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14.2 car volume turns down

P

Psyko

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 26, 2013
68
17
With 14.2, the phone thinks my car stereo is a pair of headphones and thus keeps halving the volume output on my phone to prevent hearing damage. Not a bad idea but extremely frustrating because

a) the phone reads 90-100 dB regardless of the volume in the car
b) I can’t turn it off because it’s not possible to do this in “certain regions”
c) I tried restoring my phone back to 14.1 because it’s still being signed (first restore I’ve ever done on this phone) but I lost data and had to roll back to 14.2 to recover my backup.

Help? Can I somehow change regions so I’m able to turn this feature off? It’s enfuriating to have these types of nannies imposed. As in, it actually pisses me off big time.
 
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I have a similar issue. I commute on my motorcycle, and listen to music and sometimes takes calls through my Cardo Bluetooth headset in my helmet. My iPhone lowers the volume output on the phone, and I can barely hear music nor calls. I ride with earplugs to protect my hearing, but that means I have to use almost full volume to hear the sound in my helmet.

The only thing I can do is to pull to the side, fish up my phone and up the volume again. This is utterly bullsh...
 
960design said:
May I assume, listening through BlueTooth is causing this issue?
I am not experiencing the same issue through CarPlay using iPhone 12 Pro iOS 14.2 in the US.
Click to expand...
Yes i think so, too.
The iPhone thinks that the Bluetooth adapter of the car are headphones and so triggers the message and the action of voluming down.
 
960design said:
May I assume, listening through BlueTooth is causing this issue?
I am not experiencing the same issue through CarPlay using iPhone 12 Pro iOS 14.2 in the US.
Click to expand...
The problem is two-fold. One is that the bluetooth adapter in my car identifies incorrectly as headphones/headset (no microphone, no handsfree, only bluetooth audio). I've contacted the maker and they seem to be investigating it. I hope they can push a firmware update for this. Number two is that Apple doesn't allow me to tell the phone that the device in question ISN'T a pair of headphones and that there is nothing for it to do with regards to hearing protection, other than being a nuisance.

And lastly that there is no way to turn this crap off. I've downgraded my iPhone 7 back to 14.1 as the signing window was still open, but my coming 12 mini will probably have 14.2 from factory so I'll still have to find a way around all this.
 
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Psyko said:
The problem is two-fold. One is that the bluetooth adapter in my car identifies incorrectly as headphones/headset (no microphone, no handsfree, only bluetooth audio). I've contacted the maker and they seem to be investigating it. I hope they can push a firmware update for this. Number two is that Apple doesn't allow me to tell the phone that the device in question ISN'T a pair of headphones and that there is nothing for it to do with regards to hearing protection, other than being a nuisance.

And lastly that there is no way to turn this crap off. I've downgraded my iPhone 7 back to 14.1 as the signing window was still open, but my coming 12 mini will probably have 14.2 from factory so I'll still have to find a way around all this.
Click to expand...
The bluetooth adapter in my car has a microphone and the problem occurs, too.

We have to have the ability to tell the phone, that the connected bluetooth device are no headphones...
 
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Psyko said:
And lastly that there is no way to turn this crap off. I've downgraded my iPhone 7 back to 14.1 as the signing window was still open, but my coming 12 mini will probably have 14.2 from factory so I'll still have to find a way around all this.
Click to expand...
Wild guess here, but have you tried Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety > Headphone Notification = OFF and Reduce Loud Sounds = OFF?
 
I really hate being bossed around. I thought Apple was past this by now. I really don’t want an Android phone, but I might have to unless this is solved. I’m 45. I consider myself old enough to take care of my hearing. In fact, I’m responsible for HSE at work. Pretty please with sugar on top, let me be an adult. Yes, I’m salty.
 
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MaxSto said:
I am not able to turn off the notification because I am in Germany...
Click to expand...
I believe I understand. It seems that Germany law has no consideration for the hearing impaired. Definitely something to take up with a court of law. ( I also see the irony of attempting to protect the population from hearing loss, yet hurting those with hearing loss. )
 
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doolar said:
I really hate being bossed around. I thought Apple was past this by now. I really don’t want an Android phone, but I might have to unless this is solved. I’m 45. I consider myself old enough to take care of my hearing. In fact, I’m responsible for HSE at work. Pretty please with sugar on top, let me be an adult. Yes, I’m salty.
Click to expand...
This is not Apple. This is the government you vote for. Please take it up with them.
 
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960design said:
This is not Apple. This is the government you vote for. Please take it up with them.
Click to expand...
No, not quite. The volume limit thing is not mandatory, unless something changed very recently. No automatic lowering of the volume on any Android phone sold here that I’ve heard of. I seems to be only Apple.
 
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This is indeed an annoying setting. However, I think it's not a Germany government thing, more like a EU directive because they think we are all imbeciles and can't make up our own choice about our own levels of music volumes.

The irony is I'm slightly hard of hearing so like to knock the volume up a little. Hard of hearing due to years of playing drums and listening to loud music....But hey, that was my choice not some suit in Brussels.
 
Same problem, started happening since upgrading to iOS 14. Didn't happen before. I have an AUX stereo plug in my car and use that with my original iPhone SE. The phone randomly lowers the volume to almost inaudible and displays the message. Super annoying because I have to take my eyes off the road to change the volume back again. I need to have the volume on max otherwise I have to turn the volume up on the car stereo, which introduces a lot of noise and hiss. I'd rather have a clean signal and amplify it less than the other way around. Same result in terms of loudness.
 
960design said:
Wild guess here, but have you tried Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety > Headphone Notification = OFF and Reduce Loud Sounds = OFF?
Click to expand...
I have bought an iPhone 12 mini, guess if I was happy to see it had 14.1 from factory? First thind I did was turn off automatic updates! Also downgraded my iPhone 7 while the signing window was still open. So I have no way of checking this setting. But I have the reduce loud sounds off in iOS 14.1 though and when I had 14.2 previously I am confident there was no way to turn this option off (small subtext saying this feature can't be turned off in certain regions).

Do you have 14.2? Have you experienced these automatic volume adjustments and if so, are you able to turn these headphone notifications off? What region is your phone configured to in that case?

baryon said:
Same problem, started happening since upgrading to iOS 14. Didn't happen before. I have an AUX stereo plug in my car and use that with my original iPhone SE. The phone randomly lowers the volume to almost inaudible and displays the message. Super annoying because I have to take my eyes off the road to change the volume back again. I need to have the volume on max otherwise I have to turn the volume up on the car stereo, which introduces a lot of noise and hiss. I'd rather have a clean signal and amplify it less than the other way around. Same result in terms of loudness.
Click to expand...

When I had 14.2 I noticed that when I plugged in my AUX adapter the phone would ask me if I had plugged in headphones. I could just select no and like you say enjoy full signal strength in the AUX cable instead of amplifying noise on the stereo side. If you check your phone settings you should find that you can change was the connected AUX cable is.
 
I have the same issue. Best thing you can all do is report the issue to Apple so they're aware of how many people it's affecting.
 
m4rkw said:
I have the same issue. Best thing you can all do is report the issue to Apple so they're aware of how many people it's affecting.
Click to expand...
How would one report something to Apple? Is there a form I can fill out somewhere?
 
Ryebreadg said:
False. I’m having this same issue, and I live in the US. It may be a government issue elsewhere, but it sure isn’t here.
Click to expand...
Which iPhone model?

Which OS?
Settings > General > About > Software Version

Which Region?
Settings > General > Language & Region > Region

Which Language?
Settings > General > Language & Region > iPhone Language
 
If anyone wants to be a hero, call apple support and get them to escalate the issue to engineering. You may get a response. In my experience it wastes a lot of time and the only response you get is "we'll fix it in a software update, at some point, maybe". Apple[doesn't really]Care
 
960design said:
Which iPhone model?

Which OS?
Settings > General > About > Software Version

Which Region?
Settings > General > Language & Region > Region

Which Language?
Settings > General > Language & Region > iPhone Language
Click to expand...
12 Pro
14.2
USA
English
 
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