iPhone Will Not Consistently Record Stereo From External Mic

I have the exact same issue. I have two different sound cards I use to capture audio with when recording video with my iPhone 13 Pro, and sometimes it records stereo, sometimes mono. There is no way of knowing until after the recording is done and checked on my mac.

I've sometimes recorded a test video of one minute, transferred to my mac (without unplugging the sound card from the iPhone) and checked that the recording is in stereo. Then started the performance recording, just to find out that that recording was in mono :(

I've tried resetting phone (as well as cleaning the lightning port), several different camera apps and several different lightning to USB dongles and cables. It is still a lottery if the sound is mono or stereo aka. not usable for my video and sound recordings.

I suspect this is a software bug, but not prioritised to be solved as not many users would care or know why their audio on a video is stereo or mono. I make music with often wide stereo fields, so mono sound is not an option.

Hello nsink,

If this external microphone is recording audio in mostly mono when it is connected to your device but in stereo when connected to other devices, the connection between this microphone and your iPhone 12 Pro Max is most likely what's causing this to occur.

To isolate the issue, try using another connection between your iPhone and this mic to see if this continues. If it does, test with another external microphone to further narrow this issue down.

If this only happens with one external microphone, reach out to the manufacturer to see if there are any settings that can be adjusted on the type of audio that is being recorded.

If this happens with multiple external microphones, ensure the port of your iPhone is clear next since that can be responsible for this behavior (if you are using a Lightning connection to the microphone). Cleaning your iPhone

Adjusting the sound settings may resolve this issue as well. These steps from Adjust the mono audio, balance, and phone noise cancellation settings on iPhone show how to do this:

1. Go to Settings  > Accessibility > Audio/Visual.

2. Adjust any of the following:

* Mono Audio: Turn on to combine the left and right channels to play the same content.

* Balance: Drag the Left Right Stereo Balance slider.

* Phone Noise Cancellation: Uses air pressure to reduce ambient background noise to help you hear better when you’re holding the receiver to your ear on phone calls in certain noisy environments. Phone noise cancellation is available and on by default on iPhone 12 and earlier, and can be turned off for your comfort.

Take care.