iPhone 4 microphone not working

hopealan wrote:
We just got my wife's iphone yesterday. Today the phone was ported over and we made some calls. Turns out the speakerphone works, but if not on speakerphone, the caller cannot hear you at all. The mic is just not working. This is not an issue of first batch phones. This is a quality issue for sure.

iMime?

I am having microphone issues as well.
For those that got a replacement phone, are you able to save all your apps or do you have to start from scratch?
Thanks

I have had my iphone4 since day 1 and my mic has now gone out... but it's more complicated than that... it stopped before I updated to 4.1 so it's not that... and in the voice note app it works fine... but doesn't work at all in: video recording, speaker phone, nor face time calls... I've tried everything to fix it and nothing... at first it was just faint, but now it is completely gone. I'll be at the apple store tomorrow...

I've been using Facetime with my daughter and without my headphones in, she could not hear me. I never use speakerphone so I don't know if that was working or not.

Well, today one of my users said his speakerphone had gone out. I restored his phone hoping it was software related but still didn't work. I then looked at both mics. I found that the noise canceling mice had dust or some other debris in it. I used a safety pin to clean it out and low and behold it worked.

I'll test this with my daughter using Facetime tonight and will return with the results. I Have a strong feeling it will work.

So go ahead and check your secondary mic for debris. Not sure if this is the problem, but worth a look since it fixed the speakerphone issue.

Hey guys,

This forum is a user to user forum for people to seek help with their problems from other users. If you just want to whine about hardware problems this isn't the place for it. If you have hardware problems contact Apple and get it replaced. But us users cannot help you with it.

I've been an Apple customer since July 2007 when I purchased my first MacBook Pro and iPhone and this is the first unresolved problem I've experienced with an Apple product. My symptoms are exactly as described in the post, so I sent my phone back to Apple. Mind you, I purchased the phone in the UK, live in the Middle East and had to mail it to the UK as there are no repair centers here. Anyway, Apple sent me back my original phone and explained that there was nothing wrong with it. Never mind the fact that people can't hear me when I make a call. My purpose is not to complain, rather I'm wondering if anyone can offer advice on how to get Apple to resolve my problem. I can't seem to find a customer support email address.

I bought an iPhone 4 a month ago. Microphone started going early last week and by Friday it was completely kaput. Telstra (phone seller) says it will replace the phone today (still waiting for them to call me with confirmation replacement is in...) Have been using my wife's iPhone 4 and today a guy I was speaking to said "what, what, I can hardly hear you" so it may be happening to my wife's phone too. Not good Apple. Not good at all. I can accept the random chance of receiving one faulty product amongst tens of thousands, but what's the probability of getting two delivered to the same household? Seems to me the issue might be more widespread than first thought.

People could not hear me speaking when calling me on my iPhone 4, but the voice recorder app worked fine. I had read this might be related to different microphones being used for different applications, and a noise cancelling feature might be further complicating things.

I tried cleaning both the grills on the bottom, and the microphone on the top near the headphone jack. This seemed to give intermittent respite. I then tried a full restore, to no effect. I took it to the store this morning, explained the research I had done and yes, I had done a restore, and 10 minutes later I was walking out of the store with a replacement handset.

The problem hasn't recurred, but I've not tested it thoroughly. If it was a software problem, it would be annoying to have added it back to the new handset in the restore process. But it could be that in the half-year or so of having had the iPhone 4 mostly in a pocket, the top microphone just gets clogged with dirty. Maybe Apple just take them back, clean them out and send them out again.

Same here, iphone 4. It has worked for 3 months, but since yesterday people cannot hear me anymore. Speaker phone doesn't solve it.

- Same problem when earphones are plugged in.
- DOES work with Skype and Viper
- Restored it from a previous back up: didn't solve it
- Restored to factory Settings: didn't solve it
- Tried with different sim cards (even different providers): didn't solve it
- the Voice Recorder App DOES work

So conclusion: phone app is broken, the rest works. Can't fix the phone app by restoring the phone.

I'll try the apple store when I have time. Looking forward to a replacement, but I usually end up with a lot of discussion with the 'genius' people.

Your air blast worked great! I couldn't see anything on the microphone opening, but I blasted it anyway. Loud and clear now. Thanks.

Hi guys, I have a similar problem with my new iphone 4(4.2.1) When I receive a call my voice sound stuffy, like I am on speaker, but after 2-3 second I sound ok..Everybody is complaining abot this" hello..I can`t hear you..oh I can hear you now" and it`s annoying to hear this every time. This problem does not appear when I make the call or when I`m recording on voice memo.I did the restore..two times. I have changed my sim card, I have full signal, I have an Apple bumper(some problem without it).The phone is brand new..and has this problem from the day i bought it..and I don`t think is about dust or something. Can anybody help me? Did somebody had a similar issue?

Hi, I have a similar problem with my iphone (4.2.1), mic is working with all apps (voice memo, skype,...) but not when i'm calling. I have this problem since november, when I updated my iphone 4.2 and I think this is linked.

For me it's a kind of software problem because you can use your mic for others apps but also an hardware issue because you can solve it (your mic is gonna work for few minutes) shutting down the iphone during one night, or knocking it into the palm of your other hand upside down with the screen facing away, or blasting some air into the mic. I have tried the 3 solutions and it works but only for few minutes.

I've red a lot of message in discussions since november and I hope Apple is aware of it and that the 4.3 update would solve the problem.

Hi, the difference here is that I have problem only when I receive a call, not when I am making one; so I think it could be caused by the delay of "slide to answer".I also heard a similar problem (somebody who upgraded to 4.2.1 and started to have issues with the microphone, exactly like you)so I`m sure it`s a software problem. I also hope the 4.3 will solve the problem, and I heard that the full version will be released in march..the 4.3beta2 is available for developers, but you can try it even if you are not a developers. Thanks for replay..it`s good to know that I`n not the only one with this problem.

A friend at work had the same problem, he said he accidentally activated FaceTime and since then he had the problem intermittently. After fooling around with the phone, I found that the speakerphone mic was still working, but the phone mic wasn't. Then I went to the keypad and pushed a button and instantly I heard the button tone on the other phone. Several calls later, he hasn't had the problem.

So, try the keypad—it's probably something not activating the phone mic after the speaker is turned off and on.

Hi. I was wondering if you guys wouldn't mind trying this just to see if its the same for your phones. I have the exact same issue with my phone and have figured out that if I place my right hand thumb on the lower front right corner of the phone and my index finger on the back of the phone and press fairly hard against the corner of the phone and also press against the back of the phone at the same time I can get the mic to work. To help better explain this you are using your thumb and your index finger to push against each other but have your iphone in the middle and your fingers in those spots. Thanks guys its weird and a pain but I'm interested to know if it works for you or I need to throw the phone against the wall that might get it to work lol :-p