Phone restarts in silent mode

[Android Central Question]

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini running Android 6.0.1. Every time I turn the phone on it is in Mute mode. I go into Settings/Sounds and Notifications and check. Ringtone, Notifications and System are off and Sound Mode is set to Mute. No sounds or vibration when a call comes in, meaning phone is useless.

The problem seemed to start after the one and only time I turned Flight Mode on and then off again later, but that may be a coincidence.

I have not installed any new apps recently.

My wife has the exact same phone and Android level but has no problem.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you saying this happens only when you do a cold boot (i.e., power it on from a powered off state)? Or does it happen whenever you wake the phone from sleep?

Have you already tried wiping the cache partition? https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-28492

 

[pmolsen]

It only happens after power on from powered off state. I just wiped the cache partition but it made no difference. When I power up I see that in the status icons in the top right the speaker icon has a line through it indicating mute.

 

[pmolsen]

I tried turning off the "phone" permission for all apps as a result of something I read on another forum, then rebooting but that also made no difference.

 

[B. Diddy]

Do Not Disturb isn't set to come on automatically at certain times, right?

What if you reboot into Safe Mode? If it doesn't happen in Safe Mode, that would suggest that some app you installed is responsible. https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-28456

 

[pmolsen]

Do not disturb is not set. Rebooting in safe mode made no difference.

 

[B. Diddy]

Any problems with your Volume buttons? They can be faulty sometimes, and intermittently register presses when you're not physically pressing them. If that's happening with the Vol Down button, it might be automatically cranking the volume down as soon as the phone boots up. When you turn the volume back up, does it ever go back down again on its own, or is it only when you reboot?

 

[pmolsen]

Never any problems with volume buttons.

 

[pmolsen]

Ok, I uninstalled every single app that I haven't used recently. I had too many to bother rebooting between each deletion. The problem has been fixed so it was some app causing it. I had a voice recorder app "Manager". I had a screen recorder app. I had a phone call recorder app. It may have been one of those.