Encountering low Bluetooth volume on your iPhone is annoying. Sure, listening to loud music is harmful to your ears in the long run, but it’s fun. You should have the right to damage your ears at your own will, and no piece of software or hardware should say otherwise.
All jokes aside, having your iPhone randomly decrease the volume of your Bluetooth headphones or speakers is not only frustrating but also impractical. Regardless of whether the music you’re listening to is too loud or not. That’s why we’ll explore what causes the Bluetooth volume on your iPhone to drop, and what can you do about it.
In this article:
ToggleHow do I increase the low Bluetooth volume on my iPhone?
The main reason for the sudden decrease in volume on your Bluetooth headphones or speakers is the relatively new iOS feature that reduces loud sounds.
Disabling this feature will stabilize the volume on your iPhone, and you won’t have to deal with random decreases anymore. There are some additional workarounds as well that we’re also going to mention in this article.
1. Reduce Loud Sounds
A few iOS releases ago, iPhone had the option to limit the volume of some apps individually. Including the Music app, which is probably the main source of music for your Bluetooth headphones or speakers. Starting with iOS 14, Apple ditched that option in favor of a new volume-limiting feature.
This feature analyzes the strength of your music playback and automatically lowers it down to a safe level for your hearing. According to Apple, the safe volume at which you should listen to music is 80 dB. If your iPhone detects that the volume in your headphones is above 80 dB, it will automatically get reduced. On top of that, you’ll receive a notification saying how listening to loud music can severely damage your hearing.
Up until recently, you couldn’t even disable this feature, as Apple felt it was their responsibility to preserve your ears’ health. However, after extensive negative feedback, users can now finally disable the “Reduce Loud Sounds” feature and continue listening to music that’s as loud as they want. Since this option is enabled by default, you’ll have to go and disable it yourself. Here’s how to do that:
I should also mention that Apple doesn’t allow this everywhere. There are certain regions where you have to keep this option enabled. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t specify which regions, so you’ll have to try your luck with this one.
2. Turn off Headphones notifications
We disabled the Reduce Loud Sounds option, but your iPhone will still push notifications reminding you to keep the volume levels down. Since we’re already here, we can also disable these notifications. Now, this won’t help with low Bluetooth volume levels, but at least it’ll keep your Lock Screen more organized, and you won’t be constantly pressured to enable the sound-reducing option. Here’s how to turn these notifications off:
- Go to Settings.
- Head over to Accessibility > Audio/Visual.
- Toggle the Headphone Notifications option off.
3. Change the Device Type
The biggest problem people have with the Reduce Loud Sounds feature is not the disruption of their listening experience (which it does, to some extent). The bigger problem is when the volume measurements aren’t accurate. There are numerous reports on Apple’s forum from people complaining that they’ve received the Loud Sound notification even though they weren’t listening to loud music.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to fix this, as people use a wide array of Bluetooth devices, which all work differently with iPhones. However, there’s a way to at least help your iOS device understand other devices better. You can do that by assigning the Device Type to your Bluetooth headphones or speakers. Here’s how to do that:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Bluetooth.
- Find your Bluetooth device under My Devices, and tap the “i” icon next to it.
- Tap Device Type, and choose the right device type from the list.
4. Adjust the Bluetooth volume on the device
Unlike Android, the volume controls on iOS devices are usually merged with the volume controls of external devices. If for example, you adjust the volume by pressing the force sensor on your AirPods, the volume on your iPhone will change as well. However, some Bluetooth headphones can adjust the volume level independently from the phone. It all depends on the Bluetooth device you’re using and the way its maker intended it to be used with iPhone.
So, if you’re not using AirPods, try adjusting the volume by pressing the physical button on your Bluetooth headphones. Maybe your headphones can adjust the volume separately from your iPhone. If the volume of your headphones is set to low, the sound you hear will be low-volume, as well.
That’s about it. I hope this article either helped you resolve the problem with the iPhone Bluetooth volume being low. Or at least to better understand why it happens. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to write them down in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in January 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.