iPhone 4s Call Volume Too Low

This happened to me today. Adjusting the volume in settings, as others suggested, did nothing for me. While this approach lacks sophistication, it worked for me: blow into the disfunctioning speaker (or use canned air). Gently scrape the mesh grid of the speaker with your fingernail or your t-shirt wrapped fingernail. Perhaps a new toothbrush would work. I imagine that my problem stemmed from my baby lightly drooling into the speaker.

Hey guys, I've had this problem too and have just worked out (by accident) how to fix it!

As strange as this sounds the remedy I found was to place my mouth over the ear speaker and suck inward a few times, now my speaker is back to full volume. Hope this helps.....

I bought a new iPhone 4S and the very first day the call volume was too low that I could not hear. I was worried because the phone was bought in the US and the warranty was not valid in India for some reason.

I found this video :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKAYx-178bo

Only then did I realise that the scratch guard that comes with the new phone covers up the speaker. All I needed to do was cut out that portion of the scarth guard covering the speaker and it works just fine.

Wow, I am happy to solve this problem. I just got my replaced iphone 4S few days ago and suddenly call volume was low. I can bearly hear on the other end. But if i put calls on speaker it is working fine. I got frustratd. Then I logged here on to the apple support communities and found that simple solutions from Sadhana Kumar. So culprit is "scratch guard". I cut out the upper and bottom section of the scratch guard which covers speaker and microphone and it works....brilliant...thanks Sadhana.

Problem solved!!! Do exactly as I say and your earpiece will work as normal. First take a q-tip and did in rubbing alcohol and rub vigorously on the earpiece mesh for 5 secs and then immediately use dry end and rub vigorously for 5 secs and then repeat the steps one more time. Next step place mouth over earpiece and suck in for 5-10 secs and then viola your earpiece is back to normal;)

Problem solved!!! Do exactly as I say and your earpiece will work as normal. First take a q-tip and did in rubbing alcohol and rub vigorously on the earpiece mesh for 5 secs and then immediately use dry end and rub vigorously for 5 secs and then repeat the steps one more time. Next step place mouth over earpiece and suck in for 5-10 secs and then viola your earpiece is back to normal;)

Yeah, once i cleaned the earwax out of my earbuds, problem solved.....

Restoring factory settings AFTER backup worked for me.

I have the same problem with my 4S, and I just tried jespinoza37 Q-tip trick, and it worked perfect. Like he/she says, just get a Q-tip, wet it with water, shake off any excess water before rubbing the ear hole area on the iphone. Then use your mouth to suck out any dirt, dampness (may have to do this 2 or 3 times). And then do a test call, it worked for me. Hope it works for you.

I had this same issue with my 4s. Phone was working fine one day and seemingly the next you could barely hear anything out of the ear speaker. Headphones and speakerphone worked fine. I read these posts about doing the mouth suction thing and tried it (with a dry toothbrush scrub first) to no avail. I tried using a vacuum, no joy. I read somewhere else if you pull out the headphone jack while adjusting the volume that fixes it. Nope. I read setting the phone back to factory defaults fixes it. Nope. I finally bought a ear speaker replacement kit and spent four nerve-wracking hours tearing the phone down completely, installing a new speaker, rebuilding. No noticeable difference. I figured at that point it was a software issue. I was reading over these posts again for software fixes and decided to try the suction thing again with a slightly wet toothbrush. I scrubbed, no difference. Scrubbed more, no difference. Did the suction thing again and thought it sounded a bit louder. Scrubbed again, quieter. Suction, louder. More suction, louder still. Quite a bit of suction, sounds very loud and normal again. I can hold it away from my face and still hear it clearly through the ear speaker now. Maybe it's pocket fuzz or internal corrosion/gunk loosened up by the liquid? I've never spilled anything on it. If it is gunk it must be nearly invisible because i didn't see it when i had the front panel off. I don't think it's a loose connection on the speaker due to the spring tension of the ear speaker electrical contacts against the motherboard. Plus after I cleaned/ suctioned it I bounced the phone on my hand and didn't notice any sound cut outs or change in volume. If you're going to use liquid be careful that it is very, very little. There's not any water sealing that will keep the liquid from your mother board and you could easily fry the phone if you use too much. In fact it would be safest to to do the cleaning / suction with the phone off completely and let it dry out overnight in a bag of rice before powering it on again.

Thank you for the great details on how to fix it, i am about to try out your suggestion this problem started happening a day ago and is only during calls that the volume is too low, i asked various people at the other end of the call if they could hear me and the all said yes loud and clear so let's see i hope it works will update.

Did exactly as u stated !!!!!! THANK YOU !!! WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!! I must say it took two times but it works now. 🙂

Ekdrosos wrote:

Problem solved!!! Do exactly as I say and your earpiece will work as normal. First take a q-tip and did in rubbing alcohol and rub vigorously on the earpiece mesh for 5 secs and then immediately use dry end and rub vigorously for 5 secs and then repeat the steps one more time. Next step place mouth over earpiece and suck in for 5-10 secs and then viola your earpiece is back to normal;)

Thanks your suggestion, it worked perfectly. u and Ekdrosos have the solution.

Deteroblix wrote:

I have the same problem with my 4S, and I just tried jespinoza37 Q-tip trick, and it worked perfect. Like he/she says, just get a Q-tip, wet it with water, shake off any excess water before rubbing the ear hole area on the iphone. Then use your mouth to suck out any dirt, dampness (may have to do this 2 or 3 times). And then do a test call, it worked for me. Hope it works for you.

Ekdrosos

Problem solved!!! Do exactly as I say and your earpiece will work as normal. First take a q-tip and did in rubbing alcohol and rub vigorously on the earpiece mesh for 5 secs and then immediately use dry end and rub vigorously for 5 secs and then repeat the steps one more time. Next step place mouth over earpiece and suck in for 5-10 secs and then viola your earpiece is back to normal;)

Worked great for me! The volume was very low, but you could hear that the speaker was working. Tried the volume slider thing to no avail, took a tooth brush and scrubbed out the speaker and now it works great! Thanks for the advice. Now I can return that replacement phone they told me I needed to buy.

The problem is bec of the thick layer dust which is underneath of the metallic cover... I had removed it with some pointed tool and cleaned .... Afterward i pasted the same by using adhesive..

The sound quality was awesome !! Pls do it on own risk but this is the only solution to get the original sound !