If the microphone or speaker isn’t working as expected on your Apple Watch

Try these steps if your Apple Watch microphone or speaker isn't working as expected. You can also use these steps if the sound is crackling, distorted, muffled, or intermittent.

Update your Apple Watch and iPhone

Make sure that your Apple Watch is up to date and your iPhone is up to date.

Clean your Apple Watch

Check the microphone (labeled 1 in the image) and speaker (labeled 2 in the image) to see if anything is obstructing them. If your Apple Watch has substances or debris visible in places such as the speaker ports, clean your Apple Watch. You can hold your Apple Watch under lightly running, warm, fresh water until it's clean.

With Apple Watch Series 10 or later, you can use a soft bristle brush to remove debris gently from the speaker ports. Don't use cleaning liquids, sprays, or abrasives to clean your watch.

Apple Watch Ultra and later

Speaker and Microphone labels for the Apple Watch Ultra

Apple Watch Series 4 and later and Apple Watch SE and later

Speaker and Microphone labels for the Series 4 and later and SE

Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular)

Speaker and Microphone labels for the Series 3 (GPS + Cellular)

Apple Watch Series 2 and Series 3 (GPS)

Speaker and Microphone labels for the Series 2 and Series 3 (GPS)

Check for water and dry your watch

To check whether water is in the microphone or speaker port, place your Apple Watch microphone or speaker side down on a lint-free microfiber cloth. Water in the port may degrade speaker or microphone performance until it evaporates completely. Then dry your Apple Watch using a lint-free microfiber cloth. Don't use heat, compressed air, or sprays, don't insert anything sharp into the microphone or speaker ports, and don't shake Apple Watch to remove water. Allowing Apple Watch to charge overnight may speed up evaporation.

Restart your Apple Watch

  1. Press and hold the side button until you see the power button in the upper-right corner.

  2. Tap the power button.

  3. On the screen that appears, drag the Power Off slider to the right.

  4. After your watch turns off, press and hold the side button again until the Apple logo appears.

See if Silent Mode or Do Not Disturb are turned on

Press the side button to open Control Center, then check these options:

  • If the Silent Mode button has a slash through it, Silent Mode is turned on. Tap the button to turn it off.

  • If the Focus button is purple, Do Not Disturb is turned on. Tap the button to turn it off.

Adjust your watch's sound settings

  1. Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.

  2. Tap Sounds & Haptics.

  3. Under Automatically Adjust Volume, tap Level.

  4. Tap Louder to increase the overall volume of alerts.

The Automatically Adjust Volume feature changes the volume of alerts based on your surroundings. If you want your Apple Watch to deliver all alerts at the same sound level, you can turn off Automatically Adjust Volume. Then use the onscreen buttons to change the volume, or tap the volume slider and rotate the Digital Crown to adjust the volume.

Automatically Adjust Volume is available in watchOS 26 and later. If you haven't updated to watchOS 26, use the volume buttons or Digital Crown to adjust alert volume.

Unpair your Apple Watch and then pair again

Unpair your Apple Watch and iPhone, then pair them again.

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