Finally figured out why my door rattle was so loud

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago with my front entry door, but it wasn't really a strike plate issue for me. The main problem was that the door was vibrating because of how the hinges were mounted, especally on the top one. I figured it was the screws, but they were allready tight. I decided to check the positioning of the hinge plates themselves. They were slightly puckered, meaning they weren't sitting perfectly flat against the wood of the door frame. I used a thin strip of felt, the kind you use for furniture legs, and placed it between the hinge plate and the jamb. It was only about a millimeter thick. This stopped the whole rattling because it took the vibration out of the metal mounting points.

My door was an older solid core model, and the wood around the hinge points seemed to have compressed over time. Shimming the hinge plates instead of the strike plate made all the difference for the stability of the door. The gap needed to be consistent around the entire perimeter for it to feel quiet.

It was a small adjustment, but it completly eliminated the bone-chilling noise when the wind pushed against it. My door feels much more solid now.

I had a diferent issue with rattling that wasn't related to the hardware itself, and it was much simpler. Mine was a solid core door from a local supplier. I noticed the noise wasn't a structural knock, but a slight drumming sound coming from inside the door when the vibrations started. It sounded like something inside was shifting. I realized the door wasn't actually solid. It had thin foam insulation packed into the interior cavity, probly to save weight. Over time, the ambient temperture changes and the slight movement of the house cause that foam to expand and then contract. This lets the sound transmit directly from the movement of the frame into the insulation, making it seem like the door itself was vibrating on its hinges. My fix was to grab a few pieces of thin, flexible rubber, like door bumpers, and gently wedge them into the gaps between the interior door skin and the actual foam lining. I didn't try to replace the foam, just dampen the vibration source from the inside. It silenced the persistent drumming completely. It was just trapped air and shifting material reacting to the normal sounds of the neighborhood.

The approach of checking the hinge plates is definitly the right place to start. It's crazy how much simple frame wear can cause these kinds of vibrations. I ran into this exact issue once and realized the problem wasn't the plate position, but the screws holding the mounting block to the door. They had rounded out over time, so I swapped the entire screw assembly for longer, flatter ones. That level out the hinge perfectly and fixed the noise imediately.

First post here so hope this is ok to chip in. My noise issue turned out to be way dumber than anything with the frame. The flapping at the bottom of my back door was the vinyl sweep itself getting loose in its track, so it was slapping against the threshold every time the wind picked up. I pried it out, bent the little tabs that hold it in, and reseated it. Silence. So if anyone reading this still has the noise after fixing the shims and hinges, maybe poke at the sweep before assuming it's the door alignment. Is it normal for the sweep to just slide out like that or did someone install mine badly?