Smartphones have brought almost everything digital under the sun to our hands in a portable setting. However, one of the essential features of any smartphone remains its ability to make calls — audio or video — and send messages.
Like any other piece of tech, iPhone’s are also susceptible to issues. These can occur due to software bugs or hardware malfunction. People often experience problems with iPhone’s ear speakers, and in this article, we’ve going to help you lot fix the problem.
Here we’ve discussed why your iPhone ear speaker is not working and seven ways to fix the issue.
Why is your iPhone ear speaker not working?
If you’re unable to hear anything on the earpiece during a phone call or Facetime or hear crackling and static during calls, it could be due to misconfigured software settings or hardware issues.
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How to fix the ‘iPhone ear speaker not working’ issue?
The first thing you’d want to do to fix the issue is to restart your iPhone. Usually, several software bugs are fixed with a simple restart as it clears out any cache or active background processes.
However, if restarting your iPhone didn’t help, here are seven other ways to fix the iPhone ear speaker not working problem before resorting to the last fix — the iPhone service centre.
Check Sound settings
One of the first things you need to check is sound settings. Check if the ringer and alerts slider are where you want them to be, and also see if the speaker icon on the sliders is dimmed. If that’s the case, your iPhone needs to get repaired.
To check sound settings, open iPhone’s settings and follow the steps mentioned below.
- Tap on the Sounds option.
- On the next screen, check the Ringer and Alerts volume slider and see if there are any issues.
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Disable Noise cancellation
While noise cancellation is a great feature to reduce ambient noise when talking via the receiver during phone calls, it’s known to cause issues with certain iOS builds.
Open iPhone’s settings and follow the steps mentioned below to disable the noise cancellation feature on your iPhone.
- Find and tap on Accessibility.
- Scroll down on the next page and tap on Audio/Visual, located under the Hearing section.
- Then tap onthe toggle button beside Phone Noise Cancellation to disable the feature.
Change call audio routing to speakers
The audio routing feature on iPhone is set to automatically detect and select the input/output device for calls. However, in case of a software bug, the feature could fail to work correctly.
In such cases, it’s recommended to manually set the audio routing to your preferred choice — Bluetooth headset or phone speaker.
Open your iPhone’s settings and follow the steps mentioned below to change call audio routing.
- Tap on Accessibility.
- Scroll down and select Touch, located under Physical and Motor.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap on Call Audio Routing.
- Then select Speaker.
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Remove the cover/case and clean the speakers
If you haven’t done so yet, remove the plastic protective layer on the iPhone when shipped. You should also check if your phone’s case hinders the ear speaker.
You can also clean the earpiece to ensure dust or debris isn’t causing the issue. Use a tipped cotton swab alongwith alcohol as it dries quickly. Also, ensure you clean the earpiece with the phone face down so that no liquid drips inside the phone’s casing.
Check the headphone jack
If you’ve got an old iPhone with a headphone jack, try removing any connected headset to ensure that it’s not causing the ‘iPhone ear speaker not working’ issue.
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Update iOS
Follow these steps to ensure that you have the latest iOS version installed on your phone.
- Head over to the settings and tap on General.
- Tap on Software Update.
- Ensure that you’re on the latest update available. If not, update your device immediately.
Reset iPhone settings
If nothing else has worked so far, your last resort before hitting the iPhone repair centre is to reset iPhone settings and hope everything goes back to normal.
Go to your iPhone’s settings and follow the steps mentioned below. Resetting doesn’t delete your data, but it’ll reset all your settings to default.
- Head over to the iOS settings and tap on General.
- Tap on Reset.
- Tap Reset All Settings.
Send iPhone for repair
If the fixes mentioned above didn’t help you resolve the ‘iPhone ear speaker not working’ issue, you’d have to take the phone to an authorised service centre and get it diagnosed and fixed.
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