Notification volume on my iPhone is very low

It seems to only be a problem with the preset text tones that come on the phone. I tried switching over to a preset tone, after using custom tones since I’ve had iPhones and that’s when I discovered the issue. You can get around it by making custom tones and they work just fine.

I downloaded a custom ring tone and just used it for everything.

I followed these instructions from this site.

It's not too complicated if you're a little tech savy.

https://www.howtogeek.com/248489/how-to-add-custom-ringtones-to-your-iphone/

The custom ring tone works great.

Hope it helps.

There is definitely something odd going on with the sound level volume being low for certain types of notifications--specifically any of the non-Ringtone alerts, e.g., Text Tone, New Mail, etc.; hear me out--on my iPhone 14 Pro Max (iOS 17.3.1--however, issue has been present in numerous previous iOS versions) I can replicate the notification volume level issue as follows: I have the "Sleep Time Free" app installed on my phone; when I enable/start the sleep timer on it, then go into the phone Settings -> Sounds & Haptics -> Text Tone and select any one of my alert tones I notice that the alert tone volume is very loud...but when I stop the sleep timer in the Sleep Time Free app and then go back into Settings -> Sounds & Haptics -> Text Tone and select the (same) alert tone, the alert tone volume is now noticeably quite a bit lower; I can replicate this at will. It is not just one specific alert tone either--I can select a different alert tone (even the iOS-provided ones) and it'll do the same high/low volume thing too, and as previously mentioned it occurs on any of the other non-Ringtone alert types too; oddly enough the Ringtone volume stays at a consistent volume level regardless of whether I start the sleep timer in the app. And actually you don't really even need to go into the Sound settings and select an alert tone to perform the test--the phone lock sound is affected similarly as well.

Obviously I'm not gonna be letting the sleep timer run 24x7 just so that my text and/or other notification alert tones will sound very loud but clearly someway, somehow the Sleep Time Free app is able to manipulate the notification volume level. Kinda odd that starting the sleep timer (in the app) would actually cause the alert tone volume to increase--you'd think it should have it decreased so that you're not awakened by a very loud alert tone notification while you're asleep.

I did notice that along with my text tones volume being about 30% lower than my ringer volume. even when I pick the same tone.. that some of my purchased tone sounds were missing.. last nights update restored them back to where they were.. BUT still having issues with the lower volume on the text notifications.. I have tried every solution on this message board with no luck.. Actually, I had someone vandalize my mailbox in the middle of the night because I didn't hear my text notifications from my security camera.. this needs to be fixed asap!!! it is definitely some sort of bug in the update.

I noticed that each individual alert tone that can be set for Ringtone,text tone,new Mail, Reminder etc has a volume setting, for example in WhatsApp notifications you can set an individual sound/tone under the Notifications option, for the Sound tone you can set None, Note(default) Aurora Bamboo etc, for these Alert Tones you can set the volume, just select the desired Tone, press the Vol up/down buttons to set the desired alert or notification volume level, press Save to set the volume level. This is in addition to the normal ringer/Alert Volume.

Hope that helps, took me ages to find and fix when my WhatsApp notifications were bareley audible, but the ringer vol was fine.

Best Regards

Alan

Good try Alan, nice and loud when choosing the sound in Whatsapp settings. But as soon as I get a message on my 13 pro, it’s diminished, and can only be heard in a quiet room. 'Boing’ is the only one you have half a chance of hearing out and about. Old iphone 8, twice as loud, old iphone Xs Very, loud! All comparable to my 13pro, and I might add a family members 15pro. Seems the more recent ones are quieter, which I can only surmise is deliberate by Apple.

Please send in videos to Apple, showing how we cannot adjust the low volume w/controls etc, yes it’s set low & is not cool, let’s help each other out, if enough of us do it, we’ll get a fix, it’s escalating to engineering team now

Please send in videos to Apple, as stated earlier, showing how adjusting the volume controls don't work etc, yes it’s set low & is not cool, let’s help each other out, we're having this issue around the globe: if enough of us do it, we’ll get a fix, it’s escalating to engineering team now

I think one rabbit hole in this discussion is associating the problem with Ios versions. My wife’s Xs is Very loud, and running 17.4.1.

My old 8, is louder than my 13pro, though not quite as loud as the Xs.

I’m sure it’s all in the build, as my son’s 15pro notification sound is soft too.

I advise friends with hearing impairment to get an android phone as they are disadvantaged with Apple.

Tôi cũng gặp vấn đề tương tự trên 15 pro max ios 17.0.3. Chuông cuộc gọi đến và chuông báo thức to thủng tai. Hàng xóm *** phải giật mình. Nhưng chuông thông báo tin nhắn và các ứng dụng khác rất nhỏ. Nếu ước lượng chuông cuộc gọi là 100% âm lượng thì chuông thông báo chỉ khoảng 60% âm lượng

Nope. That does not help. All of these things were stated by others as “already tried and failed”. Does anyone from the apple community have any fixes? I spent two hours on the phone with tech support this morning on this very issue before looking to see if it was “just me” and finding this thread. iPhone 15 pro max, here with 17.3.1 phone is only a couple days old. I can hardly hear ANY of the new text tones and even some of the old ones are no longer sounding off.

Hello

I also have this problem. I've gone from iOS 12 to iOS 16 with a new iPad 9th gen.

The volume, when listening to internet, is fine. No problems there.

However, when getting notification alerts for iMessage (texts) or emails, I can barely hear anything. The 'change with Buttons' is OFF. The volume is set to HIGH.

Not sure what's the problem. Any ideas?

Exactly same problem on brand new iPhone 13 mini on IOS 16.7.1

Spent an hour on the phone to customer service who could hear the issue over the phone, ran a remote diagnostic (all fine), and could not resolve the problem

There are many reports of this online

Please help

I’m on 16.7.2 now, and the alerts are still noticeably quieter than ringtone, but audible with Bluetooth enabled now, as long as it’s not connected to any devices, which kind of defeats the point of it! When connected to a Bluetooth device, all alerts become virtually inaudible still

I realise now that the spinning disk when in Bluetooth or Hearing Devices menus is probably normal behaviour - the phone starts searching as soon as you enter the setting, hence the spinning disk. It stops when you exit that menu (which you obviously can’t see!)

I thought that I was the only one who had exactly the same issue. I had many iOS devices but nothing had this issue. Notification sounds are way too low than on my older 5s. Ringer volume is good as should be but notifications sucks. Is there any way out of this situation pls let me know