iPhone ringer/speaker volume decreases on its own since update 13.1

Hi Amynthys.

Thanks for following up and letting us know that the issue is not that the sound is not heard.

You mentioned that the volume is changing on your iPhone. If you're using an iPhone X or later, please check to see if 'Attention Aware Features' is enabled. This setting allows the TrueDepth camera to check to see if you're looking at the iPhone, and will then lower the volume of alerts: About Attention Aware features on your iPhone X or iPad Pro - Apple Support.

If there is no change, or if that feature is turned off, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Do you have 'Change with Buttons' turned on or off? Does it make a difference if it's on or off, or does the same behavior remain?

To be sure that we've covered all the basics, have you also tried restarting your iPhone with these steps: Restart your iPhone

If the issue persists let us know which apps you're seeing this issue with.

Also, what is the iOS version number showing when you go to Settings > General > About > Software Version?

Take care.

FYI. Running iOS 14.0.1 software. Ringer volume issues with Bluetooth on a 2020 GMC Sierra

I had an issue with my iphone ear speaker volume/defective speaker . Verizon had me reset all settings. Little bit pain logging back in on apps etc BUT my ringer volume issue resolved. As of today as soon as I disconnect from Bluetooth in my truck my ringer volume automatically goes back to full volume. I have tested it numerous times and good response.

my buddy was having same problem and I had him reset all settings and it eliminated his ringer volume changes as well in his 2020 GMC truck.

n response to jerrilyn256

Ok try this go to settings - accessibility- audio/visual - phone noise cancellation and turn it off. Please let me know if this works. So far so good for me !!!

Ps. Power the phone off and back on for the new setting to take affect.

Made some progress with Apple support on a similar issue and thought I would share in case it helps anyone here. For me, it seems that my ringer/alarm volume will randomly turn down despite having the "adjust volume with side buttons" settings off. I have a 2 month old iPhone SE 2020 on the latest iOS 13 release (so there are no Face ID settings,) and the issue happens independent of bluetooth or being in a case. Numerous conversations with Apple support did not lead to a resolution. However, I recently stumbled across this reddit thread, which enabled me to reproduce the issue. https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/deih02/ios_1312_ringer_volume/. I found that this reproduces my issue in some media playback apps, but not all (eg audible and podcast addict create the issue, but apple podcast and Spotify did not). After I demonstrated the issue on the call, the support staff said they would be able to send a report to the software engineers to specifically investigate the problem. If this can explain your issue, it might be worth contacting customer support so they can see how widespread the issue is and hopefully find a solution sooner rather than later.

Excerpt from the reddit thread:

Mmdavies

1 point· 10 months ago

I think I am able to replicate it. When the audio is paused on the lock screen and I use the volume buttons it doesn’t change the volume of what’s being played, but it changes the ringer volume. The bar doesn’t move and I go into settings and the ringer volume is lowered. Not sure how to explain it better than that. Quite annoying bug since I have it set not for my buttons to change ringer volume.

Mannyar,

It's not an issue squarely with Plantronics devices for all of us here. I have a 2020 GMC Pickup like a lot of posters and this issue always occurs when my iPhone is connected to the GMC infotainment system via bluetooth. As I have posted before, once it's connected the phone volume is turned down. I can resolve the issue by disconnecting bluetooth and regaining control of my phone volume. Manually turning the volume up is futile because the connection instantly returns it back down to mute.

I have a plantronics as well and as I type this, it's connected and in my ear an the phone volume for texts and calls is not being affected. I'm not saying that it never occurs with my Plantroics, but I am saying it ALWAYS occurs when connected to my GMC Pickup's BlueTooth.

n response to jerrilyn256

Ok try this go to settings - accessibility- audio/visual - phone noise cancellation and turn it off. Please let me know if this works. So far so good for me !!!

From my experience, this is squarely an issue with Plantronics bluetooth headsets and Apple iphones. Once I turn Bluetooth "off" I am fine. Once I again turn it "on", the volume returns to ZERO. There's nothing any iphone user can do to fix this, you either must live with the problem and turn Bluetooth off when required, or dispose of the Plantronics device and try another brand. It is doubtful that either Apple or Plantronics will design a fix for this, either. These are your only options, in my opinion.

I posted earlier. I narrowed the issue to my Plantronics bluetooth headset. But don't expect Apple to resolve this issue unless huge numbers of Apple owners also own Plantronics devices. And I doubt Plantronics even realizes they have an issue.

Hey guys. I hope I won’t jinx it but after downloading ios14.2, the volume hasn’t move on its own for more than 24 hours. Still observing but this is the longest I am able to see good results. Just update ios. No other changes. Good luck!

Go to settings, about phone, under that software update. 14.1 is what u should be running

I've experienced the same thing, as has my wife. We've been able to tie it back to specific bluetooth devices we have. It does not happen every time we use them, but it ONLY happens when we use those specific devices. In our case it's relatively cheap 'sleep headphones'.

We've reported the issue to both Apple and the manufacturer of the devices, and now check the ring volume every morning after using them.

Doesn't fix your problem, but you will most likely find the issue is tied to a specific device.

I can't speak for how Apple identifies problems or when they are deemed widespread enough to start working on a fix. I'm not refuting claims made on these forums but keep in mind Apple can only fix those issues they are able to investigate by collecting and analyzing data. A few hundred posts on a user forum is hardly representative of the several hundred million iPhone users wold wide. I would encourage everyone experiencing problems to contact Apple support and start a case file. Anything short of that, we're just talking to ourselves.

Dear Samson,

on Aug. 19 I wrote this to this thread:

Dear users,

the ring tone on my iPhone X also goes down sometimes when connected to our car via bluetooth. I had contact with Apple Germany. They asked me to send analyse and diagnose files to them. I did this 3 times. They reviewed them and called me. The man from apple said: This problem is already known and listed as in progress. I told him that it is already 10 months knows and unfixed by now and that I do not expect this to be in propgress. I told him I have to delete the bluetooth connection with our car and use the cable connection instead.

Another bug that is "in progress": have at least 30 videos of each about one minute on your iPhone. Select videos. Start the first and let it play as slide show. After about 15 oder 20 videos the foto app freezes. This bug is known for more than two years and also listed as "in progress".

I did contact Apple and they told me, that they are aware of this for a long time already, but did not fix it.

Dear users,

the ring tone on my iPhone X also goes down sometimes when connected to our car via bluetooth. I had contact with Apple Germany. They asked me to send analyse and diagnose files to them. I did this 3 times. They reviewed them and called me. The man from apple said: This problem is already known and listed as in progress. I told him that it is already 10 months knows and unfixed by now and that I do not expect this to be in propgress. I told him I have to delete the bluetooth connection with our car and use the cable connection instead.

Another bug that is "in progress": have at least 30 videos of each about one minute on your iPhone. Select videos. Start the first and let it play as slide show. After about 15 oder 20 videos the foto app freezes. This bug is known for more than two years and also listed as "in progress".

I told the man from apple on the phone, that I will not buy any more apple product until these two bugs are fixed.

Apples is making it real easy for me to save a lot of money not buying their products any more.

Just came over from the “resolved” thread. I have an almost 1 year old iPhone 11, running iOS 14.0.1 with the same Ringer and Alerts volume drop issue like so many are experiencing. I have tried all the various fixes recommended here and by Apple support. In working with Apple support, I went through a very tedious, time consuming process of collecting analytics from my phone so engineering would have data to work with. It’s only been a week since providing that information but have not heard back from the senior advisor who’s been helping me. My last ditch effort (which I hadn’t tried yet because it is a pain and takes forever) was to do a complete erase and restore to factory settings. To be clear, after the install, I did not restore from a back up. This leaves the painstaking task of getting all your settings back to where you want them and manually downloading 3rd party apps. This proved to be a fruitless effort. Within a few hours the volume had dropped again. The only thing left is to try that restore to factory settings and then leaving all 3rd party apps off the phone to see if it is an app induced problem. I suspect this because not every user is having this problem. It is some combination of Bluetooth, app, iOS problem. It has to be, otherwise every iPhone user would be reporting this issue. I also suspect the issue is much more widespread than reported. I’ve noticed that my phone’s volume drop to zero sometimes self corrects. Meaning, if I leave the slider at zero, it sometimes does go back to the setting I selected. Unless a user is constantly checking the volume setting (or experiencing low or zero volume directly), they would not know this problem is happening. There are probably also many apathetic users that just accept this bug and reset the volume.

Unless someone comes up with a fix we are at the mercy of Apple coming up with a solution. My warranty runs out in November. I will be working with support up until then to resolve the problem and then ask for a replacement iPhone. I suspect that won’t resolve the issue but it’s the only thing left to try.