Overview
- Multiple owners began reporting intermittent crackling, popping or ticking from the earpiece or speakers within days of the mid-September iPhone 18 Pro launch, with complaints collected on MacRumors forums and Reddit.
- Affected phones make brief noises during actions such as app switching, receiving notifications, typing, toggling Airplane Mode, making cellular calls, or quickly changing screen brightness.
- Apple pushed iOS 27.0.1 on September 28 to fix an unrelated Face ID restart bug, but early user feedback across forums shows that update did not eliminate the speaker noise for many owners.
- Some buyers who returned devices say replacement units exhibited the same sounds, suggesting a possible software cause while leaving open the chance of an intermittent hardware defect; the number of reports remains small relative to total sales.
- Apple has not publicly addressed the issue, so affected customers are advised to contact Apple Support or consider returns while their exchange and 14-day return windows remain open.