Are you facing audio issues on your LG K30/K40? Don’t worry you are in the right place. The sound problems on K30/K40 can range from the speaker not working, low volume, notification sound not working, can’t hear caller, microphone not working, stuck in headphone mode, etc.
In this post, we are going to identify and troubleshoot the common sound problems on K30 & K40. So, Let’s get going –
LG K30 & K40 Sound Problems / Issues
1. No Sound / Not Ringing / Speaker not working
If no sound is coming out of the external loudspeaker on your k30/k40, we need to follow the below troubleshooting steps –
a. Check if the phone is in Vibration, Silent, or Do Not Disturb mode
Make sure your phone is not in silent/vibration mode. Also, make sure that do not disturb is off.
In both scenarios, the phone won’t ring for calls and notifications.
Pull down the notification bar and tap “Silent” to switch to the “Sound” mode.
Do the same if in the “Vibrate” mode. The phone will ring only when the “Sound” mode is turned on.
Pull down the notification bar and check if “Do not disturb” is activated. Tap once to turn it off as shown above.
b. Do a ring test via Hidden Menu
LG K30/K40 hidden menu has got a few very useful device tests including the ring test and ringtone test.
During this test we can find out of the external speaker is working or not.
Use your phone dialer to dial *#546368#*420# on LG K40
The dialer code for K30 is *#546368#*410#
Tap the first option on the hidden menu page i.e. “Device Test”.
Now go to “SAAT” > “Service Menu – Manual Test”.
Click on “Ring Test”.
During this test, the phone rings at maximum volume, even if in silent mode.
The ORT test on the hidden menu page includes a Ringtone test. Let’s go through this as well.
Tap “ORT Test” select “Manual Mode” and hit “Test Start”.
Tap “Ringtone” to start the test.
A ringtone is being played. Hit “Stop” to end the test.
c. Soft Reset
The next troubleshooting step is a soft reset.
To perform a soft reset, long-press the power button and choose “power off and restart” as shown above.
This is a basic troubleshooting step that can resolve most of the issues.
d. Safe Mode
If the soft reset failed to fix the speaker issue, let’s use the safe mode.
In the safe mode, the downloaded apps are disabled. So if the issue is app related the speaker should work fine in the safe mode.
Boot your K30/K40 into the safe mode and test the speaker once again.
Long-Press the power button to bring the “Power off” option on the screen.
Now, Long-Press “Power off”. This launches the safe mode window. Tap “TURN ON” to boot your K30/K40 in the safe mode.
To learn how to use safe mode for troubleshooting, please follow the below link –
e. Software Update
Make sure you’re running the latest software on your K30/K40.
To update your K30/K40 firmware, Go to Settings > General > Update Center.
Download and install the system update if available.
For more details please check out the below links –
e. Factory Reset
If nothing works, we need to factory reset the phone. The internal storage data will be wiped during the reset. Make sure to backup your complete data before resetting the phone to factory settings.
Open the Settings app on your K30/K40.
Select the General tab and Go to “Restart & reset” > “Factory data reset”.
For detailed instructions, please visit the below post –
f. Hardware Repair
The loudspeaker still fails to work even after the reset, its surely a hardware issue. If your phone is within warranty please send it for repair.
To fix the no sound issue on your own, get a replacement speaker from eBay and follow the below video –
As of now, the LG K30 replacement loudspeaker sells for around $13.5 on eBay.
The current price of the LG K40 speaker is around $16 on eBay.
2. Can’t hear caller/ear speaker not working/hearing aid compatibility
Do you fail to hear the caller on your K30/K40? This issue is related to the earpiece/ear speaker located on the front top of your phone.
You can refer to the above picture.
To make sure the issue is earpiece related, use a headphone during the call. If you can hear the caller with earphones, we need to replace the ear speaker.
Rainy season and humid weather affect the ear speaker. Either the sound gets distorted or it stops working altogether.
You can get the LG K30 replacement ear speaker/earpiece on Amazon for just around $5.
The K40 replacement earpiece is available on eBay for around $18.
Turn on Hearing Aid Compatibility
In case of hearing impairment, you may like to use a hearing aid with your K30/K40.
To make your K30/K40 hearing aid compatible, Go to Settings < Network < Call.
Now, select “Additional settings” and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
The last option on the page is “Hearing aids”. Toggle it on.
3. Low Volume
The loudness of the k30/k40 external speaker is average. They both use a mono speaker. K40 speaker is located at the bottom and on k30 it’s on the back of the phone.
The low volume can be attributed to the dust particles getting stuck in the speaker grille.
Clean it with a toothbrush and blow air to make way for sound through the speaker grill.
If the volume is still low, get a new speaker and fix it yourself as explained before.
4. Notification Sound Not Working
On LG k40, we have the blink led feature apart from the sound notification. Voice notification can read the caller info and the text message aloud.
However, the notification sound is very useful. It notifies you of incoming texts, emails, etc even when you’re away from the phone via a sound alert.
If the notification sound stops working, we need to find out the root cause to fix this issue –
First of all make sure the phone is not in silent, vibration, or DND mode.
We need to check the notification sound volume.
Please Go to Settings > Sound > Volume
Increase the notification sound volume by sliding the bar towards the right.
If the phone is in sound mode yet you fail to receive notifications, test if the ringer is working or not.
If the loudspeaker is fine and sound alerts are not working then we need to do the troubleshooting as per the steps explained at the beginning of the post.
App Notification Sound
If you’re not receiving notifications from a particular app please check the app notification settings.
Open Settings and select the General tab.
Select the 2nd option “Apps & notifications”.
Now Open “Notifications” and then “Apps” as shown above.
We can enable/disable app notifications on this page.
To view the System apps, tap the “3 dots” icon on the top-right and select “Advanced Settings”.
5. Headphone jack not working/Stuck in headphone mode/headphone jack replacement
On your k30/k40 you can play a sound via headphone or speaker, one at a time.
If without connecting an earphone the phone thinks headphones are plugged in, the external speaker won’t work.
On both K30 & K40, the headphone jack is located at the bottom as shown above.
First of all, you should try to clean the headphone jack with a cotton swab/earbud. There can be dust particles inside which make the phone believe that the headphone is inserted.
6. Microphone not working
LG K30/K40 has 2 microphones. The main microphone is located at the bottom of the phone. The secondary mic is used for noise cancellation during calls. It’s located on the top of the phone.
Check the above picture. It shows the location of the microphone on K30/K40. If the caller fails to hear you, make sure you’re not blocking the microphone.
Test Microphone using the Audio Recorder
Hit the “Essentials” folder located on your K30/K40 home screen and open the “Audio Recorder”.
Record a voice and play it to test the microphone.
7. Turn off camera shutter sound, voice control, talkback
Turn off the K30/K40 camera shutter sound if it annoys you.
Pull down the notification bar and tap “Sound” to switch from ring mode to “Silent” or “Vibration” mode.
Please check out the below post to turn off Voice Control & Talkback on K30/K40.
LG K40 turn off voice control, talkback, keyboard vibration
Were you able to fix the sound problems on your K30/K40? Please share your experience in the comment section below.