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My wife’s iPhone 6 plus has very low volume, barely audible. This is intermittent - occasionally the volume goes back to “normal,” but the low volume problem is present 90% of the time. After trying a software fix via settings, we brought it to the Apple store in Dedham, MA. They were unable to diagnose the problem. And, they said they could not replace the speaker in this phone. My wife uses the speaker for GPS driving directions, so we are thinking of getting her a new iPhone 8 plus, at a cost of over $500. I’d appreciate any help the ifixit community can provide to solve this problem. Thanks in advance.
There are three main components involved here; the speaker itself, the Dock Flex which connects to the speaker to the logic board and the logic board itself. The easiest thing to try is a replacement speaker but those rarely go bad unless there was water in the phone. The Dock Flex can fail from using low quality chargers but it would not normally affect the speaker and besides, you haven’t said anything about charging issues. The final option is the logic board itself. The 6 Plus is subject to flexing so perhaps the speaker amp section of the logic board is damaged (could also be caused by water). The only way to know for certain is to open up the device, inspect for liquid damage and start testing with some known-good parts if there doesn’t appear to be an liquid. If you don’t want to invest time and parts, then a good shop should be able to do the basic troubleshooting and if micro-soldering is required, you’ll need to find a shop that can offer this service.
