Loud crackling noise then iPhone 12 shut off

I was scrolling through tiktok at a low volume when my phone randomly made a loud cracking sound and then shut off. It almost sounded like an electrical short. Phone rebooted on its own and seems fine. Very strange for a brand new Apple iPhone 12....

iPhone 12, iOS 14

Posted on Nov 28, 2020 9:25 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Aug 22, 2021 4:24 PM

So what I've determined is we've all had exactly the same issue, no one knows what it is, and Apple hasn't replied here but I went ahead and did a support chat and here's what I got:


  • Okay, please be assured that your iPhone is secured and the iOS that you have on your iPhone has the best security in the market.
  • Let me explain a device restart can be caused by the App that you are using at that time or any system issue.
  • All the discussion and the feedback are checked by the Apple engineers on a regular basis. Also any issue that is occurring or needs to be checked is also escalated to the team so they are aware of any system issue and work on it to resolve it.


That's as far as I got.

215 replies

Jan 6, 2022 8:21 PM in response to M_Stoff

just happened to me a minute ago. I was on FaceTime with my gf why charging my phone and I was just about to fall asleep when it cracked, purple and green screen glitched, and reboot. I’m guessing the problem has something to do with live-streaming type things. The only thing we can look forward to in this issue is Apple to take care of it.

Jan 15, 2022 2:52 PM in response to M_Stoff

I had the same issue happen to me. I was scrolling through recipes, phone was at 35% and not hot. My iPhone 12 Pro Max made a crackling sound, a staticky flash in the upper part of the screen then went black.It rebooted on its own about 5-10 seconds later. This is the first time this has ever happened. Very strange.

Jan 15, 2022 11:12 PM in response to M_Stoff

Same exact issue just happened here. iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 15.1.1. Scrolling on phone while plugged in (mostly if not totally charged but I hadn’t unplugged yet). Then a sudden loud crackling noise that sounded like an electrical short, followed by bright flash and black screen. I restarted it and it seems ok but definitely not normal. I’ve had this phone for over a year and this is the first time I’ve experienced this.

Feb 8, 2022 2:20 AM in response to M_Stoff

The same thing just happened to me. Purple and black pixels all over the screen, a very concerning crackling sound blasting out the speakers, and then the phone shut off. Apple logo came up and the phone seemed to do a complete software reboot, as when I unlocked the phone, the widgets had to load back in properly. Happened after I closed Spotify and was on the home screen. Very worrying for a £1000 phone.

Mar 21, 2022 8:14 AM in response to M_Stoff

this just happened to me too! i’m glad i was able to find this thread and see that others have experienced this too. i just had my phone sitting on my desk with a game open, and then i heard the crackling and then boom— the screen went black. i had to manually restart it and i don’t see any issues so far… why hasn’t support helped with this yet?

Loud crackling noise then iPhone 12 shut off

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