iPhone sounds muffled to people I talk to

My 5s just started to develop this issue and thanks to this thread i was led to a path of recovery BUT simply disabling the noise cancellation didn't do the trick. Covering the microMicrophone located by the rear camera lens with my finger was still needed to solved the problem. To make this a more permanent solution i took three small slivers of black gaffer's tape and layered them on top of the mic. I wanted to use a non reflective black tape as not to create lens flare while taking a picture when the "flash" is on.

That worked!

I turned noise cancellation off with no difference.

Then during a call I intermittently put my finger over the microphone on the back and it corresponded to my voice getting clear-muffled-clear etc.

Deciding what to do from here.

Brilliant thread. I'm new to iPhone and have only owned an iPhone 7plus for 1 month and people have constantly complained about my voice sounding muffled in calls. Been to the Genius bar and they tested the phone, it all tested ok. Tried making some calls and same issue everyone complained. Removed my leather style folio case and problem resolved! So it does seem as though the issue was that I was folding back the folio case front cover and it was affecting the noise cancelling mic. Now calls clear as a bell. Ding ding new case required...thanks

Apparently Apple assumes everyone will hold their iPhone on the lower portion of the phone, thumb on one side, three fingers on the other side, and the index finger resting high on the middle back of the phone or draped around the side. To find out what I was possibly doing differently that might be causing my 'muffled voice' problem I googled images of people talking on an iPhone.

Here's what I learned that I do differently .. I've been holding my iPhone on its upper portion with my index finger draped over the top and thumb and middle finger draped around the sides. It appears, holding the phone this way I've been providing a voice channel to the noise cancellation microphone, thus causing the muffled voice effect.

Rather than try to change the way I hold my phone I've done as others have suggested by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Hearing devices, and then turning on Hearing Aid Mode (turns off the noise cancellation microphone and increases volume of the speaker when I choose to use the speaker - at least that's my experience).

Thanks someone for identifying the rear mic for me. My Caseology cover has a hole for the mic, but then I noticed, intending to keep my phone pristine, I'd left the plastic peel -off stuff attached to the phone, and it was covering the mic, so I've trimmed it.

I am using an iPhone 6s, so it's not just the 5.

My mother can now hear me!

Amused when I signed in to write this that the 2 stage identification process all came through on one device. Rather negates the security intention, I thought.

I had same problem. I read on another post it is an issue with Apple's attempt at noise cancelation when making calls when background noise is present. It was suggested to disable noise cancellation by enabling hearing aid mode (under General-->Assesibilty). The only down side is it makes you enable bluetooth and amplifies your handset volume a bit. I tested it with several people and they all noted how much better they could hear and understand me. I had been to 3 Verizon store for help and no one could figure it out ... thank goodness for support communities. Hope this helps.

Hi ,

Same issue here !

Provider : Telus

Iphone 5 : We just ordered 75 iphones , so far ,issue happen with all of them no matter how hard the signal is.

We have phone in montréal , québec , trois-rivière , same issue .

On 3g : the call quality is a bit improve but still call quality between Iphone5 are not acceptable.

The issue only happen when calling Iphone5 to Iphone5 . The sound get very poor, tunnel/robot sound a like . If an iphone5 call any other phone , no issue . We are not picky on the call quality but iphone 5 to iphone 5 is what we use the most.

Try to contact apple with our source but no luck . We are now asking Telus to just do the test for us and report the bug to apple on their own .

We will check as well if beta version of IOS is solving the isssue or not...

Patrice

Hi ,

I have try the enabling hearing aid mode or even the audio mono mode : no luck once again iphone 5 between iphone 5 . The call is nowhere near what the iphone4 was . The only thing that help '' a bit '' is disabling the LTE . ( just a bit but almost not noticable )

Anyone have try a beta IOS ?

Patrice

Do you use any kind of case? If so does it block the rear microphone or obstruct the bottom left grill at all?

Update :

Provider : Telus

Number of Iphone5 in our compagny : 75

Issue : only occurs between Iphone5 . Doesnt occur between iphone5 to iphone4 or other cell ou landline

Troubleshooting done : Everything ! lte to 3g , audio mode modification , try with the ear phone , new beta ios , restore .

All our iphone are brand new out of the box....

Our explication for now : Iphone 5 use the wonderfull technology of HD-Calling . Hd calling is a new feature on iphone 5 . The basic of it is that the network and the iphone will use another codec to process the voice. The codec is just using more bandwith to make the call more clear and precise. When that technology really work , you can really see ear the difference.

Bell and Telus may share the same tower , but after the tower they have their own network !

Our final test : 5 iphone on 75 are unlock from telus .

Test 1 : 2 unlock Iphone5 on telus try to call each other ( first test LTE , second 3G )

Result : call quality suck

Test 2 :

Same 2 unlock iphone5 but we put a bell sim card in ....

Result : wow , call quality more than perfect . Way improve compare to iphone 4

Result final : Most likely the problem is on the provider side. To me it sound a network problem or telus is simply using another codec that doesnt work very well with iphone5.

Either way , it sound to me that the issue could be resolve by 2 front : either telus fix something on the network or apple fix the way the iphone5 work with that specific codec .

For now : telus has escalate the issue to their tier3 .

Hope this help...

Patrice

( sorry for my bad english , i am french canadian )

As you are aware the iPhone 5 has 3 mics. One on the bottom you talk into, one in the speaker grille where your ear goes, and one on the back near the camera. They all help in noise cancellation. The one by the camera, keep that mic completely clear or completely blocked and they have no complaints. Put your hand over it and they say you sound distant or muffled.

I'm having exactly the same problem. Had to go back to using my landline. This is not funny when you've spent nearly £700 on a phone.

Am going for a genuis appointment on Tuesday to see if they can do anything.

Meanwhile I shall try the hearing aid solution to see if that works.

I have the exact same issue with my iPhone 5 and so does my girlfriend with her iPhone 5. I have already exchanged one iPhone 5 for a new unit, but the same problem exists with the new unit. If I talk into the phone normally, like I am trying to use it as a phone, then people on the other end can't hear me clearly. The sound on the other end is either muffled badly or cutting part of the conversation out to the point that they have to keep asking me to repeat myself. This is EXTREMELY frustrating as you would expect that you could use the iPhone as a phone. To me it sounds like either the mic is of poor quality, which probably isn't the case since talking into it in speaker phone mode works just fine, or it is the algorithm being used to detect the faces proximity to the screen. In either case this seems to be a design flaw that needs to be fixed ... OR ... allow people to exchange for a unit that works correctly (i.e. iPhone 4S or, if it works, iPhone 5S). To me it looks like this a "known issue" which Apple does not want to address in fear of the publicity and how it will affect their financials (i.e. profits and stock price). I am pretty frustrated with this, as I have been a longtime iPhone user (iPhone, iPhone 3, iPhone 4, and now iPhone 5). Apple did the right thing in addressing the antenna problem on the iPhone 4, but it seems like it doesn't want to do the same thing here on the muffled voice issue.

I have EXACTLY the same problbem, has ANYONE resolved this? Its getting really bad. I have tested and made my friend phone me of my phone and through my iPhone 5 he sounds terribly quiet and muffled, but I swap back and through his 4S micorophone into my iPhone 5 speaker in my ear sounds clear.

How can an 4S pick up clearer than a 5....

I'm having the same problem, I hope they figure this out and get a fix out there! I had my 4s for 18 months and loved it, I've had this 5 for a few days and this is getting on my nerves! I considered the Samsung s4, now I'm wondering if I made the right choice. I love Apple... but they REALLY need to step it up... I have a few more days to decide what to do... I just don't know yet.. we'll see. Seems like I should have my answer, looks like this problem has been out here for months. ****....