I get random distorted audio after update to iOS 11.3

marius234,

See if this helps:

If you hear no sound or distorted sound from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch speaker

Good luck.

I raised a ticket with Apple - started an Apple chat. They got me to a Technical advisor (1 up from the normal guys). I was asked to restore the phone to do the following:

1. Backup the phone (I created 2 backups on my Mac - 1 + 1 archive just to be safe)
2. Restore the phone to Factory settings (I did this via iTunes)
3. Set up the phone as A NEW PHONE
4. Play a few DOWNLOADED albums only
5. If everything works as expected, THEN restore from the Backup.
6. Restore from the backup
7. Wait till all apps get reinstalled
8. Sync the phone to get the iTunes music albums back into the phone
9. Test

In total, I spent 2:45 hours... 30 min with the Apple advisors on Chat, 1:15 hrs for the Backups (2 backups for me), and 1:00 hr for the Restore. For me, this seems to have fixed the problem. I think the difference between the earlier attempts and this one was setting up the phone as a NEW phone before proceeding. I will update again in a week/10 days.

Hope it works for you folks too.

This article doe not help. I personally am experiencing a similar problem. Like when I’m on FaceTime the Audio is extremely distorted and it goes in and out. Yet if I mute myself I can hear everything clearly and that distortion goes away. The issue is the same during FaceTime Audio. If I leave myself on mute for a while the distortion come back and then I mute and it’s clear again for a minute before the distortion comes back. I’ve never really had this issue before so I’m not sure what’s going on but I’m extremely disappointed and highly annoyed by this. If it can’t be fixed I’ll be likely to switch back to Android and just use Skype er something.

This doesn't help. The issue is distortion that I hear through the headphones too.

I have the issue on both Apple Music albums (that are downloaded) and on Podcasts (that are downloaded also)

The funny thing is that even though they're downloaded, I tend to get most issues when going into or out of the subway? Like it is trying to stream?

I don't seem to have the issue whilst home on wifi.

iPhone7, now on 11.4 / AT&T
(been having issues for about two months)

I have this same issue with CarPlay. It happens every time I put my phone to sleep. So, if I have the phone active when I plug it into the car, or if I activate the phone while I'm stopped. When I put the screen to sleep, 5-7 seconds later I'll hear a hiss and then all audio is distorted, music, podcasts, phone calls, etc. The only way to resolve it is to unplug and re-plug the USB cable.

I thought it was just my car, but the same things happened in a rental.

I'm running iOS 11.4.1 on an iPhone 7 Plus.

I am having this EXACT same issue. I had put off installing the 11.4.1 update for weeks (maybe months), but iTunes was incessantly harassing me to install, so I finally caved. The whole time I was thinking “am I going to regret this?”... I do. I am not sure which specific version I was using before, but I did not start having this problem until I was listening to an audiobook in my car last night (with earbuds). The screen goes to sleep and then randomly (usually a minute or two later) I start hearing a skipping / lazer gun distortion / echo. It’ll pulse like that for a few seconds and then go back to normal and then go back and forth til I unlock the screen again. At first I thought something was wrong with the audiobook file, so I rewound it to check, but the distortions seem to be totally random and actually seem to be in response to certain environments (ie. the car, but it was also happening a minute ago while I was in the basement). I am trying to work out a pattern to figure out what triggers it but so far no such luck. I also swapped headphones and tried listening to the phone speakers as well to see if that would fix it—no dice. Also, I am having the exact issue on an iPhone 6 that you guys are having on an iPhone 7, so this is definitely a software issue directly associated with the recent version(s) of IOS. *** Apple? Little help?

I am noticing now that when I plug the phone into the charger the distortion seems to cease. When it is not plugged in, the phone going to sleep seems to trigger it (the sound cuts out briefly then comes back in distorted waves). After I unlock the screen, the distortions dissipate, the distortions lessen in intensity, and the sound eventually goes back to normal (after a few seconds). Plugging the charger cable in seems to have the same effect as unlocking the screen.

I just started having the same problem after updating today. After it goes to sleep, the music just starts skipping and distorting as a scratched CD. I knew I shouldn't have updated. I've been hating itunes for a while now for its horrible automatic radio stations and the lack of playlist sharing, this makes me think of a Samsung even more.

I'm having the same problem. I have a iPhone 6 with iOS 11.4.1. Completely distorted music. Laser gun techno crazy sounds. And, it'll skip to the next song just by itself. Or, it'll stop all together. Does not happen with other apps (Youtube). This started after I upgraded to iOS 11. Complete restore does NOT fix it.

Utterly useless. And to think that WE THE PEOPLE made Apple into a 1 Trillion $ market Cap company today. I don't think they are listening.

I'm having the same problem and it is seriously impacting my ability to make or receive business calls as the audio becomes distorted at unexpected points during the call. It seems to be increasing in frequency. Issue began 2-3 months ago. Originally, I thought it was only happening for audio I hear, but now other people are telling me my voice gets distorted periodically when I'm on the phone. Also, audio coming through my headset, headphone jack or phone speakers (podcasts, music) have the same distorted problem occuring.

My wife and I are having this exact same issue with our iPhone 6S Plus phones. Call audio and music audio randomly becomes distorted and sounds like a chipmunk or slow motion.

It’s been going on since about May. Very disappointing Apple is not addressing the problem.

As promised, I am providing my update... My phone works as designed now. The trick was to "Restore to Factory Settings" and set up the phone as a NEW PHONE. That does the trick.

Hope it works for you folks as well. Cheers!

Shree

I’d be interested to know if the problem comes back. My phone had this problem and it was re-set in the Apple store as you’ve described. Within a few weeks, the problem returned. Multiple resets and multiple visits to the Apple store later, they gave me a new phone as it kept coming back. Now the new phone is doing the same thing!! Must be a software problem. I’m on 11.4.1

I did the same thing as ShreeMoorthy. Backed up my phone to itunes. Restored it to Factory Settings. Restarted it as a new phone. Loaded all my content back onto the phone. Took about 4 hours total.

Two weeks later, it is still working properly. Distortion is gone.

It is extremely frustrating to have to go to so much effort to solve a software problem. Total hassle, but at least the problem is solved now.

Using iTunes on your computer, you must connect your phone and use the “Restore iPhone...” feature. The “reset all content and features” in your phone will NOT correct this issue as the phone reset does not restore the operating system.

Then, you must vow not to update your phone when new software updates become available; accepting any update will make the sound distortion problem return.