Cannot control volume using Apple Music when I stream to my AirPlay devices on my iPhone and iPad

I have the same issue, I find I get it to work if I manually change the volume of a song in the music app before i start connecting it to the apple tv with airplay.

devices: iphone Xs ios 14.2 & appletv A1625 tvOS 14.2 ( wifi over apple timecapsule airport)

The only fix I have found involves an old AppleTV that only has Airplay 1. If I begin streaming to that, and then switch to the ATV the I want (with Airplay2), then it will use Airplay 1 and stream like normal with volume controls and everything.

Have you tried the shortcut method suggested by @staticinspace earlier in the thread? It is the only thing that works reliably for me.

I either hit the shortcut before launching Apple Music, or switch to it after losing volume control. Works every time. In the latter case you may have to restart playback.

I found this thread when I was searching for what I believe may be a similar issue. I have an Apple TV but I’ve never used it to control music, it’s strictly my streaming box for video content and nothing more. Yesterday my wife initiated and grouped music to the HomePod’s that are in 3 different rooms via AirPlay within the Music App. On my phone, I went into the Music app and hit the AirPlay button/Control Other Speakers to gain volume control of what she had initiated on her phone. That is when I was locked out of any volume control, it was simply grayed out. I was able to pause or change music, but not adjust volume. Is this the same, or similar, issue that everybody is having in here?

I can isolate the problem to a hand-off situation to just one Apple TV for music playback. When I select music on my phone or iPad (same problem) and I select just a single Apple TV for playback, the music playback is handed over to the Apple TV and the volume bar is grey / has no slider. Volume is fixed. At this point I need to walk to the receiver connected to the Apple TV to adjust the volume. BUT: if I select my Apple HomePod FIRST, and then add the same Apple TV, I can simultaneously control the volume for both devices. I guess, I just have to always play on two or more devices at the same time. Sidenote: only the Apple music app can do handovers, so the problem does not occur when playing from another app, as that is just streaming from my phone, as I then control the phone music volume and to not need to remote control the Apple TV volume.

I agree it’s the handoff causing the problem. When I open another music app and click an appletv in music, then I have volume. The volume level between appletvs is inconstant each time I use the app. I gather the reason the volume works with the other music app open is that the app defeats the handoff issue.

I’ve been having the same problem for some time, and remembering that is used to work. Playing music is fine but the volume control is grayed out.

For me, the solution was that my phone and the AppleTV were on different WiFi settings (my phone was using the WiFi 6 (5G) setting while the Apple TV could only connect to the standard WiFi connection). Switching my phone over to the exact same WiFi connection solved the problem.

That’s interesting. So you are able to switch between Airplay and Airplay 2 at will? I wonder if there is some setting in your router that clicks Airplay 2 protocol on one of your WiFi channels. Can you check your router settings and see if that’s the case? If so then I can replicate and also keep Airplay 2 from activating.

I found that the shortcut method suggested by @staticinspace earlier in the thread works. It is a kludge as you can only select one device within the shortcut then you need to select your other devices within music airplay dialogs. And those dialogs are a terrible design. I get two devices streaming then go to adjust volumes and they merge together which shifts the menu up as I’m clicking thereby accidentally turning on another device in the menu. In my case its a home theater projector which I then have to physically go to to shut all the devices down. The GUI for all devices have gotten terrible over the years. A long rant for another thread.

I will tell what is working for me;

through control center, I push the round tv&speakers icon, Select the apple tv that I want and immediately after that start to scroll volume back and forth until it activates streaming to apple tv.

this is a bug, but that looks to me the only way to do so. If someone replies can make a video.

I've given up hope of this ever being fixed. I can get it to work for 1 minute upon reboot of my I-phone - Then the track ceases streaming.

On resume volume is greyed out inaccessible.

I have outdoor speakers and it's annoying that i can change music do everything else but not the volume.

Control Centre used to work now it doesn't.

Downloaded Spotify and it just works. So time to move.

I would love a video. I just upgraded 2 Apple TV’s and two airport expresses to be able to achieve the same kind of use case everyone else is describing only to lose the ability to control volume on my AppleTV

The only thing that seems to work for me is to use the older equipment to establish an Airplay 1 session. Do this by streaming through the old equipment. Then on your iPhone, switch the speaker to the new equipment. It should maintain the Airplay 1 protocol and you can keep volume adjustment.

However, if there is a glitch or if the iPhone thinks it knows better, it might still stop streaming and force you to “hand-off” using Airplay2. In this case, the music is playing on the other device and you can only control the song, not the volume, and you can’t use Siri to control it either.

So far this is the only solution that worked for me. Removed the used from Apple tv and boom! Volume control back to my iphone music app !

hope one day Apple can fix this conflict between hand off and airplay streaming

I figured it out:

Go to Settings/General/Airplay & Handoff. Make sure everything is off. Volume control returns when you airplay through Apple TV with no problems.