How to turn off Headphone Safety on iPhone

It is actual law in France (the linked text is in French):

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000027799648/

This web site states it is not an EU law, but to avoid having different models for France and elsewhere in the EU, most vendors will just impose the limit across their product line:

At volume settings for which the sound level is greater than 85 dB(A), the user must be informed by a visual or audible signal, and must acknowledge the signal, before he or she can override the volume limit to allow replay at these settings. The warning has to acknowledged at regular intervals. The equipment must default to a setting which gives less than 85 dB(A) when switched on.

https://www.isvr.co.uk/labtests/en50332.htm

Full erase/restore by computer activates on old devices. Erasing & putting backup ok.

Hopefully those unhappy use apple.com/feedback so if it can be tweaked in compliance- it will if enough feedback is given there. Apple doesn’t monitor these forms- think of them as a sort of community discussion self help deal.

I see no reason for hostility. William is quite right in that the EU volume limit is a thing and has been so for years. People have been circumventing it since the first implementations back in the DAP-era in the Noughties; it was a frequent discussion topic in hifi-forums like HeadFi. The exact legal situation is convoluted, and I'm only a layman myself. There are a bunch of European Standards (EN xxxx), which are not legally binding on their own, there are national standards that tend to be translated copy&paste versions of the ENs, there are EU directives and EU regulations (something I often mix up myself, though the difference is significant), and there are national laws. And a lot of this stuff is referring to each other, and there are multiple versions from different years where newer versions supersede the older ones.

Anyway, I think it is safe to say that pretty much any consumer phone and DAP sold in the EU in the past 10-15 years will have some form of volume limit somewhere in its code, even though maybe in the actual country of sales there is not yet such a legal requirement - it is just easier to build one EU version for the EU market. Whether it is activated and how it is implemented is a different matter again. I have two Samsung EU phones here, in one it was always on and could not be deactivated by normal means (though the workaround/hack was pretty easy), and in the other it was present and on by default, but could simply be turned off. The rules seem to allow some leeway - they differentiate between what a "normal person" can do and what a "skilled person" is allowed, so I guess a manufacturer can bury the off-switch behind two layers of menus and claim compliance. There are also exemptions for "professional" equipment.

At the same time high-profile manufacturers are more likely to draw legal attention, and thus they are more likely to play it safe in their interpretation. Back in the DAP/iPod-day Apple and Sony were pretty strict, making it hard to impossible to circumvent the limit, whereas with niche manufacturers it was often enough to just change the region in the settings. As far as I know there is even a physical (hardware) difference between Apple's headphone/Lightning-adapters in the EU vs the rest of the world, resulting in lower output in the EU.

So in that sense it does not surprise me if Apple takes the safe route and picks the strictest version they can find. They even show some pragmatic restraint - implementing the full WHO suggestions would result in a truly obnoxious device, as there would be even way more notifications than now. I can see where the WHO is coming from, from a hearing protection perspective there are flaws in the EN/IEC standards. But pestering the user is the wrong way. The WHO even acknowledges that the users are unhappy with the far less intrusive EU limits, but it seems the WHO response is to educate the user even harder. (I can picture a future fully WHO-compliant device that implements other possible health suggestions that might come up eventually - "Click agree to keep using your device beyond the recommended screen time...", "Click agree to turn up the brightness beyond the recommended maximum..." :D).

People will accept moderate limits, but once they get too annoying, people will hack. And once you start hacking, you might as well hack it all away. The WHO approach is destined to fail, and Apple's implementation is already too far across that threshold. They should go back to what is legally required.

Did you read the entire post? To summarize what I read, more and more Android phones are now having it too- & in re: legality of being required- apparently in a few parts of EU- it is not required- but it’s more feasible to do one software for Europe vs writing specific software for the countries that do. If you are in a EU country where it isn’t legally required you can notify Apple engineers via a ticket from a senior AppleCare advisor so it possibly be removed in a future software update.

Hostility is not that surprising given that the function of a very expensive device has been significantly degraded without warning.

Most of the more interesting posts are being censored out now. Really big mismatch between what turns up in the email notifications and what can be found online. Most are not rude or hostile. Mine wasn’t

“We’ve removed your post How to turn off Headphone Safety on iPhone because it contained either feedback or a feature request that was not constructive.”

To be clear apple, I would simply like my phone to function as it did before the last update. That is, I would like to be able to maintain the volume at a high enough level to properly drive my car Bluetooth system (roughly 85% of Max) without it being shut down. Without this, one of the main things I use it for is compromised.

Was interesting to note that a recent post referencing a section from the actual IEC specification has also been removed.

This gives the voltage output level at which warning should be given at as 270mV. This compares to a line level output standard of 316mV..... , so if trying to operate with anything that expects a line level input, you are going to be in trouble.

Not going to bother posting again. This isn’t going anywhere and will probably be censored again anyway.

This unwarranted censorship reminds me why I only carry an iPhone because it is required and supplied by my employer. My own money would be spent elsewhere. Like the iPhone hardware - other aspects of the ownership experience ....... not so much.

Rather than random censorship, it would so much more constructive if someone from apple could step up and explain their position and the reasons for it. Personally I think it’s a huge own goal. Whatever happened to “the customer is always right “?

I agree on all of this, I just think that William did not deserve hostility. I think the implementation introduced by 14.2 is terrible - it may be well-intended, but it made my iPhone useless for its main usage, and thus I cannot see it any other way than Apple having intentionally destroyed my property. It is an old model soon to drop out of support, and I do not exactly have the drive to deal with this during the pandemic, so I am unlikely to pursue legal action, although I think the behaviour deserves it.

Instead I have informed Apple of my dissatisfaction through the regular channels, and largely shifted to Android (I have always kept both OSes around, so no big effort). Occasionally I explore means of repairing my iPhone, but I am not sure this is worth the trouble.

Yup and my comment regarding this topic was conveniently not posted.. it seems laying it down in black and white is not accepted. Typical Apple... after 14 years Apple customer, starting with an iPod, with very few issues, I find it unfair that my feedback is deleted or not published for others to read on an issue that obviously bought them here.

I merely outlined the frequency of such sudden unpredicted weird features and the apparent lack of thorough testing. I mean Bluetooth can tell what it’s connected to, and if it’s anything other than headphones, the feature should not be active... simple, easy but failed...

It behaves as a bug in that it significantly spoils the user experience for many by acting unnecessarily.

Apple are undoubtedly capable of handling it better. If they feel like it.

I have reported it as a bug.

VitesseEFI wrote:

It behaves as a bug in that it significantly spoils the user experience for many by acting unnecessarily.

That's the definition of "annoyance" not of "bug". A "bug" is something unintentional, a coding error or negative, unforeseen consequence to other changes. The difference is important to understand because how each thing is likely to get resolved is different. If Apple has made an intentional decision to make the software uniform across the EU then people in Apple's legal department and executives would be responsible for changing that policy. If it's a bug, it needs to be isolated by engineers and fixed while not creating more issues by fixing it. And that make take awhile. When you report a bug, it goes to the engineers. They don't make policy. So, kind of pointless to report it there.

As far as users are concerned it’s a bug, even by your definition (as we can only presume Apple didn’t intend to stop us being able to use external speakers or headphones). If Apple can’t be bothered to link their departments and pass information from engineers to executives or vice versa then that’s their problem, they will have created a poorer user experience and eventually that will impact on their sales. That’s their bad.

Actually, the issue here is caused by a feature called "Headphone Notifications", and by its own description text it should only apply to headphones. Yet it affects other Bluetooth devices and non-headphone devices attached by wire, so arguably, at least in that sense it is indeed a bug.

That the feature also is annoying when used with headphones, that may not qualify as a bug.

“Due to regulations and safety standards, headphone notifications can’t be turned off in certain countries or regions.”

...and that is another way in which it is a bug: There are no regulations or safety standards in the EU and several other affected regions that would require the Headphone Notifications as they are implemented now, so it should be possible to turn them off in these regions, yet we cannot.

SystemaEncephale wrote:

There are no regulations or safety standards in the EU and several other affected regions that would require the Headphone Notifications as they are implemented now

How is that not the case? It is the EU mandate that requires the warning and the periodic acknowledgements, if not turning the volume down.

It is NOT an EU mandate. It's a RECOMMENDATION. Even as a recommendation it does NOT dictate Apple to forcing people's volume down. Following that recommendation and interpreting it in their own silly way is Apple's own choice.

EU iPhones had a limit compliant with the EU rules for years until 14.2. There was no need to change it to the current state which drastically exceeds the requirements.

This is as if a car manufacturer restricted its vehicles to 70 km/h and blamed this on the legal national speed limit of 100 km/h. It misrepresents the law. There is no legal requirement for the iPhone limit to be this intrusive and annoying - it is Apple who wants it to be this way.