Help Earpiece Speaker not working on Galaxy J3 Eclipse

[t blackswell]

I have a Galaxy J3 Eclipse (for a couple weeks now) and all of a sudden the speaker on the back of the phone is the only speaker that has sound coming out it during a phone call. The earpiece doe not work. So all my calls sound like they are on speaker and everyone around me can hear the call. I have tried turning the sound down but then I have to hold the phone backwards to hear anything and then turn it back around to talk. Any idea what's going on? Is there a way to turn off the earpiece speaker that I may have selected?

 

[mikedt]

Have you tried rebooting the phone?

 

[t blackswell]

Have you tried rebooting the phone?

Yes

 

[svim]

When you plug your headphones into the headphone jack, the plug end actually pushes a spring-loaded, metal contact, acting as a switch so as the audio signal is going to either the internal wiring to the phone's speaker (no plug) or the headphone jack (plug inserted).
Are you sure the headphone plug is fully inserted into the jack? From your description it almost sounds (pun intended) like the jack is still not inserted deep enough to push the metal contact inside. Do you have a phone case and perhaps the phone has shifted inside to the point where the opening doesn't line up the jack port? If you keep your phone in your pocket, some lint or whatever might be lodged inside the jack preventing the plug to be fully inserted. Look inside straight on with a flashlight if you can see anything.
Also, do these headphones work out OK with your phone when doing everything else, like playing music, or is this problem only occurring when it involves phone calling?

 

[t blackswell]

Headphones still work with the phone. It's the built in earpeace speaker at the top front of the phone that is not working. The phone automatically sends the receiving voice from a phone call directly to the speaker in the back of the phone like I have it set on speaker phone, but I do not, or at least speaker phone icon is not highlighted on the screen during phone calls.

 

[lunatic59]

When you are in an active call, what happens if you tap on the speakerphone option? It sounds like that is somehow "stuck" on. You might also try going into setting>apps and clearing the cache for the dialer app.

 

[t blackswell]

Apparently I have three pf the same phone apps. Not sure why I have three system phone apps. I cannot delete them either. Not sure if these guys are a problem of another sort. (There is a screen shot of the apps below)
When I press the speaker phone button it turns blue and the sound is still the same. However, then I press it again to turn it off the earpeace speaker is then working!! Which is good the speaker does actually work, I was worried it died.
So the phone/app is defaulting to speaker phone (though it is not highlighted) and then I can turn it off after a few selections (not anything I want to keep doing). I have looked through the sound setting and the app setting and have found nothing that would cause the phone to default to speaker.
So that is where I am now. Is there a way to keep the phone/app from defaulting to speaker?