What to do if the microphone on your phone does not work?

Disturbance and crackling during phone calls, a lack of responsiveness of the device to voice commands or the fact that you cannot hear your voice at all when making calls are all signs of microphone problems. In today's guide, we suggest what to do if your phone's microphone is not working properly.

Remove dirt from the microphone

Dirt and dust accumulated in the microphone is often the cause of problems with its proper functioning. Remove dirt from the phone's ports with compressed air, a dry and clean toothbrush or a brush (see also: How do I clean my phone speaker?).

Switch the phone off and on

A soft reset can help solve many problems with mobile devices. Most smartphones can be restarted by holding down the power and volume up button simultaneously for about 10 - 15 seconds. If the above does not restart your smartphone, try holding down the power and volume down button or the power button alone.

Uninstall the suspect application

If your phone's microphone problem has occurred recently, it's possible that it's being caused by one of your recently installed apps. Remove those programs that you think may be causing the malfunction and check whether this action has had the desired effect.

Check if it really is a microphone problem

Newer smartphones have two microphones - a main microphone and a secondary microphone. If the problem occurs when making phone calls, but goes away when the hands-free mode is activated, this means that the fault is with the main microphone. If, on the other hand, the problem only occurs when using audio recording applications (e.g. voice recorder), this indicates a malfunction of the secondary microphone. When the problem occurs in both cases, it is most likely a failure of the speakers and not the microphone. (See then: No sound from the phone - what to do?).

If the above tips have not had the desired effect, the best thing to do is to take your device to a service centre or operator's premises. Specialists will certainly help you to solve the problem.