External mic not working with Apple Facebook app

I will keep using my iPhone to livestream my Mass to our Facebook page at my second church, relying on the internal microphone. It's a small church, so the sound quality is tolerable if I use a lavalier microphone (normally I don't bother with it). But for my main church, I'm switching to a Logitech C920 webcam and Focusrite Scarlett Solo audio interface. These gadgets will connect to my MBP, so I can livestream out to our new YouTube page at 1080p with XLR audio right from the mixer. The video will be better, and the audio a lot better, and it will avoid all the Facebook clutter. Because I'm using a computer instead of iPhone I won't need 1000 subscribers. Too bad I wasted money on the iPhone solution getting wires and connectors for two churches, but the end result will be a lot better than I originally planned. Now that I've spent the money, watch them fix the problem (ha). Wish me luck!

I have tried it, but it still doesn’t work.

the work around that I tried a couple of days ago does actually. With the free app iRig recorder.

check my other post on this issue.

with iRig recorder in record mode, I go to facebook, click on “live” and I can see that already my external connection works. I then started facebook live and indeed it worked.

I have also sent feedback about the issue to Facebook... good luck!!

I have, and it still doesn’t work. Please send a problem report in the Facebook app under “live“ so that they see that this is a problem and get reports from as many people as possible. As I mentioned elsewhere, I have tried this both with iOS 14.3 as well as 12.5.1 and the problem exists with both so the problem obviously is with the Facebook app and not with Apple.

The iRig recorder app worked for me! I don’t even have to start recording, I just have to open the app, then go to Facebook and start the live stream. The key is the Background Audio setting in the iRig app, which lets the app keep controlling the mic input even when it goes to the background.

I connected the interface then started iRig. I do have the “Background Audio” set to on in the settings tab, don’t know it that matters.

a small problem now is using a single channel interface(Zoom U-22) I’m only getting audio on the left channel. I can live with that for the moment.

Just tried the proposed workaround today and it works fine. I downloaded the iRig Recorder LE app (it's free on the App Store) and changed the default setting 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.

Then I went into Facebook and started a live stream and it picked up the external microphone. Thanks to the person who suggested this workaround.

I couldn't find the app in my iPhone but you can search for it and once it is running you will see the time in the top left hand side of your iphone screen change to have a red background which happens when the app is running.

I am on IOS 14.3 and using an iPhone 11 Pro Max and Rode microphones and a TASCAM mixing deck for recording.

Hurray! iRig worked flawlessly today, running in the background as has been well-described. Ran an hour long church service on Facebook Live without a hiccup. Using i11 Pro with 14.3, and Rode Go Wireless sending feed from mixer. Thank you thank you to the folks who told us about iRig.

Stream Labs was a major fail for us today. Maybe we had the resolution too high or something, but the lag between live and the stream was probably 10 seconds or more, which made it difficult to monitor. It totally locked up once (we had to restart) and froze frequently. I even was using the paid version that claims to have disconnection protection. We have decent WiFi in the church, so who knows. Can’t afford to give this software a second try.

I know this isn’t going to solve your issue but I can add we encountered something same with StreamLabs app today. The live video was lagging, plus, for some strange reason it didn’t recognize the external microphone despite the fact that I tried it on last Friday to make sure it works.

with all these suggestions here in this forum, it’s just clear to all of us that this whole thing is not an apple issue but rather something related to Facebook, and they don’t seem to bother! :(

I got it!!!

1 - start Live without microphones attached.

2 - plug in mic

3 - swipe down from top right corner to reveal settings

4 - in the audio settings box - tap the output symbol in the top right corner.

5 - select headphones.

6 - return to live

Here the video of my Live test. I put my external mic next to Alexa to pic up music.

https://www.facebook.com/1036238181/videos/10221615090500021/

I tried this and unfortunately for me using the same iPhone it did not work plugging in a corded lapel mike using Apple’s included lightning adapter with Facebook Live. It used to work fine. And this set up does work to dictate comment messages in Facebook, so I know the connection and the cords and the mic are all working properly. But with Facebook live, nothing. I even tried plugging the mic in after starting Facebook live with iRig running in the background. No luck.

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.

Hi MVB1430,

Yes, what I do, with the audio interface's output connected to the iPhone, is first open the iRig Recorder app, check the settings that under channel the stereo input is selected.

Then I closed the setting tab, started the record button.

Then I opened facebook and went live.

So while the iRig Recorder was recording, I started Facebook Live.

Just a minute ago, I set it up again, but skipped the step of starting the recording in iRig, then went Live on Facebook. It works that way too.

Good Luck!

Could you please walk me through on how to set up the iRig recorder app? I’m not sure I understand the order of steps to take, when to connect external mic, when to go live, what to set up in the iRig. If you could include screenshots that would also be handy! Thanks!!

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!