How to turn off Headphone Safety on iPhone
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
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]
I guess its not doing this on my ipad, so my gym sessions are safe for now. I will transfer my full itunes library to there and use that when I am at home.
You can do that all you want but do you think it will reverse the French law on this?
My phone is 14.2.1 doesn't have the option in headphone settings
Where are you located?
southern California.
I actually now have 14.3 build. Just updated....
And under Settings > Sound & Haptics > Headphone Safety the first item is not a switch to turn off headphone notifications?
absolutely not there
Except Apple does this every 20 MINUTES instead of hours at 100dB.
Nowhere in those standards does it say it will reduce the volume, give a notification yes, but reduce the volume no.
I am happy to hear that Apple support agrees it is an intrusion. I hope they get it sorted very soon
This is happening to me too, and I am in the United States. Also I am not using headphones. The phone does not know the different between headphones and other bluetooth devices.
A $10 MP3 player is less annoying than our $1300 iPhone...
Bingo. As stated my complaint was having the volume go lower than I could hear from barely able to hear volumes in my motorcycle helmet speakers (sena)
If I'm not given the option to change this I'll never buy an iPhone again.
It's unbelievably annoying to have a song turned down halfway through.
How to turn off Headphone Safety on iPhone