iphone 8 poor/sensitive mic during call

I found this interesting post on a similar mic issue thread for the iPhone X (thanks to brentwoodkennyg):

I sound muffled or underwater, but only sometimes. Other calls are perfect. Tried all of the fixes in this forum - Network reset, LTE off/on, full reset, wi-fi calls off. Noise cancellation off. With and without cover. Got a replacement phone from the Apple store. None of it helped and now I know why...

The issue turned out to be how I was holding the phone. There are three microphones on the X and one of them is located by the camera on the back of the phone. Even though I didn't cover it while holding the X (with fingers and thumb on the sides of the phone, I apparently was close enough to make that mic behave differently. When I move my phone-holding position in the same grip to the bottom part of the phone, the problems vanish. I have run through a series of test with my "complainers" and this seems to pinpoint the root cause. It's either user error or a design flaw, but there is a simple workaround. Hold the phone at the bottom of the case and definitely not near the top. Problem Solved!

Update as to why this works: Apple has designed noise cancellation into the talking side of the phone. (This is different than the noise cancellation in the Accessibility settings - those are for the listening not speaking). Anyway, there is a small mic on the back of the X by the camera. It's purpose is to listen for ambient noise (think crowded bar) and to cancel that noise from what it hears from the mics on the front at bottom of the phone. Those mics hear your voice talking plus they hear the ambient noise (crowded bar). The software "subtracts" the bar sound from what it hears on the front and the listener never hears the bar noise - just your voice. (You can test this by completely covering the back mic hole with your finger - then the listener hears the bar noise and has trouble hearing your voice).

Anyway, this is a really great feature - except that if you hold the phone near the top, it channels part of your voice into that back mic and it ends up canceling out all or part of your voice. So I have to hold my phone at the bottom and things work fine. This also explains problems with folding phone cases and issues when you are holding the phone between neck and shoulder.

I purchased X17 iPhone 8 for the company I work for.

2 iPhones had problems where people couldn't hear them.

We always upgrade to the latest ios after I have tested it first to ensure it doesn't have an adverse effect on the apps we use with it.

Apple have replaced both faulty phones and we don't have the issue anymore.

The two phones that we did have issues with were high usage for us at approximately 100 calling minutes per day.

The only way you could reduce the problem while in a call was to put the phone on speaker phone.

We could almost mask the issue on the faulty phones by turning the 'Phone Noise Cancellation' off and sliding the 'Audio Volume Balance' 80% to the R (it could have been L, I can't remember sorry). This is under Settings - General - Accessibility.

The best option by far is to send the phone for repair.

I have read a lot of negativity in regards to this issue and understand it is very frustrating when you rely so heavily on these devices. My suggestion is to follow Apples repair process then you should be sorted like we have.

I appear to have (hopefully) fixed mine.

You will know if your mic is ok by going to voice memos and recording then playing back - if thats ok then its not a hardware issue.

Mine was good playback so did following;

1. Removed screen protector - there is a mic at the top at the front also so if not properly fitted can cause issues.

2. Turned off VoLTE - this is supposed to improve call quality by boosting over 4G but was doing the opposite on EE UK 4G

Goto Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options > Enable 4G and change to Data only from Voice and Data.

Hope this helps others. Had many calls today and all said quality OK as opposed to being asked to repeat words due to poor signal.

Dave.

Ok. I had the same problem and i talked to apple service, they told me to do this:

First upgrade to the last version

Second do reset network settings

Third reset all settings

Last erase all content and settings.

Dond forget to backup the iphone

After every step try to see if it helped.

Seems it helped for now. Try

I contacted the Apple support on twitter by direkt message. They have been helpful.

I erased my phone and tested it. The problem still existed.

So I restored it with my back up and of course the problem is still there.

Apple customer support phoned me and could hear the problem first hand. They have booked me in for a Genius Bar visit on Tuesday. Their suggestion is to replace the unit and they say it is a hardware fault.

I will see what happens on Tuesday and report back.

HAHAHAA..... so I know this is an old post. Buttttt I have the answer to allll of our problems. I also have an iphone8... when holding our phones. Our pinkies. Cover the microphone on the bottom left. Which looks like speaker but it’s not. Anyway it blocks the sound... try not covering it up and watch what happens 😂😂 magic

I had the same problem with my new iPhone Xr.

See my post:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250066528

Getting a new SIM card from my operator seems to have fixed it somehow.

I no longer get complaints from recipients not hearing me or that I sound muffled or distorted.

Try to get a new SIM if you haven't already.

I think i fixed it in a different way. I turned off the noise cancellation, and since then its working fine.

I believe I found a fix. I have been arguing with Apple. They have been awful for two weeks. I got lucky and figured it out myself.

The fix was very simple Settings/Privacy/Microphone THEN SHUT OFF ALL THE GREEN BUTTONS.

Let me know if this works ***, you can test it on me

Guys, it’s microphone problem. It’s on hardware not on software. It’s not gonna fix by updating. End of story. I had the same problem. Had to change my phone in order to fix it. My 8 plus was problematical now my X is working perfectly.

I can confirm this is an issue with iPhone X which I just discovered on my first conference call with it. I do conference calls several times a week and never had this problem with the iPhone 6s this X replaced.

My use case: on the 6s I would plug in earbuds and use the phone's built in mics to do the call. It worked awesome! Tried the same with the IPhone X using a headphone/charge port adapter, same earbuds. I have a quiet office environment from where I make the calls.

My symptoms with the iPhone X:

1. with earbuds plugged in, people complain they can hardly hear me.
2. As soon as I unplug the earbuds and use the "speaker" function (from the call screen), everyone says they can hear me normally

Based on the change in audibility transitioning from 1-->2 above, it can't be a hardware issue such as a case. It is either:

1. there are multiple mics, but some get turned off when earbuds are in for some reason (bug)
2. as others point out, there maybe something wrong with the noise cancellation which for some reason doesn't happen when in speakerphone mode, but happens when earbuds are plugged in (bug)

This is an impactful problem for me. I use the iphone for business and using earbuds for conference calls lets me hear everything much better than through the speaker, especially with offshore conference calls. If it doesn't get corrected, I need to look at a droid phone if I can exchange or definitely on the next go around. If I keep it, it sounds like I may need to invest in some external hardware because of Apple's software problem. It's disappointing Apple is dismissing this as a case problem. Quality and customer service are falling off ever so slightly year over year.

We recently upgraded our company phones from the 6S to 8. 2 of the 16 are experiencing this type of problem. All phones are running 11.2.2 - I have changed out one of the problem phones and so far so good. What have you done to remedy your problem considering you posted this October last year?

Hello,

I have also had this problem, my iPhone 8 has just come back from the apple authorised repair facility.

They inform me that they have performed extensive tests and found nothing wrong. If I find that the problem still exists (it does) then to reset the phone to its factory settings and set it up as a new phone without using a back up. I have not done this yet but plan to do it at the weekend just to see if there is something corrupt in my backup.

My back up has been used on various through the years and I can only assume that the repair facility believe it is corrupted in some way.

Is there anyone who is experiencing this microphone problem that has set up their phone from scratch? (Without using a backup saved in iCloud)

There is a hardware issue with the microphone and a few software glitches sending pics and some other functions with new iPhones. Apparently Apple is not aware of this so I think we all need to try getting there attention. Resets and settings changes are not fixing defective microphone.

The issue first cropped up with the iPhone 7. I went through 3 of those before I finally gave up, and purchased a 6s, which has performed flawlessly from the start.

The iPhone 10 also has its share of identical issues:

Threads:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7681421?start=150&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7668964?start=435&tstart=0

https://forums.att.com/t5/Apple/Poor-call-quality-on-iphone-8/td-p/5287444/page/ 4

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8102715?start=110&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8166665?start=30&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8148391?start=70&tstart=0