharing.
Mort
Seriously, I have been monkeying around with this for hours. Two seconds on your advice. Thank you so much!
I have had this problem before and was able to fix it. Just how u say to with the mute button. It worked for a long time. Now only my music plays. I get no sound from apps or videos….. Ughhh now what
Thanks a lot, save me trouble. This had been bothering me from past week. My kids must have some how mute it. Good job keep it up
It is VERY IMPORTANT TO Note: you can change what the switch by your volume does with the settings described here. mine was muted and changed to the swtich. it is by defult for the mini, but thanks a ton! that’s why some apps had sound and some not
Josh, you are a genius! Thanks a million!
I have the mute icon after double-tapping home but it is already unmuted. On the slidebar to the right of that menu it shows it down all the way. On the example shown at the top of this thread there is a volume icon beneath that slidebar. I don’t have that icon showing up on my menu. Any thoughts on how to fix that? Still no sound. :(
Brilliant, sorted for me too. thanks very much.
tnx…but still the same…no sounds…annoying becauseonly headphone can use not the apeaker…please help
Thank you SO much, I have reset my iPad SO many times, and dreaded taking it to the apple store, this worked and took only a min!!!!
Super easy directions worked right away!!! Thank you for sharing!
Thnx,i have solve my problem,its very Helpful…….
I have done everything and u have no sound nothing :-(
It stil isn’t working I reset my iPad to its factory contusions and still no sound I checked the lock but still nothing. I can only hear the riggtone and the audio on FaceTime but everything e
We has no sound plz help
Thanks a million!! I was going crazy but your tip help me and it worked =)
Well, this is interesting. When I follow the steps above, I don’t see a Speaker icon on the far left. I see a “lock orientation” button. My iPad looks exactly like the picture above except for that one difference. I can’t find a speaker icon anywhere. I wonder what that’s all about. Does anybody have any suggestions? Thanks.
Thanks a lot man,im been so confused and this method works very well,^^
Do the above I get no mute button it is lock rotation, just update apple software late week now it quiet, I called apple an in about 5 seconds the tech said it is a software problem you can buy a 1 year $99, 2 year $169 or 3 year $249 fun in about 5 second he know ????
Sounds like you know your stuff but I have opposite problem: keyboard and internal sounds work but Hulu and Netflix apps don’t…ever run across this one?
Thank you it finally worked everything other people were saying wasn’t helping me
Worked Instantly – What a Guy!!