Ear speaker and earphone sound problem

[SamNJanet]

Starting two days ago my Moto X (2013) lost two of its three sound outlets. The back speaker still works fine. The ear speaker and the headphone jack don’t. Both the ear speaker and earphones put out sound that is barely audible, choppy/distorted, and fuzzy, like it has a lot of hiss or white noise. On phone calls, the speaker phone works fine. Playing audio files works the same as phone audios: only the back speaker works right.

I called Motorola support, and they walked me through clearing the cache partition, and when that didn’t work, a factory reset. But I still have the sound problem. Any advice?

 

[Rukbat]

Sounds like a hardware problem, not a software problem. That means a trip to the repair shop to determine where the problem is.

 

[SamNJanet]

Rukbat was correct. Replacing the ear speaker and headphone jack fixed the problem.

 

[atkjhi]

U My Moto X has had this problem for over 6 months now. I'm not sure about the earphone jack since I never use it. The way I fix it is throw the phone on carpeted floor or bang it on a table... I'm dead serious. I have a case on and I do it carefully but it apparently reconnects something when you do it. But if you accidentally drop your phone it may disconnect again and then you have to bang it around again and hope it reconnects.

The first time it happened it was out of frustration that I threw the phone on the floor because this is my 2nd phone, the first one was replaced because the phone got stuck on the front facing camera, so I haven't had good experiences with the hardware even though I do like the Moto X overall. And Motorola support is the worst and I dreaded the thought of having to deal with them again. I realized that the phone started working again after I threw it so when ever it happens again that is how I fix it and so far it's worked every time. Sometimes it takes more banging than others.

You should call a number that you know nobody will answer, I call my office phone or home phone, and bang it around while you're actually making the call. That way you can hear exactly when the ear speaker reconnects and you don't bang it around more than needed to fix the problem.

When this finally stops working and I'm sure it will, I'm moving to a GS6.

 

[SamNJanet]

A day after I reported that the replacement ear speaker and headphone jack fixed the problem, the problem returned. I was about to follow atkjhi's advice and throw the phone. I dialed myself to check the audio in preparation for banging it around, and surprise, the audio was back to normal again. And has been normal since then.

 

[Erik Trujillo]

WOW!! I can't believe it actually worked. I would have never tried this method, but this problems has been going on for quite a while and I was pretty desperate. I put on some music and plugged my headphones, wrapped my phone around a towel and banged it against my desk... Voila! worked like a charm. Cheers mate.