Following the rollout of Apple’s flagship iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max running iOS 27, an increasing number of early adopters have taken to the MacRumors forums and Reddit to report an unexpected audio issue affecting their devices.
Users describe hearing an unusual crackling noise, faint ticking, popping, or random clicking sounds coming from the device. The phenomenon is predominantly isolated to the top earpiece speaker rather than the bottom-firing unit, with both the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max confirmed to be experiencing the defect.
The trigger conditions appear to vary among affected owners. While some report the noise occurring consistently, others encounter it only during specific tasks, such as navigating within applications, scrolling web pages, receiving incoming notifications, when the software keyboard pops up, or during cellular phone calls. Reports further indicate that toggling Airplane Mode on and off, as well as rapidly adjusting the screen brightness, can trigger the sound on affected units.
Apple recently released the iOS 27.0.1 software update to address a separate bug that caused iPhone 18 Pro models to restart whenever Face ID authentication failed. However, the update release notes made no mention of speaker adjustments, and early user feedback confirms that the update does not resolve the crackling issue.
Adding to the frustration, multiple users who returned their defective units reported receiving replacement devices that exhibited the exact same audio anomaly. It remains uncertain whether the root cause stems from a software bug that can be resolved via an upcoming iOS update or a more serious hardware flaw. As of now, Apple has not officially acknowledged the situation.
