Roger Mills <
watt....@gmail.com> wrote:
> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Roger Mills <
watt....@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I frequently have a problem with my Motorola Moto G6+ (on the EE
>>> network in the UK) whereby I lose incoming sound on voice calls, and
>>> I cannot hear the person at the other end. Sometimes it's
>>> intermittent during a call and sometimes there's no sound at all. The
>>> other person can invariably hear me ok.
>>>
>>> I was told by a local phone repair shop that this could be down to
>>> signal strength. They said that if there were insufficient bars I may
>>> lose incoming sound whilst outgoing sound would be ok.
>>>
>>> Is there any truth in this or are they telling porkies? My instinct
>>> tells me that it would be the other way round, because the signal
>>> from the mast to my phone would be stronger than the signal from my
>>> phone to the mast.
>>
>> How many bars do you have during those flaky calls?
>
> My phone doesn't have bars as such - it has a right-angled triangle
> which fills up from the left. At the moment, it's less than half full.
>
> I've just installed Network Cell Info, and that's showing a signal
> strength of about -110dB
Too low for reliable calls, especially since signal strength will
fluctuate (often getting lower) as you move around. When in my
basement, and because I'm near a river (dip in geographical elevation)
in a forested location, and the cell tower is high up on a small cliff
on the other side of the river, signal strength is poor in my basement,
and just sufficient upstairs. I've several times considered installing
a cell signal booster (e.g., weBoost). I'm using Google Voice, so it's
simple and cheaper to press * during a call to have my other phones ring
to transfer the call, like to a cordless one in the basement whose base
unit connects to a wired phone jack.
>> Make sure when hold your phone that your hand isn't over the mic port,
>> or even near it. Hold higher up on the sides of the phone, so your hand
>> is farther from the mic port.
>
> It's not a mic problem! The person the other end can hear me clearly -
> but I can't hear them!
The port for the speaker and mic could be close enough that your hand
causes feedback. On mine, both the speaker and mic ports are on the
bottom of the phone. Unknown if you were using the earpiece speaker, or
the speakerphone speaker. For speakerphone mode, sometimes it helps to
move my hand up to the middle sides of the phone; i.e., get my hand,
usually cupped, away from the bottom of the phone to eliminate feedback
between speakerphone speaker and mic. In fact, on another phone, it
helps when I lay the phone on a table when using speakerphone to move
the bottom of the phone over the edge of the table to open up the area
around the speakerphone speaker and mic ports; else, and especially
obvious when they're playing background music while on hold, I can
repeated cutouts.
The other speaker is called the earpiece and near the top of the phone
near your ear. Normally when you hold the phone near your head (to have
your mouth closer to the mic port and your ear closer to the earpiece
speaker), the phone uses its proximity sensor to turn off the display to
save on power. Not always sure why, but I've seen some users hold the
phone where its mic port is near their mouth but the earpiece is away
from them; i.e., they hold it horizontal with the to of the phone away
from their headr. Perhaps that's because they need to see something on
the phone during the call. With the earpiece away from your hear, the
proximity sensor is also away from your head, and the display stays on.
See if that position helps. That means the earpiece is farther from
your head, so volume is lower, but maybe not having the display turn off
fixes the problem. When listening to audio files, the phone wouldn't be
against your head.
I didn't see you mention the obvious: using the volume up/down buttons.
What audio apps do you have on your phone? Not just players, but any
mixers, prank/voice changer, noise cancellation, or other apps that
might affect call quality or volume? I can't find it now, but recall
someone saying when they had the Audio Recorder app running (to record a
conversation) that they encountered volume problems.
Do you have any nearby Bluetooth earpieces or headsets nearby? Are they
paired to your phone at the time of the problematic calls? At the time
of those calls, look at what BT devices are paired to your phone. Not
those in the list of previously paired BT devices, but the ones that are
currently actively paired to your phone. Alternatively, you could pull
down the config shade, and tap the BT icon to temporarily disable
Bluetooth to see if the earpiece speaker on the phone starts working.