Help No one can hear me properly on phone calls??

[Safia Bobat]

Hi,
Whenever I call someone from my Samsung galaxy Note 9, I can hear them but they can't hear me properly- my voice is either delayed on their phones or they just can't hear me at all!
I know it has nothing to do with the WiFi because everyone else's phones in my household are working properly.
Can you please advise on how to fix this as I have to call people regularly!
Thank you.

 

[ocnbrze]

is this only on wifi calling? or is it the same when you are away from the house? was it always like this? or all of a sudden? or after an update? and is the phone call like this for everyone? or just certain people?

 

[Dannydet]

It may be hardware related, as in your microphone is dead

 

[Safia Bobat]

is this only on wifi calling? or is it the same when you are away from the house? was it always like this? or all of a sudden? or after an update? and is the phone call like this for everyone? or just certain people?

Thank you for your questions!
It happens mostly occurs on WiFi calling but people have also not been able to hear me on the actual phone in my mobile. It wasn't always like this- this has been happening for 2 weeks. The last time my phone had an update was on the 4th of May 2020 so perhaps that could've made it worse? And yes, it's like this for all people but for half of them, it worked fine for a bit and than they'd tell me they couldn't hear me properly anymore.

It may be hardware related, as in your microphone is dead

It may be hardware related, as in your microphone is dead

Thank you for responding!
So I'd need to get my phone checked and fixed?
A bit difficult due to the current circumstances. Are there any solutions I could try at home?

 

[tommo47]

At this stage I would tend to concentrate on the WiFi calling aspect which is causing the delay that occurs on some calls. Your microphone is clearly not completely dead as the other parties can hear you and a faulty microphone will not cause a delay.

Are you in a poor mobile signal area since you refer to other users in your household who use WiFi calling?

Are you all with same mobile service provider?

 

[ocnbrze]

Thank you for your questions!
It happens mostly occurs on WiFi calling but people have also not been able to hear me on the actual phone in my mobile. It wasn't always like this- this has been happening for 2 weeks. The last time my phone had an update was on the 4th of May 2020 so perhaps that could've made it worse? And yes, it's like this for all people but for half of them, it worked fine for a bit and than they'd tell me they couldn't hear me properly anymore.

well lets start with wifi as @tommo47 suggested. i would reboot your router even though others are fine on wifi. it is the wifi signal to your phone specifically that we are concerned with. rebooting the router might help. it could also be dependent on how many folks are using the wifi at the same time. it could also be your router might need an upgrade soon as well. but lets start with the reboot and go from there.

 

[tommo47]

It is not unusual for WiFi calling to cause some delay, when browsing the web delays occur and your laptop or phone browser hangs for a few seconds. The difference is that telephone conversations are 'of the moment' and any delay in one direction makes it extremely difficult to continue where as when browsing you just wait a few seconds then continue.

Is your broadband good generally speaking?

 

[svim]

Your description of the problem does appear to be with your WiFi connectivity. Keep in mind WiFi reliability is vulnerable to a lot of things, the WiFi signal your router emits is a very, very low power signal so when you use your phone to connect to it there can be a lot of external influences that affect it. Wireless technology is still a convenience measure, it cannot fully replace the consistency of a wired-only network connection.

Anyway, confirm that your WiFi is or isn't an issue. Restart both your phone and your router, those are the two things directly tied to your WiFi connectivity with each other, and a restart of both also reduces the odds your problem is just a one-off glitch. If the same problem occurs after a restart at least you then know there is an actual problem to address.
Now go here and do a basic bandwidth speed test:
https://fast.com/
Let it do a cursory check and then tap on the 'Show more info' button. What are the resulting numbers for Download speed (showing in big letters), for Upload speed, and for Latency (loaded)? All three pertain to something like WiFi Calling because it's an interactive function where your phone is sending and receiving a data stream in real-time. There's a difference when you're doing other things online as there's usually some buffering involved when there are delays -- not as noticeable just using Instagram, a lot more noticeable in a phone conversation.
Also, WiFi reliability is affected a lot by distance. The further away you are from your router, the weaker the signal becomes and that conversely affects the bandwidth speed. If your WiFi Calling is more reliable when you're closer to your router, that's a clear sign it's a matter of just being within your router's effective coverage range.
Install this 'WiFi Analyzer (open source)' app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzer&hl=en_US
Use it to do a check of your router's coverage range by walking through your home in different locations to see if you're getting good coverage everywhere or just in some areas.

 

[mikedt]

Thank you for responding!
So I'd need to get my phone checked and fixed?
A bit difficult due to the current circumstances. Are there any solutions I could try at home?

Maybe, how competent are you with electronics fault finding and repair?

 

[Flappy Thumbs]

If nothing else works did you try to reset to factory settings? If that still doesn't fixes it it may be a hardware problem.

 

[marctronixx]

op, stop using wifi and use cellular only. just because other people with other phones are not having an issue is irrelevant.

what is your carrier? do you know what the latest version firmware you are using?

obviously you have not had this issue since day one of using the phone, so do you recall anything you did to change the phones settings? did you add or remove a program? are you using a screen protector or phone case?

how does the caller on the other end know your voice is "delayed"? are you on a video call and they see your mouth move but dont hear your voice? if this is not the case and its just a voice call, then you are going to have delays in voice calls when you are calling people on different cellular networks.

since you have people in your house with a phone, did you do test calls with them to see what they heard?

 

[Safia Bobat]

At this stage I would tend to concentrate on the WiFi calling aspect which is causing the delay that occurs on some calls. Your microphone is clearly not completely dead as the other parties can hear you and a faulty microphone will not cause a delay.

Are you in a poor mobile signal area since you refer to other users in your household who use WiFi calling?

Are you all with same mobile service provider?

No, my phone is on Vodafone as well as two other members in my household but their calls work fine. The other two are on Giffgaff and theirs work fine too!

well lets start with wifi as @tommo47 suggested. i would reboot your router even though others are fine on wifi. it is the wifi signal to your phone specifically that we are concerned with. rebooting the router might help. it could also be dependent on how many folks are using the wifi at the same time. it could also be your router might need an upgrade soon as well. but lets start with the reboot and go from there.

I have the most recent router so that shouldn't be the problem but I've
rebooted the router and I'll see how it goes.
Thank you all for your suggestions and help- it's greatly appreciated and I'll work through them today.

 

[tommo47]

Have you taken the steps suggested, particularly restarting/rebooting your phone and router/hub?

As a matter of interest could you check what band you are using when you sign in to your router/hub, it will be either 2.4Ghz or 5.0Ghz.

To check it, once you have connected go to Settings-WiFi and tap on 'Connected', you will get a screen showing the band as in my screenshots :-

 

[Safia Bobat]

Your description of the problem does appear to be with your WiFi connectivity. Keep in mind WiFi reliability is vulnerable to a lot of things, the WiFi signal your router emits is a very, very low power signal so when you use your phone to connect to it there can be a lot of external influences that affect it. Wireless technology is still a convenience measure, it cannot fully replace the consistency of a wired-only network connection.

Anyway, confirm that your WiFi is or isn't an issue. Restart both your phone and your router, those are the two things directly tied to your WiFi connectivity with each other, and a restart of both also reduces the odds your problem is just a one-off glitch. If the same problem occurs after a restart at least you then know there is an actual problem to address.
Now go here and do a basic bandwidth speed test:
https://fast.com/
Let it do a cursory check and then tap on the 'Show more info' button. What are the resulting numbers for Download speed (showing in big letters), for Upload speed, and for Latency (loaded)? All three pertain to something like WiFi Calling because it's an interactive function where your phone is sending and receiving a data stream in real-time. There's a difference when you're doing other things online as there's usually some buffering involved when there are delays -- not as noticeable just using Instagram, a lot more noticeable in a phone conversation.
Also, WiFi reliability is affected a lot by distance. The further away you are from your router, the weaker the signal becomes and that conversely affects the bandwidth speed. If your WiFi Calling is more reliable when you're closer to your router, that's a clear sign it's a matter of just being within your router's effective coverage range.
Install this 'WiFi Analyzer (open source)' app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vrem.wifianalyzer&hl=en_US
Use it to do a check of your router's coverage range by walking through your home in different locations to see if you're getting good coverage everywhere or just in some areas.

Yes, I'm pretty sure my WiFi is an issue because it has cut off when I'm quite a distance from the router- although, as I said above, my voice kept cutting off and couldn't be heard when I used the phone app twice.
I've restarted both and so far a WhatsApp call has been successful.

The test results were as follows:
Download speed- 30mpbs
Upload speed- 7.6
Latency- 50ms

I'll take up your suggestion on the app, thank you.

Have you taken the steps suggested, particularly restarting/rebooting your phone and router/hub?

As a matter of interest could you check what band you are using when you sign in to your router/hub, it will be either 2.4Ghz or 5.0Ghz.

To check it, once you have connected go to Settings-WiFi and tap on 'Connected', you will get a screen showing the band as in my screenshots :-

View attachment 150409

View attachment 150410

Yes I have thank you.
It's 5 Ghz.

 

[tommo47]

When you are using WiFi calling are you usually in the same place in the house and how far from the router/hub are you, or are you in the same room?

The 5.0Ghz band gives a faster connection but the signal strength is reduced by distance and particularly walls/floors between you and the router/hub to a greater extent than with the 2.4Ghz band so it can become a trade off between speed and a steady, stronger but slower connection.

 

[svim]

Yes, I'm pretty sure my WiFi is an issue because it has cut off when I'm quite a distance from the router- although, as I said above, my voice kept cutting off and couldn't be heard when I used the phone app twice.
I've restarted both and so far a WhatsApp call has been successful.

The test results were as follows:
Download speed- 30mpbs
Upload speed- 7.6
Latency- 50ms

Your speed test results look pretty good actually, all three numbers. Voice-only calls don't require a lot of bandwidth (they're highly compressed, mono signals). The problem with WiFi Calling is when there's a lot of other online activity in the same local network taking place at the same time. Or again, not taking into account distance. Just do some tests to get a sense of your router's coverage range. This article is a very good summation on router placement, including some WiFi basics. There's a lot of misinformation online, once you understand the fundamentals it's easier to gnore the crap and set things up accordingly:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ntific-guide-to-wi-fi-access-point-placement/
You might be able to improve things by just relocating your router, or depending on how sizable your home is you might need to get a new, better router. But once you get some actual numbers you can minimize the guesswork.

 

[tommo47]

Yes, I'm pretty sure my WiFi is an issue because it has cut off when I'm quite a distance from the router- although, as I said above, my voice kept cutting off and couldn't be heard when I used the phone app twice.
I've restarted both and so far a WhatsApp call has been successful.

Hopefully the restarts have cleared it.

My hub allows the creation of a separate SSID for each frequency band so you can select either one.

If your router/hub has the same facility it may be worth trying it in the event that the problem persists. It is something to try at no cost, and depending on the distance, walls and floors between you and the router/hub could possibly make a difference.

If you do try it just check the signal strength on each band in the 'Connected' details. Ideally you want 'Good' or 'Excellent'.