iOS 14 and iOS 14.0.1 Sound Issues

I am experiencing the same problem. It’s as if Apple did this on purpose. My sound quality was great on my 7 plus and never had any issues until the last two updates.

it’s like being held ransom and demanding I buy a new phone even though my parents gone worked perfectly fine.

I’m dealing with the same issue. After these updates it just messed my audio. It’s very faint, I can’t hear sound coming from the other party. I literally have to grab my AirPods to hear the caller. Super frustrating!

I tried restarting my phone, cleaning the speaker. But no luck!

So I actually just bought a brand new phone and the volume problem is still there so I’m about to have a really fun conversation with the Apple customer loyalty department because this is absolutely infuriating

I’ve got that problem but also my volume for everything else is stupidly loud, my alarm, incoming call, text, locking and notifications. It’s like my phone is screaming at me, having to keep it on silent and use something else as an alarm.

it’s frustrating hope they fix it soon, wish I hadn’t updated my phone now 😩

So went into Leeds Apple today. Again they rans diagnostics. They insisted it was speaker issue (hardware) and said it was either £60 to replace the speakers or we live with it. After arguing for about 40mins we caved in and agreed to a speaker replacement in the iphone XS Max.

1hr later went back to collect.

The replacement speaker did not fix the issue. Apple staff then decided that it could be a 'logic board issue'. And that nothing (in their opinion indicates it being a software issue). So. They said the only option left to us was to pay for an out of warranty replacement (£556) or do nothing and live with it.

The managers at the store said they could replace for free at their discretion if there a 'exceptional' circumstances. They didnt feel this circumstance fit the criteria for 'exceptional' circumstance. So we asked them to define what the criteria was. They wouldnt define what that mean't, except that this problem did not fit their definition (the definition that would not define).

Wholly unsatisfactory.

I HAD SAME ISSUE.

HOWEVER, GOT A EASY FIX.

GO TO SETTINGS 👉 SOUND & HAPTICS

👉 HEADPHONE SAFETY 👉 REDUCE LOUD SOUND (TOGGLE IT OFF). NOW ENJOY LOUD AND FULL VOLUME.

HOPE IT WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM..

this is getting worse on IOS 14.3 . messenger call and whatsapp video volume are extremely low although the volume button is maxed. but if i play songs from music or videos from gallery the sound level is normal.

this is a serious bug and apple should fix this. i have to restart my phone to get it back to normal sound level.

Same problem here, plus I can barely hear music even with volume all the way up.

First thing I've done since this happened is turn off automatic software updates.

In the future, I'll only update after it has been out a few weeks, after I read of any bugs caused by the updates.

This is a royal pain. This isn't intended as Apple bashing, because I really do wonder how these huge bugs go undetected before leaving the developers.

Apple products are excellent, so why can't I say the same about system updates?

I hope they are aware of this problem and working on a fix.

update 3: when we got gone after our experience in Leeds we rang apple support and expressed our dismay, whoever we got at the other end of the phone was a godsend. We expressed our rights under consumer laws, (1 year warranty plus 2nd year courtesy fix) he contacted Leeds who in return gave two flimsy responses:

1) our original complaint was noted down as a a microphone issue hence not a speaker issue despite us insisting it was a speaker issue.

2) in their repair they did NOT leave the new speakers in as they did not fix the issue (this contradicts their stance in store where they stated they left the new speakers in)

to is it seemed like Leeds were trying to change the goal posts. The support rep said he would take a return and try another repair or replace the handset free off charge.

we agreed to this.

they repaired the phone and sent it back. It’s all working. So we asked what was the issue? He was vague: “it was moisture damage to a component”

we said: but it’s waterproof? Which component?

he couldn’t tell us.

so in summary: it’s now fixed, we don’t know what they did, it wasn’t what they’re saying (moisture damage because it’s waterproof), and the store in Leeds were simply unhelpful and in fact went out of their way to be unhelpful.

I’m having the exact same issue on my iPhone 8.. ever since installing an apple update.. I am kind of relieved reading this as I thought, “Am I losing my mind? ..Using the speaker on my phone, I can barely hear anything” ..I’m so sad that it’s actually an install, maybe apple is up to their old tricks!! I am keeping this phone until it dies apple! That’s what I do, buy great products, home, car (Audi) and keep them for a long time.. better on the environment! Please Apple, fix this serous issue.. Otherwise, I can promise you, I will switch over to Google, Samsung or just any one of your other competitors. I love Apple products and have always supported you guys.. PLEASE fix this issue. 🙏

#FirstWorldProbems

Sincerely,

Tina 🙂

Just an update. I bought a new iPhone (12 mini) and transferred my old phone to the new one and the volume problem still persisted. I called Apple and they had me do a back up of my iPhone to my computer and erase my new phone and then transfer the back up from my computer to phone (as opposed to phone to phone) and the volume problem was still there. I called apple again last week and spoke to a supervisor who said she is aware of this problem and the engineers at Apple are aware of the problem (where sometimes the volume on texts is quiet and other times it is 300x ear piercing loud) and that the problem is bc when you downloaded the new iOS, it may have gotten interrupted somehow (possibly with WiFi signal) and therefore it created a glitch so you can’t transfer your old phone to new phone without the glitch carrying over too. So I had to manually back up pictures and remember what apps I had and hope all the pictures on my phone were in iCloud and we wiped my old phone completely so it is in factory mode. So I redownloaded all my apps (I’m still dealing with picture space from iCloud so I don’t have any pictures on my phone yet..) and the text volume is still inconsistently quiet then extra loud. So at this point I don’t have a clue what to do. Maybe there is an app we all have downloaded as a common denominator that is causing this? It is literally brand new factory phone so I don’t know how I could still have this problem. But she said the engineers are aware of it but apparently there aren’t enough people with this problem or they don’t care about it. So I lost everything from my phone and still have to deal with this. At a certain point Apple needs to jump in this thread and say something. This isn’t in some obscure forum in the internet that they can ignore, we are literally on Apple’s official website..

update from me:

having been fobbed off by Leeds store and arguing and arguing after them saying it’s not a problem for them to fix, we contacted apple support and the guy was a godsend. He offered a repair or replacement, free of charge. We sent off the iPhone, and lo and behold, they repaired the phone.

my takeaways:

1) Leeds store were the worst support, they did everything in their power to silent us a fix under consumer warranty as they tried to state that our complaint wasn’t within 2 years (we originally reported the problem in September).

2) Leeds store stated they replaced the speakers and left those in, apple support stated that the Leeds repair notes show that they HAD NOT.

3) apple state the eventual fix was a “model repair” but declined to tell us what that was.

4) they tried to say it was “water damage to a component”. We stated it is water proof and it’s never ever been in water.

anyhow. We have a repaired phone. Apple won’t tell us what the repair is.

but I feel your pain!

This is truly unexpected of Apple :(

People buy its products for quality and ease-of-use. However, if it has decided to turn a deaf ear to this ongoing problem, then our faith stands shaken for good. Alas!

Is your phone still doing this? I got a new iPhone 12 and it still did it and the reset it to factory mode twice and still kept happening. They sent me another brand new phone and the volume still goes from soft to max and crackling noises. It only started after the new iOS but now I'm starting to wonder if it is an app that is causing this to happen. Is yours fixed?

The fact that Apple acknowledged it's engineers are aware of the issue is both hopeful and infuriating, especially after this length of time with such a glaring issue. My 18-month iphone XR has been experiencing low volume(approx 70% reduction) in it's headset earpiece only since IOS 14 update. I've been using my Apple Airpod Pros to communicate for personal and biz use ever since. My speaker and Airpods work great.

I couldn't take it anymore, hence, why I'm here adding my voice and vote to the issue. After reading everyone's issues, it seems pretty obvious it's a glitch in the software. Apple, if you're going to charge $1000+ for a smartphone, you have to provide more thoroughly-tested software prior to major releases and you need to listen to your customers and provide fixes for these types of major issues more quickly. It's a phone and we can't hear! Can you hear us Apple?