Apple’s ‘Call Failed’ Issue on iOS 18: A Serious Problem They’re Ignoring

I’ve been dealing with a persistent and frustrating “Call Failed” issue on my iPhone 11 ever since updating to iOS 18. Calls made in normal mode get disconnected with a call failed error, but strangely, they work perfectly in loudspeaker mode. Even more concerning, failed calls don’t show up in my call log—almost like they never happened.

At first, I assumed it was a network issue, but as the problem became more frequent, I contacted Apple Support in November 2024. Instead of acknowledging the issue, they acted as if they had never heard of it and made me go through all the basic troubleshooting steps—updating iOS, running diagnostics (including screen-sharing tests), and more. After all that, they confirmed my phone had no hardware issues.

Then came the real shocker: They told me to check with my network provider (Airtel), even though I was 100% sure it wasn’t a network issue. They insisted I raise a ticket with Airtel and get it resolved first—only then would they “look into it further.” So I did. Airtel resolved the ticket, but the issue remained.

When I went back to Apple Support in December 2024/January 2025, they repeated the same cycle of basic troubleshooting. This time, they claimed that because I was one update behind on iOS 18, that must be the reason for the issue. I told them I had been facing this problem since the very first version of iOS 18, but they wouldn’t escalate my case until I updated.

To prove my point, I started making calls in normal mode on purpose so that Apple could track how many calls failed. But instead of taking that seriously, they claimed their internal report showed 99% of my calls were “successful”—which, of course, was only because I had been using loudspeaker mode to avoid the issue.

After yet another long conversation, they finally escalated my case to the senior team. Their response? It’s a software glitch that happened during the iOS 18 update—and the only solution is to reset my phone to factory settings and restore everything from backup.

This is beyond frustrating. Why should I have to reset my entire phone just to fix an issue caused by an Apple software update? Apple needs to take responsibility and provide a proper fix instead of making users go through unnecessary steps.

This is Bigger Than I Thought – Why Is Apple Ignoring It?

The reason I’m posting about this now is that a workplace discussion forum recently had a post about the same call failed issue, and I was shocked by the number of people who are facing it. This is not an isolated problem. It seems to affect multiple older iPhone models running iOS 18, yet Apple continues to act as if this issue doesn’t exist.

At this point, I’ve given up and just use loudspeaker for most calls. But should I really have to? I don’t want to buy a new phone until mid-2025, but Apple’s lack of response is seriously making me rethink whether my next device should even be an iPhone.

Has anyone else faced this issue? How can we get Apple to finally take it seriously and provide a real fix?