Audio playback stuttering/skipping iOS11.4

I wonder of the audio stuttering/skipping is only on the iPhone, or if it happens on the iPad as well?

For me, the audio stuttering/skipping happens on both wired and wireless modes of listening.

I am able to clear up the audio stuttering/skipping by re-booting my iPhone which lasts for a few hours before it happens again.

One part of this discussion thread has mentioned that for them it clears up if the charge is between 90 and 100 percent.

For me, it clears up with a re-boot no matter what the power level which nevertheless is still a pain.

I have this issue too, wanted to offer my 2c on the situation.

iPhone 7, think I was on a later version of IOS11.2 or an early version of 11.3 when the issue started (a few months ago). I just updated to 11.4.1 and that did not help.

This is what I'm seeing:

• I only have audio issues when something is plugged into the lightning connector - carplay head unit, wired headphones (I use sennheiser momentums connected to the lightning dongle).
• Issue happens with everything I listen to (Spotify, Podcasts, phone, Music app)
• Issue ONLY happens when the phone is locked - IE - I open an app to select something, then when I lock my phone it happens. Or with carplay, if I open my phone to look at the home screen then lock it again, the audio issue starts
• Only fix is to unplug and re-plug in the device. OR in the event of Carplay, if I switch to my radio, then back to my iPhone audio, the issue goes away
• Rebooting might help for a few hours
• Issue seems to persist regardless of how many or how few apps I have running in the background.

My guess is - maybe it's the audio chip related to the lightning connector? Or maybe the whole battery/throttling issue? I'm at 86% battery life.

I really like my 7 as a phone and will probably keep it (I may even do the discounted batter replacement before the end of the year) and run it into the ground, but I really would like to keep this phone a bit longer, as I tend to average 3 years between replacements...

Out of curiosity, which headphones or speaker are you using? The reason I ask is that my first pair of powerbeats3 did this and after updating them this fixed the issue.... well until they stopped charging and I had to get a new pair. Have only had the new pair for a couple weeks and same skippignissue and no luck figuring it out. The interesting thing is I have no issue when my podcast is connected to my vehicle Bluetooth, though the other day as I was driving to the gym, my car stereo AND Powerbeats were bothon and my car had the skipping issue. In my case I attribute it more to the headphones. If I pause my music it will work fine for a few minutes and then continues on the skipping. Thank god I still have my old plugin headphones as this is the only way I can hear clear audio.

It's happened to me using my car speakers, two sets of earbuds, and the built in speaker. It has also happened on several different apps, Music, Audible, and Pandora. It's gotta be the phone since that's the only common denominator.

Youse need to completely wipe your phone via iTunes and start phone as new, the problem is within the software so don’t restore a backup from iCloud because it’ll bring the bug back to your phone! Worked for me

Yeppp still working fine. As soon as you log into your Apple ID on your ‘new restored phone’ it brings up all your apps you’ve previously downloaded in ‘purchased’ in the App Store, brings back all photos and messages, I lost 60% of my contacts but meh it’s worth it!

same problems here since 11.3, unfixed as of today, 11.4.1 - iPhone 7. happens regardless of whether I'm using Apple Music, Spotify, audible, or podcast app. When using bluetooth speakers/earbuds/headset, get a 2-3 second break in audio (playback does not pause in the background) about a couple minutes into first playback. When using the lightning-aux adapter for standard headphones, I will not only get the pause, but with some regularity, will have audio begin to stutter and skip like a damaged CD. pausing playback and dis-reconnecting the adapter will fix the issue most of the time, though not always and after a couple more minutes of playback, stutter/skip may resume.

Do any of you also use CarPlay? If so any issues there with audio distortion?

There seems to be a similar bug since iOS 11.3 affecting CarPlay users and of course has gone completely unfixed since iOS 11.4 up until the latest iOS 12 PB8

Crackle and Pop using CarPlay

So, I just finished a 30 min chat with Apple care. After I elaborated and assured the rep that I had taken all the usual steps in fixing an issue, she finally transferred me to her manager. He said it's a known issue and he has been instructed to schedule a time for Apple Engineers to contact customers experiencing the issue. He estimated the call to take 20 mins. Since I already wasted 30 min of my life explaining an issue that should have already been fixed with the last OS update let alone fully identified by now, I declined the request.

Given the need for Engineers to speak with customers for 20 mins, I'm not confident Apple has its arms around this issue. If anyone has 50 mins to spare (30 + 20), feel free. Meanwhile I'm looking at Android's offerings

I have also been having this issue (sound garble and repeated words and phrases) with my iPhone 6s since shortly after the time of the iOS 11 update. I did not have this issue with iOS 10. In May 2018, I reported this issue to Apple Support, and told them that I thought it was related to the iOS 11 update. They checked and found nothing related to that. Eventually, they had me take my iPhone to the Apple Store for support. In June, I did that, and they wiped my phone and reinstalled it. After a few days, it started having the same issues.

I did not have time until September 2018 to take it to the store again. That was last week. They replaced my phone with a new iPhone 6s. A few days later, guess what? Same problem with the new phone! So I am sure that it is a software issue, not hardware.

I may report the issue again, but I really do not want to spend a lot of time on the phone again or make an hour trip to the Apple Store again. I am amazed that Apple has not acknowledged this is an issue. It must be rare, as they all act like they never heard of the issue. I wonder if any particular software, besides the OS is interrupting the sound driver. This happens on Apple Music, the phone, and Podcasts. It never happens with videos, such as YouTube. And it almost always happens when the phone goes into screen lock mode.

I am hoping that next week's iOS 12 release will fix the problem. This phone is running iOS 11.4.1, and I thought that the last few updates would fix the problem, but they didn't.

If anyone has any concrete cause and/or resolution for this, please post. Thank you.

I tried this - I went to settings and turned off background app refresh. Both Spotify and podcast apps started working. But then after a few days it started happening again. I kept swiping up on all of the apps that were up to get rid of the “background apps”, even though my settings were having the apps turned off in the background. This seemed to help temporarily. But now we are back to square one with the problem and nothing works.

Hmm if it’s motion, have you tried turning off the setting that deals with undoing deleted mail when you shake the phone?

I would suggest that when you post on this forum you also copy/paste the symptoms and details to Apple Feedback, https://www.apple.com/feedback, in order to get more visibility on this issue.

Since updating to the iOS 12 (public beta) the issue has stopped so there is a fix in the near future