iPhone 18 Pro owners complain about speaker crackling or popping

Some iPhone 18 Pro owners have noticed an unusual crackling sound coming from the device’s speaker, leading to complaints about the MacRumors forums and Reddit.

Users called it a crackling sound, a slight ticking sound, or a random click. Many say the problem is with the earbud speaker, and the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max appear to be affected.

Some people hear the sound consistently, while others hear it when using an app, scrolling through websites, when receiving notifications, when the keyboard appears, or during a call over a cellular connection. On affected units, reports suggest that turning Airplane Mode on and off triggers the sound, as does quickly adjusting the screen brightness.

Apple released iOS 27.0.1 yesterday to fix a bug that could cause ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models to reboot if Face ID authentication fails. The release notes don’t mention a fix for the speakers and early feedback indicates that the update didn’t help.

There are reports of people returning their ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ models only to get a second iPhone with the same problem. It’s unclear what’s causing the problem, but if it’s a bug, a future software update might fix it.