Galaxy S4 Phone keeps going to silent or vibrate

[candy74]

I am at a loss my phone keeps going to silent or vibrate no matter what I try nothing works. I downloaded volume locker set it up and it still will not ring. Please help I have missed so many calls I was late for work when I used my phone as my alarm because it didn't have any sound. (I now own an alarm clock.)

 

[icedtea]

I am at a loss my phone keeps going to silent or vibrate no matter what I try nothing works. I downloaded volume locker set it up and it still will not ring. Please help I have missed so many calls I was late for work when I used my phone as my alarm because it didn't have any sound. (I now own an alarm clock.)

any special app installed? it might be scheduled to be on vibrate/silent mode. .

 

[candy74]

any special app installed? it might be scheduled to be on vibrate/silent mode. .

No new apps or any changes, I spoke with ATT warranty department he did a remote connect to my phone and determined it to be a software issue. They offered a refurbished phone in place of my new phone. Kinda on the fence as to what to do now.

 

[lyonelg]

My wife and I have S4s and are doing something that causes the volume to go to zero especially the ringtone. What are we doing? No special volume apps loaded.

 

[Hawker]

Try rebooting.
Also, are you using ringtones on the external sd card?
The device can sometimes lose track of these and will go silent.

 

[SirEagle]

Are you hitting the volume up/down when locking/unlocking screen?

 

[lyonelg]

Have rebooted numerous times. Have not downloaded any ringtones but do have an SD card installed.

We try not to touch the volume buttons.

Whatever, we're both doing the same wrong thing.

 

[Billy Batson]

My S3 ringer keeps going to mute. I am not touching the volume button when shutting off the phone.
I was told the Galaxy was the best phone and paid a lot for it.
Boy was I mislead.
Iphone for me as soon as my contract is up.

 

[electricpete]

FWIW - I've used Samsung phones as my sole alarm clock for years..hasn't let me down. Which is not to diminish your problem... occasionally quirky things happen on only a few phones due to various factors unique to the particular phone, os version, other installed programs, settings etc.

Out of curiosity, in the full list of quick toggles, is "blocking mode" enabled? That feature provides a programmable time schedule for turning ringtones and notifications off which sounds vaguely similar to what you're describing. Other than that I don't know of any built in features that would reduce the volume. There are plenty of third party apps to set silent based on time, location, appointments,. Perhaps a clue might be if there is a pattern to whan the phone changes to silent... the same time every day or the same location or in some way related to phone calls, other apps etc.

I have heard a fair number of complaints on the forums of people experiencing various things after the 4.3 update (not me). It is well known among people who flash custom ROMs that best chance for success is to do a thorough reset, so maybe not completely surprising that the official OTA updates (which does not force a reset) sometimes come with problems. You might look closer at what apps you had installed prior to the reset...maybe one of those is not completely compatible with the new os. Maybe trying clearing cache. Last resort (since it can be difficult to set your phone back up) but highest chance of success in general for unknown problems - Factory data reset.

 

[lowlyworm]

A band-aid for the problem would be to install Tasker and set up a task to set the volume and have it runs periodically. AT&T should replace your phone with a new one, if it's not that old. Big Red would do this. T-Mobile is running a cool buyout deal if you need leverage with AT&T, if that might work for you.

 

[electricpete]

Since you mention Tasker, here's a possible strategy to help track the problem if you have Tasker:
Try setting up a simple profile that notifies you whenever %VOLR changes. (if you want to get fancy, also track when %VOLN changes... requires at least two profiles).

When that notifiction is received:
1 - if you just changed the volume yourself, then dismiss the notification. Otherwise:
2 - think about what you did recently that may have triggered it,...pattern may become obvious over time. also think about what location you are to see if pattern.
3 - write down the timestamp on the notification to see if these are occuring at regular intervals or specifric times of day which would suggest some app with intentional functionality to reduce volume.

 

[Note3owner]

Only one way. Factory reset.

 

[Mohammad Nasr]

Had same issue, But I had to reset my phone to factroy mode but lost my all email data plus other stuff. . . . Now fixed!!

 

[Mohammad Nasr]

What I noted was Volume turned silent while chaging, and battery 80% into General Below 30% vibrate and then silent. Changes with Battery %ange !! and on the level of battery what you mode chooses next time it will automatically shifts on that not on your choice but according to battery %age !!

 

[David Thornber]

Spotted this thread on Google, and thought "If I can find it, then others will too."

My Galaxy Note 4 has been terrible for this lately. Turn the ringer volume up, and within a few minutes, it's back on vibrate only again. It's all the more obvious because I have the Shush! app installed, and it pops up a box (requesting the ringer off duration) whenever the ringer volume is turned right the way down.

I went into app permissions in settings, and turned off a lot of permissions that I didn't think apps really needed. I turned off the 'Phone' permission for almost all of them. Since then, I no longer seem to have the problem. My guess is that one of the (huge number of) apps I have installed is either malfunctioning, or it's maliciously muting the ringtone.

No malware is detected by Malwarebytes. I haven't investigated it any further than that. But this might be a less drastic fix than factory resetting the phone.