Iphone 5, how to fix no sound in and out during calls?

[iMore Question]

Everything else works except for calls.

Repeating back voicemail works for both top speaker and speaker phone. All music, games, recording, etc works.

However when someone calls me I cannot hear them and they cannot hear me even if I put on speakerphone.

When I call someone, I can't hear the ringing either.

I've tried software restores on both itunes and the iphone settings but so far the issue has not gone away.

2 recent events might have caused the issue.

1. I have kept the iphone in a lifebox until a couple days ago where I removed the lifebox, it has stayed in the lifebox for briefly over 1 year, I've also been using headphone jack alot recently when I go to gym. I am unsure though if it stopped working slightly before or after I removed it from the lifebox.

2. I've recently just updated the phone to the latest IOS 7 version before it stopped working though not sure if I made a successful call or not after update (now my phone is IOS 8 but issue still persists)

Does anyone know what might be causing this issue?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Try making a call using the EarPods and see if you and the recipient can hear each other. Afterwards, detach the EarPods and then make a voice call and see if you're able to without a problem.