External mic not working with Apple Facebook app

I used this same procedure yesterday streaming a Sunday school lesson and it worked great. Thanks to all for the iRig info.

Here is a link to the lesson as recorded using procedure above.

(Using Rode Wireless GO)

https://fb.watch/35yGMTDPiN/

You will hear some scratchy sounds because I had the mic in the lapel pocket on the teacher's jacket and the coarseness of th material was being picked up. In hindsight, I think I will use a lab plugged into the Rode Go transmitter. The lab you see in the video is the classroom wireless mic he was also using.

I just tested within my private Facebook group and the audio is working while using my external mic for Live broadcasts.

I'm guessing Facebook may have updated the app. I have automatic updates so I can't say for sure (I don't always notice an update.)

Either way I'm super stoked this has been resolved. You might need to update your app. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this is a permanent fix!

If anyone wants to take a mobility class, this was my broadcast today with good audio! 🎤😁It's currently uploading/processing to YouTube, might take a few minutes. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions on how to troubleshoot.

Michaelwhyte1, you need to go back through the string and see prior posts. The best workaround is IRig Recorder, a free app. You need to choose setting for run in the background, start the app and let it run in the background when you start Facebook Live. Right now it is the only thing that works other than running thru Prism Live.

I have same issue with audio. For the video part before you start to video on FB Live go to Live while in the vertical position. When the video screen come on turn phone horizontal and then you can touch the start live video button and then it should record correctly. hope that helps with the video part,

Assuming you are using a recent iPhone, The best workaround (IMO) is to download and use iRig Recorder. Its a free app. All you need to do is to go to the app's Settings and turn on Background Audio. When you want to go live on FB Live, open iRig, then just go ahead with FBLive, leaving iRig running in the background (don't close it). You do not have to start the Recorder on iRig. I made sure my external audio was going (in my case a Rode Wireless Go connected to mixer), then started iRig then FBLive. You just proceed with FBLive as usual. You dont need to do anything else with iRig. Good luck.

I can confirm that the iRig workaround is actually working. I tried it several times. But there's one important thing: The Background Audio must have been turned on LAST time you used the iRig, i.e. the first time you need to start the iRig, turn the Background Audio on, close the iRig and then start it again. The following times you only have to start iRig once because the Background Audio was turned on last time you used iRig.

When you minimize the iRig you can see that the Background Audio is active if the microphone dot is visible in the upper right corner and the time with red background in the upper left corner (at least on my iPhone 12).

Good luck!

OK, this time I was able to get it to work! As you say, I started iRig, enabled Background Audio, closed iRig, and then restarted it. Next I began the livestream, and then plugged in the external mic. I did see an orange microphone dot and red time.

I'm still gonna try using my webcam and audio interface to livestream to YouTube this weekend, to see if it's better over all, but it's nice to have a working backup solution. I expect the video to be worse (the iPhone 12 mini has a better camera than my webcam even though YouTube permits 1080p), but the audio to be more clear with the XLR connection from the mixer.

Thanks to the one who discovered iRig! And to Peter for telling us to start, close and restart iRig!

I tested livestreaming the Mass on YouTube, and it turns out that Facebook is better! 1) 720p on Facebook through the great iPhone 12 Mini camera is better than 1080p on YouTube through the Logitech 920. 2) It could be because my MBP is eight years old, but the video is jerky like a 1920s movie and out of sync with the audio. 3) With the right audio setup, Facebook is only a little noisier than using an audio interface. As you know, it's again possible (for now anyway) to use an external mic (i.e. mixer) with Facebook if you also setup the iRig app. 4) Better zoom control with the iPhone. 5) It's hard to find previously recorded livestreams on YouTube, you really need to know where to look. 6) Scheduling livestreams in advance thinking they will start automatically doesn't work.

Bottom line: we'll move back to Facebook! Gosh, what a lot of time and expense trying to get a good solution. I don't relish killing my iPhone battery livestreaming, but it's certainly worth it for my people. What I would LIKE would be livestreaming from my iPhone right to our webpage, but I'm not quite smart enough for that. Maybe I'll check with the archdiocese tech team to see if they know how.

As to saving your iPhone battery, try the Belkin 3.5mm Audio+Charge Rockstar. (Got one on Amazon.) Splits the lightning cable to headphone jack plus lightning jack for charging, so you can charge while using the external mic function. Don't get the cheap splitters. You need to make sure the splitter supports both playback and mic function on the headphone side. The Belkin does.

This may be off topic to the rest of the thread, so sorry about that. But to your webpage comment: I am No expert. And your platform might be different. Wordpress has a plug-in or whatever they are called that I installed on our site. www.StAlphonsusNO.com/Facebook.

regarding IRig, I didn’t have success sadly. But I’ll try it again. There may have been another option I need to check. It was weird cause it worked but then stopped working. Or I did work but the volume was as super low. Not sure.

I’ve started with prism. I like the graphics component. Adds a nice touch. It does stream to pages. I know some people said it didn’t. Only downside thus far is that while you can see comments, you can reply to them unless you have a separate device which is probably better anyways so you aren’t tapping away and moving your phone.

one final note: seemed last night lots of iPhone users were logged off of FB. Happened to me. One article said it seemed only to be iPhone users. But who knows.

I have the same problem! The hack to start Facebook Live first and then after 7sec connect the external mic worked in December 2020, but since beginning of 2021 it doesn’t work anymore! Sort this out ASAP Apple!!!!!

I tried a bunch of these tests yesterday, only about 30 seconds or so each. After about 20 tests I started getting error messages that the connection was lost due to poor wifi. I tested another Facebook account and livestream worked fine on it. So it’s not the wifi. Tried again this morning and still can’t livestream. I assume Facebook kicked me out for too many attempts. Anyone else experience this?

I ran a one hour church service today on Facebook Live. Used an iPhone 11 Pro with Rode Wireless Go connected to our mixer. Used iRig Recorder running in the background (start then minimize then go to FBLive). Worked flawlessly. Video is posted at fbccambria.org if you want to see the result.

Hi,

I too had exactly the same issue where as I had to plug-in the audio interface after going live, but now this has also stopped working. iOS and Facebook apps are completely up-to-date, but the iPhone will not pick up the audio interface (tried iPhone 6S, 7, 9 and 11 Pro Max), however it does work on an iPad. Has anybody had the same issue – is there a fix for this?

much appreciated!