Q: iPhone 4S - Outgoing call no audio

I'm having the same problem on my iPhone 4, i've had it for over a year now and the problem started when I installed iOS 5, so I guess it's a software problem since my iphone was working perfectly before the upgrade. Let's just hope Apple gets it together for the next upgrade.

Bottom line they need to admit it's a fault and offer free replacements to anyone suffering this issue. Like they were forced to do with the antenna on the 4. Taking advantage of the fact that Apple fans are loyal to the brand only goes so far as I for one am grtting fed up with reading that they're still not owning up to this issue - unless the customer has found this forum or read the CNN coverage. Fair enough there's a fault, but just don't try to screw your own customers as loyalty is built through quality and trust... And I'm having second thought on both!

I wasted my time talking to Apple (first Victor and then her manager Michell). Michell connected to the AT&T guy and left. She said it can't be the phone's problem and must be AT&T's problem. The AT&T guy doesn't have any clue and is wasting my time.

What's your advice? This is my 3rd phone (iPhone 4s 16GB Black) replaced by genius bar. Should I go to genius bar and try to replace again? 

I would, and I'd also ask for compensation for having to returned a reaplacements replacement... Maybe if we all asked for an iPod shuffle they'd soon get the picture?

Keep getting a replacement until you get one that works.  Go in armed with some of the media articles mentioned in this forum.

My replacement has been working and it has been over 24 hours... So far so good will continue to update.  Again I also notice raise to speak improvements and calls generally seem to connect quicker (although this could be my imagination)

So I went to visit the Genius Bar this morning and was prepared to argue with any Apple employee in order to get a new phone. I told the guy that I had issues with outgoing calls having no audio. I explained that if I immediately called back the audio would work, or if I toggled speakerphone on and off the audio would work. He asked me if I had backed up my phone, and I told him I did, and that I've tried a factory restore and still experienced the same problem. After that he said, "okay well let's get you a new phone". I did not have to mention this long thread or articles posted by cnn, cnet, gizmodo. He did not even attempt to make a phone call with my phone.

As he was finishing up the process in the back, I overheard another customer next to me being helped. He was having reception issues with his new iPhone 3GS. All he mentioned was "reception" but the Apple employee that was helping him was quick to ask if he had problems not hearing other people when making phone calls. It leads me to believe that there may be an issue with the new 3GS units as well, but more importantly, that Apple employees are aware of this issue but not openly admitting it. The customer, however, said that people on the other line couldn NOT hear him, but he could hear them.

So far my new unit seems to be working find. I've had no issues yet and I'm currently doing a restore from iCloud. I will continue to do a lot of testing to make sure I have a good working unit. The guy that helped me was very polite and helpful. He mentioned that I did have a 1 year warranty and I could go back and replace my phone as many times as I needed to until I get a working unit. He told me that he was quick to replace the unit for me because it seemed like I had a legitimate issue and that I actually tried to do my own troubleshooting. He told me that sometimes he gets customers that try to get new phones because they get liquid in their phones and claim it's the phone itself. I will be going back to him if I have anymore problems.

Good luck to anyone else that has this problem. Don't take no for an answer, IMO. If they deny you, go back and talk to someone else. Prior to today's visit with the Apple store, I was at a different one last Saturday and the guy actually took my phone to the back to "test it out". After 5 minutes, he came back and said my volume wasn't turned up all the way. I was thinking, wow you must think I'm dumb or something. I don't need my volume full blast. I had the volume at the level on purpose. Then he said I should reboot my phone to clear up memory, and then he said it was a software issue lol. So I left but I'm glad I went to a different Apple store and talked to someone else. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, it really depends on who you talk to. Some will give you a hard time, some won't. I hate to hear paying customers being denied a replacement after having issues with their phones. Just be ready to back up your argument.

This is really the truth, it's entirely a matter of which employee you talk to and the manager of the store's perspective. Are they trying to game you or trying to help you? It probably depends a lot on their numbers, their regional manager, and their style. Everybody has a different experience with the genius bar employees. There's no way knowing going in if you're going to have to fight or not. Just come armed and ready, and if you don't have to argue or press them, then you can be happilly suprised!

My experience today ranks at about neutral. They handled my problem. Just at some point after receiving my 1st faulty replacement, they tried to game me a little while getting me to wait and go through the process again as a new customer even though I hadn't left the store. I knew they only had a few phones left in stock which made the waiting a bit more annoying.

I'm also having the same problems as everyone else. I'm using a white iPhone 4S 16 GB in Sweden running iOS 5.0.1.

Getting a new replacement obviously fixes the problems for some but not all which does indicate or hint at a hardware fault. But at the same time, no one including me seems to experience the problem on incoming calls.

I'm a software engineer myself so I know that part but I don't know exactly how the phone hardware works. But it does sound to me that if it was a hardware fault it should manifest itself even on incoming calls. But since it doesn't it does sound like a software issue. Maybe only happening on certain hardware like someone hinted at.

I'd also like to add that for me the problem happens very often when using the phone as it is. Plugging in my Apple provided headphones causes the problem to occur even more. It enables the speaker, outputs no audio in the headphones and toggling speaker on an off does not solve the problem when the headphones are connected.

I've also done testing and plugging in the headphones, turning volume up or down displays that the volume for the headphones are changed. If I then start a call which has the problems, turning the volume up and down shows that the volume is changed for the phone and not the headphones. Basically the phone "forgot" that the headphones was connected. After ending the call checking the volume again, it shows the volume for the headphones. So it's only occurring for the phone app, again hinting at a software issue.

Can anyone confirm if they've had the problems on incoming calls?

Can you perform the same test I did with the volume and checking if you get the same behaviour?

danielp83 wrote:

 

Can anyone confirm if they've had the problems on incoming calls?

 

Can you perform the same test I did with the volume and checking if you get the same behaviour?

Shame on Apple! We are, the users, dedicated to engoy by their products, but instead they forced us to discuss technical problems WE paid for.

My opinion (I have a master's degree in radioelectronic) it's a software bug (of course with junction with some NORMAL hardware tolerance). Because:

- the **** thing happens only on outgoing calls and never on incoming or during call.

- the thing happens only with STANDARD DIALER and never with other dialers. I frequently use SIP softphone(s) and tester about 3 or 5 different ones. No one defective calls.

- we got many reports that this happend with devices which was notmally operating during long time before iOS 5.0

The mainstread media was tipped off last month and chose to remain silent. See this latest CNN iReport article http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-714099

Maybe if enough people write comments under the article it will get someone's attention. I also like Apple products, including the iPhone 4S but someone really needs to do something about this. If we're not able to hear each other on this phone, it's really useless.

LfGrdMike wrote:

 

As much as I like Apple it angers me that they don't say much.  Lets just keep telling the media about it... Eventually they will say something.

 

Maybe it helps

My 4s had problems with outgoing calls no audio .I downloaded ios 5.1 (9B5117b). Full charge and after that:

- 75 calls - no problem, just one call with little echo

- Used - 4 hours + 9 min

- Cell data -  33 MB

- Stand by - 28 hours

- Calls total - one hour + 15 min

- Battery percentage - 25%

Great news, thank you!

At least for me as I have no option to exchange - I bought my one from cell operator in Finland.

Any way, the behavior of Apple just terrible. Although I love this product and respect Apple, I must to do something bad against it.

I'm already changed my review at the most popular Russian webmarket from "best-of-the-best" to "terrible" with detail explanations..

I'm assuming you're a registered developer and accessed the pre-release. Either case it does sound positive and hopefully 5.1 will solve the problem then.

Then the question remains, when it will be released to non-developers...

I still think it is hardware and am in agreement with an earlier post that a software workaround fixed another lingering issue.

My replacement phone has been fine running 5.0.1.  I could get 5.1 beta but no reason to at this point.  Will try that if the problem resurfaces.

I am not a developer, I am not a specialist and I don’tknow it is hardware or software .

I did exactly what Lesha12345 said:

“Just download the firmware iPhone4,1_5.1 (search it in google or something)and remove SIM card from devicebefore updating. Then click Check for Update in iTunes with ALT button (on Mac, I think is SHIFT onWindows), select the downloaded firmware andupdate”

Work for me!