Samsung Galaxy S22+ speaker is quiet, distorted or has no sound

The Galaxy S22 series had a speaker problem big enough to be called Speaker Gate by a technology site: owners reported distorted, crackling or buzzing sound from the bottom speaker, especially at high volume. Community threads and repair guides offer several remedies. The most unusual is physical: owners say the sound often begins after a flight, a drive over a mountain or a swimming session, when pressure inside the phone changes, and removing and reinserting the SIM tray lets the pressure equalise, which clears the crackle. Others clean the speaker grille with a soft brush, check Dolby Atmos and sound enhancements under Settings, Sounds and vibration, turn off Dolby Atmos and Equaliser to test, and restart the phone.

A software update has helped some owners. If the speaker is silent or the crackle persists in every app and at every volume, Samsung should look at the speaker, which may be covered by cover for a known fault. You can test whether the problem is the speaker or the sound file by playing a test tone or music from a different app at the same volume, and by listening in Safe mode: crackle in every app and in Safe mode points at the speaker and pressure, while crackle in one app points at the app. The earpiece also plays stereo with the bottom speaker, so one of them can crackle while the other is clean.