Last month, I went to a beach with my family and took a lot of great shots with my Galaxy S23. Without any hesitation, I kept clicking photos, knowing that unless I dropped my phone in the water, nothing major would happen — plus, the phone has an IP68 rating, which gave me extra confidence.
However, little did I know that putting my Samsung phone in my pocket and backpack on the beach would let tiny sand particles and water slip inside the speaker.
The moment I noticed my phone was playing distorted sound whenever a notification played, I knew something was wrong. I tried the old trick of switching off the phone and letting it sit, thinking maybe some moisture would dry up — no luck.
Later, I realised the real problem wasn’t water at all — it was the sand and fine dust causing the distorted, crackling sound from the speaker grill.
At that point, my only option seemed to be visiting a Samsung service center, but I hesitated since my phone’s warranty had expired just two months earlier, and I assumed the repair would cost me a lot.
That’s when I suddenly remembered something — about six months ago, when I changed my laptop’s CPU and GPU thermal paste, I had used isopropyl alcohol to clean the surfaces. And I wondered: what if the same thing could help remove the stubborn sand particles from my phone’s speaker?
Now, I’m not JerryRigEverything, so I don’t have all the tools or expertise to open up the phone and clean it from the inside. So instead, I tried cleaning it from the outside — and guess what? It totally worked.
Here’s how I fixed the muffled sound on my Samsung phone speaker
As mentioned earlier, I used isopropyl alcohol, which you can get for as low as ₹200 in India or around $10 in the US. I poured a small amount into a bowl, dipped the bristles of a soft brush into it, and gently brushed the speaker area while holding the phone upright with the speaker facing downward. This way, any loosened dust would fall out instead of going further inside.
If you’re wondering why not just use water — well, water takes much longer to evaporate and can increase the chance of moisture damage. Isopropyl alcohol evaporates quickly and is safe for electronics, so it removes dust without leaving moisture behind.
I repeated this brushing process about 3–5 times, and the speaker on my Samsung phone started sounding as good as new.
But just to make sure no tiny debris was left inside, I went to a website called FixMySpeaker (Link 1 | Link 2) and played the high-frequency sound to eject any remaining dirt. You can also use that website to push out water if your speaker gets wet.
That’s it. With just a soft brush, a bit of isopropyl alcohol, and a quick sound test, you can fix your Samsung phone’s muffled speaker at home in minutes. No tools. No service center. No hassle. If you’re also experiencing muffled audio on your Galaxy device, try this simple DIY cleaning method and let me know if it worked for you.
