One of my customers bribed me into doing a service call on a weekend.
The main task was to deal with a rather creative U-verse installation,
which only took three times as long as originally anticipated. It is
customary during such service calls for the client to unload every
possible repair, failure, annoyance, and question on me on the
assumption that I can fix anything. This was no exception.

Among the numerous problems was an iPhone 4S that would buzz but not
ring. I verified that this was the case by calling the iPhone and
then preceded to check the settings. Everything looked normal. After
30 minutes of trial and error with the various sound and ringer
settings, I gave up and suggested she take the phone to Verizon and
ask the experts.

On Monday, she arrived at the Verizon store and described the problem.
Three experts, one firmware reinstall, plenty of tinkering, and three
hours later, the phone would still not ring, only buzz. However, just
as everyone was ready to give up, a bystander in the store fixed the
problem in about 5 seconds.

What happened was the three experts made the same assumption that I
had made. The iPhone was covered with one of those rubber bumper case
and screen protector contrivances. This particular model was gray,
with 4 white clips holding the rubber bumper in place. It was a model
that was difficult to install and almost impossible to remove without
breaking something or cutting it apart. Nobody, including me, wanted
to take it apart just to check the position of the ring/silent switch.
We all just assumed it was in the ring position. One of the 4 white
clips covered this switch. In its normal position, which was the same
as the other 3 clips, the switch was set to silent. In the ring
position, it looked odd, so the natural thing to do was move it to the
silent position. Change the iPhone settings any way you want, but the
switch takes priority. What the bystander did was just flip the
switch, which he knew about because his iPhone had the same style
cover.

Lots of lessons he
1. Assumption, the mother of all screwups.
2. That which is assumed to be correct, usually isn't.
3. Three experts are no better than one.
4. Hidden switches might need an on-screen status indicator.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sunday, March 9, 2014 3:31:27 AM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Change the iPhone settings any way you want, but the

switch takes priority.


What's interesting is that the iPad actually has a settings option under "General" that can be set to "Lock screen rotation" to remove that switch's ability to silence the device. As you discovered, the iPhone does not have such an option.

On Sun, 9 Mar 2014 16:39:16 -0700 (PDT), Genesys
wrote:

On Sunday, March 9, 2014 3:31:27 AM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Change the iPhone settings any way you want, but the
switch takes priority.

What's interesting is that the iPad actually has a settings option
under "General" that can be set to "Lock screen rotation" to remove
that switch's ability to silence the device. As you discovered,
the iPhone does not have such an option.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4085
I hope you understand all that. I certainly do not.
I couldn't find any such operational detail for the iPhone 4S.

It seems odd that Apple would provide multiple ways to prevent
ringing, but no way to prevent accidental muting. Oh well.

I was working on the assumption that the phone had this problem:
http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/972122

I was tempted to mention that the award winning glass and stainless
design of the Apple iPhone 4 requires a hideous rubber and plastic
cover to protect it. The only time anyone sees the award winning
design is when they buy it, and when they sell it. If Apple had
designed the iPhone 4 with a built-in rubber bumper (as part of the
case), and a throw away plastic screen cover, it would probably have
won the worst looking smartphone award. Equally amazing is the
general acceptance of the buying public to purchase a really nice
looking smartphone, and then hide it under protective covers for the
duration of its useful life.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sunday, March 9, 2014 8:35:15 PM UTC-4, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4085

I hope you understand all that. I certainly do not.

I couldn't find any such operational detail for the iPhone 4S.


Having that on an iPhone would be nice, but it's iPad only for some reason. I've had others ask about this as well. There are ways to accomplish this through jailbreaking, but I've never used any of them.


I was working on the assumption that the phone had this problem:

http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/972122

I've seen plenty of devices with a bad switch before...the switch seems rather prone to breaking. In fact, my iPad's slide switch often thinks it's set to un-muted when it's muted. Wiggling it always fixes it.

I was tempted to mention that the award winning glass and stainless

design of the Apple iPhone 4 requires a hideous rubber and plastic

cover to protect it. The only time anyone sees the award winning

design is when they buy it, and when they sell it. If Apple had

designed the iPhone 4 with a built-in rubber bumper (as part of the

case), and a throw away plastic screen cover, it would probably have

won the worst looking smartphone award. Equally amazing is the

general acceptance of the buying public to purchase a really nice

looking smartphone, and then hide it under protective covers for the

duration of its useful life.



I've always been amazed by that as well. We spend all this money on a phone that looks great, then hide it in covers so it won't get damaged. Despite how silly it is, iPhones (and cases) still sell like crazy....