How to Check if a Used Phone’s Microphone Is Damaged
A used phone can save you a lot of money compared to buying new. But a great deal can become a headache pretty fast if you wind up with a broken microphone. Sellers usually aren’t going to mention mic problems, and when you’re doing a quick inspection in person or buying online sight unseen, you might miss these problems completely. A phone without a working microphone can’t record audio, your voice calls will sound garbled or muffled and voice commands just won’t work at all. These features represent a massive part of what makes a smartphone actually worth having.
Microphone damage is one of the most common problems with used phones, period. Water gets inside and leaves corrosion behind that bit by bit eats away at the sound quality. Drops can move those small internal parts around and knock them out of position. Pocket carry causes its own problems too - lint and debris slowly build up inside the ports and block the sound from reaching the microphone like it should. Modern smartphones usually have anywhere from 2 to 4 microphones that are placed in different places around the device, and each one serves a different job (voice calls, video capture, noise cancellation, etc.). When one microphone fails, some features will stop working even though the rest of the phone continues to work just fine.
Every microphone on the phone needs its own separate test. A quick check of each one (it only takes a few minutes) lets you catch problems before the purchase happens. Finding something that doesn’t work right also gives you room to negotiate for a lower price on a device with just a minor fix. The tests below cover everything from basic visual checks (they’re quick and anyone can do them) to more thorough audio tests that can show quality problems a normal phone call won’t catch.
Let’s go over a few tests to make sure that the microphone works the way it should!
Check Your Phone for Physical Damage
Take a quick look at where the microphones actually are on your phone before you test anything. Different phone models will have their microphone openings in different places. But you’ll find a few pretty standard locations. The first one is usually down at the bottom of the phone, right near the charging port - just look for the little holes or openings down there. Most phones also have a second microphone built in and you’ll usually find it either along the top edge or somewhere near the camera on the back of the phone.
Grab a flashlight and have a look inside of these small holes. When something blocks the opening, it can affect the audio quality on your device. Lint and dust are what you’ll usually find in there - they build up slowly over weeks and months, and after enough time passes they’ll start to muffle the sound. As you inspect the holes, make sure to look for any discoloration around the edges of these openings too.
Water damage leaves behind some pretty telltale signs that are worth your attention. White or green crusty buildup around the microphone ports usually means liquid got inside at some point (and it probably wasn’t just a quick splash either). That type of corrosion can affect how well the microphone picks up your voice during calls or when you record audio. Small cracks in the phone’s body are another warning sign to watch for when they show up near the openings where moisture can sneak in.
Most modern phones actually have these little liquid damage indicators hidden inside the charging port or in the SIM card tray. They’re small stickers that change color when they come into contact with water. One of these indicators changing color doesn’t necessarily mean your microphone is damaged. But the two problems usually happen together. When moisture makes its way deep enough inside to reach one of these sensors, it’s probably already made it to a few other parts inside your phone as well.
A quick look at the microphone will tell you quite a bit before the sound tests. All you’ll have to do is scan for any damage or debris around the mic opening and the grille. These are the two most common reasons a microphone won’t pick up audio like it should. Damage or blockage in either area is usually what causes the problem.
Test Your Microphone with Simple Recording
Once you’ve finished looking everything over, it’s time to actually test how well the microphone works in everyday conditions. Most phones have a voice recorder app already installed and that’s probably the easiest way to get reliable results. Just open up the app and record yourself talking for about 30 seconds or so. Try to talk at different volumes as you’re doing this - start out quiet, then speak louder, then go back to a normal volume. Also try to move around a little bit as the recording is going. Walk closer to the phone then step back away from it. This helps you see how sensitive the microphone is at different distances.
Once you play back the recording, listen closely for any unusual sounds or interruptions in the audio. Microphones with damage usually create crackling or static noise that shows up throughout the entire recording. Your voice may also come through sounding muffled or hard to make out. Microphones that are failing have a habit of cutting in and out at random and that means you’ll wind up with silent gaps scattered throughout your recording even though you were speaking the whole time.
A microphone test in a few different environments will give you a much better sense of how well it performs. For your first test, find a quiet place in your home where there’s minimal background noise and you won’t have anyone or anything interrupting you. Then move to a location that has a bit more going on - maybe some ambient noise or activity around you. That second recording will tell you if the noise-canceling feature is actually working like it should.
Most voice recorder apps will show you an audio waveform as you record or as you play back your recordings. The waveform is a visual representation of your audio and it can be really helpful for catching quality problems early on. Gaps or flat sections in the waveform during the parts where you were actually speaking aren’t a great sign and you should look into what went wrong. When you’re talking into the microphone, the waveform should be moving around and showing steady activity throughout your entire recording.
When your phone recordings come out silent, your first thought is probably going to be that the microphone is damaged. Before jumping to that conclusion, check your phone case and screen protector first. Either one could be covering the microphone holes and blocked holes account for plenty of these silent recording problems.
Test Each Microphone on Your Phone
Most phones actually have a few microphones built into them and each one has its own job. One takes care of your voice during phone calls and another one helps with the noise cancellation and others could be dedicated to video recording. To see which microphones are working right and which ones have problems, you should test each microphone on its own.
The easiest way to test your primary microphone is to just make a normal phone call - it’s the microphone that’s located near the bottom of your phone and it’s the one that picks up your voice during normal conversations. Give a friend or family member a call and ask them to listen closely to how you sound on their end of the line. Weird noises, muffled audio or any distortion coming through on their end usually means something’s going on with this particular mic. Your phone actually has two different microphones - one for normal calls and a separate one for speakerphone mode. Each one needs its own test because they can perform quite differently from one another. Switch over to speaker mode during a call and walk around the room for a bit and talk at your normal volume. The other person on the line should be able to hear everything you’re saying without any distortion or background noise drowning you out.
Your phone uses a few different microphones when it records video and they work together to capture stereo sound. To check if yours are working right, open up your camera app and record a quick test clip. Talk at different distances from the phone or move around for a bit as you’re recording. Play the clip back and listen closely for crackling sounds or any places where the audio drops out completely. A faulty video microphone will ruin the audio in every video you record and this might happen even when your phone calls sound just fine.
Voice assistants like Siri or Google Assistant help you test a different set of microphones on your device. Activate your assistant and speak a few commands to it the way you normally would. If the assistant can’t understand what you’re saying or doesn’t respond at all, it’s likely that at least one of your microphones isn’t working the way it should. The voice-to-text in your messaging app can work as a solid microphone test too. Just open it up and try to dictate a few sentences and then watch how well it captures what you’re actually saying. When it gets basic words wrong multiple times in a row, that’s usually a sign that your microphone isn’t picking up your voice the way it should.
Your phone has multiple microphones built into it and each one has a particular job. Testing only one microphone won’t give you the full picture of what’s going on. A phone call might sound perfectly crisp so you’d think the microphones are working just fine. Then you open up your camera app to record a video and find out that the audio quality is terrible. Or you try to use your voice assistant and it can’t seem to make out a single word that you’re saying.
Try These Software Fixes Before Hardware
Your microphone might not be permanently damaged at all and you should check for software problems first instead of assuming the worst. The easiest step you can try first is a restart of your phone. A quick reboot will usually fix any little software glitches that might be causing problems with your microphone.
The next step you should look at is the app permissions on the phone. Every app on your device needs to have permission to access the microphone before it can use it and sometimes those settings get changed without you realizing it. When that happens, it’s usually just a settings problem - not microphone damage. Pull up your settings menu and double-check that each of the apps you tested earlier actually has microphone access turned on.
You can also try testing it with a wired headset or a pair of Bluetooth headphones that have a built-in microphone. Go ahead and make a call or record a voice memo while you’re connected to them. If the external mic picks up your voice just fine but your phone’s built-in microphone is still giving you problems, there’s a real chance that you have a hardware problem on your hands instead of a software one.
One point to check is if the problems are happening in every app you try, or if it’s just in one or two of them. When your microphone won’t work with any app at all and a restart doesn’t fix it either, that’s usually a sign that something is physically wrong with the hardware itself. Software problems are a bit more unpredictable and usually they’ll go away on their own after you restart your device.
A factory reset could be worth trying if nothing else has worked for you and you want to eliminate any software problems. What this does is wipe your phone clean and bring it back to the way it was right out of the box. Just make sure you back up anything you need first though because a factory reset will delete everything that’s stored on your phone. If the microphone is still having problems after you’ve done a factory reset, then the damage is almost definitely physical at that point and no amount of software updates are going to fix it.
Trade Your Old Phone for Cash Today
These testing steps are worth doing - they can save you from making a bad buy on a used phone. Modern smartphones actually have a few different microphones built into them at the same time and so more parts can break down or fail on you than there were in older models. When one of these microphones breaks down, it can ruin your phone calls, wreck your video recordings or break your voice commands - and it can happen even when the other microphones are still working just fine.
These checks are fast (we’re talking 10 or 15 minutes at most) and they’re well worth your time. A quick test session can save you from buying a phone that cuts out the audio halfway through every call or records videos with no sound. It doesn’t matter where you’re buying the phone from, either. If it’s a meetup with a person from Facebook Marketplace or with your friend who’s selling their old device, you’ll have to know the condition of these microphones before handing over any cash. And when you find a problem, at least you’ll have the information to decide if a repair is worth it or if you should just walk away and look for a better option.
If you have an old phone sitting around, we at ecoATM can help you turn it into cash. We have over 6,000 kiosks nationwide and any location can check out your device and pay you on the same day - either cash or an electronic payment, whatever works. It’s a simple way to get rid of a phone you don’t use anymore and put some money toward your next one. Find one of our kiosks near you and see what your device is worth.
