External mic not working with Apple Facebook app

Yes I’m using 11 Pro Max and 14.3 and I tried the test just using the rear camera and doesn’t work at all. This is frustrating because with our limited resources, we are broadcasting our church services to our Facebook live group page and I was hooking an extra mic with a 10 foot cable to the microphone on the podium and it worked beautifully and you could hear everybody but the last service we had it was obvious that the audio was only being picked up by the distant iPhone microphone. And I’m on 14.3 and the latest Facebook app.

The interesting thing is the external mic will work with dictating to Facebook to write a message for example, but no matter whether I try to plug it in before or after the start of a Facebook live video, front camera or rear camera, it doesn’t matter. The external mic doesn’t work. And it used to.

OK one more test. I remembered that I have access to an iPhone 6 with a standard headphone jack. I did the test with that and it did not work, and that iPhone just got updated today to 12.5.1, so the problem is obviously not with 14.3, but is definitely a problem with Facebook. Hopefully if everyone will report this problem Facebook will fix it.

same issue and the mic connected after going live stopped to work as well. Even the sound quality of the “original” phone is bad, and there’s nothing to fix about it? Clearly not an apple issue as the mic works fine in other video apps but not with Facebook... don’t know what to do, I have an android phone but I don’t find that to be reliable as the battery may drain or... it’s android after all...?!

Wrote to Facebook again:

maybe if more of us here would copy and paste this as their review, Facebook would make changes in this direction!! (To do so, click on the three dots at the top right corner of the screen on the video with the poor sound quality and click Something went wrong and paste this text below! If more of us will do so the higher the chance is they fix it!!!

“Since the last update Facebook live does not recognize the external microphone connected to the phone. Previously the phone connected to the external microphone if it was connected at the beginning of the live stream but lately this does not work anymore. Reached out to Apple tech support but as video recording with external microphone works fine in other apple apps, they suggested to reach out to fb instead. In this time of pandemic it is essential for people to be able to connect to others and if Facebook does not make improvements in this then it doesn’t serve the community which has been of outstanding importance these months...”

I gave up hope for Facebook fixing this problem with the ios app, so I bought "Mevo Smart" and yesterday was able to easily life stream our church service using an external microphone! Wow, I'm happy with this!

You’ll need to give the Prism app permission to post to you group. You’ll find it in your facebook group page: settings - apps → search for Prism and add it to apps. You won’t get that error next time you try to broadcast live through Prism

iPhone XS, iOS 14.3, Been on Facebook live using iRig Pro Duo as interface. That way I’ve been doing livemusic performances since May 2020.

Since yesterday I have this problem.

in the following link IK Multimedia offered a work around using a free app.

immediately tried it and it worked,

The app, iRig Recorder, running on the background in record mode, then starting Facebook Live worked for me

Here’s the solution from IK Multimedia https://www.ikmultimedia.com/faq/?id=1272

I used to have to plug in the external mic after starting FB Live, or the mic wouldn’t work. But for the past two days, the external mic won’t work no matter what. I got a new mic this morning, and my iOS updated last night to 14.3, and it still won’t work. I tried with a brand-new iPhone 12 and with a 7 Plus. An external mic definitely won’t work no matter what.

same issue here! Try Streamlabs app, it’s free and it recognizes external microphones, and you can live stream in landscape as well! For me, with the regular Facebook app, a landscaped video live stream was also a struggle: the picture appeared sideways no matter what I did!

Please go into Facebook on your iPhone, and under report a problem, choose “live“ and report this issue. I reported it twice, even with the new version of Facebook that just came out yesterday. I’m sure there are thousands of people that use a lapel mic when doing their Facebook live presentations, and the problem is obviously with the Facebook app, and not iOS. I say this because I also tested this with my mother-in-law‘s iPhone 6, which has been updated to 12.5.1 3 days ago, and yet my external mic used to always work with my iPhone 11 Pro Max with iOS 13 and I believe with the first version of iOS 14. If everyone having this issue reports it to Facebook, they should get on it and fix it.

This doesn't work if you're using a private Facebook group for the live broadcast. I've tried both apps that were suggested and I can't get either one to work with my private Facebook group. It says I don't have permission, even though I'm the only admin in the group.

Liquido19 wrote:

same issue here! Try Streamlabs app, it’s free and it recognizes external microphones, and you can live stream in landscape as well! For me, with the regular Facebook app, a landscaped video live stream was also a struggle: the picture appeared sideways no matter what I did!

Marsmelody,

Can you explain what you mean by "running in the background in the record mode"? The IK Multimedia link you provided doesn't mention the Record mode in discussing the work around. I ran a test on FB Live with iRig recorder app open in the background, and the external mic did not pick up. Do I need to start the iRig Recorder function and then start FB Live? Thanks for any further explanation.

Streamlabs seems to be lagging a little with the video and it cut off the last couple of seconds of the livestream. Anyone else experienced this? I have the wifi router a little farther from the phone, maybe I’ll install a wifi repeater.

There are more people trying to solve this than those who work at Apple / Facebook.

I’ve decided to pre-record my videos and that’s it.

I have a Samsung phone as well. It works with wireless go. BUT the video sometimes stops during live so *****. So I gave up. I can tell: it’s much better now. I’ll just wait...

[Edited by Moderator]