iPad iPad Air and International FaceTime

[ET iPhone Home]

So my parents bought the iPad Air and they're both loving it. The only drawback is that when they FaceTime me Internationally, any Face Time calls made after the first call will not connect. We can hear each others' devices ring (I have a 4S), but will drop as soon as one of us picks up the call.

The only way for our calls to connect is if my parents reboots their iPad Air after each FaceTime call.

Has this been happening to anyone? Is there any harm in rebooting every time? Normal or un-normal? Usually, my parents will close the Smart Case (also by Apple) to allow their iPA to go into sleep mode, hence it's having to be shut down every time, prior to each Face Time call.

The network people where they got their sim recommends that a "reboot" is the only way to troubleshoot this issue, because Data where they are visiting is not very good.

The calls are being made internationally from different parts of Asia.

Thanks for any feedback you guys can share on this.

 

[Night Spring]

I FaceTime with my mom all the time -- she's in Japan and I'm in US -- and we never had this problem. We are both on wifi, however, haven't tried it over cellular.

 

[Stuke00]

Sounds like an issue with the network

 

[donnaw]

My husband works overseas and most of the time he has really bad wifi. We solved the issue by only using the voice option (i.e., turning off the camera by pressing the Home button). Takes less bandwidth.

Having said that, even voice-only FaceTime takes a bit of bandwidth, so when his bandwidth is really, really bad we use voice-only Skype. Most of the time when FaceTime can't connect Skype will.

The other thing to try might be a VPN on their side. Find one with US or UK servers (he uses Express VPN). Again, my husband and I have found this has solved some of our connection issues, especially when he is in a country that frowns on the use of FaceTime/Skype (and there are more of those than one might think).

 

[Fattytail]

This sounds like a network issue, not an ipad issue. I FaceTime internationally with friends and family all over the world all the time. Never yet run into an issue.

 

[Conan86]

My husband works overseas and most of the time he has really bad wifi. We solved the issue by only using the voice option (i.e., turning off the camera by pressing the Home button). Takes less bandwidth.

Having said that, even voice-only FaceTime takes a bit of bandwidth, so when his bandwidth is really, really bad we use voice-only Skype. Most of the time when FaceTime can't connect Skype will.

The other thing to try might be a VPN on their side. Find one with US or UK servers (he uses Express VPN). Again, my husband and I have found this has solved some of our connection issues, especially when he is in a country that frowns on the use of FaceTime/Skype (and there are more of those than one might think).

For your case, you do know that you can use FaceTime Audio with iOS 7 now right? It works the same like what you're doing except it does voice only immediately, and you get an interface like a normal phone.

For OP's problem, I've always been facing problem connecting to FaceTime when I'm on cellular network.. it's just unreliable and I'd suggest looking for a good Wi-Fi and see if the problem persist..

 

[donnaw]

For your case, you do know that you can use FaceTime Audio with iOS 7 now right? It works the same like what you're doing except it does voice only immediately, and you get an interface like a normal phone.

For OP's problem, I've always been facing problem connecting to FaceTime when I'm on cellular network.. it's just unreliable and I'd suggest looking for a good Wi-Fi and see if the problem persist..

I don't have an iPhone. But on the iPad this has always been possible simply by pressing the Home button. It turns off the video but leaves the audio. However, even in that mode Skype audio only seems to require a lot less bandwidth. Most of the time his bandwidth registers in the ks -not even a 1mb. Skype functions at this level, not real well but we can at least have a conversation. FaceTime only connects once in a while and can't seem to hold the connection. Considering where he is, this really is a first world problem in a third world environment.

Plus he's not on iOS 7 and I have no plans to install it on his 3. He doesn't have the bandwidth to download updates and in my opinion it's not stable enough yet and I'm not going to saddle him with it and possibily leave him without a usable iPad until he gets back in April. It's his only form of entertainment. iOS 6 runs fine for him right now.

I have to add that it really irks me that immediately (that same night) when he got home right before Thanksgiving Apple downloaded the install files for 7. This takes away about 3gb of storage I would be filling up with movies and TV shows. 'Irks' is the nicest thing I can write on a forum. The appropriate word to describe my real feelings isn't allowed.

 

[slffl]

My husband works overseas and most of the time he has really bad wifi. We solved the issue by only using the voice option (i.e., turning off the camera by pressing the Home button). Takes less bandwidth.
.

It might use less bandwidth, but you'll probably get better audio if you just make a 'Facetime Audio' call. I prefer calling people using Facetime Audio anyway. It sounds WAY better than cellular calls.

 

[donnaw]

It might use less bandwidth, but you'll probably get better audio if you just make a 'Facetime Audio' call. I prefer calling people using Facetime Audio anyway. It sounds WAY better than cellular calls.

You misunderstood my post. FaceTime either won't connect or immediately drops the call. It's not about which sounds better, it's about just being able to connect.

And I'll be honest, if and when we do get FaceTime to work (we do use it when he's someplace with bandwidth) the audio is really about the same. The video on FaceTime is much better though.