Some Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra Users Experiencing Microphone Issues

[JM]

Worst new devices release EVER.

Yeah was starting to read comments, and thinking the exact same thing: I can’t remember ever seeing this many articles of products “breaking” after a release.

There was “you’re holding it wrong”, and then iPhone 6 folding easily in YouTube videos. But nothing like this where there was widespread bugs and feature AND phone breaking issues.

 

[chrono1081]

These kinds of constant issues are a direct result of the "we need a new release every year" attitude in the industry. Good software development takes time, writing code isn't the same as writing a document or email, not even close. Unfortunately project management types don't really understand that and just push and push and push and want a "good enough" feature release that can be fixed later.

Things get released, they get bad reception, the devs get discouraged and burnt out, and project management just keeps pushing.

 

[falkon-engine]

Every year apple proves the wisdom and power of waiting for at least the *.2 release. Sometimes even later, like Monterey 12.4 and later… earlier versions had terrible bugs with thunderbolt 4 docks and sleep/wake. Kernel panics.

 

[ghanwani]

Every year apple proves the wisdom and power of waiting for at least the *.2 release. Sometimes even later, like Monterey 12.4 and later… earlier versions had terrible bugs with thunderbolt 4 docks and sleep/wake. Kernel panics.

These bugs and glitches are what make the ownership experience so endearing. It’s what builds memories.

 

[WWPD]

In before “this would not have happened if Steve Jobs was still around”

If it did he would probably be over at the team who implemented it giving them an earful. Tim probably tried to source the cheapest mics they could find.

 

[Devnul0]

Lol. The OG HomePod is the most sophisticated piece of engineering feat Apple has ever created. The beamforming mics on those things are absolutely bonkers. They’re so good that they’re able to pick up sound from the other side of my house and I have a pretty big house (just for reference).

Even on the HomePod Mini the microphone is literally too good. I hold up my phone and give Siri a command and it does nothing, instead I faintly hear a voice from a room on a different floor on the far side of the house saying it couldn't quite hear that. And they could fix that, because the phone in my hand most certainly could hear what I was saying, but they just can't make it work right in the face of those sensitive microphones. And if the HPM is able to make out what I said, then the timer or alarm (usually what I'm doing) gets set on it, instead of my phone, which is then useless.

 

[0134168]

Yeah was starting to read comments, and thinking the exact same thing: I can’t remember ever seeing this many articles of products “breaking” after a release.

There was “you’re holding it wrong”, and then iPhone 6 folding easily in YouTube videos. But nothing like this where there was widespread bugs and feature AND phone breaking issues.

And include new Apple Watch 8, new Airpods Pro 2 an new Iphone 14. 🤦‍♂️

 

[AppleTheorist]

Huh that's really weird, wonder what causing it

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

All it will take to crate a huge PR nightmare for Apple is just one person in the USA not being able to use the microphone for an emergency situation.

 

[Corsig]

Please stop saying WFH has no impact on all these issues

 

[pips7000]

Thanks for letting us know guys just tried ringing my wife on her Iwatch 8
Would you believe it no sound turn the watch off and turn it back on it started to work
Sort your self out Apple it should work straight out the box.

 

[BenGoren]

I’ve been experiencing this on my Ultra. I tentatively think it’s the Siri “Raise to Talk” feature grabbing the microphone and not letting it go; I disabled that yesterday afternoon and haven’t had it happen since.

I turned it back on this morning; we’ll see if it becomes a problem again.

b&

 

[Ethosik]

Please stop saying WFH has no impact on all these issues

You must be new here. 2013 rMBP and 2013 Mac Pro discussions were “NEVER EVER BUY A REV A PRODUCT FROM APPLE!!!!” with how many issues people face.

WFH is not the cause.

 

[FunkyTang]

Does anyone have a reliable way to reproduce this issue?

 

[BenGoren]

Does anyone have a reliable way to reproduce this issue?

I haven’t been able to trigger it, but the quickest way to check if it’s happening is to open the Noise app. (Maybe the Noise complication?) If all is good, it works as normal; if the bug is in effect, it complains that something else is using the microphone.

If I knew a way to see what code has an exclusive lock on the microphone, I’d already have pinpointed the problem.

But: I’d suggest turning off Siri “Raise to Speak,” giving it a while (maybe restart the watch), and then turn the feature back on (if it’s something you use). I’m cautiously suggesting that fixed it for me.

I first suspected handwashing detection was the culprit, but the problem persisted even after I turned that off. But maybe it was some sort of interaction between the two? Anyway, plenty of handwashes and a few Siri commands with no problems this morning, so it seems to be possibly resolved for me, maybe.

b&

 

[Corsig]

You must be new here. 2013 rMBP and 2013 Mac Pro discussions were “NEVER EVER BUY A REV A PRODUCT FROM APPLE!!!!” with how many issues people face.

WFH is not the cause.

I've been here for years my friend (in fact I joined a year before you did). This update cycle has to be one of the worst in recent times. Seems like every product and update had major flaws. I'm a huge apple guy with more products my wife cares to allow me to buy so don't discount what I'm saying because you want work from home yourself

 

[Ethosik]

I've been here for years my friend (in fact I joined a year before you did). This update cycle has to be one of the worst in recent times. Seems like every product and update had major flaws. I'm a huge apple guy with more products my wife cares to allow me to buy so don't discount what I'm saying because you want work from home yourself

This is not new. I always avoid new Apple products due to this. In fact it was my biggest worry with the new laptops and the Mac Studio. I always had my finger on the cancel button if issues came up. And I really should have canceled my studio order due to the high pitch noise it generates.

Show me proof that work from home caused this. We have years of proof that WFH is not the cause. There have been bad launches in the past. Catalina 5 kernel panics a day? Snow leopard deleting all my files? 2016 laptop horrible keyboards? It’s Snow Leopard alone that caused me to NEVER store data on my internal drive.

 

[The_Martini_Cat]

OMG I just whispered to Siri from across the room and it worked. OG Homepods. Never had the mic problem with a Series 5 or 6 watch but would not want to experience it. Does this mean i have to wait for the Ultra 2+?🍸🙀

 

[RalfTheDog]

…i wonder how many of the features managed to escape in the last stage of software verification.

When it's something that happens to 1 in 128 or 1 in 1024 devices, it won't always show up in testing.

Huh that's really weird, wonder what causing it

My first thought was a bug in the noise filtering. It thinks that the person talking is background noise and filters it out. The fact that you see the same problem with the high noise level warning feature makes me think that some other process is grabbing hold of the microphones and won't let anything else use them. My guess, Russia managed to sneak some kind of spyware into the devices. (The Russian malware bit was a joke.)

Has anyone tried backing up their watch, erasing it, then reinstalling?


___________________________

I just had the same problem with Homekit.

"Siri, Open the garage door."

"I am sorry Dave. I can't here you."

"My name is Steve. (Louder) Siri, open the garage door."

"I am sorry I can't process your request to open the garage door because, I can't here what you are saying. Would you like to play a game of chess or perhaps I can sing a song."

"Daisy, Daisy..."

My apologies to the ghost of A.C. Clark.

 

[_Spinn_]

Well this isn't good. Hopefully Apple can issue a software fix for this like they did for the iPhone 14 Pro cameras.

 

[easy4lif]

It has to do with sub-dials. Had same exact issue as everyone else. On a Reddit forum, someone posted that removing the noise sub-dial from your watch face fixes the issue.

No this isn’t perfect and Apple should fix this asap

 

[Aston441]

Lol. The OG HomePod is the most sophisticated piece of engineering feat Apple has ever created. The beamforming mics on those things are absolutely bonkers. They’re so good that they’re able to pick up sound from the other side of my house and I have a pretty big house (just for reference). The speakers on the iPhone 14 Pro are crystal clear and have an incredibly wide soundstage. The APP2’s are very pleasant to listen to without developing any ear fatigue. Apple’s sound engineering is close to stellar and I’m not an Apple fanboy.

And ALL AirPods, including current versions, have been repeatedly proven to have crappier mics than a typical $30 pair of generic Bluetooth headphones from Amazon. For $200, or more, and the best marketing Apple has ever produced. Ever.

Apple had their hand forced with the mics on the HomePod, by Amazon, who caught them with their pants down. It took them THREE YEARS to come out with a terrible copy, that to this day STILL has far less functionality. Amazon by then was selling their beamformed mic Echo dot for $30 on sale. The HomePod was $300. Even with the finest marketing Apple has ever made, still couldn’t sell that functionally useless junk.

 

[ocdeal]

It has to do with sub-dials. Had same exact issue as everyone else. On a Reddit forum, someone posted that removing the noise sub-dial from your watch face fixes the issue.

No this isn’t perfect and Apple should fix this asap

I don’t have the noise complication on any of my sub-dials (or even on any watch face), yet I still have the mic issue.

 

[svish]

Hope it is not a hardware issue and a software update can fix it soon.

 

[austinted]

My Apple Apple Watch Ultra was also having a microphone problem. There was no response to Siri commands and the Noise App got stuck at 80 dB and did not respond to louder sounds. I tried rebooting, unpairing&re-pairing, and uninstalling the Noise app. Nothing worked. This seemed to happen after taking a shower with the watch. The noise app complained about loud noise and stopped taking measurements. I had the microphone issue after this although I can't know for sure - I don't walk around testing the microphone constantly.

Suddenly after 2 days the swipe up/down motions no longer worked. I rebooted the watch and magically the microphone was working again. A while later I did a test and ran water over the watch and bam, the microphone was not working once again. Symptoms were the same although now the Noise app was stuck at 50dB.

After a few hours the microphone started working again. The water test instantly recreated the problem. Each time I did this, the microphone came back to life quicker and quicker. I'm wondering if there is some sort of manufacturing residue that created problems and was slowly getting washed away.

I worked with Apple support. I gave them a bunch of info and a video of the problem taking place (from microphone working to the problem recreate). I already had an appointment at the Apple store and the watch was exchanged at that time.

No issue on the replacement watch so far. I did the water test and things were fine afterwards.