iPhone 7 microphone not working... can't record voice memos, can't make calls, no audio on videos
Hi, I've perused the support forums quite a bit and almost every answer to the "microphones aren't working" question usually assumes people just can't hear you, or there is no audio showing up on a voice memo and so on. What's happening for me is the following:
- In Voice Memos, when I press the red record button, nothing happens. It does a visual response, but nothing starts to record. Nothing happens. No recording function occurs and no file is created.
- When I make a video, there is no audio. The sound icon is greyed out. Clicking on the sound icon doesn't turn sound on. Nothing happens. But I can make video and take photos. Just no sound.
- I can place a call, but it fails within a few seconds. The speakerphone icon is white, as if I had turned on my speakerphone. I cannot turn the speakerphone off. Again, the call fails within a few seconds and people on the other end of the line do get my call, but they hear nothing and then the call is over.
- People can call me, but if I answer they don't hear me. They can leave messages.
A few other things that are a bit weird:
- It's really hard to get my iPhone (using iOS 13.2.2) to show up in iTunes 12.8.2.3 (and I'm using MacOS 10.12.6 on a late 2013 27" i7 iMac... I know, but there are some business reasons I cannot upgrade at the moment). Admittedly I think I've had cord issues and it's really easy for me to knock the cord and any connection to my iMac gets disconnected. But if I play around with the cord (and I've done this with several cords), I can usually get it to connect so I can backup and sync.
- I've noticed that when I'm connected to WiFi, in my settings it says WiFi is "OFF", even though if I click on WiFi, I'm definitely connected and can connect to other WiFi networks. I've tested this by turning Cellular Data "OFF" and the WiFi is indeed working... even though the main Settings screen says it isn't. Weird, eh?
- In trying to remember when this all started, I can't figure out a single thing I did that might have changed something with my iPhone or harmed it, other than I recently dropped it pretty good (although it has an Otter case), and I did buy a USB hub that has two recharging jacks that definitely recharge my iPhone much faster than my non-powered one did.
I've read that a restore or some kind of reset might help. Or maybe upgrading to iOS 14 or 15 might fix it. But I don't want to go through all that (I heard it can take hours and even days for everything to get back to normal) if someone can already tell from my symptoms that the issue is the mic hardware is toast, or something else. The fact that the connection itself is finicky, and now I don't have microphone (which I believe is right next to the lightning jack input), makes me wonder if there is indeed physical damage, even though I can still sync and connect the iPhone to recharge and everything.
iPhone 7, iOS 13
