Support

Settings, with Restore Purchase and the app’s privacy note, opens from the gear in the navigation bar of each tab.

Run the speaker clean

The clean plays tones that shake the speaker membrane, which helps move water and dust out of the grille. It is always free and has no limit.

1. Turn the volume all the way up, with the volume slider on the Clean tab or with the buttons. The clean plays at the volume you have set and the app never changes it; below 70 % it reminds you.
2. Open the Clean tab and choose Water or Dust. The Speakers row is set to Both speakers by default: the bottom speaker and the earpiece play together. Earpiece only appears in that row only when the microphone is already allowed (for the meter or the clean’s check); the clean itself never asks for the microphone.
3. Hold the phone speaker-side down. With Earpiece only, hold it with the earpiece facing down.
4. Tap Start. The water program takes 45 seconds, the dust program 36. The screen shows the real tone being played. Stop is always there.
5. Run it again, two or three times in all. After three runs in ten minutes the app suggests letting the phone dry instead of running again; leave it speaker-down on a dry cloth for a few minutes.

Often nothing visible comes out: the water moves inside the grille and dries. The vibration setting shakes the phone in step with the tone, which helps. The clean stops when you leave the tab or the app, and the screen stays awake while it runs.

With headphones, Bluetooth or car audio connected, the clean does not start: it plays only on the iPhone’s own speakers. Disconnect them first.

Why the meter differs from another meter

The decibel meter is an estimate from the iPhone’s microphone, not a certified sound level meter. Two readings differ for ordinary reasons:

• An iPhone microphone is made for voices, not for measuring; each model differs a little, and it cannot follow very loud or very low sounds as an instrument does.
• A case, a finger over the microphone, or pointing the phone away from the sound changes the reading. Hold the phone steady, microphone toward the sound.
• The weighting changes the number: A weighting follows the ear, C and Z count more of the low tones. Compare readings with the same weighting and the same response (Fast or Slow).
• Leq, Min, Max and Peak measure different things: Leq is the average over the time since the last reset, Peak the single loudest instant.

Use it to compare places and times and to get a sense of the level, and not for legal, medical or workplace decisions.

Calibrate the meter

If you have a reference meter, you can match Driptone to it with one offset.

1. Put the phone next to the reference meter, microphones close together, in a steady sound (a constant tone or a fan), with the same weighting on both.
2. Open Meter → Calibrate.
3. Change the offset, in steps of 0.5 dB between −20 and +20 dB, until the reading equals the reference. A reading 3 dB too low needs +3 dB.

The offset stays on the iPhone and applies to all later readings. Set it back to zero to return to the standard.

Microphone permission

The first time you start the meter, or turn on the clean’s Check before and after (part of Driptone Pro), iOS asks to use the microphone. Without it neither the meter nor the check can measure; the rest of the app does not need it. The microphone is on only while the meter is on screen and running, or for about five seconds before a clean and again after it while the check is on, and nothing is recorded.

If you chose Don’t Allow, or want to check, open Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone on your iPhone and switch Driptone on. Come back to the app and tap Start again.

The clean itself never asks for the microphone. Only the optional check does: before the clean and after it, it plays short, quiet test tones on the bottom speaker for about five seconds and listens with the bottom microphone to measure their levels. Only the levels are shown on screen; nothing is recorded, saved or sent. Earpiece only appears in the clean’s Speakers row only when you have already allowed the microphone, for the meter or the check; it plays through the phone’s call audio, and the app does not read the microphone during the clean. Without that permission the clean plays on both speakers.

The hearing check

In the Test tab, the hearing-range check finds the highest tone each ear hears, with headphones.

1. Connect headphones; the app shows what the sound is going to. Use a quiet room.
2. Set a comfortable volume with the 1 kHz tone, and leave it alone for the check.
3. For each ear, a tone rises from 8 to 20 kHz. Tap when you stop hearing it. Each ear is checked twice.

The result is the highest tone you heard at that volume on those headphones. Another pair of headphones or another volume gives another result.

High tones and volume

• High tones, and any tone at a high volume, can be uncomfortable or harmful, and some people cannot hear the highest tones at all. Driptone warns you before a tone above 15 kHz or at a high volume. Start quietly and raise the volume slowly.
• Do not hold the phone or headphones to your ear at a high volume. If a tone hurts, or your ears ring, stop and lower the volume.
• A phone speaker cannot reach the ultrasound of a real dog whistle. The dog-whistle preset plays the top of what the speaker can.
• Tones start and stop smoothly and never play louder than your volume. They stop when you leave the app, and the stop timer ends them after 1, 5, 10 or 30 minutes.

Restore Pro, Family Sharing

Driptone Pro is one purchase, with no subscription. To unlock it on a new iPhone, after a reinstall, or on a family member’s iPhone:

1. Sign in to the App Store with the Apple account that bought it, or one in its Family Sharing group.
2. Open Settings from the gear in any tab and tap Restore Purchase. The Pro sheet has the same button.

“Pro is active” means it worked. If nothing is restored, the Apple account you are signed in with has no purchase: check the account in the App Store. Pro is shared with your Family Sharing group if the buyer has purchase sharing on (Settings → your name → Family Sharing). Once unlocked, Pro works offline.

Delete your data

Delete saved meter sessions, saved tones and hearing checks from their lists in the app. Deleting the app removes everything on the iPhone. The Privacy Policy has every case.

Ask Apple for a refund

Apple handles every payment and every refund. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with the Apple account you bought with, choose “Request a refund” and pick Driptone Pro. Apple makes the decision; we cannot refund a purchase ourselves, but write to us if something went wrong and we will help.