iPhone 5 bad call voice quality

My serial no C39JK. (Production week 42, Model MD299KS, 32GB, Factory C3)

@ Bart83

Did you tried cleaning your sim and activating the compact voice options.

It's worth to try.

I made the mistake of doing everything on the same time so I cannot say which option fixed my problem, maybe you can try activating the compact voice option and reboot your iphone as a next step.

If this is not helping, try cleaning the sim.

Let us know what it gives...

Hi R_odec,

I can't find the option, probably because I don't have the full install of VoiceOver: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5025?viewlocale=en_US

I cleaned my sim but I doubt that this has anything to do with it because other users switched their sim-cards to no avail..

Between my husband and I, we had three bad phones. One was marginal but the other two were unusable. The replacement second phone that my husband received was so bad that complete sentences would drop out. We decided to return all three phones to Verizon before our 14 days were up and let Apple work out the bugs before we try again. Disappointing!

After a hard reset without restoring from old backup i.e. a really clean iOS 6.01 device, I realised that the first drop in call quality occurs after about 5.5 - 6 seconds. I checked my voice mail (T-Mobile Germany) and always the same word was chopped. I repeated this about 10-times and it was absolutely reproducible.

In parallel I monitored the console in XCode Organizer and I found always the same errors and warnings:

...

Nov 22 13:35:46 Kays-iPhone-5b mediaserverd[103] <Error>: 13:35:46.770 <0x3897000> _vp: processdl: tryer failed to acquire lock

...

Nov 22 13:35:53 Kays-iPhone-5b mediaserverd[103] <Error>: 13:35:53.083 <AudioControl> _vp: initialize hw input: ul-dl config still out of sync ?!

....

Nov 22 13:35:58 Kays-iPhone-5b mediaserverd[103] <Notice>: >vad< WARNING: 04:35:58.024 [tid 0x45d000] VirtualAudio_PlugIn.cpp[134]: SetVoiceProcessingState(): Attempt to enable routing in support of voice processing while in or requesting an invalid route/mode pair ([ Category: 'csav'; Mode: 'imdf' ]).

Whatever that means, for me this indicates some serious bugs in iOS 6.01 (haven't tested 6.1 Beta). Embarrassing that the Apple guy showed no interest in this information but came along with the standard "you have 4 options..."

Interesting thing today. I had a call and it was robotic again. The call was pretty important, so I could not call back.

So I tried to do my best to listen.. (with a 700 bucks phone wauw..).. And I found out that the quality was better when the phone was sideways. Even when I turned my head in another direction it sounded better. And some positions were terrible.

Anyone tried with/without wifi?

I believe I have found one possible cause. Or maybe the cause. (Robotic voices)

So I tried to call with another phone to my iphone with and without wifi.. I believe my problem for robotic voices is there.

When I put wifi on, and my iphone on top of the router I get robotic voices. Same call and I switch off the wifi on my iphone, the robotic voices go away. I put wifi back to 'on' and the robotic voices are back. I then walk away from the router with the iphone and the call gets better..

...

Can other people try this ? This could be a possible cause.

And Apple technicians, please wake up.

Yes I deactivated WiFi yesterday and a call got interrupted after 3 minutes. Quality is going up an down over the time (in my case), so I didn't find any better position although I thought so in the begining (catching at every straw :-).

Probably wrong as well is my observation, that calls on the landline most often get into trouble while a call to another mobile seems to be more stable.

Thanks for the info! Here are my stats:

Model number: MD645

Made week 40

Factory: DN (China, Chengdu - Foxconn)

Same problem with my phone -- calls are muffled almost like I am talking underwater. I know it's a hardware issue so I am not bothering to keep swapping it out as I am sure the problem will persist. It would just be a waste of my time and let's face it, time is money!

We've been having this issue with all our phones and I've been pulling my hair out as all Apple and my network operator can suggest is to replace the phones! Anyway, I updated my phone (as a developer) to IOS 6.1b2 today and instantly it appears problem solved. Might be too early be 100% certain as I still get the issue calling people using iPhone 5's (looks like the issue is both ways) but my calls to all other phones are massivly improved. I've resoted my old backup and changed loads of settings and not had any reoccurance. It appears this updates the baseband which is probably where the issue occured, can anyone else confirm?

UPDATE:

Ok so I thought my problem was fixed with the factory reset via Itunes but now after a week again robotic voices :-(

This makes me crazy!!!!

Weird thing is that I only have this at home and not at other places.

For sure it is a software problem because when I do a reset with home and on/off button for 5 sec, the problem is gone again but I'm sure it will be back in a day or 2.

So @ kcipuk , you will only be sure if the problem is still away after about a week, I really hope so, can you let us know please?

I will do a small reset every 2 days with the home + on/off switch (it takes only 1 minute) and that way I can use the Iphone like it should be but I really hope Apple can fix this with the new release of IOS 6.1 so I'm hoping thaat kcipuk can tell us in a week that problem is still solved.

The call quality is very poor and I also have a feedback sound that goes off from time to time.

I took the phone to Apple and they replaced it but Im still experiencing the same issues.

Also reset my phone but still no solution. Extremely dissapointed with this phone, heres an idea

for the iphone 6, allow it to function as a phone becasue right now I just have an ipod.

I am having the same problem, Robotic, Martian Sound mainly with incoming calls both from a landline or cell number. I have had Apple replace the phone three times and the same problem persists.

My carrier is Telus Mobility here in Toronto Canada, and I am not sure if the problem is Apple iPhone5 or the carrier Telus. At first I thought it was the phone, a hardware issue but now I am not so sure.

Anyway I got so frustrated with this phone, as I could not really use it. What is the purpose of having a phone when you can't use it, so I returned it to the store and got a Samsung Galaxy S3, so far I am happy with it.

Apple or Telus needs to get this problem fixed, but even if they do I will not be going back to Apple iPhone5, just a bad experience that should never happen in the first place.

The people at the Apple store were very defensive when I told them about the sound problem, the technician said that it was the first time he heard about the problem.

I have switched camps an very happy I have a working phone.

dserge84, You paid for a phone but can only use it as an ipod to play music, watch videos etc., man that stinks.

If I wanted an iPod I would buy an iPod not a iPhone.

For such an expensive device as the iPhone it should work properly or don't release it to the public.

Apple is going to the dogs, just a matter of time before they become like SONY a by gone product and name.

Hi, from K.S.A

Bad call voice also here... <_<"

This is really driving me nuts...

and what makes it worse is "THIS IS THE NEW POWERFUL ADVANCED MOBILE PHONE... IPHONE 5"

such issue is really disappointing........ this matter is essential in every mobile phone..... is apple flopping?!

I really hope it is a software bug NOT a hardware problem.

R_odec...... thanks for the updates

I will try them

could you explain a little bit more on the second method (Factory default reset via Itunes)..

i'm kinda beginner ^^"

Com on Apple.... you need to make it up asap by a fix.