How to turn off Headphone Safety on iPhone

If they insist on keeping this feature it should be linked to parental control options, not adults freedom of choice. Smoking and drinking can kill you but you are not limited to how much you buy each time you shop.

plus if Apples inability to acknowledge what Bluetooth device I’m listening to, you deserve to be dropped from the top tier frankly.

Using this forum is useless I've just got the message from moderator that my workaround post was deleted because was n't constructive.

So I think that only constructive comment is : if I don't like this bug - oh I'm sorry, it's not a bug, it's a feature - I won't buy iphone any more.

It isn't either, it is the law in France and Apple has no choice but to do this. If you are going to buy another smartphone do it quickly as all other manufacturers will also be required to do this or discontinue sales in the EU.

What is absurd about this is that a device transmits audio over Bluetooth has *no* idea how many dB will be produced (or at what distance) by whatever sound-producing device or system the Bluetooth receiver is connected to - most obviously because the device will have its own volume control, its own inbuilt gain, and then there are the actual speakers/headphones and the distance at which the listener sits to take into account.

[I'm not being critical of William's post, just the absurdity of a 'phone, iPod or whatever attempting to limiting the dB produced by the whole audio system at the other end of the ether].

MikeBzz wrote:

[I'm not being critical of William's post, just the absurdity of a 'phone, iPod or whatever attempting to limiting the dB produced by the whole audio system at the other end of the ether].

Quite frankly it's also fuzzy in the case of wired headphones as different headphones like speakers have different efficiency ratings, so a voltage level that produces 85 dB on headphone "A" may only produce 80 dB on headphone "B" - but the EU specs take care of that by mandating the allowed voltage a wired headphone jack can produce. 🙄

Just to re-iterate my findings so far on ios14.3 in the UK on a UK phone :

• Bluetooth'd to a car : health data is not accumulated. volume warnings don't happen
• Bluetooth'd to a Denon envaya mini speaker : health data is not accumulated, volume warning's don't happen
• .. to aftershokz air bone conduction headphones : health data accumulates, warnings happen. The output is not what the phone thinks it might be and is very dependent on where they are on your cheek bones.
• ... to Sony full size noise cancelling headphones : health data accumulates, warnings happen. The output is probably in line with what the phone thinks. If its at 100dB then its usually a very therapeutic moment that I do not expect to be interrupted.

So it's apparent there is some logic differentiating these devices as headset vs. not headset. Car and Speakers don't seem to be a problem for me. The bone conduction headphones are the real issue because I use them a lot and they are accumulating time spent in the allegedly "higher" listening level bands. So that when I really want loud music from proper headphones .. I get rudely interrupted.

Either way, with or without the bone conducting headphone issue, the intrusion with a head set is very unwelcome. There should be an override (with appropriate disclaimer and legalese) for this. This can be connected with parental controls so that my children cannot override it unless I allow it, but the override is more important. We understand the problem with children and this is why when they were younger we bought them headphones that themselves were restricted. And we talk to them about health matters, I don't think this is a necessary feature.

Others here are saying the restrictions apply regardless of device type. Is this on ios 14.3 or are you still on 14.2 ?

I also want to highlight again that my ipad and my mac are unaffected. I am therefore now using my ipad increasingly for music during lockdown. I am so unexcited about the iphone for music now.

Don’t upgrade. I spent a long time on the phone with customer support and we tried everything listed in this post—-which did not resolve the issue. She then located an article that said if your phone was shipped with 14.2, then you will no longer be able to disable “headphone safety” when you update to 14.3. This is diabolical and I fear just the beginning of how Apple plans to improve our lives by dictating what we can and can’t do with our own bodies. After all, sheep need guidance and who is smarter than Apple “geniuses “?

Edit: this is not a response to Arhnace, I just hit the last reply button. Sorry, not used to this forum.

This is absolutely insane. I use an iPhone SE v 1 with Apple earphones from the headphone socket. If I listen to a spoken word podcast I need a sound level of 50-70% to hear the podcast as loud as someone speaking in normal level. Right now I am at night listening to Youtube at 30%. In my car I use. a cable from my iPhone to the AUX socket. However I get interference noises from my generator, so I want to use 100% output from the iPhone and a low amplification in the stereo, as the stereo amplifies the intereference sounds. All of this worked fine till iOs friggin 14. In short it is simply not possible for me to lower the sound level. Yet I get a warning every friggin 5 seconds with a Blong louder than the other sounds, in itself the greatest danger to my hearing. Nag nag nag nag nag nag nag nag. i turn off my podcast/youtube and still get about 5 more warnings in an otherwise silent earphone. Insane.

Headphones continuously too low is not the subject of this thread.

However first check settings, Sounds (and haptics), Headphone Safety, and turn off Reduce Loud Sounds

If they are still continuously too low and not being dropped in the middle of a song then you have another problem Start a new discussion but with more detail than this,

At last! I have found the answer to this and came straight here to tell everyone! I looked this up months ago when I got my new phone but didn’t have the option that people were referring to!

I have now found it in a different place! Pretty sure Apple do this on purpose so some people give up, which I had pretty much done, until today, of course, when I was annoyed yet again by the notification.

So, go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Headphone Notifications - switch button to Off

You’ll get a pop-up saying that you should only do it if you use hearing aids/devices, but just tap Turn Off anyway and you’re done, at last! FINALLY!!!

Edit: As I hit Post on this answer I noticed someone has already answered this! Gutted! Thought I was the first on here to find it!

😂😂🙄☹️😢

Yeah, it’s BS. Their headphone safety thing is creating traffic safety issues.

A friend of mine is having this happen to the BT in his motorcycle helmet. 🤬

Amen. This is friggin nuts.

It must be.

For info I’m in the UK and have reported it too.

I’m trying to turn off headphone safety but there isn’t an option to disable it