How to fix Galaxy S9 Plus microphone won’t work during calls issue

Today’s post will try to answer one common problem in many Android devices — microphone won’t work during calls. We pick one typical example below. Basically, a Galaxy S9 Plus user is reporting that his phone’s microphone refuses to work during calls at first. It works when using the speakerphone though. Eventually, it gets worse until it even stops on speakerphone. If you have a similar situation, learn how to deal with it below.

Problem: Galaxy S9 Plus microphone won’t work during calls

Microphone issue, People can’t hear me when I’m on the actual phone but can hear me when I turn on speaker phone. I can hear them just fine . I got a new s9+ about 3 weeks ago and I had had one before but this same issue happened to my old one. it started out just having issues while I was just talking into the actual phone up to my ear but I could turn on speaker and they could hear me . Eventually though that stopped working too. Now my new one is doing the same thing except as of today I’m still able to talk through the speaker phone. Please help , should I pay to have it sent in? I did drop it like 2 weeks ago, I know I know but those darn cases are like 60 bucks and the phone put me put me out almost 900. So it does have a couple cracks in the back but it didn’t seem to have any effect on anything, at least that’s what I thought!

Solution: It’s highly unlikely that two devices will have the same exact problem after you accidentally dropped them. We think the problem is not hardware-related at all. This may be a product of a software bug or a bad app. To troubleshoot this problem, follow our recommendations below.

Force restart your device

Temporary bugs may sometimes develop if a device is left running for some time. To minimize bugs from building up, you want to regularly refresh the system by restarting the device once every few days. It’s an easy maintenance step and won’t take a minute of your time.

In your particular case, we recommend that you simulate the effects of a “battery pull” so the phone’s memory will also be cleared. Here’s how it’s done:

Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.

Wipe the cache partition

Android uses a system cache, which is stored in the cache partition, to load apps quickly. Sometimes, this cache gets corrupted during and after an update, or for some other reasons. While this may sound harmless, a corrupted cache can eventually cause performance issues as well as a bunch of other minor annoyances. To ensure that your phone’s system cache is fresh, you can wipe the cache partition. This will force the phone to delete the current cache and replace it with a new one over time.

To wipe the cache partition on your S9 Plus:

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

Install app and OS updates

Another good way to lessen the chances of bugs is by making sure that all apps and the OS updated. By default, your S9 Plus should automatically download and install app updates. If you changed this behavior, be sure to manually check for app updates in the Play Store. Here’s how:

Open Play Store app.
Tap More settings icon at the upper left.
Tap My apps & games.
Hit UPDATE ALL button.

To check for software updates, you can go under Settings > Software update.

Verify how microphone works on Safe Mode

As mentioned above, one of the possible reasons for the problem is a bad app. This may also be the reason why it happened on your other phone before. The same bad app may be installed in both devices. To check if one of your downloaded apps is the culprit, you can restart your S9 to safe mode. Here’s how:

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
Try calling anyone to check if microphone works (when NOT on speakerphone).

If the microphone works normally, that means that you have an app problem. Because safe mode won’t pinpoint the bad app on its own, you have to use the method of elimination to narrow down the suspects. Here’s how to do that:

Boot to safe mode.
Check for the problem.
Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
If your S9 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Reset app preferences

Resetting app preferences is oftentimes overlooked in many Android troubleshooting articles but when it comes to an issue like yours, it might help a lot. It’s possible that one or some of your default apps may not be set correctly, causing this glitch to occur. Because there’s no way to know if this guess is true, what you need to do is to simply ensure that all default apps are turned on. Here’s how to do that:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Reset app preferences.
Restart your S9 and check for the problem.

Reset all settings

This procedure is separate from the previous one as it covers all settings of your Android device and not just the apps. To do this, follow the steps below:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap General Management > Reset settings.
Tap Reset settings.
If you have set up a PIN, enter it.
Tap Reset settings. Once complete a confirmation window will appear.

Wipe the phone (factory reset)

This is a drastic troubleshooting step that must only be done if none of the suggestions above fail. Be sure to back your personal data up before doing a factory reset.

Create a backup of your data.
Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.