Iphone Xs max earpiece speaker not working

Back your phone up. Log into iTunes from your Mac or PC and do a Restore using iTunes. Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes. Log out of iCloud on your phone then do the restore. Mine has been working for 3 days straight.

Hello Guys,

I have checked on different forums and it seems many users are reporting this problem and it seems to be software related.

Try to have a clean restore via iTunes and do not immediately restore your backup.

Once your iPhone is freshly restore do a test with whatever video or music. It should work.

DJ_GMONEY wrote:

My first Xs Max failed the hardware test. The speaker, mic and receiver all failed. You can take it to the Apple store and they can run a hardware test.

When I noticed I had this issue with my XS Max, I had Apple run diagnostics remotely. All one has to do is call (in the US) 1-800-MY-APPLE and they can remotely run diagnostics. My phone passed. It's a software issue. And the tech support person I spoke with said Apple Engineers are well aware and working on this. When an update will be released is anyone's guess, but a software update will come with a fix.

Try doing a a soft reset. Volume up, volume down then hold down the power button until the Apple logo appears. No data loss so don’t fear that. That seemed to have helped mine. I returned two phones already and my 3rd has the same issue but the soft reset seemed to have worked.

I would honestly just return it and keep trying for a new device. It took me three returns before obtaining an iPhone XS Max 256gb that didn’t suffer this problem. I just made sure I was within apples 14 day return policy so I could keep exchanging them. It’s a real shame about this issue and definitely a big gamble. This phone is far too expensive to be plagued with an issue like this.

What worked for me was this:

1. Make sure you phone is on loud.

2. Clear all apps.

3. Go to settings > Sounds & Haptics > keyboard clicks ON. (Go to messages or notes and start typing, you should hear the clicks from the top receiver/speaker where the front camera is located.

4. Go back to settings > General > Accessibility > scroll down to hearing then move the audio balance to the Left. THEN the Right. And then once again back to the middle. And leave it in the middle.

5. After, restart phone from settings.

This worked for me, but I don’t know if it will for you? It’s worth a shot! Good luck!!

There appears to be a bug where an unknown event will cause the upper speaker to go silent; rebooting the phone should restore proper operation.

You may want to try the procedure mentioned above to do a soft reset if the reboot doesn't restore the speaker, but I've yet to have a reboot not work.

If it does not, you may want to schedule a visit with your local Apple Store's Genius Bar to have your phone examined.

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

I have spoken to Apple support today about the ear speaker issue which of course they had not heard of before, no surprise there then? 😠

After going through the facts about five times over they decided to run the usual diagnostics which showed no faults at all, no surprise although it would have been nice for a fault log entry to have been recorded which would confirm the fault, instead i was advised the iPhone and iOS must think its / they are working correctly even though the speaker is not.

From this it and after consulting with his manager I was advised my iPhone had a hardware fault and needed to be examined and replaced!

So to conclude, Apple even now after all this time deny any knowledge of the earpiece speaker not working when it feels like it and that a reboot it the only way to temporarily fix the fault.

They also do not acknowledge any Apple forum chats on the subject which is disappointing considering the amount of customers experiencing the same fault.

My advice is to call Apple Support as soon as you can. 😕

Exactly the same happens to my XS since iOS 12.1.1 including the latest official release (12.1.2) today.

70-80% of the time it has no sound, and during this i mean really no sound like music, video, ringtone, notification and alarm clock.

When i reboot the phone all things are working properly for some hours until this issue returns.

In the last weeks i overslept more than 5 times, and i still don't know if this happens again tomorrow.

Simply said, my device is nearly useless at the moment.

On my own i tried all things I can find, like Headphone mode, maybe connected Bluetooth speaker, DND mode and so on... (and yes i read the audio related Apple support articles)

After that i tried a full reset and restore over phone settings, and a full reset with new Firmware over Itunes.

Each of this one time with a Backup over iCloud, one time with Backup over iTunes and latest without a Backup (new Phone).

Everytime the issue returned some time later.

Then my XS was replaced due to AppleCare+, unfortunately the same happens with this replacement device again.

At this time i am sure, that this can only be a software issue.

As a full time software developer and due to my experience with apple devices i know, that i can create a software log with the official Apple configurator utility which is available in the mac AppStore.

So i created such a logfile at the time, when the issue returned and without surprise i got several iOS API errors related to CoreAudio API on the device.

Then (last week) i told the customer support the whole story again, and in the end i was asked to upload this log for the software engineers to Apple.

Since this day i have no response from Apple, but i will call them again tomorrow.

So please Apple, look for this issue.

A device with this kind of issue isn't a phone anymore. This is not more than paperweight.

My first Xs Max failed the hardware test. The speaker, mic and receiver all failed. You can take it to the Apple store and they can run a hardware test.

Have you tried the itune restore for the new replacement (3rd one) ?

I had the same issue and I just did an itune restore yesterday night , suprisingly after doing it the phone seems to work smoother and of course the speaker issue is fixed but it is only one night , I feel optimistic cuz of the smoothness of the IOS after the restore ! Fingers crossed it wo fail again cuz it will be really frustrating like you mentioned. Anyway plz do the itune restore on ur latest replacement and keep me updated and I will keep u updated as well. I hope some one from apple is wtaching this thread !,,,,Common I bought 2 of those phones one xsmax for my wife and ne xs for myself , thats a huge amount of money, my wife ’s is working perfectly fine , so it is most probably a software issue .

anyway Ill keep u posted and plz do the same . As you said, in case mine failed again ill ask for a full refund not a replacement and stick to my iphone x and thats it

So far mine is still working but i did something one of the Apple support guys had me do with my 2nd device prior to the iTunes restore. press volume up, then volume down, then hold the power button until the Apple logo appears. Don’t slide to shut off. Just keep holding the power butto til the logo shows up then release it. It’s a hard reset of some kind. No data loss. Since I did that I haven’t had the issue return but it has only be 2 days. I will definitely keep you posted. I made a YouTube video and some folks replied and said even the iTunes restore only worked temporarily. time will tell. Thanks for the reply.

No need to do all that just press volume up and volume down and then press and hold power button about 10secs till u see apple logo and after it boots it will be working if u reset all settings u have to go thru setting a lot of stuff back up lol

I’m in fact saying the opposite. When I was chatting with apple support they said that they were in fact aware of the issue and working on it via a software fix. I will include snippets from said chat with apple support below. For reference the apple support guys name was “Joshua “

Me: Hey Joshua Jut have an audio problem with my earpiece speaker ( the top one that makes up the stereo pair) it’s currently at this moment not working I can only hear a slight “hiss” coming from it regardless of what app I’m using. The only thing that will fix it is a restart of the phone but the issue reoccurs after about 24 hrs

Joshua:

Most of what I am seeing involves the restart, and then the issue reoccurs 24 hours later, much like what you are experiencing.

Me:

Do you know if there is a software update in the works to correct this issue?

Joshua:

Our engineers are hard at work on it I assure you

Joshua :

We are hard at work to resolve this for our customers though I promise

Those are the main take aways from

My experience with apple support, now I do understand I was only talking to one guy and who knows if there actually is a fix in the works.

For anyone coming to this thread late, this issue seems fixed in iOS 12.1.1 and later.