iPhone 12 Pro - Voice breaking up on calls

Settings < Cellular < Cellular Data Options < Voice & Data.

From there you can see that your phone is on 5G Auto, trying to switch to 5G during a phone call which makes our voice breaks up. I switched it to 5G On and since then I had no issue. Still can’t believe that apple is completely oblivious to this. Hope you read this and test it out yourself.

I’ve got same issue with iPhone 12 Pro & contacted Apple several times. Changes sim 3 times, even tried a different network sim and the problem persists. Finally Apple has admitted that iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro devices may experience sound issues due to a component that might fail on the receiver module. Affected devices were manufactured between October 2020 and April 2021. iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Service Programme for No Sound Issues - Apple Support

So far so good… this afternoon I tried something that one of the posts here suggested… during a call (that was breaking up for the person on the other end) changing the network from one option to the other. In my area the options are LTE and 3G. A note on LTE said that it improves voice quality, and indeed, the person receiving my call said that my lower voice tones were a bit fuzzy in 3G. But there was no breaking up! I then switched back to LTE and the voice quality returned to good. Then I called another friend and talked for 15 minutes with no breaking up at all. What a relief!!! And later in the evening the call to my elderly Mom was delightfully clear for her after months of struggling to figure out what I’m saying through a very spotty transmission. For months, my calls to her have always started deceptively clear with my transmission beginning to break up about a minute into the call and getting worse from there. 

After reading everyone’s experiences on this forum, I was sure I’d have to switch to Samsung. So I’m SUPER RELIEVED to have found a solution on my iPhone 10 S that allows me to stay with Apple iOS devices. I’m not good with new learning curves!

So the recipe for this hack is simple:

within a call that is breaking up, go to 

Settings > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data > switch from the option that’s checked to the other one. If this causes your call to be dropped, just call back. I switched back during this call and the call wasn’t dropped. 

My husband and I both have the iPhone12 and both have issues with people saying we are distorted on phone calls. Apple's help documents to try FaceTime doesn't really help when you are talking to someone on a landline. Sheesh. We have to use Wi-fi calling at home because our house is in a weird valley in our neighborhood and the call quality sucks even more. And it is not the Wifi signal. We are 200 mbps up/30 mbps down with our business internet. The only fix I've found so far is restarting my phone each and every time before I make a call. If someone calls me, I have to ask to call them back, restart my phone, and then return the call.

Apple, please fix this software issue. It is not the carriers since everyone in this thread has a different one.

So far so good… yesterday afternoon I tried something that one of the posts here suggested… during a call (that was breaking up for the person on the other end) changing the network from one option to the other. In my area the options are LTE and 3G. A note on LTE said that it improves voice quality, and indeed, the person receiving my call said that my lower voice tones were a bit fuzzy in 3G. But there was no breaking up! I then switched back to LTE and the voice quality returned to good. Then I called another friend and talked for 15 minutes with no breaking up at all. What a relief!!! And later in the evening the call to my elderly Mom was delightfully clear for her after months of struggling to figure out what I’m saying through a very spotty transmission. For months, my calls to her have always started deceptively clear with my transmission beginning to break up about a minute into the call and getting worse from there.

After reading everyone’s experiences on this forum, I was sure I’d have to switch to Samsung. So I’m SUPER RELIEVED to have found a solution on my iPhone 10 S that allows me to stay with Apple iOS devices. I’m not good with new learning curves!

So the recipe for this hack is simple:

within a call that is breaking up, go to

Settings > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data > switch from the option that’s checked to the other one. If this causes your call to be dropped, just call back. I switched back during this call and the call wasn’t dropped.

I’ve had four perfect calls now - So far so good.

i hope everyone who has this problem tries this and that it works for them, and stays working!

Since this page is getting a little bit long, i’d like to try to at least keep track of some of the solutions, possibly put them in one place so that someone can have a quick work around or fix, I’m not excusing the fact that there is a problem, but it might help somebody to show some workarounds or possible solutions.

work arounds to try until Apple or somebody finally figures this thing out. These are only meant as short-term fixes as in you’re working from home and you don’t have time to reset your phone today from scratch using your computer.

1. One person noted that if they used their earbuds that seemed to clear it up. (Personal on other end can hear you clearly).
2. another workaround that I have used and it works so far is to enable Wi-Fi calling on my iPad (Once enabled you can make calls using the FaceTime app, you just hit audio call symbol instead of the FaceTime symbol shown under peoples info).

possible fixes

1. One person mentioned that if you do an entire update using your computer instead of doing it over the phone to the latest iOS it is supposedly more complete and they said it seemed to be working for them, this would possibly be a fix if there was something corrupted in the iOS.
2. Another person mentioned getting a new Sim card from your carrier, many of us seem to be on AT&T and Verizon might be worth a try if nothing else works?

sorry if I missed any but I I did a quick read of all four pages.

thanks for any updates or other fixes or workarounds.

Same issue, other party says I'm breaking up. Per previous posts I had my SIM card replaced and that appears to have corrected the problem. Go figure.

Having the same issue. I tried making a voice memo, and it sounds very garbbled (likely what people are hearing on the other end), but when I record a video, the sound is fine! This leads me to believe that it's not a network issue (b/c voice memo has nothing to do with the network) or a physical mic issue (since it can pick up sound from the camera app and sometimes during calls). Not sure, what's in between the physical mic and the auditory output, but thinking it's something in the middle of those.

When I compare it to human anatomy, it's a bit like the ear is fine and the brain can receive and interpret sound, but something is happening within the 'ear canal' where the sound isn't getting to the brain, so the brain outputs garbage sound. Hope that helps someone get a solution. Going to apple this week, will follow up if I get any new info.

Yes same problem. Almost sounds like popping so I’m missing every other word and so is person on other end. Had this with my iPhone 11 and now with my 13 so it’s not the phone. It’s not my AirPods bc it happens without them and in car.

I wondered if there was an app causing interference maybe. Not sure how to test that.

I’m going to try switching from 5G auto to 5G all suggested above.

the only thing that helps at all for me when this happens during a call: I open keyboard and press a couple numbers and then press volume up and down a few times and the popping stops. It may return in the same call again but this makes it stop at least temporarily.

stop gap but not a solution!!

If it persists contact your Carrier (Cellular Service Provider), the agency that issued the SIM / eSIM to you.

I seem to have this problem more often I’m using the speaker, don’t know if anybody else feels that way? I was also talking to a friend who experienced this with his wife on his 13 promax mine is a 12 promax. I was recently on a call and When someone told me that it was breaking up on speaker, I switched over to iPhone and they could immediately hear me. My friend with the iPhone 13 said that him and his wife had the same problem he was on speaker and switched over to regular iPhone and the problem went away, so I don’t know if it’s 100% isolated to speaker as one person above said it happened to them on In different modes, but in my case it seems to always happen in speaker of course I talk on speaker the most frequently. I don’t have an Apple Store near me in my town so I would have to take it to another repair shop but it might be worth it if they could fix it in a similar way as They did a person above.

They physically cleaned my speakers and mic area ( I'm assuming with air guns and microfiber cloths or something) and I think they did some software cleanup, but no factory reset.

I’m so jealous!! So maybe reseating the SIM card? It’s so ridiculous that this is only happening to a percentage of us, so they don’t take it seriously.

I have recently upgraded to 13 pro from XR and facing the same issue that other person could not hear me properly.

Based on the analysis I have observed that this issue happens if there is any disturbance on other person's side. For testing purpose I have asked other person to mute and hear me then there is no issue. Other person can clearly hear what I am talking when muted.

And this is happening to all iPhones after iPhone 11 pro.

Not sure if Apple is aware of this issue.

Follow up: I called Verizon and they were useless. Then I went to the apple store and explained my problem. They took my phone in the back. They cleaned it, tried a few tests (not sure what), took out the SIM card and put in another phone to see if they could recreate it. They said they didn’t see any issues. Miraculously though whatever they did solved the problem! This was months ago (Dedham, MA) I waited a few months to report back bc I wanted to be sure.