How to make your iPhone speaker louder.

Why your iPhone got quiet

Speakers lose volume when the grille fills with lint and dust or holds a little water — the membrane can't move freely, so the highs and overall loudness drop. It happens gradually, which is why a once-loud iPhone slowly starts to sound thin or muffled.

Make it louder by cleaning the speaker

• Take off any case and make sure nothing is covering the bottom speaker.
• Open SpeakerMate and run Water Eject if it's been wet, then Dust & Lint for muffled sound.
• Let the calibrated tones vibrate the grille clear for about 30 seconds.
• Check the before-and-after with the Speaker Health Check.

Rule out the quick settings too

Before you blame the hardware, flip the silent switch off, turn the volume up, and check Settings › Sounds for a low volume limit or a Reduce Loud Sounds limit. If those are fine and it's still quiet, the cause is physical — and that's what cleaning with sound fixes.