Some iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max owners say they’re hearing an unusual crackling sound coming from the speaker of the device. Several of the affected users have posted complaints on online forums, including the MacRumors forums and Reddit.
Reddit user Zestyclose_Cold_9716 said:
Hello everyone, I have just picked up my iPhone 18 Pro Max yesterday from Best Buy. I have fully set it up and I have noticed that I would hear a popping noise coming from my upper or lower speaker, almost as if someone is pulling out a aux cord and you hear a brief click pop noise. I feel like it has happened a couple times during app switching and playing around with volume and possibly voice dictation.
I do feel like it’s been getting less and less, and as of this morning, I haven’t heard anything for the past few hours, anyone else experience this?
*** edit: music at high volume sounds raspy as well, try out the intro of dog days of are over, I’ve tried same song on other iPhones l, they play it more smoothly…
The noise has been described as a crackle, a faint tick or pop, or random clicking. Many say the problem appears to be with the earpiece speaker, and both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max appear to be affected.
Reports vary as to when the sounds are heard, as some people hear the sound consistently, while others only hear it during app use, when scrolling websites, when receiving notifications, when making a call using a cellular connection, or performing other tasks. Some say toggling Airplane Mode on and off triggers it, as well as adjusting screen brightness quickly.
While some users have returned their iPhone 18 Pro and received a replacement, they report the second iPhone also has the issue. Hopefully, the issue is software related and can be addressed in a future iOS update.
Speaking of updates, Apple released iOS 27.0.1 earlier this week to fix a Face ID-related restarting issue. The release notes for the update do not mention a fix for the speaker issue, and users that have installed the update on their crackling iPhones say the update did not help.
