A growing number of iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max owners have reported an intermittent crackling or popping sound emanating from the device's speaker, according to posts on MacRumors forums and Reddit. The issue appears to involve the earpiece speaker, with users describing the noise as a faint tick, pop, or random click. Some hear the sound consistently, while others encounter it during specific activities such as app use, website scrolling, receiving notifications, when the keyboard appears, or during cellular calls. In several cases, toggling Airplane Mode or rapidly adjusting screen brightness has triggered the audio anomaly.

Apple issued iOS 27.0.1 on September 28, 2026, to address a separate bug that caused iPhone 18 Pro models to restart under certain Face ID authentication failures. The update’s release notes did not reference speaker performance, and early user reports indicate the patch did not resolve the crackling issue. Multiple users who returned affected devices have received replacements that exhibited the same symptoms, suggesting a potential hardware or firmware root cause rather than an isolated software glitch.

The phenomenon has drawn attention amid heightened scrutiny of Apple’s latest flagship models ahead of its annual September product event. While the company has not publicly acknowledged the problem, the volume of user reports indicates a nontrivial subset of devices may be impacted. Affected individuals are advised to contact Apple Support for diagnostic assistance and potential repair or replacement under warranty.

The situation underscores the challenges of scaling quality control across high-volume consumer electronics launches, where even minor hardware irregularities can attract significant public notice.