Can’t hear a phone call through headset

PROBLEM SOLVED: My son got an iPhone 12 and left the headset in my car. It works with that headset but none of the other dozen or so headsets I have. I guess the Apple engineers fixed it so you have to buy a new headset for the 12 to make it work with older phones. Mine stopped working after the "update". Now it is working with the 12 headset. They should fix this fast, especially if it was intentional.

I finally bought original earpods with lightning connector around a month ago(~20€) and now everything works as expected, shape is almost perfect, ears don’t hurt after 3-4 hours, don’t sweat nor itch, it feels like they have shaped the plastic so that it doesn’t completely fill in the ear shell, it does like 95%, but the remaining 5% of “free space” I find very useful in outside use, especially when crossing the roads, i can hear the traffic and quickly orientate accordingly.

Great impression (for the size) of large middle sounds, ideal for podcasts and conversations in general, just the cable qualiy, like all of the Apple cables, is really nothing to brag about, quite the opposite.

In the meantime I have heard numerous stories about “the 3.5mm dongle“ not working from the start, 1st day problems etc. and mostly coming without any box or paper certification whatsoever.

I had the same issue. Try calling someone using facetime(audio and video) once or twice. You should hear headphones ringing. Hope it works. Worked for me.

I discovered the similar issue today. I have also iPhone Xs and I was using Apple wired EarPods. Call came in and although I could receive it by pressing center button on headset remote, I could not hear a thing and the other party from me neither. Later I started to investigate. Did all settings reset. After phone reboot connected the headset and called myself from other phone. It worked... until second try. Then I did factory reset and restored phone from iTunes backup. Again, first try worked but second one did not. I did find a pattern: after reset the phone-ringing was loud as usual. As I said first try was successful and all remote buttons and phone buttons (speakerphone, contacts etc) did work, it was possible to change the volume. On later, failed attempt the ringing was much quieter. The remote center button worked, the call was silent. Phone UI became very slow, speakerphone button did react literally seconds after being pressed and has no effect at all. It was not possible to change "call" volume, neither from the headset remote or phone itself. If I did disconnect the headset during that failed call, the phone receiver worked and the microphone too. But as I reconnected the headset again, all became muted again.

The phone, its connectors, headphones are clean, free from dirt. I did try two almost unused Apple Earpods. I'm using latest iOS, ver 12.4.1.

I discovered also that all worked ok after restart exactly once. Later calls are muted. I reported the issue to Apple (https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html) as a bug, but we all know that Apple does not reply nor comment. Soon we have iOS 13, maybe the bug is known and already fixed. I thing that the issue started after some update in August. It seems that the phone just almost disconnects the headset and fails to route audio to and from it.

I have had the same problem, spent at least five hours on the phone with Apple support with different levels of escalation, have changed ear buds and done everything else that was mentioned. My wife, operating w/ iOS 10 does not have this problem I unfortunately have 13.1.3. There’s no question that this is a software issue (as iOS 12 did not have the same issue) that Apple has not yet addressed. Anything you do now is a waste of time until they fix this problem on their end. By the way, Apple support will not admit that this is a software issue.

UPDATE: I’m following up on my first post a couple hours ago. I googled this problem, restarted my iPhone 11 and my lightening connected earbuds are working fine again. My audio is coming thru the earbuds now, as intended.

When making/receiving a call, did you try tapping the speaker icon within the Phone or FaceTime app and then looking down the list of options such as iPhone, Speaker, "XXX Wireless Earphone Brand"? I have to manually select my wireless earphones each time. This is not done automatically. Thanks again Apple.

In answer to slanging; My experience is exactly how you described. The original wired Apple earbuds work just fine for making calls. I have two sets, and both work well. Of multiple other headsets, none have worked. This includes direct lightning cable connected and with the lightning to 3.5 mm adapter. So if you can get the original wired Apple earbuds you should be OK. (Of course I fond the wired Apple earbuds very uncomfortable, and they frequently fall out of my ears).

I would add that the problem I have been experiencing is only with the microphone function of the headsets on phone calls. I never had trouble hearing the other person on the calls. And never had trouble listening to music or anything else.

Lastly, as I posted yesterday, I purchased a Plantronics Voyager 5200 - Bluetooth Headset, and this works very well for all of my calls, at least so far.

Good luck and best wishes,

Actually I think all you need to do is to use Apple certified equipment. I bought a no name dongle that splits the audio and the charger. It only conveyed the music on my phone and did not transfer any calls. Then I bought an Apple certified dongle and everything works smoothly.

Mine started working again (iPhone 11 with wired Apple ear buds) after restarting my iPhone a couple times. Huge relief!

Same situation. Here are the details:

--Listening to calls on the phone itself works fine

--Headphones work fine with music (several different headphones and earbuds, none from Apple--I bet that's the problem)

--tried a bluetooth headphone and that worked

--before the latest OS update (13.2.3), if I had the earplugs/headphones plugged in BEFORE a call (incoming our outgoing), then I could hear the call on the headset. If instead I answered or placed a call and then tried to plug in headphones, nope. It didn't switch the call.

--speakerphone calls work fine

It's annoying and compounded by the fact that Apple reps pretend this is the first time they've ever heard anyone describe such a thing. I used to do tech support and I understand you have a script but it's really a cowardly brand position to pretend you don't have a mess of people with this problem.

I guess for phone calls on my iphone, I can't use my Bose earbuds I love so much. I'm not buying those earpods; they don't fit my ears and they hurt and don't sound great.

I use the Belkin rockstar dongle, a splitter for headphone and charging use. That is the only device known to me that transfers phone calls to headphones or in my case the car stereo system. It's authorized by Apple and therefore a bit more expensive, around 34 Euros.

Can confirm still an ongoing issue with iOS 13.4 beta 2.

Hello Alt8178,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!

I understand from your post that you cannot hear your callers when using your headphones. Does this also happen when the headphones are not plugged in? If you have completed all the steps in this article and the issue persists, you may need to contact Apple Support for additional assistance.

If your headphones don't work with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Contact Apple Support

Best Regards.