iPhone 7 Microphone Cutting Out

I totally agree with what you are saying. But, I have to continue to use my phone while I wait patiently for a fix. The tape at least allows me to carry on phone conversations. For some crazy reason I thought maybe Apple would reach back out to me to see if my problem has been resolved (what a dream). I have two of these **** phones with problems and the real bummer is that I traded in 2 iPhone 6's last November which were perfect, only to get this nightmare. Do any Apple Representatives read these threads on this forum???

This problem is a lot more widespread than I thought. I was at a public storage place yesterday and we were talking about phones. We were both surprised in that everyone he new was having the same problem. Total stranger, boom, their having the problem too. There has got to be a recall coming soon for these inoperative 7pluses. This is probably one of the biggest coverups I’ve ever seen regarding bad hardware of any kind. I guess they can’t afford to recall all these phones after building the spaceship across the street from me.

Hi I have same problem as everyone else with no advise to fix. Brand new iPhone 7 plus, callers say they can't hear me. I sound muffled and distant. Its intermittent, sometimes caller can here me, then they say "I can't hear you". Meanwhile I can hear them very clearly. Booked an appointment at the genius bar at the weekend, took my phone back, and under warranty they gave me a new one. Came home, tested it, and I have the same issue with the new phone. This is my work phone and my customers can't hear me. I am thinking of going back to the genius bar but this time getting a refund and changing phones. As this issue is so widespread no point in trying a third phone. So disappointing too. Never had any issue with any other iPhone.

Hi Amanda

Have changed mine twice same problem no point

In changing again mines 7 months old they will offer £350 for trade in for iphone8 means will have to pay £350 extra to upgrade to see if 8 works any better its a joke when u consider the billions the make if they dont come up with a solution will upgrade to different make

You just answered my question that they may have fixed it on iPhone 8 clearly they haven't so i won't be upgrading, may as well keep faulty phone i paid £650 6 months ago perhaps the fix when you go into the genus bar is to suggest they supply a piece of tape to cover the rear mike they would probable want to charge to do that unless some enterprising Chinese company supply : special tape to sort out iPhone mike problaems'if enough people complain they may just take some notice but have my doubts

Thank you bartgrp for sharing those details. Great post.

I am now with my senior apple care guy working on this for over 10 months. I left a lot of posts here regarding developments and progress. And recently had to undergo some new testing and making calling log-files and sending them to apple engineering and all. It seems to be a very persistent and nasty technical problem. No clue why it takes so long to fix it, and having more and more people annoyed over their user experience with iPhone 7 and now iPhone 8 too as I understand from your post, even worse with iPhone 8.

Every important message posted here with new angles or info, that I get an update from via email, I forward to my senior apple care guy. I recommend others to do the same when they are in direct contact via email with an apple care guy or lady. Keep everybody informed about our findings. Just forward it to your apple care contact and type FYI on top. Hardly an effort, but good to know that the apple care guys and ladies are constantly reminded and informed.

Your information about iPhone 8 is very valuable at this point, because I was already informed that no guarantees were or could be given regarding this problem for iPhone 8 ... but I did not saw it confirmed or discussed anywhere, till now via your post. Thank you for that. And thank you for your effort of visualizing the problem as well with the image.

The problem can also be explained as when you are calling and you would be tapped on your other shoulder, that you will turn your head in that direction while holding the top part of the phone to your head/ear. It's just such a little movement that already causes the phone/mic totally drop. Every time. And that is quite a normal situation, a head move like that while talking and looking around (for example during walking or looking through documents while talking with someone).

I am keeping my fingers crossed for iPhone X that I am interested in (also because I curently have an Apple vendor-lock at my house and office, it's all Apple stuff), but I better wait for people to confirm it is not having this same issue.

Thanks again bartgrp for your great post. I already forwarded it to my senior apple care guy, who is really working hard to get it solved for me and users in general. But it's a persistant and nasty technical problem ... it seems to be.

My second brand new iPhone 7 plus is still experiencing this issue. Callers still can't hear me. I am really exasperated now. I called customer support and they suggested that it may be to do with the 'back-up'. That I transferred the issue from one phone to the other when I backed up from iTunes. They suggest going back to the Genius Bar and trying a new iPhone 7 plus, but without transferring data to see if the new phone works. They said that it would be near impossible to have 2 phones with the same hardware issue, meaning it must be a software issue. When I asked if the operator had heard of this widespread ssue, she said 'no'. I confirmed that there are lots of customers with this issue and we all need urgent help because we can't use our phones. At least Apple should communicate with its customers and acknowledge it. I will update further when I have been back to the Genius Bar.

I am confused why this entire thread is on the Apple support site, yet Apple seems to be oblivious that there is even an issue....

I don’t want to be negative, but if they can’t take the time to recognize this issue based on what we are saying on here, I don’t really see how one senior tech can help. 😕

Hi unfortunately for me the tape over the back microphone hasn't worked. Called four people straight after I applied it and they all said they couldn't hear me, I was breaking up. Follows same process, first minute or so caller can hear me fine, then they say "you are breaking up" or "I can't hear you anymore" 😟

My iPhone 7 had this same problem. My voice would cut out during calls. Finally I found the solution! Go into Settings, Privacy, Microphone, Turn off microphone access for those apps.

That fixed the problem.

I am interested to hear about others if it solves their problem too ... thanks reynoldfromtucson for sharing this new angle to this persistent problem. Maybe that's the fix. Though it would mean for me that I can't use my mic for Whatsapp anymore. Not ideal.

Indeed, I can very well relate to the 'frustration' this issue is bringing. And reading that iPhone 8 is even worse ...

I normally would 'blindly' pre-order the next model (like the iPhone X that's coming) based on trust but I think it's better to sit this issue through first and be confirmed that iPhone X is not troubled by this issue. As now the name "iPhone" holds no guarantees anymore for being a well functioning phone. That's quite bad. Apple better stop for a while all the cool add investments for iPhone and just have their phones working well first, that's in the end the best advertisment and PR you can have: good trustfull products with happy end users.

I fully agree sevvie1 that we as end users should not be problem-solving for Apple's iPhones to this extent. That's ridiculous and the customer service world 'upside down'.

I have had this same problem with my Iphone 7 for months. I'm on my third one (total replace from Apple) and the problem persists. Apple techs act like its a rare problem, even when I tell them about the thousands of posts online about it.

Anyway, I did the tape over the microphone and it worked! YAY! I'm thinking turning off the noise cancellation mike may work also. But only doing the tape worked great. Hoping it stays that way!

Apple customer service totally FAILED on this. I fixed the problem myself by following advice on the internet. Go figure!

I tried all the tricks of using the SW to turn off anything and everything associated with the microphones and none of it worked. I deleted apps that some believed may have been associated with the problem and that didn't work. I had Apple replace one of my two problematic phones and that didn't work. I have installed all of the SW upgrades to date and am currently on 11.0.3 and none of that worked. I've performed multiple factory resets and restoring from iTunes and that didn't work. Several months ago, I put the tape over the rear microphone and that eliminated the problem. However, I would not call that a FIX. It is a terrible temporary solution. APPLE NEEDS TO OWN UP TO THIS PROBLEM AND REPLACE THESE CRAPPY PHONES WITH A GENERATION THAT DOES NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM. My biggest mistake was to trade my 2 perfectly working iPhone 6's for these crappy iPhone 7's. They have caused me months of grief and frustration and Apple has been ZERO help.

Did you not read my post? Yes, covering the rear microphone is a "bandaid" solution. But, it is not a fix. At this point, you can keep dreaming that Apple is going to fix your phone, but they're NOT! They're just waiting until you fall out of warranty and move on. I love the fact that it takes "tape" to make our $800 iphones work properly, what a **** joke.