FaceTime broken in Monterey

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Level 1

11 points

FaceTime broken in Monterey

Since upgrading to Monterey, FaceTime fails to make a connection unless I am using AirPods (or possibly some other device) as the output source. If I switch to Mac speakers during a call, it immediately fails, displaying a ! symbol on the receiving end - reconnecting to AirPods reestablishes the connection. Setting the system setting to AirPods works fine too. Using an external or internal mic does not cause a problem although the internal mic producers a lot of noise.

Machine in question is a 2021 iMac 27" - 3.6GHz i9, 40Gb RAM, AMD Radeon Pro 5700

Has anyone else seen this and know of a fix? The issue does seems to be popping up in a few places online. BTW, Zoom works fine, as always.

iMac 27″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Oct 31, 2021 4:37 AM

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Answer 1

MacITQLD Author

Level 1

11 points

Dec 14, 2021 11:05 PM in response to armcee

Looks like 12.1 fixed it - at least it did for me.

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Answer 2

egildred

Level 1

8 points

Nov 2, 2021 12:45 PM in response to karina184

I'm having the exact same issue since clean-installing Monterey on my iMac. FaceTime connection fails immediately whenever I try to answer or make a FaceTime call of any kind on my iMac. When people call my cellphone (normal cellular call) and I try to answer on my Mac, the FaceTime connection immediately fails. Same with video FaceTime calls. I tried signing out and back in; same issue persists. I've restarted and shutdown many times. It happens with any and all calls to any contact. Even though the calls fail to connect when I try to answer on my Mac, when I look at my phone, the call is still active and I can switch to my iPhone to continue if they haven't hung up yet in all the confusion.

I just tried using my AirPods (with my iMac) and testing again and FaceTime works fine when using AirPods.

I'm running:

macOS Monterey 12.0.1 (21A559)

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)

3.6 GHz 10-Core Intel Core i9

128 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB

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Answer 3

MacITQLD Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 9, 2021 4:32 AM in response to MacITQLD

So it seems the Bose Bluetooth speaker option doesn't fix it either. It will hold the connection for about 10 seconds and then drops it with "Call Failed" even though the connection was there if only briefly.

In a possibly related issue, I have, since I bought this iMac had to reset my Bluetooth module on average once a week. This is because either my Bluetooth Magic Keyboard would start to lag or my Magic Trackpad would not track smoothly. I could dod a factory reset by holding down option and Shift and selecting "Reset Bluetooth module" from the Bluetooth menu. This also does not work in Monterey - the menu only shows more detailed info on the connected devices. I haven't had to reset since installing Monterey (maybe they fixed it!) but if I do I now have to use Terminal or Activity Monitor or start messing around deleting pList entries. That's progress!

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Answer 4

TopAce77

Level 1

14 points

Dec 23, 2021 2:21 AM in response to MacITQLD

Same here on Mac mini M1 even after upgrading to 12.1. Worse thing is all FaceTime incoming calls fail to be answered even on my iPhone or iPad because of the FaceTime app crash on Mac mini. I eventually was forced to disable FaceTime on Mac mini which sorted the problem.

Whenever I tries to open FaceTime on Mac mini without an AirPods bluetooth connection Console shows errors as below. I suspect they failed to write proper exception codes when no AirPods bluetooth connection is available?

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Answer 5

Dec 30, 2021 6:27 AM in response to MacITQLD

I have the same problem with imac 2020 i7 16g 1t 5700xt , but the imac 2019 with vega48 is fined , is the 12.1 OS fix this problem ?

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Answer 6

Petehart

Level 1

8 points

Nov 2, 2021 1:08 PM in response to egildred

Hopefully Apple is working on this issue because it seems everyone with this issue has done a clean install and done everything support has asked us to do. If not, they should compensate us with new iMacs where FaceTime actually works properly and we don't get the call failed all the time.

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Answer 7

Petehart

Level 1

8 points

Nov 1, 2021 11:39 AM in response to karina184

That is exactly what has been happening to my iMac machine as well. I have a secondary monitor and use those speakers. When I switch to iMac speakers, all calls and FaceTime fails.

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Answer 8

armcee

Level 1

14 points

Nov 24, 2021 10:02 AM in response to karina184

same issue. FT works with my AirPods but crashes with using built in speakers. Why did I upgrade and install Monterey? Why don't I ever learn? I should wait 6 months before updating the OS.

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Answer 9

karina184

Community Specialist

Nov 1, 2021 8:59 AM in response to MacITQLD

Hi MacITQLD,

Thank you for posting in Apple Support Communities. From our understanding, when using your Mac's internal speakers and mic, your FaceTime calls will not connect, is that right? Does this happen with multiple contacts or a specific one? Since noticing this issue, has the FaceTime app been closed out completely and your Mac restarted? We see that you came from this article : If FaceTime isn't working on your Mac. Were you able to complete those steps?

You can test this in another user to see if the same thing occurs. This will help isolate the issue a bit more.

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Let us know!

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Answer 10

MacITQLD Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 6, 2021 6:48 PM in response to karina184

Ive been through an online support chat and we tried resetting most things, including the PRAM. Finally did a complete reinstall of Monterey overnight. Next day - no change. The only way I can do a FT call from my iMac now is either to use AirPods or connect a Bose Bluetooth speaker and send the audio out through that.

Seeing as others have now reported the same problem, I'm guessing it's not unique to my set up. It also never happened until I installed Monterey. So the ball is well and truly in Apple's court to find this now. I already burned about 6 hours of time.

BTW, Apple support - when trying to fault find a FaceTime issue, don't bother suggesting we start up in safe mode, because the FT camera does not even work in safe mode.

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FaceTime broken in Monterey

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