Earpiece and loudspeaker issues despite replacements?

[Matt T]

I have an iPhone 6 which in recent months has began showing signs of trouble with its earpiece and loudspeaker:

• When on a phone call the volume coming from the earpiece is very low. It is almost impossible for me to have a conversation with somebody if I am outdoors (especially in the city or busy shopping areas etc) because the ambient/surrounding noise makes it very difficult for me to hear the other person.
• If I place a call on loudspeaker I can hear the person on the other end of the line but they cannot hear me at all, even if I place the microphone right in front of my mouth and speak loudly. There are no problems with the microphone when I use the phone regularly (held up to my ear) though.

I assumed both of these problems would be hardware related so I ordered a replacement earpiece and loudspeaker. I was also having trouble with my lightning port so I also ordered a new lighting assembly, which includes the microphone. I installed each of these today, and in the case of the earpiece and speaker this included a vigorous cleaning of the speaker grills (there was a lot of built-up gunk and dust both inside and out which was removed).

My lighting connector now works perfectly and the volume/quality of the loudspeaker during calls or when listening to music is much better - but the earpiece volume is still very low and my callers still can't hear me when using loudspeaker during a call. So it seems the issue may not be related to hardware - or at least not the actual earpiece speaker, loudspeaker or microphone. What else could explain the cause?

 

[44267547]

I have an iPhone 6 which in recent months has began showing signs of trouble with its earpiece and loudspeaker:

• When on a phone call the volume coming from the earpiece is very low. It is almost impossible for me to have a conversation with somebody if I am outdoors (especially in the city or busy shopping areas etc) because the ambient/surrounding noise makes it very difficult for me to hear the other person.
• If I place a call on loudspeaker I can hear the person on the other end of the line but they cannot hear me at all, even if I place the microphone right in front of my mouth and speak loudly. There are no problems with the microphone when I use the phone regularly (held up to my ear) though.

I assumed both of these problems would be hardware related so I ordered a replacement earpiece and loudspeaker. I was also having trouble with my lightning port so I also ordered a new lighting assembly, which includes the microphone. I installed each of these today, and in the case of the earpiece and speaker this included a vigorous cleaning of the speaker grills (there was a lot of built-up gunk and dust both inside and out which was removed).

My lighting connector now works perfectly and the volume/quality of the loudspeaker during calls or when listening to music is much better - but the earpiece volume is still very low and my callers still can't hear me when using loudspeaker during a call. So it seems the issue may not be related to hardware - or at least not the actual earpiece speaker, loudspeaker or microphone. What else could explain the cause?

Oddly enough, there was a thread similar to what you're talking about a couple days ago. One forum member mentioned that he replaced the battery and the earpiece worked and function normally. Apparently he read this somewhere on iFixit about the iPhone 6. He did the exact same thing you did and replaced the speakerphone and earpiece, however the earpiece still had a very low Audible feedback. He replaced the battery with an apple OEM battery, the earpiece functioned as normal after doing so. So perhaps this is something to consider.

 

[Matt T]

Curious... could you link me to that topic please? I can't seem to find it.

 

[44267547]

Curious... could you link me to that topic please? I can't seem to find it.

I have no idea where that thread currently is. But I did read it within the last week. Otherwise, I would research Ifixit's repair guide for your earpeace/speakerphone replacement.