External mic not working with Apple Facebook app

I've been trying all kinds of crap since last week when my mic quit working....cables, settings, deleting apps and reinstalling...all to no avail! I just tried plugging in the mic after going LIVE and it worked! Thanks for the hack, hopefully it'll be fixed.

All you have to do is as soon as you start the FaceBookLive plug in the rode mic. Your iPhone will recognize a device is plugged in and theN it will work instantly. Trust me on this one. I did it today.

I was able to connect to the external sound source (mixer thru Rode Wireless Go) by using Prism Live downloaded onto my iPhone 11. It adds several additional steps, but gets you to - and basically provides the same result as - Facebook Live. Some of the functions don’t show up until you are “ready” to go live (such as selecting the audience to post to or finding the page you want if you have more than one). However, I am reluctant to try this for an actual church service, so in the meantime, we are just going to use our old iPhone SE (worked yesterday) until Facebook fixes this problem. It has to be a software problem somewhere between Apple and Facebook.

I was having the same problem with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface, Facebook live would not recognize it. I tried plugging it in after I started live and it worked. Hopefully Apple and Facebook can get this figured out because that is a really annoying glitch that affects the professionalism of the content that users are creating. The only indicator that I have been able to verify that it was working is a slight crackle in the headphones once the app recognizes the audio interface.

Indeed. The Prism Live app works great. In fact I will no longer be using Facebook app directly for Live Stream even if they fix it. Used Prism twice this weekend and no issues. So thankful that it works.

I think I found a work around for streaming to pages. I just recorded a live for my church through the Facebook page manager app and it picked up my Shure MV88+ and it worked perfectly. I just turned off automatic updates for my phone so they don’t mess it up.

Did you ensure that you changed the default setting in iRig for Background Audio from "off" to "on" (it's in the settings on your profile (top right) rather than the settings for the recording itself). You just need to have this app open (no need to start any actual recordings) and running in the background which forces the phone to use the external input.

If you don't do the above then using the iRig app won't fix the FB live problem.

Connect your external microphone to the iPhone. Then open the iRig Recorder App, in the settings check “channel” to “stereo”

Now close this tab, and from the menu ( upright) choose settings and have “background audio” to “ON”

Close the tab, open Facebook live and go live...

Good luck!

Yes. Download iRig Recorder. Free app. You have to enable “background audio” then keep it running in the background. Go back thru this string and you will see lots of discussion of this workaround. Also Prism Live works to connect you to FBLive but it’s more steps.

I have no dog in this either, but have found iRig very easy to get the app and configure (background audio on). To run it you just open before starting FBLive and minimize in background. I have run multiple tests and 3 weeks of outdoor church services with it without a hiccup.

The problem started AFTER the IOS updates, first in November (it was intermittent) then, after the last two updates it stopped working altogether.

I took the advice of the one person suggesting the iRIG Recorder App. I have to wait until "Live" starts then connect the audio into the phone and audio is then perfect. I use the iRIG pro I/O to connect to my phone.

My many thanks to the person who suggested the App!!!

None of the above solutions helped me. I’m using an iphone x. Anyway I tried a third party app called Prism Live Studio and it all works perfectly with an external mic. In my case that’s a Rode Wireless Go.

Yeah. Me to. Still have to plug in after stream has gone live. iPad Air 1 and iPhone 8 Plus. That’s with both iRIG 2 and rode SC4. Thanks again tho. The hack is working. So can’t complain. I normally used OBS inti restream. But this iRIG rode way is a nice simple way of streaming. Especially to public pages. All other platforms require subscriptions to stream to public group pages. The free versions are limited. So the basic iRIG / rode method is great. And decent sound to. So thanks again.

Agreed, it’s still finicky, have to start Facebook (not the stream) then plug in the microphone, then start the Live stream. In one test I made, it didn’t work if the plug-in was plugged prior to opening Facebook.

In my case I had to plug the microphone after starting Facebook but Live can be started anytime afterwards. Plugin in the microphone before starting Facebook didn’t work. Still a big improvement. IPhone 12.