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When use my Mac to call a landline/cellphone number through my iPhone, the call is outgoing properly on the iPhone, but on Mac the error "Call Failed" appears in the top right corner. The error can be closed and the call still continues on the iPhone. So this error is not impacting the call feature as such, but it's annoying.
Any Ideas how to solve this? Big Sur 11.2.3 / iOS 14.4
Thanks in advance!
Mac mini, macOS 11.2
Hello Brittany and all,
Eventually I could find a root cause of this error. The "Call ... Using iPhone" feature relies on an audio device with a microphone on Mac.
Once a call is initiated from the Mac, the iPhone loops back all audio to the Mac, which seems to be logical to ensure that control over the call is kept on the Mac where it was initiated.
Not all Macs have built-in microphones, however, and this "gap" is neither handled in MacOS 11.2.3 nor in iOS 14.4.1
When the Mac has no mic connected, it detects that "something" must be wrong with the audio routing and the not-meaningful error message "Call Failed" is raised. The Mac then disconnects from the phone, but the phone does not disconnect from the Mac and does not hang up, keeping the call ongoing with no audio until it is terminated on the phone.
Since this is also a concern from a privacy perspective (phone not in reach + invisible call ongoing), I hope that somebody from the developer team will find this article and implement a bugfix soon. Thanks for reading & have a great day.
Hello Brittany and all,
Eventually I could find a root cause of this error. The "Call ... Using iPhone" feature relies on an audio device with a microphone on Mac.
Once a call is initiated from the Mac, the iPhone loops back all audio to the Mac, which seems to be logical to ensure that control over the call is kept on the Mac where it was initiated.
Not all Macs have built-in microphones, however, and this "gap" is neither handled in MacOS 11.2.3 nor in iOS 14.4.1
When the Mac has no mic connected, it detects that "something" must be wrong with the audio routing and the not-meaningful error message "Call Failed" is raised. The Mac then disconnects from the phone, but the phone does not disconnect from the Mac and does not hang up, keeping the call ongoing with no audio until it is terminated on the phone.
Since this is also a concern from a privacy perspective (phone not in reach + invisible call ongoing), I hope that somebody from the developer team will find this article and implement a bugfix soon. Thanks for reading & have a great day.
Hello Eprom1,
It sounds like you're having some trouble making calls on your Mac, and we'd like to help.
Does this happen with all numbers you try to call, or only certain ones?
Just to make sure we're on the same page, are you using the steps outlined under the "Make a call on your Mac" part of the following page? Make and receive calls on your Mac, iPad, or iPod touch
This page also has some great information on how to allow calls on your Mac: Allow phone calls on your iPad, iPod touch, and Mac
Thanks!
Dear Brittany,
Thank You for picking this up. Yes, the above settings have been validated and were in place already as the error occurred.
In the mean time, I did the following changes and it seems that one or more of them solved the issue:
The call issues are solved now. But I cannot tell which of these steps was contributing the solution. If I encounter the same issue again, I will follow up here. Thanks again for Your support!
Eprom1,
Thanks so much for following up with us. We're so glad to hear the issue has been resolved.
If the issue returns, please get back in touch.
Have a great day!
Call Failed Error on Mac, using iPhone for Cellphone Call
