iPhone 5s mic problem

I got a new phone and no help. Apple Store completely no help and dismissed me. But this fix seems to work so far -- do both:

• Settings > General > Accessibility and turn off Phone Noise Cancelation
• Settings > Hearing Aids > turn on "Hearing Aid Mode"

I am now on my 4th 5s. I have had this muffling noise problem since I took the first one out of the box this past fall.

Every time I go to the Apple Store, which is a pain in the butt because there is only one in my state and it's in the middle of a massive mall, they tell me they have never heard of this problem and proceed to insult me with " maybe you don't know how to hold the phone correctly".

What I learned though one of the Apple Care staff over the phone is that every replacement phone they give me is not a brand new phone. They are built with parts from other phones. This would explain why the issue isn't going away.

They told me in Apple Care that I should go to the local store and they will arrange to have the store give me a brand new phone. When I went to the store, they flat out refused and acknowledged the fact that the microphone is different from previous models but said I need to just get used to it and that was that.

Until this week, I was a huge Apple guy, I have spent over 10k in the last 18 months on their products. Now, I am looking at other providers I am so fed up

I went to the Genius Bar on Feb 20, 2014 in Raleigh, NC for this issue.

Of course, they've never heard of that happening before. So my genius stuck to the script. Here's the rest of what he said:

It's 100% not a hardware problem since it happens intermittently.

There's a 10% chance it's a software problem. Said with a dismissive shrug.

He *so!* *badly!* wanted to tell me it was my carrier, but I've hard two carriers and a Verizon Network Extender that have made no difference.

So he reset it to factory settings and that's all that Apple could do for me. He said that if that didn't fix it, that yeah, it was some problem with the phone (er, 3 phones in my case) and I should probably find a different type of phone. i.e. non-Apple.

So they don't like it at Apple when you point out that their product doesn't work and they don't have a solution.

I did have some improvement with the recommendations in this thread to shut off noise reduction and tape over the back mic. But I'm taking my third iPhone 5s back for a refund. I don't think $200 2014 technology should rely on tape to work just so-so.

Pay attention to this issue, Apple.

I've been posting on this thread since page 2 (i.e., THREAD-CRED).

It would help if some of 'us' would read the previous pages' posts rather than saying, "My phone is muffled y'all,, what should I do?" I think I'm just upset but I've read some of the same comments multiple times. I guess we're all just venting.

I got my first 5S on release day. First of all, I was very upset that there were neither white/silver nor gold/champagne of any size available - especially when they were used as a cornerstone of the ad campaign. I settled on a 32GB Space Grey.

Not only does my fingerprint sensor RARELY work (nor has it ever), but I too began experienceing "The Muffles" literally immediately.

Until just a few posts above, I was POSITIVE THAT THE WHITE-BOX PHONES I'VE BEEN GIVEN IN REPLACEMENT FROM THE APPLE STORE WERE BRAND NEW. THREE "GENIUSES" LOOKED ME IN THE EYE AND SAID THAT THEY WERE, IN FACT, BRAND NEW PHONES AND THAT THEY WERE ONLY WHITE-BOX BECAUSE THE ADDED INK AND CABLE AND 'LITERATURE' WOULD BE WASTEFUL IN THE CASE OF REPLACEMENT. SO INCREDIBLY HEATED RIGHT NOW.

Had the same issue with my 5s and solved the problem. I can reliably reproduce the muffled voice and correct it on the same call. It has to do with the placement of my hand on the back of the phone. I normally hold the phone near the top and I believe by doing so my voice is channeled to the noise canceling mic on the back which in turn mutes my voice. If I hold the lower half of my phone instead my voice is loud and clear. Just reproduced this several times on a call to my wife. It's worth a try. Worked for me.

I've been reading through the posts. Has anybody tested connecting and disconnecting the usb/charger cable while talking? When charging my phone, the sound of my voice is all muffled. If I unplug it, then it sounds great. This is definitely something I can reproduce and very unfortunate since plugging your phone when your're running out of battery in the middle of an important phone call is very likely to happen and a huge problem. Anybody seen this bevariou?

We have a only canche: iOS 7.1.....

Ok, now we have iOS 7.1......

Please, everybody test the 5s microphone......

I'm installing the update, I'll be right back!

im having the same problem of muffled voice, is it a hardware issue or software issue. should i do replacement?

hey David can u plz tell me is this prob. getting solved with ios 7.1 or not?

Not solved.....

Unbelievable!

iOS 7.1 is a great update but... our problem isn't solved.

Unbelievable!!!!!!!

I have just applied the update to 2 iPhones

My wife's iPhone 5s gold 64gb phone was having the problem with the mic so I had turned off the phone noise cancellation. Now, since the update, the noise cancellation function is disabled (greyed out) and in the off position so the problem has returned but I am unable to fix?

My iPhone 5s silver 64gb never had the problem but has the function switched off and the noise cancellation switch is still functional!

Does anyone know what to do to re-enable the switch on my wife's phone?

Disable Hearing Aid Mode first.

Yes. I have the issue with a new 5S. I am using t-Mobile [first time user] and the sound is muffled. I tried everything here that people suggested. Nothing worked. But I tried something a few minutes ago that did work. I have a Vonage account so I used a free app extension. Used the Vonage App Extension on my phone [wi-fi only] .. made two calls to a voice mail. The Vonage app was noticeably clearer.

Update from my earlier post. Went to the T-Mobile state and they had me disable LTE and just go with 4G instead. I now have 4 bars versus 2 bars and the voice quality is better.