Just to clarify... I did begin working with tech support, by way of the chat feature via the Samsung Members app. They stepped me through a number of things, all which seemed to be more so a basic scripted approach. I went back to factory default, deleted several files, things which actually led to more issues such as some of my contacts listings disappearing. The last thing they asked me to do was to go into safe mode and then get back with them and let them know once I was in safe mode and we would continue working the issue. Well, once your phone is in safe mode you cannot run any downloaded apps.... Samsung Members being one such app. So, I was unable to communicate with them while in safe mode. At that point it was late at night, I was already losing faith in what we were doing due to the results already seen, and I just dropped the matter.
Now with so many other people reporting the same issue it is obvious that something has taken place which has affected so many people in the exact same way... only mic 1 being affected. I don't have the time nor patience (at this point) to just plod through a long, long list of "let's try this", only to further exacerbate problems (i.e. losing files and contact details and who knows what else).
I think that there is more than enough evidence shown for Samsung to look internally and see what is happening that could cause this issue. You have test labs at your disposal where you can play around with testing this and that. I actually suspect that there is a good probability that someone may already be onto something with this issue. You just need to let people know. If someone has bricked people's phones, you need to do the right thing and remedy the matter and not keep quiet and leave everyone to take the loss and have to go buy another phone. If I am left to do that, you can rest assured that it won't be a Samsung phone.
