My iOS App doesn't use the mic but the app asks for permission.

I found the answer to my own question and thought I should post it here in case others have similar issues. Contrary to my original statement I did enable the "Prepare iOS for Recording" option. However, that was during the development process and was never meant to be submitted to apple that way. Unfortunately, it was at one point.

What I have found is that if you enable this option and build to your device, iOS ALWAYS thinks your app uses the mic. Any subsequent builds without that option enabled will still think the mic is enabled for the application. Apple will fail the build (at least they did for me) because the mic is enabled but not used in the app.

I was able to get around this in two ways. First, I completely reset the device to factory settings and build again. This worked for all of my devices locally. The second option was to give the app a new name, thus "tricking" iOS into thinking it was a new app.

Apple claimed that the device reset did not work and continued to fail the application. I ultimately had to use the rename option to get Apple to pass the app.

I guess this is what I get for using the app I was going to submit to play with other options.

I hope this helps others. Good luck.