iPhone 15 Pro Speaker Crackling Issue

POTENTIAL SOLUTION

TL;DR: Speaker grill is a bit loose on my unit and had some lint on it. Cleaning it with a toothbrush and isopropanol, then blowing into the speaker port while playing the Unfold ringtone until everything was dry fixed my issue almost 100%.

After being annoyed by this issue for a month or so I finally went to the apple store for a repair. (un)luckily there was another issue which was a flicker in the ultrawide camera when recording in bright environments. Anyway, after the repair I walked out expecting everything to be fixed and tried the speaker on my walk back to work by playing the song Cornfield Chase at around 40 seconds which I'd been using to demonstrate the issue to the "geniuses". Low and behold the issue persisted and there was absolutely no change to before the repair. (yet to confirm if the camera issue is fixed too as it happens in specific circumstances). Now i thought, hmm maybe its a software thing and maybe doing a DFU reflash would work. Before i tried this though, I decided to have a close look at the speaker port through a loupe and saw there was an every so small amount of lint and such gubbins on the grill. So I got the isopropanol out and a toothbrush and gently gave it clean. A bit of brushing and blowing into the speaker grill to dry it out, as well as playing the Unfold ringtone while blowing dried it out pretty well i think and amazingly, this seemed to work. NO MORE CRACKLING! however....

While inspecting the grill, poking it very gently with some tweezers, I noticed that the grill itself moves compared to the phone's frame, where it doesn't on the microphone's grill. IS THIS THE DESIGN FLAW causing this to be such a widespread issue or is this just my unit? If the grill is not staying stuck to the frame, it will start flapping in the speaker's breeze and resonate at certain frequencies. This would explain why when the grill was partially blocked by the lint and debris it was being affected by the speaker more and buzzing/crackling more.

Now the bad news: This didn't 100% fix the issue, but it did fix it enough to not be noticeable until the volume is 100%, where before the issue was heard from about 50% volume, maybe less sometimes.

I'm not necessarily advising anyone else blow IPA into their speaker port, but this is what worked for me.

If you have a hearing or sound issue on your device then please try some of these processes to set it right

1. If you have a distorted sound issue on your iPhone --> If you hear no sound or distorted sound from your iPhone, iPad
2. If you are not able to hear the other person, click this...>If you can't hear a person on a call or voicemail or if the sound isn't ...
3. If you only hear through speakerphone mode --> If your iPhone is stuck in headphone mode - Apple Support
4. If the other person is not able to listen to you then please click this to identify the issue --> If the microphones on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch aren't ...

If the above options do not mitigate the issues then Contact your carrier and then Contact Apple Support

Playing the ringtone "Unfold" for atleast 1 minute fixed the problem. Thanks for the great suggestion!<3

My iphone 15 has this issue i play music on my phone when i take a shower playing sound for an extended period of time just blows the speakers the speakers cannot take prolonged use and needs to be addressed the speakers are at max capacity at full volume you need a speaker with a hire duty cycle

I think every iPhone 15 pro has this issue, I have two iPhone 15 pro's with the same issue.

Story :

1. I upgraded from iPhone 12 to 15 pro for AI, and was surprised to see that my new iPhone 15 pro was rattling .
2. So contacted Xfinity as my phone is less than 7 day old , they asked me to contact apple support to claim warranty
3. I called apple support they did setup an appointment with Genius Bar , they were able to see the issue and offered repair . Considering new phone I requested replacement, they said only Xfinity can replace it; they can only repair it.
4. So I went back to Xfinity with written proof from Genius Bar about issue with whole story and they replaced the phone .
5. The new iphone 15 pro just arrived , exactly the same issue , making me to think is it a wide spread issue .
6. Dont know what to do now..

write feedback to apple, I contacted official support today, they told me that I am the first with such a problem, many people with this problem need feedback on apple feedback com

Congrats! Did you test your phone with songs like “Where are you” by otnicka or “Sunroof”after the replacement? I have the same problem with phone calls, Whatsapp calls and some youtube and IG videos with high volumes (over80-90%).

Im not sure if i go to the customer service they could fix the problem (i have seen another comments of customers telling they dont fix nothing)

thank you and enjoy!

I am also facing same issue during voice calls (on speaker) and while doing whatsapp video calls. Bottom speakers seems to have some problem as whenever volume goes above this issue occurs. Really frustrating and not sure why apple is deaf in this case and not addressing this issue publicly and providing the fix

I showed this to their repair centre and they said its fine and seems like they are deaf too like their company. I have iphone 12&13 and in those phones there isn't any such issues

Having the same issue, my speaker on my iphone 15 Pro is horrible, Apple store reinstalled the software no difference the store tech actually said well apple isn't know for a good speaker??!!! I have owned many iphone never had this issue!

There is a very annoying distorted sound coming from the ear speaker of my newly purchased iPhone 15 model phone. I think I have a reason not to buy Apple brand products again. When I took it to the service, he told me that this is because the speaker is making too loud a sound and that's why it's broken. However, this is a complete lie because the same disorder continues even when the sound level is in the middle. Friends, there is something you need to know. This question is completely hardware-related, not software-related. In Apple's transition to the autonomous production process, these phones were assembled by machines rather than by human hands. This naturally resulted in a high defect rate. If you contact the Apple support team, they say that you are the first person to report this problem. Apple is aware of the problem but is pretending to be deaf. I hope this has given you new insight into which brand you should trust in your next choices.

I have the same problem with my iPhone 15 Pro. Apple Support hasn't been able to help me. They only asked me to run an online device diagnostics, after which they said the device was fine, and that was it. The problem persists. This issue was not present with my iPhone 13 Pro.