Hi folks. I’ve been having a problem with my phone for a while where sometimes very randomly and sporadically, VoiceOver will only be talking out of the top speaker and you hear absolutely nothing from the bottom speaker. I I’m using an iPhone 8 Plus with iOS 14.3 and this actually has been happening for me since iOS 13.7. I know my speakers aren’t damaged because when I’m playing audio for everything else, like watching videos, listening to music, podcasts, etc., stereo sound out of the top and bottom speakers is perfectly fine. VoiceOver coming out of only the top speaker has been happening to me a lot and it happens at random. And sometimes VoiceOver comes out normal from both speakers and suddenly goes to only one speaker and vice versa. Sometimes it starts at only one speaker and then goes back to using both. I thought that this was a just my phone issue, so I ended up buying an iPhone 11 to see if things were better. And they were for like a day, and then I started to get the same exact problem happening. Just less frequently. I even tried calling Apple Accessibiluty and shared my screen with them. All they told me to do was turn audio ducking off. And that didn’t do anything at all to solve the problem. Has anyone else experienced this?
Comments
Yes!
I have an 11, and I get this too. It only started happening recently, and I figured it was a new bluetooth headphone receiver I started using. I have not noticed the problem with the phone speakers, but sometimes, VO will only come through the left ear, and then with the next bit of speech, be back to both. I know it's not a headphone issue.
So, you are not alone, but that's the only thing I can add.
When does this happen? For…
When does this happen? For me, it usually happens when I'm on a phone call, and then I manually switch to speaker and it works properly. It took me a long time to figure this out, and how to find the speaker button. Someone once told me my speakers might need cleaning, and maybe it's the same for you, too. It's worth thinking about, anyway.
Randomly
Like it happens in whatever app I’m in, whether or not I’m on the Home Screen, it just happens whenever it wants to, and goes back to normal whenever it feels like it. The thing that bugs me the most about it, is that it’s only affecting voiceover. Like the issue doesn’t affect the audio quality or output of everything else that I do on my phone. That’s why I don’t believe that the speakers are the problem.
I'd say get a new phone but....
You already tried that.
Perhaps you can return it to an apple shop and see what they say?
One of the reasons I use…
One of the reasons I use headphones as much as possible.
no problem for me
I have an iPhone XR and don't have any issues with audio. that is really strange