Ever since I started listening to music in my car from my iPhone, I’ve been dealing with the annoying electromagnetic interference problem (loud buzz / static / popping / digital noise coming through car speakers). I set out to find a solution today, and to make a long story short, here’s what I settled on: taping two small pieces of aluminum foil on the back of the iPhone in a specific location, as seen below.
Here’s what I did:
1. Cut out a 2″ x 3″ piece of aluminum foil.
2. Fold foil in half horizontally (foil is now 2″ x 1.5″).
3. Tape foil from the bottom right corner (on the back of the iPhone) up to the middle of the text iPhone using electrical tape.
That’s it; no more buzz/static/popping sounds coming out of your speakers!
Another solution which avoids using tape (although electrical tape leaves no residue whatsoever on the iPhone) is simply placing the iphone on a sheet of aluminum foil. This might be a better idea for people experiencing this problem in a static environment rather than a car (i.e. iPhone on office desk with nearby computer speakers). After discovering this solution, I also saw another potential solution online, using aluminum foil wrapped around the audio cable coming out of the phone. I haven’t tested that method, but it looks much more obtrusive.
For me, other materials didn’t work (at least not perfectly). I also tried various sizes of aluminum foil in various locations — you could probably get by with a smaller amount of foil, but this amount works 100% (so far at least). I guess it should also be noted this solution could potentially work for other GSM phones with this issue (i.e. Blackberries, Sidekicks) — you’ll just have to experiment with the size of the foil and its location.
