You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
💡 Did you know?
⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >
⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >
⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >
⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >
Hi, does anybody know how to turn the headphone safety setting off on the new iso update???
cheers.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 11, iOS 14
Some of us have been handed a nasty surprise from Apple after recently updating to IOS 14.2. Prior to iOS 14.2 our phones had a feature called headphone safety which notified us that the volume of our headphones was too high and lowered it back down autonomously. This feature was mandated for EU states but it was optional for everywhere else, essentially if you lived outside of Europe, you were able to turn this feature off.
Once you update your phone to iOS 14.2 there is no longer an option to disable this headphone safety feature, whether you live in the EU or outside of Europe (I live in Canada). Okay, so what’s the big deal? Well, first thing, ethically speaking, medical concerns such as hearing loss, which this feature is trying to prevent, are essentially a personal choice, which should not have any interference with a Tech company.
More importantly, the feature has been designed terribly. It cannot differentiate between Bluetooth headsets, Bluetooth speakers, and Bluetooth receivers for your car radio. We typically listen to music quite loud on Bluetooth speakers, since they are typically further away from us, however since the phone cannot differentiate between a Bluetooth speaker and Bluetooth headphones, it assumes your listening to headphones too loud and lowers the volume for you to 50%. If you higher the volume manually it will continue to lower it every 20-30 minutes. This experience becomes dangerous when driving as it forces you to either pull over or reach for your phone and fiddle with the buttons while driving, which can have dangerous consequences.
We have tried reaching out to apple, and we were met with disappointing results. The recommended help was to submit your feedback to apples feedback page: https://www.apple.com/feedback/ Upon accessing the feedback page, there isn’t even an option to report any feedback for iOS 14.2 bugs/ features.
Shockingly, posts submitted to the apple community boards/forums kept being deleted, and I was personally threatened to have my apple ID deleted and ISP blocked if I continued to raise awareness in regards to this issue. This is truly a first for Apple, in 13 years that I’ve been a customer, I never thought I would get threatened this way. So one must assume there is no help coming, no consideration, no willingness to engage in discourse by Apple in regards to this with the impacted users.
Apples mythological existence was largely propelled by the introduction of the iPod, a device that made it easy for us to enjoy music, how we wanted, where we wanted. Today, amongst so many limitations due to the global pandemic, all we really ask is to please, let us enjoy our music uninterrupted, un-convoluted, we need this right now, for some of us, music is the only thing we have left to keep us afloat.
Please allow those who are not within the EU the ability to turn this feature off; we are all conscientious adults able to manage our hearing.
This is not a smear campaign against Apple, we just want to be heard, much like we just want to hear our music.
[Edited by Moderator]
not on BlueTooth, at which I could tie a 146dB JBL-HLA PA-system, or sit 20feet away from my JBL Go2 micro-speaker...
Still, they create danger in traffic, where I was driving that 50ft/50tons truck on a Highway-hub, when the CoPilot dropped out.
Nowhere in that article does it say volume should be forcefully lowered down after a 7 day exposure period is reached. That is Apple’s own idiotic interpretation.
Also mind you, AT&T devices sold in US and Canada devices are also getting hit with this once they upgrade to 14.2
I’m in the UK and have the same issue. Doesn’t seem to happen when using my partners Amazon Echo Dot via Bluetooth, however every other Bluetooth device this happens.
I went to my local apple store and the guy I saw didn’t even know what I was talking about even when I showed him. Deleting the data doesn’t work, unless I delete it every time I want to listen to music, even then it just gives me a bit longer before it pings me the notification.
this is properly ridiculous, nanny state, 1984 bullcrap and Apple need to sort this out post haste. I’m literally fuming. I just bought a new SE2020 a month ago and updated about a week ago, wish I never had, wish I had a Samsung and wish I could Chuck this phone in the bin!
APPLE TAKE NOTE OF OUR PLIGHT AND SORT THIS ISSUE OUT
Mungo57 wrote:
APPLE TAKE NOTE OF OUR PLIGHT AND SORT THIS ISSUE OUT
Apple is not here and does not read these forums.
Perhaps once Brexit is completed they can do something about it, but EU rules state that:
… all personal music players sold in the EU after February 2013 are expected to have a default sound limit of 85dB.
The user can choose to override the limit so that the sound level can be increased up to maximum 100dB. If the user overrides the limit, warnings about the risks must be repeated every 20 hours of listening time.
I don't believe Canada ever passed anything but that doesn't mean they won't:
Source? Where does it say 20 hours? And “warning” is not the same thing as TURNING THE VOLUME DOWN FORCEFULLY.
Also note that any of these discussions regulations are dated 2009-2013. You’re telling me it took Apple 8 years to implement legal requirements?
And mind you: I live in Turkey which is not part of EU and we haven’t even scratched this issue in our country.
The reason for this feature is nothing to do with safety or hearing, it’s to stop people using the headphone jack to play music through hifi systems. Apple knows that people still use the headphone jack and also use hifis without Bluetooth and without buying their own extra hardware. They’re just trying to make it as annoying as possible as part of their war on headphone jacks. The thing is, this is such an infuriating “feature” that I think they’ll simply have to get rid of this feature (or allow us to turn it off) in an update soon. I very nearly went out and bought an Android the morning this “feature” was released, that’s how annoying it was.
That only allows you to disable your own ability to turn “Reduce Loud Sounds” on and off. This issue has nothing to do with that. It has to do with Headphone Safety Notifications which are activated internally everytime you spend a certain amount of time listening to music at a certain decibel.
On the other hand Reduce Loud Sounds is OFF by default anyhow. You set it yourself so headphone volume is limited to whatever decibel you set it to. It’s NOT lowered to that volume. It’s maximum is SET to that volume.
They kicked also all Bluetooth equipment, which has its own volume-knobs and amplifiers. I drove a 50ft 50 tons truck when the sat-mav dropped in the middle of a crossing, causing a dangerous situation.
The point is lack of choice, they are forcefully blocking volume for customer without knowing the environment and circumstances. My friend is already hard of hearing with 67% hearing function. Full volume for him is normal volume for us but apple is turning his stuff down and he can’t even hear now. Sad really. Even if it is EU regulation people in the U.K. shouldn’t suffer as we leave on the 1st January and the regulation won’t apply.
Apple is not blocking the volume. It’s turning it down forcefully midway listening. That’s the only issue we have here. If it warned me day and night without interfering my listening midway I could care less. Also: volume limiting is not a new thing on Apple devices. It has been there for years but 14.2 takes it up a notch to the point of annoyance by interferinng with volume midway listening.
I think the point here is that the solution applies to all Bluetooth devices, no just headphones. I personally have my device at 100% volume in the car then adjust the speaker volume In-car. This has worked just fine for years, I’ve somehow not gone deaf yet.
As has already been stated, when this happens in your car it’s dangerous as the driver is forced to look at their device to make adjustments so they can hear navigation announcements or alerts.
This setting is just plain dumb and needs to be smarter to be of any use
This is a real danger if you’re using your phone on Bluetooth in your car... it keeps turning the volume down while I’m driving and you can’t set the volume back up unless you close the notification making you look at your phone, close the notification and then increase back the volume on your phone.
This isn’t what health agencies demand at all. If you are using a phone linked to your car stereo, or to your home music system, the recommendation is NOT that the phone is turned way down and the stereo system turned way UP. Such a setup results in the same volume anyway and makes it more likely you’ll have the volume way too loud when the sound system turns to a phone call or the radio etc. Most people, for very good reasons, have the phone on 100% and the stereo system at about 30% (or whatever). Drivers will now be going back and forth adjusting volume buttons when they should be concentrating on driving. Likewise at home you’ll be using more energy turning your stereo loud and having to go back and forth adjusting that too. This isn’t anything to do with health agencies.
All for more awareness and safety standards that make sense. But a blanket covering fix like this for the 5%-10% of people according to the report that limits even the non headphone listeners is just sloppy and lacks any real insight to the people who love music and use our device as intended without headphones just use the auxiliary side of it.
Curious... “worked” how? What did it to? Disable your own ability to turn on reduce loud sounds? Is that what everyone here is complaining about?
(I have a feeling lobster set up this new account to put an end to this thread with false solutions.)
How to turn off Headphone Safety on iPhone
