I can hear them but people can't hear me

[briandj]

1. We just got a new (refurbished) LG G5 and a new Public Mobile SIM with new 1 Gb unlimited plan. When I call someone I can hear them but they cannot hear me.
   
   I installed Facebook Messenger and was able to make both audio only and video+audio calls with no problems so there is nothing wrong with with the microphone.  I added the PM APN and data is working fine.
   
   I also tried a SIM from my friend's phone, he is with Freedom Mobile. The phone worked fine, no audio problems.
   
   With Public Mobile people I call either nothing at all or sometimes an occasional brief muffle. It seems like the Public Mobile network is not transmitting the audio from my phone.
   

[briandj]

We switched to Freedom Mobile and it works better.

[Luddite]

@briandj If you have tried a factory reset and still have the problem, I think it's worth the effort to contact the moderators to look at/reset your account. If all is ok, I would be wondering about the SIM itself; the moderators may send you one. If you are near the west end of Mississauga I have a spare; send me a private message.

Click this: message to moderators to send a private message to the moderator team with your phone number, account PIN, and an explanation.

Keep us posted with your experiments. It's a unique problem. 

[will13am]

LG devices have this quirky need for a network or factory reset when switching carriers.  This may be what needs to be done here.  Otherwise, I find it doubtful a network problem is involved.  Such problems have widespread impact and would be identified and remedied quickly.

[Korth]

Well, this is a used/refurbished device, it is still possible that the mic hardware doesn't always work perfectly.  For all we know, that's exactly why the device was sent in for refurb.

You describe the mic working with your Messenger app, and working for voice calls with a Freedom Mobile SIM card, and working only sporadically ("nothing at all or sometimes an occassional brief muffle") for voice calls with a PM SIM card.

Intermittent faults are the hardest to troubleshoot.  I'd suggest running the apparently "working" apps more extensively (if you haven't already done so) to determine if the mic continues to fail regardless of which app the phone is running.

PM uses the Telus network, which supports "HD Voice" aka "Wideband Voice" calling, so it's unlikely a network-side issue.  But you can confirm/deny the possibility by testing voice calling on your phone with a Telus SIM card or a Koodo SIM card, or by testing voice calling on your phone in a different area being serviced by a different Telus tower.

https://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html

[briandj]

As I indicated, I tried a SIM from another phone company and it worked perfectly so it is not a permissions issue.

[Korth]

I'm not familiar with the G5, but other Android phones (and iPhones) usually have settings somewhere which allow/deny permission to use certain hardware resources (like the microphone) on an app-specific basis.

The actual phone/voice calling stuff is itself an app, built into the operating system.  It seems like it doesn't have permission to use the microphone.

Since the phone is still new (for you) then it probably doesn't have any precious data on it yet and it would probably be faster to do a factory reset/erase (aka "hard reset") on it than it would be to hunt for one or more misconfigurations through dozens of settings on dozens of apps.

[briandj]

Unfortunately I was not able to try my SIM in his phone. However I have seen a few other posts by people with similar problems, but there seems to be no clear solution amongst them.

[briandj]

You misunderstood my message. I tried someone else's SIM in my phone to confirm that it was working properly.  I confirmed it was not a hardware problem.  I think it is either a network problem or a configuration problem.

[koimr1]

What happens if you put your SIM into your friend's phone?

Edit: Sorry @Luddite, didn't see your edit in time. 🙂

[Luddite]

As your PM SIM functioned normally in your friend's phone there is something wonky with your phone. While we wait for one of our Android users to help out try setting your phone to 3G only, not LTE/auto. Perhaps it has trouble moving to the voice network (3g).

Just remembered: try your friend's SIM in your phone.