The Best Way to Clean Your iPhone Speakers

While it’s fairly easy to protect your precious iPhone with a case or screen protector, cleaning it is a separate issue. In particular, it can be difficult to clean those hard-to-reach places like the small holes that form your iPhone’s speakers and charging port. Let’s go over the best way to clean the speaker on your iPhone.

How to clean your iPhone speaker

Over time it’s inevitable that your smartphone’s speakers will fill up with debris and dust. It is the way.

Cleaning it may seem simple enough, but you don’t want to risk damaging those precious iPhone speakers.

When it comes to cleaning any of your Apple devices, here are the general rules of thumb that Apple recommends:

• Use only a soft, lint-free cloth. Avoid abrasive cloths, towels, paper towels, or similar items.
• Avoid excessive wiping, which might cause damage.
• Unplug all external power sources, devices, and cables.
• Keep liquids away from the product, unless otherwise noted for specific products.
• Don’t get moisture into any openings.
• Don’t use aerosol sprays, bleaches, or abrasives.
• Don’t spray cleaners directly onto the item.

When it comes to cleaning those speaker indents specifically, here are some extra suggestions from Mashable:

• Don’t use sharp objects like toothpicks, tweezers and paperclips to scrape out your speakers.
• Don’t use rubbing alcohol or any kind of liquid – if this gets into the innards of your iPhone it will not be good.
• Don’t use canned or compressed air; the force is too strong to be used on the iPhone’s delicate speakers and could end up forcing dirt in further.

Instead, the official advice is to use a small, soft-bristled brush that is clean and dry. Soft paint or makeup brushes can help with this. Be sure to brush from side to side, angling so that the dirt is not pushed further into the speaker grill.

Mashable also suggests investing in some cleaning putty or an air blower (which is less forceful than compressed air) to help remove the remainder of any dislodged dirt and dust.

If you clean your speakers and can still no longer hear any sound out of them, here are some next steps to troubleshoot the issue with Apple.