How to turn off Headphone Safety on iPhone

Yes, if you go to general-sound&haptics-headphone safety then you will see “Reduce Loud Sounds” toggled to the off position. It doesn’t matter. The phone will still turn down your headphones when you trigger some data point (db and time). It’s a done deal. I frankly don’t know why this group is so active. There is no way to disable it. This is a published fact.

I am certainly not an expert but I have looked into this vexing problem. This is not a law as I understand it. US federal law is enacted through the US Congress. This was a WHO (World Health Organization) recommendation which was on some level adopted by the EU. It shouldn’t affect US users, but it has. For that matter it shouldn’t affect UK users either.

Apple Care (or whatever it's called) said this is imposed upon US branded phones. Pretty sure I stated that somewhere in this mile long thread. I already reached out to them early on. That is what they said.

I wonder whose great idea that was?

i use my phone with some Guitar apps providing sound effects and it is really annoying. You need to have certain level for amplifier to work properly and reducing headphones output level out of control is affecting all the joy

Also no way to use it for live playing

stupid

Branta_uk wrote:

The function will have been tested against the development specification and is almost certainly “working as designed” and not defective, although that design may not be perfect and “as you would like”.

As for “damaged your iPhone”, There is no damage, there is simply a software function you don’t like. There is no damage to your device. If you disagree with my opinion on this point I suggest you stick with your last sentence and take the legal route to file a compensation case. If the US President can find lawyers corrupt enough to file no-hope cases with zero supporting evidence you must have at least the same chance of success.

My iPhone is no longer suitable for music playback in a number of my common usage scenarios. It used to work and with the Headphone Notifications it no longer does, hence it is a defective phone now, broken by 14.2, and I have had to replace it with an Android.

A "Headphone Notifications" feature that interrupts non-headphone playback is defective. If this was intentional, then Apple would be malicious rather than just a little sloppy. I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The problem is "headphone" may be defined in the spec.

For example, for wired headphones, though the spec is about SPLs, it is defined in terms of voltage at a headphone jack, which will result in different volume levels depending upon the efficiency of the applicable drivers.

It's possible the definition of "headphone" as it applies to Bluetooth may also specify similar parameters.

I've mentioned before that the spec itself is only available to examine if you purchase it, which I am not willing to do, but I'm sure someone here must have access to an engineering library with a copy.

You seem determined to defend Apple and absolve them of any blame here.

Either it’s the user’s fault, the legislators at fault, or people’s definition of the issue...

The point is, regardless of what the regulations state, this is not working correctly by Apple’s definition of ‘headphone safety’. It does not only impact headphones but ANY playback device that has its own volume control independently managed outside IOS.

It’s a defect, pure and simple, they need to address it and people should raise support tickets with Apple Support and keep doing so until it’s addressed.

You completely missed what I posted. I actually support your cause. But your cause is a waste of time here on a user to user ONLY forum, where no one from Apple is here or can do anything to help you.

If all you got from my post was to call me an Apple Minion, you clearly don't understand English.

What Apple would like to do and what regulations state they must do are often very different.

I’m not trying to absolve Apple of “blame,” but the fact that Samsung treats Bluetooth audio in the exact same way seems to indicate it’s not just Apple doing weird things.

This is simply not true. I confirmed that on Samsung UI 3.0 with latest version of Android installed on a Turkish (like my iPhone) Samsung Note 10 Plus. Media Volume Limit can be turned on and off by users. I’m sure same applies to all other Samsung devices sold in Europe and elsewhere as well.

Links you shared here where people are complaining on Samsung forums have absolutely nothing to do with how Apple is handling these Headphone Notifications.

Regardless of whether it can be disabled or not:

1) Samsung treats BT the same for the purpose of volume limits regardless of the device connected, headphones, speakers or some other device.

2) Samsung turns the volume down until the warning message is acknowledged.

That’s your interpretation.

The specific post I was replying to with my comment was questioning why Apple was treating BT speakers and other BT devices the same.

It was not asking about turning the feature off.

I suggest you look at the original subject of this very thread we are posting in...

This thread was never about BT speakers to start with... BT speakers being categorized as headphones by Apple is the fault of Apple engineering but doesn't change the original issue at hand here which is the inability to turn off headphone notifications.

It is ridiculous to limit the sound volume because I am using it to play Angle Bluetooth speaker in the park to teach a Tai Chi class. The class members are 100 feet away from the speaker. It is annoying that I have to readjust the iPhone sound volume every 15 minutes

You will need to buy some android model that is currently out and not updated. There is a link in here to the Samsung forum where owners of their most recent iPhones are facing the same issue. Are you claiming that Apple also doing this to Samsung phones?