This article explains how you can troubleshoot when your iPhone volume (audio, ringer, alerts and other sounds effects etc) keeps adjusting itself. For example, your iPhone may itself randomly lower or increase the volume. Sometimes, your phone may keep resetting the volume to the lowest volume or to the highest level. This is an important problem. This problem, for example, may cause you to miss calls.
If you have an issue with your phone where the volume appears to be lowering (increasing) on its own, then this article is for you.
If your iPhone is not ringing, you can fix it.
iPhone volume alert problems
Please try the tips below until you fix the problem. Please make sure to check your iPhone after each step to see if the volume starts working.
Before we start, if your iPhone has a protective case, remove it. After removing, does your problem occur? Furthermore, is your device connect to a wired or Bluetooth accessory (headphones etc)? Unplug or disconnect them to see if your issue is fixed.
If you are having issues with sound notifications, see this article.
1. Lock the volume sound of your alerts. After locking, does your phone change the volume on its own? To do that, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics (or Sounds) > Turn off Change with Buttons. When it is set to off, does your problem occur?
You may also the volume by dragging the Ringer And Alerts slider up or down.
2. Restart your iPhone. Here is how you can restart an iPhone:
- iPhone X, 11 or later: Press and hold the volume up (or volume down) and the side buttons together until you see the power off slider. Then slide the slider. Wait for about one minute. Then press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.
- Other iPhone models (iPhone 8 or earlier): Press and hold the side or top button until you see the power off slider. Drag the slider. Wait until your iPhone is completely turned off. Then press and hold the side or top button until you see the Apple logo.
See also: Apple Watch Not Getting Notifications From iPhone
3. Are you having this problem with an iPhone X or later? If so, you may want to check this particular setting. This setting is called Attention Aware Features. iPhone X and later models include TrueDepth cameras. Your iPhone’s TrueDepth camera, by using the face detection algorithm, will decide if you are looking at your device or not. When this feature is enabled, your iPhone will lower the volume of alerts if you are looking at your iPhone.
On your device, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and see if Attention Aware Features is enabled or now. If it is enabled, turn it off to see if your issue is fixed.
4. Update iOS. Make sure that your iPhone is running the latest version of iOS. You can update your iPhone wirelessly by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Your iPhone will check for an update. If there is an update available, click Download to install the update.
5. If you are still having this problem, you may want to force restart your iPhone. Here is how you can force restart an iPhone:
- iPhone 8 or later: Press and release the volume up button and press and release the volume down button and then press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo.
- iPhone 7 models: Press and hold the volume down and the side buttons together until the Apple logo appears.
- Other iPhone models (iPhone 6s or earlier): Press and hold the Home and the side buttons together until you see the Apple logo.
If your problem still continues, then contact Apple support. You can take your device to an Apple Retail Store for inspection. You can chat with an Apple support specialist online for more information.
See also: How To Stop Your Mac From Ringing When You Get Phone Calls
I just bought a used iPad fresh and new but always the headphone thing when you turn it up right? It’s just stuck and also I can’t hear anything from my iPad only YouTube and also games don’t give any noise, please help please I bought this for school and it closes randomly pls help
It started after the recent update
I have had a 12 Pro for maybe 4 months now and maybe 3-4 times now my wake up alarm will be full volume and scare the crap out of me and my wife. It has happened just often enough that I even check it before I put my phone down if so need to wake up with an alarm. Yes, I have the “change with buttons” toggled OFF and always have. Alert volume is always set to about 20%. After 3-4 times of a morning heart attack the only thing so can think is it seems to change itself after the IOS updates itself overnight. I haven’t set up a test to prove it, as I’ve needs alarms a lot less since the pandemic. Anyone else? I can’t trust that I won’t wake up to a fog horn anymore and it stresses us out. HELP
I should add that I’ve been an iPhone user since like 2008, had 6 of them, and most of these years I was using the phone’s alarms daily with no issue. Seems to be within the last month or two and with this new iPhone 12 Pro when I’ve only needed to use an alarm once in a great while as opposed to daily
I had to resort to downloading a separate app. This thing scared the crap out of me a couple of times.
Strangly this also happens with other things. I have a glucose measuring device in my arm and I have set alarms for it to indicate when I am going low. Sometimes this will SCREAM the first 3 beeps, and then the remaining three beeps go i a normal volume.
I have toggled my ‘change with buttons’ off, but sometime I am able to turn down the volume of notifications and stuff by pressing the volume buttons.
Absolutely not functioning like it is mean to be. and constantly changing.
Me too! That’s what lead me to this site. I have my ringer set to the lowest setting before it’s turned off completely, yet the volume of my alarm is so loud it scares me awake! I’m hoping a fix for this comes in an update soon. None of the other ‘fixes/adjustments’ have worked for me.
I am only having this issue with Facebook. The volume slider bar pops up randomly when I click on certain Facebook posts.
If the volume is higher than zero, it automatically lowers the volume to zero.
I have changed the awareness setting, reset, rebooted and a few other things… still have issue.
Anyone else experiencing this with FB?
i’m experiencing this with only social media apps. weird
I have an iPhone 8 with the same problem, and since I am an anesthesiologist, and I absolutely must have a means for the hospital to contact me, this is a dangerous flaw.