iPhone 12 Pro: Facetime / speakerphone microphone audio cuts in and out

Hello to all.

three iPhone 12 Pro (1 max) in my house and all of them have this issue. Making calls via speaker is just impossible as the other call party will not hear complete words from any of us. This has been tested on WhatsApp and FaceTime and with noise cancelling both disabled and enabled.

All the 12 series do it. So annoying. I’ve been dealing with Apple for months, I’ve had the back hardware repaired, I’ve had numerous calls with technical support. I’ve been to the Genius Bar 3 times and even had my phone replaced with a new one. I’m at a loss and stuck with this phone for the best 20 months. So frustrated because Apple is doing nothing about the issue

From the iOS15 announcement:

"With spatial audio, voices in a FaceTime call sound as if they are coming from where the person is positioned on the screen,1 and new microphone modes separate the user’s voice from background noise."

I'm wondering if this will help/fix the issue finally?

I have the same issue in my Iphone 12 Pro Max, sound quality during phone call is very bad with frequent sound disconnection recently even with or without using speackers or airpods, the sound quality in my Iphone 8plus is much better. I appreciate any help to solve this issue.

I am so fed up trying to get this sorted with Apple, I have been an iphone user for years and this is the only phone I have had issues with. We all pay a lot of money for our iPhones and its disgusting that we are being ignored , i may consider going to a new handset elsewhere and not apple.

YES!! recently upgraded as well, have tried a total Reset, a new SIM card which neither worked. Just received my replacement today from Verizon and have made one call so far and it was still doing it. Will continue to try it out for a couple more days before I call them again. I upgraded from the phoneX and NEVER had these issues. My son has the 11 Pro Max and he doesnt seem to have issues. Very annoyed

I've had the same exact issue. My parents and I all upgraded to the iphone 12 and within days of using them we all had issues on facetime and speakerphone with our audio cutting out. It seems that any time we talk over someone, or visa versa, the audio cuts out and the person on the other end asks us to repeat ourselves. Also if there is any other sound in the room it can trigger the cut out. I tested this for over a week, exchanged it for an iphone 11, and have had the exact same issue. Apparently this a known issue, the noise cancellation feature is actually cancelling out our own voices when using the speaker. I'm now returning the 11 as well, as is the rest of my family. I can't actually believe how many people haven't realized that their phones all have this issue, how Apple has blatantly refused to acknowledge it, and how all of us are being told we might have a faulty device, or we need to factory reset when literally none of those things matter because they can't solve this issue. Apple really needs to get it together, they can't pretend this isn't a HUGE issue and hope we don't notice.

You’re going to have the same exact problem on any of the 12 models and the 11 models. The SE and the XR are the only other two that don’t have this issue as I have two friends with both of those and never had that happen.

my audio cuts out on any mode the phone is on. I went through millions of troubleshooting things with Verizon, got a replacement phone and then was told by Verizon that Apple is aware of this issue and was trying to solve it through updates… guess what, I downloaded the most recent update and my phone still doesn’t work. I had an IPhone X before this and the only reason I updated was because my phone would overheat when on FaceTime. I conduct my work through my phone and this has really affected it. Where is my solution Apple??? You are aware of an issue, selling me a phone over $1000 for it to not properly FUNCTION as a phone.

[Edited by Moderator]

I too am having this problem with my iPhone 12pro. I upgraded with AT&T in May and thought I just got a lemon. When on FaceTime the other party said I was cutting out. I returned that phone and went back to my IPhone XS. I NEEDED a new phone because my battery life on the XS was so bad (I’m training for a ultra marathon and need a battery life for more then two hours). I went back and got another iPhone 12pro thinking surely I had gotten a lemon the first time. NOPE! I made a few FaceTime calls with zero issues, I then put a case (bought off Amazon) on it and BAM audio keeps cutting out. Took the case off and restarted it and it’s still cutting out. I honestly don’t know what to thinking anymore.

Same issue here. Audio cuts in and out whether I’m using speakerphone or holding the phone to my ear. My mom and I usually talk each day while multitasking, and we’ve found that unless we are both perfectly still and quiet, the audio is cutting out on both ends. The Phone Noise Cancellation was toggled on, and I read a thread that said to turn it off. We tried that, but it didn’t work either. Pretty annoying that this phone will not function as a PHONE.

Apple, please fix this! This family of loyal Apple consumers needs this to work!

Experiencing the same issue. Facetime is the only solution for me and my husband who is in the hospital. The phone would suddenly go mute/silent. I could not hear any background noise from the phone. I am only reading his lips on the phone to tell the nurses what he needs. He is on a vent so there is no voice coming from him unless he does his mouth clicking sounds. Which I do not hear anymore. So this renders the phone useless. Our old iphone does not do this. I have my old Iphone 6Plus going 24-7 facetime and it does not go mute unless i click the mute icon itself. Ambient noice from the hospital room even when I am not looking at him helps me know if he needs help.

Please fix the issue of the phone going mute. I only have the iphone 12 Pro 5 days and I just notice this issue yesterday. And it already happened twice in one day. For emergency this phone is rendered useless if you as a user cannot hear any background noise on the other end. Whatever situation it maybe this should not happen for such an advance phone.

Please help resolve the issue.

Thank you developers. My husband and I believe in you!

I’m sorry to hear this. I don’t understand how millions of people including Apple developers use these phones and all experience this and think that it’s okay? I’ll bet you a million bucks that the next iPhone continues to have this issue because it’s also an issue on the iPhone11 and they did nothing to resolve it when they made the iPhone 12. I would stay away from these phones if I were you. The iPhone SE doesn’t have this issue, it may be worth exchanging before your return window closes.

Well I have had 5 different iPhones throughout the years and this is the first phone that has had this problem. My current $1200.00+ iPhone 12 Pro with 256 gig memory has the dreaded issue of audio cutting out on the other end of the conversations when using speakerphone. I have tried all of the fixes to no avail. I wish I had my iPhone SE back. If Apple had any integrity they would fix this issue by re-designing the hardware and replace everybody’s phones. I just looked today and their market cap is 2.43 trillion dollars. I guess you get there by cutting a fat hog in the ***. Guess who the hogs are. Us consumers!

Glad it worked out for you. Unfortunately, that’s been tested all over this thread and I personally tested that as well, and it makes no difference case or no case because this issue is in the actual phone.