throughthemill
Level 1 (14 points)
Apple Watch

Q: Apple Watch microphone issue

Group,

 

After upgrading the Watch OS to 2.2.2 I am unable to use the microphone on my 42 mm Sport. 

 

I went to the discussion groups and tried all the usual answers (cleaned the microphone port, hard resets of both the phone and the watch, unpairing and re-pairing as a new watch to my iPhone, made positive Siri was on in all possible ways) several times each to no avail.  I even went to a website that showed a teardown of the Watch to see how involved replacing a microphone might be.  The answer is VERY because it is soldered to the chip and to access the chip you basically have to remove every component except the heart rate monitor.

 

I made an appointment at my local Apple Store and the tech walked through the same software solutions as I tried at home.  Maybe I was doing it wrong.

 

The last thing we tried was to have her call my iPhone, answer the call with the phone and then pass it over to the Watch.  This worked and I could hear my voice in her phone but could not hear my voice talking from her phone to my Watch.  This proved the issue was not with the physical microphone but how the software addresses the microphone and the speaker.

 

Has anyone else had this same scenario?

 

Is there an app that is not allowing the microphone to work?

 

Is there a patch available to address this issue?

 

When will the new Watch OS update be available?

 

Has Apple beta tested for this scenario?

 

Can I rollback the OS to a previous version that did work?

 

Any help other than what is already listed in this question will be appreciated.

 

Thanks again,

 

Don

Apple Watch, watchOS 2.2.2, microphone software issue

Posted on Aug 29, 2016 5:59 PM

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throughthemill

Q: Apple Watch microphone issue

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Side_Step_Society,

    Side_Step_Society Side_Step_Society Sep 6, 2016 2:42 PM in response to throughthemill
    Level 2 (363 points)
    Apple Music
    Sep 6, 2016 2:42 PM in response to throughthemill

    Has anyone else had this same scenario?

    Can't say I have, personally.

    Is there an app that is not allowing the microphone to work?

    Considering the Apple Watch has very limited resources and doesn't do much to keep apps running in the background, I suspect this is unlikely.

    Is there a patch available to address this issue?

    There is not.

    When will the new Watch OS update be available?

    No one knows at this point in time, though you can at least expect an announcement about it tomorrow.

    Has Apple beta tested for this scenario?

    Not unless they had reason to beta test for it.

    Can I rollback the OS to a previous version that did work?

    Short answer: no.

     

    A couple of things I'd like to add:

     

    1) Test with a "clean" iOS device, and a "clean" Watch. Eg. No third party applications, no custom configuration, etc. See if you can get the microphone to work reliably under the most basic configuration of the two devices.

     

    2) Unfortunately, just because the microphone worked the once during your testing, doesn't necessarily mean it's not a hardware issue. How reliably can you "make" the microphone work?

  • by ChrisJ4203,

    ChrisJ4203 ChrisJ4203 Sep 6, 2016 2:46 PM in response to throughthemill
    Level 9 (56,773 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 6, 2016 2:46 PM in response to throughthemill

    My only question would be, if there was a failure of the unit to work properly, whether microphone or speaker, in the presence of Apple, what did they recommend?

     

    But, I've not experienced any issues with my 42mm Apple Watch, and I've had WatchOS 2.2.2 since it came out.