iPhone 5s mic problem

Hello I think I have this one fixed. The 5S has a microphone on the front facing out which catches background noise and uses noise cancelling technology to cancel out traffic nose etc. If you use the iPhone with a fold over case the sound of your voice is picked up by the front facing mike and cancelled out by the clever noise cancelling technology - result muffled speech. If you hold the phone so the flap of the case doesn't channel the sound to the outside mike the problem vanishes. At least it did for me.

I am on my fourth phone and am absolutely going nuts. Just got last replacement yesterday, and COULD NOT BELIEVE IT WAS HAPPENING AGAIN. this might be it for me and the 5!!!!!

You're absolutely right - my wife has a Michael Kors case which folds back over the noise cancelling mic and ends up with her voice just becoming muffled. Solution - don't fold it back!! It works!!

Go to settings- general- accessibility - turn off phone noise cancelation. Should fix the problem. It worked for mr survivor case.

Air spray???? It's working???? Are you sure?

Yes. blow on the back mic. try to clean it well, and try to see if it works after.

Ever since I upgraded from a 4s I had occasional complaints of people being unable to understand me. Then I got a new girlfriend and she was really complaining. After reading this thread I understand now that it is because I am usually lying on my couch or bed when I talk to her.

Against my advice she upgraded to a 5s a month ago. I told her to wait for the 6 to come out. Just because it will be bigger. I thought the muffled voice was specific to a defect in my phone. Now there are times when I can't understand a word she is saying. Its so annoying!!

What really got me upset was a call I received today. Months ago I talked a friend in to going with Apple instead of Andriod. He bought a new 5s. I called him today to tell him about iOS 8. As we were talking he said that his wife has been complaining that sometimes she can't understand him. I actually played dumb and acted like I don't have the issue. I felt so bad that I talked him into a phone with this problem! This really really *****! This is a problem that should not be happening if Apple did proper testing and quality control. I am a big fan of Apple for many years, but this is unacceptable!!

I called tech support and they suggested that I see if the problem is still present with iOS 8. I just installed so I don't know yet. Anyone else try iOS 8?

iOS 7.1.1 5s (third device), ATT

I was on the phone with ATT this week trying to diagnose if it was a carrier problem. It's not. When I go to speaker phone I can continue talking. Then in a few min I cut back to the mic. I have had this problem on 3 different 5s phones. Since Apple could not fix this problem after swapping out 3 different phones, I was torn between calling ATT and throwing my phone against the concrete. Both had relative merits and deficits at the time. ATT ran diagnostics on the connection and data pathways. I noticed a slight improvement with clarity and data but the problem continues. ATT suggested the speaker phone trick. ATT suggested for me to wait on the software updates to my phone because they have been having issues with the latest patches...now I am torn between not working and fear that I really break my phone. This is the worst experience I have ever had with an Apple product. The 4s was perfect. Glass both sides (rugged), and just worked. This could be the last iPhone I ever own. Apple, help me to believe again.

I have had the same exact problem, no matter what I do unless I have the phone at an exact radial degree position everyone says I sound like I have marbles in my mouth or I went and hid in a tunnel somewhere. I took it to apple and they did the reboot, tested the mic, tested the play back and no go. They said everything tested fine. But seriously I use my phone for work and I am tired of looking unprofessional because my over priced iPhone 5s doesn't work.

The mic problem with the Iphone 5s is wind and background noise pick up, especially wind noise. Is there a way to filter that out? So loud people cannot hear me.

I am having this problem. I'm approaching 1 month with the 5s. When I use the speaker phone, people say that my voice gets very faded or sounds far away. In these instances I have not moved away from the phone and it is just sitting on the table in front of me. I've even picked it up to hold the mic closer and it makes no difference. Very frustrating... I should mention that my case does not block or come in contact with the mic or speakers...

I Have the problem too. But I think it's software. The bug has followed my upgrade path since the iphone 4 and now I have a 5s. It's followed me on two phone upgrades. People sometimes say they can't hear me. I basically have to yell to be heard.

Same problem here even after disabling the noise cancellation. When the phone is oriented horizontally or upside down (talking while lying down), the person I'm talking to can't hear me. I sound muffled or as if I'm in a tunnel. As soon as the phone is repositioned vertically, the sound is back to normal. I keep thinking one of these updates will fix the issue, but the problem remains.

I had no problems until my I phone broke (SIM card error) and had to be replaced. Then I had a number of complaints about people not being able to hear me. I have had 4 phones replaced. The problem appeared to have resolved after each phone but came back, some worse then others. But if on on speaker no problems. After reading these reviews I decided to to try some position testing. It appears that if the lower part of the phone is right next to my mouth there is no problem, but if I put the upper part of the phone by my ear and there the lower part of the phone is away from my mouth the sound quality diminishes. At 4 finger-breadths, (width of 4 fingers) the sound is bad, 3 finger-breadths it is OK and 2 it is very good. The problem is if the phone is next to my mouth, it is away from my ear. Since my head has not gotten any bigger and I have always held my phone the same way for decades, I am not sure why the I-Phone 5S is so picky. My guess is a bigger phone, like the iPhone 6 may let me hold the phone more naturally.

I had no problem with my iPhone 5S, about year, since i bought it in november 2013. Its from week 45 (2013), Factory: F2 (China, Zhengzhou - Foxconn). Then the screen stopped working, after 11 month.

Now Apple replaced it with new one, week 37 (2014) Factory: DN (China, Chengdu - Foxconn), and it have problem with mic. People never complained about voice muffling before, and now its every time.

So i tested sound recording with two iPhones. My faulty 5S, and my friends 5.

With equal positions and distance from sound source, there was totally different results. Record from friends iPhone were about 3(!) times louder, than from mine one. I was using standard sound recorder from iOS 8.

In my opinion, problem is in the mic on the bottom of the phone, mine mic. Its to weak. Main in faulty, but its near, and back one is far, but its ok. Voice strength is equal on both. So iOS decides that your voice is just a street noise, and decide to clear it from output signal.

May be its factory problem?

SN of my good iPhone 5S was beginning from F2, and the faulty one from other factory, SN begins with DN.