Microphone not working on iPhone 7

SAME except AT&T said that they are tracking all phones with similar issue. My daughters did the same. Mine started when I did the most recent update. I am out of warranty, but have insurance. AT&T escalated my service to Apple. Apple denied that anyone else is having this issue and told me that I likely got water in the speaker and told me it would be $385 to fix it. AND couldn't tell me when I would get my phone back. I took my issue to Nations Cellular (a reputable service in Hot Springs... Always is honest and tells you if it can or can't be fixed... with up front prices.) He said this is a regular occurring problem with 7 plus and he has little success with fixing it. He said that it keeps appearing to be a BAD CHIP. And that usually happens on the updates.. He said that it is NOT my speaker. He recommended using my insurance to replace it if I choose to stay with APPLE. I am so frustrated. I keep my phone safe and in a case.

Everything about my phone still works except the calls and voice memos. I can't use the headphones that came with the phone (the ones you plug in) BUT I can use my car speakers and I can use my bluetooth headset. So SCREW the repair and insurance. I am so DONE with the scamming tactics of Apple and each phone company. UGH!!

It costed me 27$ to get it repaired from a local repair shop in Mumbai, India. If the phone takes long time to boot in addition to mic & ear piece not working, then Audio IC will have to be replaced in order to fix it. If the booting process is normal and only mic and ear piece is not working, then the Audio IC just need to be reballed.

Hope this helps.

Well! I did a heck of a lot of research on this tonight. Hours. I had an iphone 7 in my cart ready to buy. I have decided not to buy it. I headed over to ebay and am either buying a used iphone 6s (I had good luck with them but they are getting really old now) or a google pixel 1st gen to get me by. My very old iphone is now dying and I need a phone-even a temporary used one.

I ran into an article that interviewed 2 experts in the phone repair business. They did say this is ultimately a hardware issue, yes. Due to a design 'flaw' as they stated it is, the connections to the audio IC are prone to separating or breaking. This is either due to drops as someone earlier stated, tho they could have happened a long time back. It could also be due to phone bending, such as carrying it your pockets. Although a break may not occur right away due to a drop or bending, it of course weakens the connections breaks that little trail along the board underneath the chip (dont know what they are called sorry lol). Over time and continued use, they eventually break. One of the 'experts' also stated that while a software update could cause this issue, it was correctly called out again by another poster here, that the heat generated by updates (remember how hot the phone gets when updating) can also generate enough heat to deliver the final fatal blow to the connections by expanding them and of course, causing a break. This also lends credibility to those saying Apple started to do the right thing, but eventually withdrew once most care programs and warranties started expiring, knowing these issues were coming and were going to get much worse-and boy have they. With warranty or care plans expired, they could demand a fee to fix or tell you to buy a new phone-you're out of coverage.

I am a long time Apple customer. Let me say, I recently had a very disheartening unrelated complaint last year over, of all things, an iTunes pre-order. Something went crazy and when the time came for the release, iTunes kept telling me it wasn't time yet. Due to the way this particular release was done, in increments with billing, I had paid for the entire album with the charges for the early release tracks... They put me through heck for 2 weeks over that issue-having me delete, reinstall iTunes, reboot my computer, send screen shots. Eventually they gave me a refund of $2... the cost of the release was already covered, but there were 9 more tracks, which I was forced to buy ala carte (no finish my album there!). So I had to pay double - sound familiar? Only had 2 issues in the past-way back in the day. Then we had a 1st gen ipad that went berzerk. Took it to Apple Store, and they replaced on the spot. Before that, had purchased an ipod shuffle that also went berzerk. They actually sent us a replacement "overnight" along with a return FedEx envelope to send them back the old one! THAT was customer service. And that is why we have been with them for so long.

I am so saddened to see whats happened since Mr. Jobs passing. Battery issues (several!), touch disease issues, and this with the iPhone 7 and many others - and Apple dragging their feet, denying responsibility.... This scared me right out of a purchase of a new iPhone 7. Thinking back to my experience last year, and reading what you all have been through for what is definitely a design flaw, I just couldn't justify taking the risk, and I am not able to afford an 8 or X right now.

I guess we all have decisions to make. I am going to wish everyone luck and go back to deciding which used phone to buy. I just thought I'd be long winded and relay my findings. So if you don't want to buy a new phone or pay for repairs, it is said you are most likely on borrowed time with your iphone 7.

Fascinating. Very same issue. Iphone 7. Did a full clean install--without restoring from icloud. So as a new phone. Latest IOS. Still not able to record a voice memo, make a FaceTime call nor can anyone hear me if they call me. After being on a support chat with Apple, they transferred me to a Manager who looked into it. Finally he arrived at this comment, "So, right now, we are working on a fix for this and hopefully it’s available as an update soon."

He suggested I use a Bluetooth device to get by until a fix or to simply buy a new phone.

Nice. Paye $650+ for the iPhone 7 2 years ago and now am expected to either get a new one or deal without being able to place calls--until a software fix is in.

My confidence in Apple just took a bit hit. Sure, they may think I'm locked into their eco system, but if you can't support paying customers with a "reasonably" quality and useful product (i.e. a cell phone that you can use to talk to other people with) then why would anyone be loyal? I've since purchased a Galaxy phone (used) since it is working and affordable until this POSSIBLY gets fix.

Not happy....

My iPhone 7 has the same problem. Took it to Genius Bar. It is costing me $319 to repair with Genius Bar.

This is my second phone in a row that is failing within 2 years of purchase. Previous phone 6 had touch disease.

Apple really dropped the ball on this one. Tried out a refurb'd 7 Plus w/ Virgin Mobile back in early January. Same issue....phone updated when I booted up, then it promptly bricked the microphone when updating to iOS 12. Wasted 3 hours of Virgin Mobile trying to figure out what was going on, with them just sending me to Apple Genius Bar....and of course the "genius" there put my phone on her diagnostic tester. And within 2 minutes, she pretty much said...."yeah this has been an issue since a previous update"! I think she realized what she said and then quickly tried to "Ooops" it away, but it was a pretty frank admission that this was on them. "No longer under warranty" as a refurb....so they weren't about to throw me any bones. Nothing wrong with the phone until the update. The sucky thing is I had to wait around to see that 'genius'....when someone probably could have just told me what I needed to hear.

Good thing Virgin Mobile had a 30-day money back guarantee....so I promptly returned that bad boy to Indiana. And glad that it finally forced me off VM as a carrier. Just ponied up and joined my family plan, traded in my SE, and walked away with an XR for $450. So in a round about way....things worked out ok.

Huge debacle on Apple's part. They can't afford more blunders like that with one of their bread and butter products...because they are losing ground with better versions of Windows and Chromebooks floating around now. The computer section of the Apple store is gradually getting spaced out to the iPad and iPhone.

Same problem! After a week of calls where the other person couldn’t hear me and my service provider determining it wasn’t the service, I went to Apple. Three hours later and several diagnostic tests they couldn’t find anything wrong but gave me a new phone. Same problem with the new phone but today I saw the articles about the iOS 11.3 problems and went back to Apple. They were not willing to acknowledge that it could be a hardware problem caused by the software update but, again, gave me a new phone. So we’ll see how this one does. It’s hard to determine when the mic problem isn’t consistent. Apple needs to take responsibility for the problem and provide a solution.

I have the same problem back in august. I was on my trip to Orlando and when i pull my phone out i could not video anything. Next thing I know is it couldnt even make phone call. My trip was ruined because I could not film my momments. After the incident,aling with the faulty mic, the phone takes more thAn 10 mins to reboot . I didnt bother to try to reach Apple because I have been reading the comments and have seen no good out of it.

I was told at the apple store that they would swap it out for a brand new one for $349 but it’s not guaranteed it won’t happen again. And I was also told that a repair wouldn’t fix the issue. Not sure why they told me that.

I have the issues too, just saw an article on idrop talking about it. It looks to be related to latest SW update messing with the HW. I took the phone in last week (05/04/2018). They ran a few tests, at first, device not supported for them to run test, then they did a network reset and it helped for the test (some type of audio test), it passed them, they said you are good, tired a couple fo calls, worked, about 5 minutes later, got a call from wife, same issues, went back and this time after multiple resets etc, everything failed. Just opened a new Genius bar ticket to have reviewed. As an FYI, you can use bluetooth and it does take calls etc. (temp. solution). It is just from the physical phone that we cannot.

"Is this going to cost me a replacement?"

Check your warranty > https://checkcoverage.apple.com

And make sure the iOS software on your iPhone is up to date.

Tap Settings > General > Software Update

Your iPhone 7 should be running iOS 11.3.

If necessary, you can make an appointment at an Apple Genius Barin advance.

• My mic problem starts when i updated to 11.4
• I chatted with apple support
• went to genius bar, want to charge me $349 to do a swap since they stopped replacing out of warranty for this issue for free at the start of july. No one can downgrade me back to 11.2
• chatted again with senior support who set up a call with customer relations
• got call from customer relation (***) then another call from senior support (***) who offered me a $200 gift card that only works on accessories and that's the best he can offer. because the internal document shows the free replacement is only for 11.3 and 11.3.1 iphone 7 devices that ended in May and not for 11.4 devices.
• Told me to send a feedback at Feedback - iPhone - Apple under Software/Hardware Compatibility and hopefully there will be enough people to send it so Apple *might* agree to replace it.

I am going to keep trying, but i recommend you guys submit the issue in feedback to get Apple to notice us.
[Edited by Host]

No es posible que mi iPhone esté dando problemas *** el microfono y no quieran sustituirme por otro o arreglarlo. Nunca me he quejado, he sido fiel *** la marca, pero creo que es hora de pasarme a Huawei

Updated to iOS 11.3 never boot to home screen. Given to Apple service center they are also unable to do anything of phone asking heavy amount for replacement phone

I took it back and installed iOS 11.4 and I was able to boot to home screen but microphone disabled not working

Apple pathetic should take responsibility for their curse of iOS 11.3 Apple lost their one more customer for life and will be increasing the number

Apple is now been money minded only earlier it was better very disappointing running far from their responsibility

Just had this problem occur on my daughter's iPhone 7. The local Apple store were not interested at all. They gave me 2 options, £309 for a new 7 (with, one assumes, the exact same fault) or £220 trade in on a new phone. I spent half an hour with the team leader trying to understand why Apple are not more interested in its existing customers, particularly as I know Apple has covered the costs of this repair in the past. Not surprisingly he only had the corporate lines to respond with including out of warranty, semantics relating to a fault or design flaw and recourse to the ombudsmen if I wanted to complain! Very frustrating and as a long term Apple customer with 15 current devices in the house, I'm seriously considering whether Apple will get any more of my hard-earned cash! Who in the Apple organisation is interested in post-sales customer experience?