Forum Discussion
Phone call sounds garbled and robotic
Every so often, maybe about once or twice a week, I will encounter this problem where I will make or receive a phone call and the call will sound garbled in general, but voices will sound robotic and unclear. Even the dial tone is garbled. This has happened while calling other mobile phones as well as calling a landline. Every time it has happened, I have been in an area with good coverage, normally full coverage or near-full coverage. If I am streaming music prior to the call, it will be choppy and have streaming issues when I end the call. The only method I have found to resolve it is to restart my phone, which is not an ideal experience.
Has anyone else encountered this issue? I never experienced this when I was previously on the AT&T network and I'm concluding it is probably a network issue rather than a device issue, however I haven't ruled out either as a possibility. My device is a Moto G4 Play, which hasn't had any problems since I got it.
I haven't encountered it for a about a week; it had been a few days since it last happened when I posted the original question. As for the questions posted above, I haven't been able to figure out a pattern. The few times it had happened I was driving and my phone was connected to my car via bluetooth. I was in different locations, only separated by a few miles, and with high coverage. In two instances it occurred while connecting to a mobile phone not on the T-mobile network and another time it occurred while connecting to a land-line.
I've been unable to reproduce the problem consistently, and since it has only happened while in my car, I usually just stop trying to make the call until I can restart the phone. I can try airplane mode next time it occurs. Come to think of it, may it be possible that something in my car is messing with my signal? I've noticed the GPS has issues finding my location and updating while doing direction, but I just figured it was the device itself.
I have been having this same issue for several months. The problem showed up randomly in terms of time and day. When the problem showed up, what I can hear in the phone is like voice fast-forwarded so much so that it is just noise. Not sure how to fix it. My phone is Oneplus 5T.
My old phone was a Oneplus 6 and my new phone is a Google Pixle. I've have trouble with both, so I think it's a T-Mobile issue. Given how they haven't contacted me or replied to these posts, it makes me think they don't care. I would switch providers, but it's such a hassle and the price would go up.
I often have very poor voice calls. The other person hears me fine, but certain people, i hear garbled words, like under water, silence when they speak, and finally a discernible word. This is calls I make or receive. It happens more often (I think) when the other person is on a Verizon line. A friend has a landline- every call is a struggle, often leading me to reluctantly say "I'm sorry I can't understand you." and I hang up on my friend. This happens with business calls, personal calls. This has been going on for months. I got a new SE about 6 months ago. I've had the problem for months. TMobile tech support said in December "engineers" would fix the problem. The tech said he would call to check. He never called. I went into T-Mobile store. The man cleaned the speaker , changed settings (basically turned off Bluetooth, WiFi…. And said to call Apple. The problem did not resolve. Called Apple and they sent me a replacement phone. Very first call to my sister- in Oregon on iPhone withe Verizon- garbled. Call to landline garbled, calls to business, garbled. T-Mobile tech support on phone again a few days ago- "writing a ticket", which he verified was NOT done in December. "Engineers" will fix it in a few days. The problem is NOT fixed. Will call FCC today. If not resolved in a few days, I will chang carrier and iPhone. I have been loyal to Apple from the beginning and T-Mobile for many years. I have paid good money for the phone, and paid my T-Mobile bills on time. I have put in many hours on hold and talking with my T-Mobile specialist and tech support. Apple? It must be the carrier. I am tired of the run-around!
T_1124 wrote:
Hey all,
In case anyone needs help figuring this out, I’m writing this to share a bit of research I recently found that may explain why this is experienced during phone calls:
Bluetooth.
Whenever we enable Bluetooth on our cell phones, we allow its frequencies to be transmitted and other frequencies to be received which will inevitably encounter a normal amount of interference. However, the you may experience a greater magnitude of interference depending on your cell phone's proximity to other Bluetooth devices. These include Bluetooth connection to your vehicle (ie. CarPlay), wireless headphones (ie. AirPods), wireless speakers, wireless television, and essentially any device that you are able to access remotely from your cell phone. Additionally, if others around you are using Bluetooth connection to their own devices as well, then that too will increase interference.
Although this is not a definite solution to the robot-static-distorted audio sound, this is a solution that has worked so far for me in preventing it during phone calls: Deactivate Bluetooth (temporarily) during important phone calls and when you are in public places to maximize quality of usage. Of course, re-enable it when desired.
I currently use the iPhone 13 Pro Max, one of Apple's most recent iPhone releases, and I have also been a longtime customer of T-Mobile. Therefore, I hold a lot of trust for these two big companies as I have never encountered this issue until recently. Since the modern era is seeing an increase in usage of wireless Bluetooth connection, and drastic changes in technology in general, it makes sense for this issue to increase in prevalence as well.
Hopefully this helps. Feel free to take this with a grain of salt, since I am just a high school student. But just like most adults (and my parents), I think the younger generation has a very good aptitude for dealing with technology, sometimes to a fault (haha… pain).
Best wishes!
I tried this I have a iphoine 13 and I disconnected my bluetooth while at home . I called my friend right away after I had a bad connection and he said I sounded way better and no longer was the call choppy. I did notice that the issues I had were at home while I am working remotely . Outside i would have no issues. So this made alot of sense and it worked . thank you for sharing with us
Often times signal strength is not the best indicating of connection quality. However I do want to ask a few questions to try and narrow this down with you. When the issue of garbled voices happen is their some sort of pattern to it? Is it in a specific location or when doing a specific task (I.e can you repeat the problem reliably)? If it is a specific location do you know of anyone else with T-mobile service that can test the area or maybe own another device that you can test calls with?
You mentioned restarting the phone was the only way to fix the issue but have you tried turning airplane mode on and off as a short term fix? It basically forces your phone to reconnect to the network like a restart does but takes less time. Just thought I let you know as a band-aid fix in the short term. Sorry for all the questions and I will do my best to help.
How are things going? @dragon1562 has some great questions here! Please let us know if you still need help.
I haven't encountered it for a about a week; it had been a few days since it last happened when I posted the original question. As for the questions posted above, I haven't been able to figure out a pattern. The few times it had happened I was driving and my phone was connected to my car via bluetooth. I was in different locations, only separated by a few miles, and with high coverage. In two instances it occurred while connecting to a mobile phone not on the T-mobile network and another time it occurred while connecting to a land-line.
I've been unable to reproduce the problem consistently, and since it has only happened while in my car, I usually just stop trying to make the call until I can restart the phone. I can try airplane mode next time it occurs. Come to think of it, may it be possible that something in my car is messing with my signal? I've noticed the GPS has issues finding my location and updating while doing direction, but I just figured it was the device itself.
I am glad to hear that the problem seems to have stopped! I am a little weary though so please do let us know if it crops up again.
Oh no @crimmi!
We would need to gather some examples of this and open up a support request for this. Por favor Contáctanos when you have a moment.
I have a line which includes my husband and both of my parents. They used to live about 2hrs away and recently moved about 20 minutes away. Ever since they moved closer, any time we talk on the phone (whether they call my or I call them--on either of their phones), the first first seconds of every call has this loud garbled, static-like sound, and then it resolves on it's own. My parents tell me that they never hear it on their end of the phone. I have no idea why it's happening.
