iPhone 7 Microphone Cutting Out

I have that problem right from the day I got my IPhone 7 plus, for $1300 , did not believe when people told me that they have problems to hear me, now have no choice, I really like I phones, but they all had problems 5,battery and touch functionality, 6 only freezes in cold in 5 min, now 7 with that microphone, it's really stressful.

Hopefully someone from factory can reed this and tell us what is the right thing to do , through it in the garbage, fix it or get samsung (which I hate)

Hi,

Let me update you on my latest progress of this issue. Quite some progress but not the final solution yet. And the good and bad thing is: you and I are not alone with this problem as more and more people have this issue and Apple confirms that they are becoming very much aware of the problem.

I am now in frequent touch with a senior Apple customer care specialist on this matter. We even are already on a first name basis. 😀

During our frequent sessions - about every 3 to 4 days we talk again and he informs me about status and progress - I have answered many questions that he needed to ask me at times from Apple engineering.

And as the guys from Apple engineering were actually unable to recreate the problem - I guess they do the hardware testing but not so much 'using-the-iPhone7-with-movement-while-calling-testing' regarding this issue - I even have made this week a movie of the issue together with my Apple customer care guy.

That movie-making-of-the-mic-problem went as follow: the Apple customer care specialist took over my screen of my Macbook Pro and I had facetime running with my Macbook camera. I also had the clock of the desktop in the upper right show seconds, so moments of the movie can be referred to by seconds. Then we were speaking on the phone over cellular. While we were talking over cellular I demonstrated when the problem occurs on camera, and he could see it exactly as the Macbook camera was filming me and the Apple customer care specialist saw this through my desktop which he was seeing - cloned - as well on his system. On his end he recorded this session.

He could perfectly see that I did not use a case and had my hands not covering any mics of my iPhone 7. I changed the calling-position of the iPhone-to-my-ear-position slightly during calling - as previously explained in my earlier posts - and at the same time he heard that the mic totally dropped and was cutting out. Moving it 'back', the mic worked again. And I demonstrated this a few times while continuing talking. He totally understood the weird problem of the iPhone 7 and the mic-cutting-mystery. He confirmed that this is faulty. So that's progress! Understanding the problem by Apple is creating possibility for having it fixed by Apple in the future.

Quite a lot of effort to be honest to do all that, but my Apple customer care guy was super thankful that he now is able to inform the Apple engineering even more complete about what is going on with this recorded demonstration, and he himself experienced first-hand the problem on his end as well, and this he also confirmed verbally while recording all.

This footage he will send to the Apple engineering guys and they can finally start working on a permanent solution to this annoying problem.

So rest assured that 'as we speak', the Apple engineering has a video that demonstrates the problem very well and which is confirmed by the senior Apple customer service specialist that the problem is totally real.

As said, at Apple they first need to clearly understand the problem. And then they can start solving it.

So let's hope it won't take long anymore that this very annoying mic-cutting-issue-with-the-iPhone-7 is permanently fixed.

Apple is actually lucky that the tech-media are not yet all over it. Though ... I think when that happens the fix from Apple to this issue will be available 'instantly'! 😉

That's all for now ... fingers crossed!

Microphone cutting during calls. Got a replacement while mine in for repair. Same problem with this one :/

Hi Mr. AAM & Everybody,

That was a very encouraging report. Thanks for all your work. I just want to say that there seems to be another aspect of the problem, whereby people on the other end of a phone conversation can't hear us at times. This other aspect is that the same problem sometimes also occurs when I'm using the phone in the car, via Bluetooth. At such moments, I don't think any of the phone's microphones are in use, but the effect - intermittently not being heard - is the same. Assuming that the same iPhone 7 (or iOS) fault is at the root of both types of instances, that - it seems to me - would rule out the microphones as the problem.

Hi Ebulient,

I totally agree it's not a microphone problem.

It's absolutely a software issue: I think a conflict of software with motion sensors and any other sensor you may have in the iPhone 7 and how this all interacts through software. They added even one more mic compared to the iPhone 6S (now 4 mics instead of 3). That's why I did not move back to iPhone 6S yet. As I do think the guys at Apple will fix it. A bit unfortunate for the Apple guys they are exchanging so many technically perfectly fine iPhone 7's for new ones, which is not solving anything at the moment as the problem is in the iOS software for sure. Quite a costly service procedure in the long run for them. But ok, most important it will be fixed soon for all iPhone 7 users. Eagerly awaiting an update ;)

The guys of Apple are well informed that the mic is not faulty. It's how it all interacts, hence the software.

Hold on a bit longer ;)

Thank you! I turned off the rear mic on my phone because people receiving my phone calls said that I sounded broken up, muffled, and echoed so I tried what you suggested and it solved my phone call issues but I'm still experiencing static noise when I'm recording video or audio with or without the EarPods on. This is really frustrating I spent so much money on this phone only to get a faulty product :/

I just hope that it's more of a software issue than a hardware one.

(UPDATE)

Alright so after turning off the rear mic helped with call quality I have now run into another issue and though it happens randomly I still find it somewhat annoying, yesterday I was receiving a phone call that i answered normally (phone close to ear) but I couldn't hear the other person on the phone so asked them to call again because I couldn't hear them at all they did and again nothing yet curiously enough they could hear me :/ I told them that I was going to call back instead and the call worked perfectly. Now I am really starting to believe it's a software issue because I've done mic checks and this brings me to problem number two...

Earpods/Audio and Video recording issues:

Now as I said I have been doing mic checks and almost all work perfectly fine until you enable the rear mic and everything goes back to sounding muffled, no problem I can just disable that and I can live without the noise cancellation feature, BUT I discovered that if you connect your EarPods and record audio with them you get static and voice distortion. At first I thought that perhaps the EarPods were faulty but to further check I used a pair of EarPods with the 3.5mm jack and used the little adapter to connect them to the lightning jack, these are my used ones that I have been using for over a year and work perfectly fine when I record on my iPad Air and i got the same voice distortion with my old pair as with the new ones.

I really hope we get a software update that fixes these issues soon as it seems that more and more people are having similar issues and it's becoming quite a headache for us.

Hi Mr.Aam,

Thank you for your work and that report.

Could you post that video you mentioned somewhere or at least just the snippet with the sound cutting out? Or even just the audio portion?

Why do people think it is a software problem? We are all running the exact same software (unless slightly out of date). The software does not differ. The only variable that could differ between working and non working phones is hardware I think?

It is possible there are different hardware versions which interact differently with the software and a software fix could provide a solution, but at this juncture that is still essentially a hardware issue.

It could be a settings issue too as suggested, but I think if that were the case we'd have a solution on this thread. Everything points to a hardware issue it seems? I could be wrong but just curious why people think its not a hardware issue. I briefly had another iPhone 7 Plus (my girlfriend and I switched before she decided on a Google Pixel) and during when I had hers everything worked perfectly.

thanks for insights, I'm in line right now to get a replacement phone.

BP

Hi brendanp777,

Thank you.

The reason why I think it's software is because first of all it passes all advanced and seperate hardware tests.

Next, the mic cutting out effect does not happen when you use the phone in a similar way - holding it to your ear and the movement and all - while recording a voice message only. At playback no cut outs are noticed.

Therefore I think the hardware is fine. But the 'orchestration' (hence the software) is challenged and seems to be a little bit buggy in combination with the hardware (configuration).

But I am no Apple engineer. My technical knowledge is limited and I am only just a user with quite some experience by now. As long as it's not really solved you're right ... it can be anything :) it's such a complex device after all.

And regarding the snippet ... I don't have this video locally. The Apple guy recorded me remotely on his desktop by accessong my desktop (amazing technology these days) ... but to be honest I also don't need to become instantly famous as the mic-iPhone7-guy-snippet-chief ... XD

Take care, hold on, fingers crossed and let's hope for a quick and permanent solution soon.

Well I was told by apple rep that it was hardware issue but yet another senior rep said software? SIRI and dictation is not working, Not able to hear what I am requesting. I have had this phone two-three week took me 3 months to get phone. I have an appointment to bring phone in on 3rd. One rep said its a known issue and their techs have been able to fix issue once brought in. I hope so.

So just got done backing up phone to itunes and restoring. Now its all fixed!! Maybe try it fixed my problem. They thought it was microphone issue(hardware) was software issue.

Hi B0065,

Great to hear that you had your siri & dictation issue fixed.

Though it appears that this is a different issue than what the mic-cutting-out-topic is about as discussed here.

The users here don't have iPhone7 problems with siri & dictation. They have iPhone7 problems while making and receiving calls.

Nevertheless, great that you have been able to fix your iPhone siri & dictation problem.

When you do find the proper topic about that problem within these Apple communities, it's good to post it there once more or start a new topic for users to find it so they can read about your experienced problem plus your solution and help others with that.

Yes I posted this in the right thread.Because that is what apple support thought was my problem was the Microphone was cutting out. So it was a software issue.

Was your prob resolved? I have recd a replacement phone and have made two trips to Apple Store. Still have the same issue

Keypad issue has happened to me as well!

On my 2nd phone and 2 Genius Bar visits. :(

Thank you for your help in getting this issue resolved

I think this is trickling down. Apple seems to be contacted everyone that has gone to their store with these issues.