Alarm volume TOO LOUD in iOS14

HI, I spoke to apple support since posting on here previously. Turning off Attention Aware Features under Face ID is the fix, for the loud alarm issue, although not ideal as it affects more than the alarm.

The update in IOS to incorporate Attention Aware Feature is to make sure alerts, sounds, rings etc. are at max volume until you look at the iphone and Face ID recognition knows you have looked at the alert to action/respond to it.

Bit of an annoying update if you ask me as I would like to be in control in the first place of what alerts me on the phone, not have the phone decide and then me have to adjust it.

BE AWARE though - automatic IOS updates reset the Attention Aware Feature to be turned back on. My phone recently updated to the latest IOS update overnight and I was awoken next morning by the BLARING alarm again due to Attention Aware being turned back on by the auto update. Scared the c**p out of me. NOT a nice way to be woken up!

No, not misunderstanding, I went through 2 hours of testing scenarios on the phone with Apple support and they diagnosed it down to this feature being on that was causing the alarm to be max volume until I looked at the phone.

Yes, I agree, Attention Aware does lower the volume - from Max Volume to the pre-set volume, once you have picked up the phone to look at the alert (eg Alarm going off).

My comments represent exactly the situation on my phone and the conversation I had with Apple support, who have escalated it to their engineers.

I don't want to get into a long argument on this, so will be stepping out of this conversation now.

appleuser3791 wrote:

Yes, I agree, Attention Aware does lower the volume - from Max Volume to the pre-set volume, once you have picked up the phone to look at the alert (eg Alarm going off).

It doesn't lower it from the maximum volume. It lowers it from whatever volume you had it set to. In my case, that's about 50%. If you don't want maximum volume, don't set it to that.

"If you don't want maximum volume, don't set it to that."

Where do you set the volume? There is no such option, at least not specifically for the alarm. As other users have pointed out, it's not very practical having to lower the volume of the ringer and alerts only because of the alarm issue. Do I now have to remember to lower the volume every night before I go to bed? There is hardly an advantage anymore over an old-fashioned alarm clock.

This didn't use to be an issue before iOS 14. People are reporting they found a solution by switching on "change with buttons" but that only makes it worse. Every time I listen to music, I then have to remember to lower the volume afterwards. This is all so super annoying; why can't there just be a volume setting for the alarm?? (and why wasn't this an issue before?)

I can also confirm that it IS an issue with the Attention Aware Features option in settings. Regardless of what it is intended to do, there is a glitch where it will set your alarm to max volume until you look at your phone and then it will reset to whatever you have set with the volume slider. I have tested this and turning it off seems to solve the issue.

Actually, most people do wake up with a super loud volume that cannot be adjusted; most alarm clocks, for example, do not have an adjustable volume setting.

Certainly unless you put it under a pillow the old wind-up style with a bell had no volume setting.

Thank you!!!! You set me on the right path. I went to settings then Sounds, under Ringer and Alerts turned off toggle Change with Buttons and slid volume slider to low. That is it!

I set my alarm like normal and then snoozed when it went off at low volume. This time the snooze stayed at low volume. I snoozed again just to test it more and it stayed at low volume.

I am not sure why this wasn’t an easy solution to find on the Internet. Either way I’m happy to have it solved.

Rock_climb wrote:

Why is the alarm volume so loud? I turned it down all the way and it still blares out.

If you are using the Sleep function in Health and the alarms are set through that, there is a separate volume adjustment in Health.

Yes! I’m glad it’s not just me thinking this has happened, some mornings when I have to get up mega early I used to set my alarm much quieter so as not to wake our baby, but now it wakes our baby, and pretty much everyone on the street, it was a perfectly good alarm app before, I can’t understand the need for the change? I just want to be able to set the alarm to go off quieter, without having to download yet another app to get a function that should be already on the phone..

Volume used to be independent of the main sounds and hepatic, that does not seem to be the case anymore. Extremely frustrating and hopefully just a temporary bug. Setting up sleep app is too involved I just want to be able to set an alarm at a particular volume level without affecting the rest of my ringers and sounds which is how it worked prior to iOS 14/iPhone 12pro It might not sound like a big deal but I use the alarm clock app every day. Hopefully apple is listening.

I agree with you, you used to be able to go into a particular alarm that you created, hit edit. Once you chose a particular sound you were able to choose the volume by adjust with the volume up down buttons. You can still do that now but it does not remember the level. It defaults back to the main sound setting.

I have the same issue, but it seems to be connected to my snooze function. I checked my volume before sleep and turned it way down. This morning my alarm went off at the volume I had set my phone too, but when I pressed snooze, my volume automatically was at full blast. It definitely worked to get my *** out of bed, but it’s also really startling and agitating way to start one’s day.

Agree with OP.

the lowest volume setting is louder than prior to iOS 14.3.

scared the bejeezus out of me this AM.

I upgraded from 6s to 12 Mini

transferred settings and content

I noticed the default was too loud last night when I used the timer.

changed default under Settings/Sound & Haptics/Ringer and Alerts to lowest setting

set an alarm and made sure volume was at lowest setting

The lowest volume setting is *much* louder than it used to be prior to iOS 14.3.

I’ve gone ahead submitted feedback to Apple.

boy, I sure hope they address this soon.

Turning off Attention Alert (Settings > Face ID & Attention > Attention Aware Features (off)” fixed it for me, too.

I just transitioned from iPhone 6s to 12. I did a side-by-side comparison - alarms initially blared at full blast and then decreased on the 12 after I picked it up or looked at, but were always reasonable and unchanging at the same level on the 6s. After I made the change above, the alarm volume is the same on both phones, and does not decrease over time, regardless of my handling of the phone.

I’m not sure what (undesirable) side effects this may cause — but it solved this problem, which had been bugging me greatly.