Can’t hear a phone call through headset

Hi. I have the same problem with an iPhone 8. I'm using wired headphones from SteelSeries. When I listen to Spotify or YouTube they work fine. However, in calls or WebEx (videoconferencing app), the audio comes from the phone. Any ideas? Is Apple doing this on purpose for people to use their accessories?

The "audio routing" setting has an option for Bluetooth but not for wired headphones.

I only use this phone for work. My personal phone is an Android Xiaomi phone that works fine with any headphones. I don't see the point of buying expensive Apple devices. It's such a ripoff!

Also, no one from Apple is replying to this email thread, which is not very professional either. If there is a known or intended issue, just acknowledge it so that people don't waste time investigating.

This thread is getting long!

I have the same issue; iPhone Xr with latest iOS 14.4. When using 3.5mm headphones using a 3.5 to lightning connector adapter, I can hear music, YouTube and other audio just fine even when a call rings is plastic through the headphones just fine. When I answer or make a call, (what's app or regular call) the audio no longer goes through the headphone but only is audible if I put the phone to my ear or turn on speakerphone.

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.

gasoffmd

did you try the following? it is not a satisfactory solution, but better than nothing

- click on this to see my post earlier on in this thread

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250573630?answerId=252823350022#252823350022

Same problem. All Apple brand peripherals, dongle and earphones. I hear the touch done when dialing out; however, the caller can only be heard thru the phone speakers.

THE FIX: buy air buds. Most likely an intentional change by Tim Cooke and crew to boost accessories sales. Accessory sales are a big priority at Apple.

Five or six weeks ago I was assured by Apple tech-support that their engineers were working on this problem, but now I think they’re full of ****. My suspicion is they want to make the plug-in ear bulbs obsolete and force you to spend over $200 on the air buds.

Have the exact same issue with my iphone 11!

Sound works perfect through lightning to 3.5mm adapter to my headphones for music, however the moment a call comes in, all sound comes out of the phone and can't hear anything through headphones.

Am currently on iOS 13.3, anyone know if the latest beta firmware fixes this?

It’s called a MONOPOLY. Apple forces you to buy their products. They do an update on your phone to make sure they block all third-party devices. Then you’re forced to buy their device such as iPod pros in order for you to make phone calls. It’s called a MONOPOLY.

They won't fix it.

I would never buy an Apple product again. This persistent and deliberate problem is on my work phone. I use the speaker or a (non-Apple) bluetooth headset.

This "you'll do it and you'll like it" cravenly denied bossiness is the last straw for me.

Brand new Iphone 11 Pro Max

Ear buds (with wires) work as expected for Music.

They do not work for phone calls, unless I unplug the connector and re-insert it, then the call transfers to the earbuds.

Chatted with Apple agent for about a half hour on this and she finally said that she was able to see in some records that "Software engineers are aware of the problem and a fix will be released with a new software version."

I just figured I would have to wait for that release with the fix, before I would have normal use of my ear buds for calls.

HOWEVER.... (and this is UNBELIEVABLE to me that the agent did not know this!!!!)

Today, on my own, I was exploring changing features in an effort to improve my battery life (it is much worse then my 10s Max! ... another disappointment!)

I accidentally stumbled across a feature buried inside the Accessibility menu that is called "Call Audio Routing".

You can find that under Settings / Accessibility / Touch / Call Audio Routing

That feature offers these options:

> Automatic

> Bluetooth Headset

> Speaker

Note: Wired head-set is missing, for some reason.

Mine was set to "Speaker"

I changed that to Automatic and low and behold, my wired earbuds not work correctly with a phone call!!

Why that feature would be buried where it is escapes me!

Why the agent did not know about that also escapes me!

But, at least, that part of my phone is now working correctly.

If only I can now figure out how to make the battery actually last longer like it is supposed to! On that front, I have changed many, many things, which has helped some. I did have another self-discovered event that is worth sharing and does seem to be the most significant change that has benefited my battery life the most.

The only new use case for me with this new phone is that I am now using the Icloud for both backups and data storage (photos and more).

I noticed that there is not an option to control how often or when the Cloud looks at your phone to pull over any new data.

I was hoping there would be something like there is with email where you can switch to Manual Fetch (which also helps battery life), but there is no such option I could find.

As a test, I just disabled all cloud features and suddenly, my battery became very stable and was not dropping before my eyes as it had prior. It actually stayed right on 81% for almost two hours! With the cloud connected and accessing my phone, I would guess it would have dropped to around 65% over that same time!

No apple agent ever clued me in that the cloud was so battery consuming, but, apparently, either it just is with its normal function or there is some bug in that program!

Hope that may help someone to know that!

RZ808

Under Settings / Accessibility / Touch / Call Audio Routing, my iphone 8 was already set to Automatic and I cannot use my bluetooth (non-Apple brand) earphones, nor "plug-in" headphones, for a telephone call. You're lucky it works on your 11.

In that menu, did you try changing to the “Bluetooth” option? ... or switching to Speaker testing that and then switching back to Bluetooth?

Maybe its an incompatibility issue with your non-Apple headset? Should not be, IMO, but bluetooth can be finicky?

Maybe, test it with someone else's Apple bluetooth earbuds?

If it works with those, then you have a clue.

I assume that you paired your earphones under the Setting / Bluetooth menu - right?

The Apple agent did tell me that it was a “known issue that would be fixed soon”, so maybe she was actually referring to a bluetooth headset issue and did not realize my issue was with wired earbuds - so my problem / solution was actually different (just that wrong feature setting).

No, I haven't tried the experiment which you mentioned. I'll give it a try. I know my plug-in Apple headphones don't work with phone calls any longer. They used to. And, yes, I paired with the bluetooth functions. I'll let you know what happens with the experiment, but it has to do with a software upgrade, one would think, if everything USED to work properly. Thanks!

Having the same problem on my 8, running version 13.3.1. I was hopeful your tip would help but my phone was already set to Automatic. I was bummed but thought I’d exhaust all options so I tried Bluetooth and Speaker too.

And nothing helped.

STILL NO ANSWER! They even delete your comments if they don’t like them. My last comment was deemed speculative!!!!! We Apple if you can’t provide an answer after a year, what’s left other than speculation. Give one then to the millions of customers who paid 30$ for headphones that are useless , as the main use of a phone is CALLS!!!!!!