Callers can hear me but I can’t hear them

[JM19]

I’m trying to help out a friend with his wife’s iPhone 7 Plus. Symptoms are, when on a call, people can hear her speaking but she cannot hear them. If she uses the speakerphone then everything is fine and she can hear them.

Recently my wife had a somewhat similar issue on her iPhone 7 but the difference was she couldn’t hear anybody and nobody could hear her. She couldn’t use speakerphone either, it was grated out. Turned out to be a major issue that Apple acknowledged as happening to a lot of people and ended up giving my wife a new phone.

With my friend’s wife’s phone though, could it be just an earpiece speaker problem or something else?

Thanks.

 

[Just_Me_D]

It’s possible that the problem lies with having a blown ear speaker, but I can’t say for certain. Have you friend tried rebooting the phone or selecting the ‘reset all settings’ option in the device settings?

 

[Tartarus]

Use an old toothbrush and gently rub it over the speaker mesh.
I’ve had success with a friends phone by doing so.

 

[JM19]

It’s possible that the problem lies with having a blown ear speaker, but I can’t say for certain. Have you friend tried rebooting the phone or selecting the ‘reset all settings’ option in the device settings?

Rebooted the phone and did the following:

On a FaceTime audio call, I can hear the person but the person cannot hear me. If I try speaker, it’s still the same.

But on a FaceTime video call, I can hear the person and the person can hear me.

I also tried recording a voice memo just to make sure the problem wasn’t the same as with my wife as I mentioned originally. I was able to make voice memos.

 

[JM19]

Use an old toothbrush and gently rub it over the speaker mesh.
I’ve had success with a friends phone by doing so.

I’ll try this but would be be very shocked if this worked. Thanks.

 

[Rob Phillips]

Rebooted the phone and did the following:

On a FaceTime audio call, I can hear the person but the person cannot hear me. If I try speaker, it’s still the same.

But on a FaceTime video call, I can hear the person and the person can hear me.

I also tried recording a voice memo just to make sure the problem wasn’t the same as with my wife as I mentioned originally. I was able to make voice memos.

Are you EVER able to hear any sound of the upper speaker? For instance, if you play music or a video is there sound coming out of that speaker or just the lower speaker at the bottom of the phone? Just trying to determine if this is a hardware issue (speaker NEVER makes sound) or a software issue (speaker SOMETIMES makes sound but not every time it’s supposed to).