Users report mic problems with Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch Series 8

AppleInsider

A small number of Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Series 8 owners have reported "measurement suspended" errors on the Noise app, suggesting the microphones are not working.

Apple's Noise app works with the Apple Watch Series 4 or later, and its intended to measure ambient volume. It's specifically meant to warn the user if their environment is loud enough that sustained exposure could cause hearing loss.

Some users of the latest Watches are either not seeing Noise results at all, or at at best getting them inconsistently. Instead of a reading, they get "Measurement Suspended," and an explanation that the Noise app is unable to to check sound levels.

There are very few reports on Twitter, but more on Apple's support pages. In each case, the "Measurement Suspended" error message shown further explains that sound levels can't be checked for when the microphone or speaker is being used by another app. It also can't be used when the Watch is in Water Lock, meaning when the Watch has been submerged and needs to eject water.

According to MacRumors, which first reported on the issue, there is a workaround for the issue. Restarting the Apple Watch clears the problem, although it may take more than one restart.

Sources within Apple not authorized to speak on behalf of the company have told AppleInsider that the total number of Apple Watch microphone issues reported to service or support at the same point in time following release is no higher than any other year, going back to the original Apple Watch. The percentage of the report volume as it pertains to the total purchasing base of the new models isn't clear.

Apple takes action on hardware problems that it sees as having a high rate of failure from internal data, and does not pay attention to the support pages or news reports surrounding issues. We recommend contacting Apple support about the issue if you're having it, regardless if the watch reboot works to solve your problem, or not.

Apple has not commented on these reports, but they are also not new to the Apple Watch Series 8 or the Apple Watch Ultra. There are discussions on Apple's support forums on this issue dating back to the Apple Watch Series 5.

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JanNL

... MicGate 

larryjw

I've been having the issue of getting sound alerts when I shouldn't on my Series 6 watch under iOS 16. I guess I don't need to add my 2 cents to the Apple forums. 

lkrupp

Yet another mountain out of a mole hill that will disappear quickly.

Apple takes action on hardware problems that it sees as having a high rate of failure from internal data, and does not pay attention to the support pages or news reports surrounding issues.

A common sense approach for sure. Google, Reddit, and Twitter hits do not a problem make.

Yet tech blogs doggedly report them even if there’s only two people yelling about it.

lkrupp

larryjw said:

I've been having the issue of getting sound alerts when I shouldn't on my Series 6 watch under iOS 16. I guess I don't need to add my 2 cents to the Apple forums. 

No, you need to wait for iOS 16.1. The Apple Forums are user-to-user, not manned by Apple support employees. Your complaint goes unnoticed by Apple and all you are left with is maybe a few “me too” responses and a couple of “try this” suggestions. As the article points out it’s best to call Apple’s support line to get their attention.

takeo

Been having this issue constantly since getting a series 9 gps in October. I’ve had multiple support calls, genius visits, countless force restarts to temporarily clear the issue (almost every week sometimes multiple times per week), total reset and reinstall as new (not from backup), and even had the watch replaced once. Nothing fixed it permanently. It would always come back. So I figured it had to be triggered by some sequence of events. So I started thinking “what was I doing just before this happened” and I finally put two and two together and found out exactly how to reliably replicate the issue!

1. Add the large noise complication to a watch face. It should always show real time measurement bars when the watch is awake
2. Restart the watch (to make sure the noise complication is working… when it stops working, the only way to restore function is a restart)
3. Have someone call you and answer the phone call on the watch
4. during the call, bring up the keypad and tap some numbers randomly 
5. Hang up the call and put the watch face to sleep
6. Wake up the watch. The noise complication should show the measurement bars for a second and then it will grey out and say “measurement suspended”