Volume on Bluetooth earphones too loud

Hi there TuomasEi,

We understand you're experiencing an issue with the volume on your headphones with your iPhone, and we'd like to share a resource that may help.

Check it out here: Adjust the volume on iPhone

Specifically, take a look at the section below:

"Limit the headphone volume

You can limit the maximum headphone volume for music and videos.

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap Sounds & Haptics (on supported models) or Sounds (on other iPhone models).
3. Tap Reduce Loud Sounds, turn on Reduce Loud Sounds, then drag the slider to choose the maximum decibel level for headphone audio.

Note: If you have Screen Time turned on in Settings, you can prevent changes to the maximum headphone volume. Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Reduce Loud Sounds, then select Don’t Allow."

Cheers!

I just played around with some sound settings, and when you put the 'reduce loud sounds' slider to the far right (100 decibels) the volume gets LESS loud. Much better, but still not as quiet as I'd like. This setting is very counter intuitive. It makes your music the loudest at 75dB, and less loud at 100dB.

This one works for me:

Don´t know the English names of the menu, but this is what I found:

1. Settings -> Assistive devices -> Sound / Picture -> Sound - Custom sound for headphones ON.
2. Disable Bluetooth, and restart your headphones.
3. Close the app your are playing music from. In my case Tidal.
4. Activate Bluetooth again and pair them.

Here are threads about the same issue I've found:

https://www.notion.so/iOS-MacOS-Minimum-Volume-Issue-9f3ca512499c43fba774355cc2bfddb4

Some of these threads are as far back as 2017. It seems it's always been like this, and Apple hasn't done anything to fix this despite all those cases and people complaining for years. I've talked to Apple Japanese support about a week ago and after a few days, they got back to me saying they tested and confirmed this issue, and thinks it's happening with all bluetooth headphones (not sure if Apple already knew this problem, but there're many people complaining since years ago and I'm sure it's been already reported to Apple many times).

But at the end, they told me they are NOT sure if they are ever going to fix this, or when this will ever be fixed. I feel like unless many people report this issue, they are not going to do anything as they haven't done anything for years.

I believe I found the quietest setting for 3rd party headphones. Go to Accessibility/audio\visual/ and turn on mono volume and noise cancellation, then go back to sound and haptics/reduce loud sounds and set it to 100db, this should bring it down the lowest from what I’ve found.

I have same problem. And what is help me:

1) set bluetooth type on Headphone + I tested LG FN 6 (TWS)

2) I reduce the volume by buttons on MDR-ZX3300BT

please let me know If you know some models of earphones with reducing sound level by own settings different from Iphone

Update: Now I tested with wireless in ears and I can lower one ear if both are active and I use the audio bias to only produce sound from left or right. It goes very low. This is absolutely a problem in iOS software.

Is it working perfectly for AirPods now? Although I wouldn’t be surprised since it’s their own products. But far as I remember, this was happening even with their Bluetooth headphones before iOS 14.3. But I emailed pretty much every Apple executive regarding this issue a few days before releasing 14.3, and got a reply from their Bluetooth Engineering team somehow.

I tied AirPods Max a few days ago and noticed there was no this issue. So maybe they really fixed it for Apple headphones. Also Reduce Sound feature makes huge difference with their headphones but not at all with 3rd party. Hope they can fix it for 3rd parties too.

[Edited by Moderator]

I bought iPhone 12 mini two days ago and I have this same issue. I am actually considering returning the phone, since listening to music is such a huge part of the way I use my phone, and it is impossible with the volume levels currently used in iPhones.

I have the newest updates in the phone, I have the headphones safety on and it helped a fraction, but not enough. I also downloaded a volume control app, which allows to take the volume down to 1% and even that is too loud! This is absolutely ridiculous. I'm using JBL headphones. Does anyone have experience of non-apple headphones that would allow for more volume control? Or an app to fix this?

By adjusting balance from the sound settings you can make either left or right earpiece silent enough, but only left or right, not both. So currently I only use the right earpiece of my headphones, which is ridiculous.

Hi, same issue for me with iPhone 6, 6s and 12, all tested with at least 4 different Bluetooth headphones and some Bluetooth speakers. They all work fine when using android phones.

This issue is absolutely a problem on Apple side that they need to fix. This has been an issue for at least 4 years for me.

I understand. Minimum sound on Bluetooth device is very loud with iPhone. I can lower volume much further on my Android phone with the same Bluetooth headphone.

I’ve researched about this issue and looks like this is how it has always been with iOS for at least years.

I could find many similar threads in forums here and Reddit. I’m quite surprised how Apple hasn’t done anything else to fix this yet even after years.

It’s super ridiculous that you can’t control volume properly when using Bluetooth headphone!

What I did was go off Bluetooth, buy a lightening adapter and use my headphone jack. Alternatively I use my Mac air to listen to music (if I’m sat still and not out and about) , for some reason the Bluetooth volume works with my computer.

Probably, the best shot for this issue to get fixed is to send email to Apple executives and let them know about this issue. You can easily find their emails on Google. I got a reply from Apple COO regarding customer support issue in the past

Yeah I’ve had the same issue with Bluetooth headphones I’ve purchased. It drives me crazy that many Bluetooth headphones don’t get quiet! Unfortunately there’s nothing you can really do besides look for other Bluetooth headphones that have a lower minimum volume.

Another thing you can try in the meantime is taking out one of the Bluetooth earbuds from your ears, and then go to Settings -> Accessibility -> Audio/Visual. Then under the Balance heading, drag the slider in the direction opposite to the earbud you still are wearing, which will decrease the audio in that earbud.

Hope that helps!

The steps 1-3 were how I got it to work (more or less, still a bit loud), but counterintuitively you need to turn the max volume UP instead of down to reduce the level at the min level.

It seems reducing loud sounds will rescale the range of levels such that faint sounds become louder if the max level is capped. Very strange, please fix this, apple!