iPhone 4S volume adjusting by itself

mark boothmark booth
Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014

My iPhone 4S recently started adjusting its volume (both ringer and music) all by itself.  A little research revealed that it was a somewhat common problem.  The cause turns out to be a spring in the volume control assembly that rubs against a flex PCB, eventually cutting through the insulation on the PCB, and shorting the spring to the traces on the PCB.  Apple developed a fix in the form of a shim that gets placed between the spring and the flex PCB.  I made an appointment with a Genius at the Apple Store and had the fix performed on my iPhone 4S.  It COMPLETELY and immediately fixed the problem with the volume control.  Even though my iPhone 4S was nearly a year out of warranty, Apple only charged me $6 (including tax) for the placement of the shim.  Thumbs up!!

 

I wrote a bit more about this on my blog, including a diagram of the how the shim gets installed:

 

http://markshangout.com/blog/2013/8/22/iphone-4s-volume-adjusts-up-down-on-its-own.html

 

If you've got an iPhone 4S (and perhaps the iPhone 4 too) with a volume that adjusts itself magically, as if a ghost is pushing the buttons, make an appointment at your local Genius Bar!

 

Bravo to Apple for repairing my iPhone for the extremely reasonable sum of $6!

 

Mark

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    mark boothmark booth Posts: 58member

    Surprised by the lack of replies.  When I google the subject there are LOTS of topics around the web regarding this issue.  Maybe everyone here is using an iPhone 5?

     

    Mark

  • Reply 2 of 4
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member

    No, but I've been using an iPhone 4S for almost two years now, and the volume has never "self adjusted".

  • Reply 3 of 4
    mark boothmark booth Posts: 58member

    Well, it's happened for a good number of people.  Just paste this into Google and see for yourself:

     

    iPhone 4S volume adjusts itself site:discussions.apple.com

     

    BTW, as mentioned in my blog post, at some point Apple apparently added the shim as a standard part on all new iPhone 4S models being built.  I don't know what point in time that occurred.

     

    Mark

  • Reply 4 of 4
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member

    I'm sure it's a legitimate problem for some, but you were so concerned about the lack of response that you bumped your thread, so I thought I'd offer just one possible explanation for why you got no response.

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