Headphone Safety

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252037309?answerId=254468912022#254468912022

i have the same problem. I spoke with apple iOS support supervisor. Apparently this hearing safety was intentional. And can’t be turned off. I was told to have as many people call as possible. That’s the only way iOS engineering will make changes. This was supposed to be for headphone safety but it affects all my Bluetooth speakers, home stereo and car Bluetooth.

With the new upgrade go to Bluetooth and set all your headset equipment to car stereo or speakers and it want turn down your volume again.. bc it not registering it’s headphones so that will fix that with that new update..

I also have this problem. We figured out a loop that somewhat seems to be working. You’ll have to go to settings- sounds and haptics-headphone safety, then you will need to turn on reduce loud sounds, turn it all the way to 100 decibels, then I turned it back off. After that I would get a notification still but instead of saying it turns it down and then does it, it only suggests turning it down but doesn’t do it for you. The alert annoyed me also so I went to notifications, then turned off the health notifications. My phone seems to be like normal now. I just did it so I’m still waiting but I don’t seem to have anything happening anymore. Hope this helps! It was extremely annoying.

This insidious and potentially dangerous feature can't be turned off. I've been speaking to Apple (we don't really care) Support about this over the last 2 days. Apparantly, they're misinterpreting WHO and EU recommendations on the implications of elevated noise levels as law and well, here we are; Invasion of the volume snatchers.

I had a long conversation today with Apple support on this one and it’s been raised as a bug for engineering and future development.

no way will headphone safety be removed or be switchable as it’s there to comply with regulations.

hopefully you will be able to pick the paired Bluetooth devices “type” so you can remove the issue of it identifying amplifiers etc as headphones.

Unfortunately none of these solutions offer a permanent or even convenient fix. As the feature is also inherently flawed, it cannot distinguish between different types of bluetooth receiver. Looking at how it operates and the data it gathered over the course of an hour, it's using the output information of the music being played (picture what you would see on the display of a graphic equaliser) and setting that against the position of the volume slider on your phone. For example, if you set your phone volume to 100%, connect to a bluetooth receiver and then disconnect the output of the bluetooth receiver, your exposure is 0 but the feature will record an average exposure (in my case) of 88dB.

I really do hope Apple remove this irritating and unwanted 'safety feature' very soon.

Forget the device then re-pair. Then tap the (i)

What do you see?

“....I cannot believe the whole of Europe is having this problem because of the U.K. government....”

What on earth is this to do with UK??

These are WHO limits and it applies to half the world.

The mistake is (1) the iOS14.2’s failure to recognize that not all Bluetooth devices are headphones and (2) assuming wrongly that the WHO makes this compulsory.

For those with amplified bluetooth units including cars, keep the device volume high and the phone volume at medium.

Better yet in cars use USB if you have it

These are the WHO limits set in the Health app

Not sure how it can be a “bug” which is an unintentional or accidental coding error.

How can anyone accidentally type in “this feature cannot be turned off” and then take away the switch from the UI?

It was intentional change by the coder! We just need to know why it was authorised, and until they publish a support document or release notes, none if the regulars here know why they did it

Corpusan wrote:

As the feature is also inherently flawed, it cannot distinguish between different types of bluetooth receiver.

That is true. All audio devices use the same Bluetooth profile: A2DP, which does not distinguish between different types of Bluetooth receiver. So your earbuds, your over the ear headphones, your car sound system and your stereo speakers look exactly the same to iOS.

Many of you seem to be missing the point. The software is making assumptions about how the device is used which are incorrect. I personally build custom stereo amplifiers. Many of my customers use (perhaps now it should be "used") iPods and iPhones as input devices. Depending on how the system is configured, one may want the iPod/iPhone drive level at max or near max. And this level has nothing to do with listening levels. It has to do with component interfaces.

However, the Apple software/system designers are ASSUMING that they know more about how the device is being used than the people actually using it. Discussions about poor business decisions aside, these assumptions constitutes very poor engineering and design practice.

And Mr. Watt, I too suffer from tinnitus. My music is almost never over a quiet conversational level but dependent on the equipment stack being used, the iPod is often at or near max. Acoustic volume and device output level are distinct and separate issues.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Until someone damages their hearing, then sues the manufacturer because the product caused it. And limiting volume is now required by law in some countries.

More likely... until a product is denied regulatory approval, or banned from import and sale in countries where it does not comply with the law. That would be a huge commercial damage to the manufacturer's reputation. Simple risk assessment, which will hurt stock price most - getting banned from whole countries, or a few users with entitlement syndrome?

In Settings, Sounds and Haptics, Headphone Safety, Turn on Reduce Loud Sounds and set to 80dB or less.

Then crank up the Sony

You may have to delete your existing Health App data as well but 80dB will give you 40 hours a week. 75dB 127 hours a week

Peter_watt means you need to complain to Apple directly using the link he posted.

pronouns or otherwise, quite useless information. His link is valid though.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html