How to fix your Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) that has no sound [Troubleshooting Guide]

Unless your phone suffered from liquid and/or physical damage, audio problems are often very minor issues, which can be fixed by doing some basic troubleshooting procedures. More often than not, audio issues are often caused by some settings. In fact, we have addressed several cases in the past wherein the phones got muted or the volume was set too low that any sound the phone make is barely audible.

In this post, I will tackle sound problems with your Samsung Galaxy A3 as we have readers who complained that their devices don’t play any sound when messages or notifications are received. There are also those who reported that the loudspeaker doesn’t work at all but when headphones are connected, the phone plays the audio normally. Those issues might have been caused by some settings or they could also be a sign of a serious hardware problem so we’ll try to look into every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can determine the problem.

Before we proceed with our troubleshooting, if you are looking for a solution to a different problem, then drop by our A3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed the most commonly reported issues with this phone. Odds are that we have already published articles that may help you fix the problem with your phone. If, however, you can’t find anything that’s similar with your problem, then feel free to contact us by filling up our questionnaire.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy A3 that has no audio

Problem: My new Galaxy A3 seems to be very quiet unlike last week when it sounds off whenever messages are received. Now, even if there are messages that come it, it doesn’t sound off at all and I’m not really sure what happened to it, it just occurred. Can you help?

Troubleshooting: More often than not, audio problems are a result of misconfiguration; you may have changed some settings that have something to do with the sound of your phone and don’t know how to change it back. Some, inadvertently changed the settings so the moment the phone doesn’t play the usual sounds the phone makes, they would think the phone is already defective. Well, there’s something we can do about it:

Step 1: Make sure sounds weren’t disabled

There’s one setting under Accessibility that mutes the phone, perhaps, that’s the reason why your Galaxy A3 doesn’t sound off at all. Access this setting to make sure it’s not ticked:

1. From home, tap Apps > Settings > Accessibility.
2. Tap Hearing and make necessary corrections to the following:

• Turn off all sounds: Sounds made by the phone during taps, selections, notifications, are muted.
• Hearing aids: Automatically adjusts to attempt to improve the sound quality for use with hearing aids.
• Left/right sound balance: Adjust the sound sent to the left and right when using earphones.
• Mono audio: Enable or disable the compression of stereo audio into a single mono audio stream for use with a single earphone.

If everything looks good, then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Make sure it’s not caused by third-party apps

Third-party apps may also cause the same problem especially ones that can manipulate sounds in your phone. After the first step and the problem still continues, you have to start your phone up in safe mode. This will temporarily disable all third-party apps so if one of them is causing the problem, your phone should be fine while in this environment. Here’s how you start your Galaxy A3 in Safe mode:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
3. When ‘SAMSUNG’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see ‘Safe Mode’.

If the problem seems fixed in this mode, then find the app that’s causing the problem and then uninstall it. That should take care of the problem…

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Applications.
4. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap Menu icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
5. Tap Uninstall.
6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

However, if the phone still has no sound while in this mode, the next step might fix the problem.

Step 3: Reset all settings

Doing the procedure will bring the phone back to its factory settings. So basically, it’s just like a reset but your personal files, data, apps, etc. won’t be deleted. At this point, you don’t have to go through the hassle of backing up your files. Follow these steps to reset all settings in your phone:

1. From a Home screen, navigate: Apps > Settings > Backup & reset.
2. Tap Network settings reset.
3. Tap Reset Settings.
4. Tap Reset Settings to confirm.

If the problem still persists after this, then you have no other choice but to factory reset your phone.

Step 4: Backup your files and reset your phone

This is your last resort and so far, this procedure is very effective especially if the problem started without apparent reason or cause. It might be just an issue with some settings or a problem with the firmware. Those things will be taken care of during the reset. However, you have to make a backup of your important files and data as they will be deleted and after which, follow the steps below to reset your phone:

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
4. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope this helps.

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