Chosen Solution
After replacing the screen on my customers iPhone 7 plus everything appear to be working except form the earpiece (When making phone calls I can not hear anyone). I have checked the camera flex and it is in perfect condition with n o sign of damage. I have reset the settings already. I am in the process of backing up and restoring the phone. The customers is in urgent need on this phone so any help would be great :)
We have done 5 of them all the same problem Update (05/03/2017) Do you see the little black square near the ear speaker hole? (Well it’s supposed to stay on the prox sensor). On the 7+ for whatever reason it stays stuck to the screen most of the time. It must be transferred over or you will end up with problems as the prox is shorting out. We beat are head against the wall for weeks over this issue and finally this so simple answer, that we were missing solved our problems.
OK, just going to post a full answer because we have a piecemeal selection and it is all partly correct. The first time we ran across the problem was when the phone first came out. We did a screen repair but the tech couldn’t get the ear speaker to work. Ordered a new ear speaker and new flex cable but same problem with multiple parts. So we slapped the broken screen back on, had the customer remove the icloud, and drove it up to apple. Well they just swapped the screen out and it worked perfectly. That told us that either apple had put some sort of syncing software like they have with the fingerprint scanner, or it actually was the flex cable. The tech admitted he unplugged the flex before disconnecting the battery, and we spoke to another local store owner who had come across the same problem and reached the same conclusion. So we paid extra attention and didn’t have a problem for months. We did come across an issue with a boot loop, and that was fixed when we noticed the square piece of tape was missing. The ear speaker mesh has some metal in it so that accounts for the short that causes the boot loop. Anyway, fast forward to today and I had the same no sound problem with one I repaired. I know that I unplugged the battery first so that was ruled out as a cause. The black adhesive had moved over so that was ruled out as a cause. I tried everything I could think of aside from replacing the flex because I didn’t have one. Finally I gave up and decided to disect the flex cable. I heated up the solder and separated the camera side from the prox sensor side. Once I inspected it under the microscope I found that one of the pads from the prox sensor side had torn. The copper in the flex is so microscopic that even a small bend can tear it inside the coating. I think what is confusing people is that they are moving the tape over and when they press it back on it is sticking the circuit back together and it just happens to work (for now). I got a new flex cable from another iphone and put it in and it worked perfectly. The problem is people are getting aftermarket flex cables that aren’t soldered together well so sometimes a new flex won’t work because it’s a faulty flex. We used to have a similar problem with I think the iphone 5 camera flex when it first came out because it was two separate parts soldered together poorly, but eventually they improved and there was no problems after that. TL;DR version: you damaged the camera flex, dont skimp out on the cheapest replacement part you can get. Buy high quality from a reputable vendor, and if all else fails then just pull one from another iphone.
Funny solution. I was !#^&@@ of as it was not working do i came back to it a couple days later and it was working so i rebuild and sealed and it stopped working. then disconnected battery then reconnected now working agian. Update This customer came back after 3 months saying no ear peice ! I got some kapton tape as did not have the old screen to hand and put it where the black tape should be (as expalined in the chosen answer above) and now it is all working as should.
I’ve done about 5 of these iPhone 7 Plus’ now. Never ran into a problem besides the last one. After putting the screen back together, customer reported ear speaker not working. I took it out, realigned it, put the flex back in, still nothing. I ended up ordering a flex front camera flex. I took out the old flex, put in the new flex, and this time, I tried a different technique of inserting the flex connector, similar to the iPhone 6 digitizer flex. If you angle the connector, slightly angled down on the side of the flex cable, and the other side slightly angled up, then press in and connect it, you will get a proper snap in sound. After I turned it on, the ear speaker was working. For me, i’m not sure if getting a new flex was the answer, or just the connector wasn’t being placed down correctly. On the next 7 Plus that comes in, I am going to test the old flex with my technique, and see if the ear speaker works. I’ll report back after some time.
insulation tape on back of the solder joints and swap over the original earpiece rubber, it seems to have more metal in it, better earth maybe? this solved it.
Did an IPhone 7 plus today. Removed flex cable very carefully and used the little black ear piece rubber that holds speaker in & still nothing. Camera both front and facing work but no audio in earpiece. Took it out 3-4x and tried to realign it to make sure little gold dots were all touching & still no audio. I found it strange that the cameras worked but no audio-this led me to believe the flex cable is perfectly fine. Earpiece worked prior to my repair. I repaired Phone in complete and exact factory repair-I did it it all gentle as I’ve done 3 IPhone 7 plus before & never had this happen during the swap—and BOOM no audio in ear but touch screen & home button etc all in excellent repair. I cannot figure out why the speaker ear box is out-do these little ear speakers blow out from something ? Or more likely the flex cable or it’s just not lined up? I know how to put flex cable on little bumps on screen so I know it’s in place.. Anyway I ordered a new flex cable and new speaker box-so we shall see
I am having a similar issue with iphone 8 plus, swapped out screen and now home button and ear speaker do not work! Ive tried to realign and reconnect several times and still nothing please help.
I had this same issue. Doing a hard restart on the phone fixed it for a few weeks at a time. If it was a broken flex cable would resetting the phone fix it? If not what keeps causing this issue? Update (12/27/2018) I found that when making phone calls the loud speaker button was greyed out, that is an issue that is definitely covered by warranty regardless of the screen replacement. I don’t know if replacing my screen caused it, but my phone was within warranty so I took it in and they just gave me a replacement and said that the screen repair was unrelated to the issue
Thanks! I had this same issue. I change flex cable, works fine.
I hate apple soo much, because of all the stupid little things that messes up on their precious little iphones after a %#*@ screen repair. Ive tried all the stuff y’all mention to fixed the ear speaker and it still doesnt work. Why cant apple grow a pair and let us work on their phones with out them being so stingy about what we do to help their customers. Oh yea, because they get no money for it. Well maybe they will if they actually cared about their customers and not the money in their pockets.
I just did an iphone 7 plus screen replacement. I ordered the complete screen that included all the camera , earpiece assembly so I don’t have to perform the transfer. Installed the new screen using the working original home button. The new screen works but the home button does not work, nor do I have audio. The front camera does not work. Thinking I might have a defective screen, I returned it for a refund and a ordered new screen with all the little parts from another reputable company. Re-installed the screen with the working original home button. Had all the same issues. So in my case, it seems the small insulating tape for those three rows of connectors mentioned often in the thread was not an issue since I never performed the front camera, and ear connector assembly. And this happened with two different reputable vendors. Would replacing the home button and the flex assy help? Thanks for any feedback.
Also..I’m fairly certain part of the home button functionality exists and passes through one of the two cables when you connect the screen. If that cable is torn or not seated it will cause problems with the homebutton. And at one point even tho I had ordered (like you) the full assembly figuring I’d save time.. I ended up pulling that old original camera and sensor and earpiece bundle off the original screen and installing it on the new one. This actually worked for me.. but I warn you.. that is and can be a very slippery slope opening a whole other world of problems and frustrations. I don’t care how easy these videos make it seem. That lil bundle of cables and pieces is crazy town. Good luck.
