Okay, so I am joining the club with my slightly own version of the issue and perhaps somebody has an idea what to do: I presume that for me its a software issue with the microphone(s)
When doing the *#*#66#*#* test both microphones work but one can hear my voice only muffled and hear a lot of loud background noises/cracking sounds.
Sometimes I can record voice messages with the same rather bad quality, sometimes it doesn’t record any sound at all (deleting the cache of the messenger apps helped to come back to the former)
In calls, turning on loudspeaker helps (people seem to understand me way better), while in normal calls it seems to be the same muffled/cracky sound I know from the mic tests or voice recordings
I tried already the fairphone support (did the tests, set the phone back to factory settings, istalled all recent updated, tried turning of the WIFI LTE call settings) and they suggested to send it in to see if they could do anything and if not get a new one (which I would like to avid for the moment as the rest is still working
→ is there anybody who still has any ideas what I could do to solve this?
As a temporary “solution”, it occurs to me that you can connect a headset with a microphone (wireless or wired) so that the phone uses the audio from the headset microphones.
In the test you did, do both microphones sound equally bad, with these “noises”? I don’t know if activating the loudspeaker in a call activates the upper microphone, maybe that’s why it sounds better (I have no idea, it’s a hypothesis).
By the way, some voice or video recorder applications offer the option to choose different audio sources, maybe you can test them to identify if your problem is related to the to the audio signal processing part. For example, in OpenCamera (F-Droid / Play Store you can choose “Unprocessed” under “Video settings” → “Audio source” and make a recording to check if the problem persist. It might be worth a try.
(Oh, and when you do the tests, try to leave the mobile phone on a fixed surface, as often the “scratches” that the microphone picks up come from the vibrations that we produce by moving it and holding it)
Another thing that occurs to me: have you checked if the microphones have a lot of dirt in them? I don’t know the best way to clean them… I don’t know if a toothbrush could help or spoil it more (sometimes I’ve used a hair of mine to remove, being very careful not to introduce it any more, the visible dust ).
I guess if you have a fairphoneangel nearby that has an FP3, you could try changing the microphone module(s) and see if you still have those problems…
Just a few suggestions that come to mind, I hope they are helpful!
Thank you very much for your ideas and suggestions!
The “temporary fix” (that is headset) usually works - but not with the fairphone earbuds.
Yes, both microphones sound the same in the test (both a bit like what people describe the mic 2 should sound like).
I already cleaned the microphones (with air, using a vacuum cleaner, blowing into it, using a brush, a needle (trying not to do any (more) damage after none of the former seemed to fix the problem).
I totally agree, that the noises come from moving/ holding the phone, but I would say this is one of the symptoms of the issue, as in the past, it Could record e.g. voice messages without rustling noises being so dominant.
Unfortunately the Video setting change didn’t change much either, but thaks for the hint, i was a good idea!
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