iPhone ringtone quiet - even on loudest setting

My wife just bought a new iPhone 13 a week ago, ringtone is hard to hear even ringtone sound and haptics is set to the loudest setting. Notification sounds r louder than ringtone. Why? Is the iPhone defective or just a software issue?


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Posted on Jul 4, 2023 12:38 PM

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Question marked as Best answer

Hi Cherub7171,


Although the ringtone volume is up in settings, this might be due to the volume being lowered on the phone. Try calling your wife and as the call is ringing, have your wife press the volume up button. Does the volume appear to be turned up all the way on the slider that appears? If so, you can lock the ringer volume in and prevent it being changed with the side buttons by disabling Change with Buttons if you'd like. Below guidance is from Adjust the volume on iPhone - Apple Support.


"Lock the ringer and alert volumes in Settings

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Tap Sounds & Haptics (on supported models) or Sounds (on other iPhone models).
  3. Turn off Change with Buttons."


Also, check if your wife is looking at the phone while you call. This new feature called Attention Awareness will lower the volume when the camera sees the owner looking at it. Turn Attention Aware features on or off on your iPhone or iPad Pro - Apple Support


She can also turn that feature off, and test, OR have the phone facing down when you test.


Kind regards.

Posted on Jul 5, 2023 5:54 PM

11 replies

Jul 5, 2023 1:56 PM in response to Cherub7171

Hello Cherub7171,


Thank you for reaching out to Apple Support Communities, and we'll be happy to help in any way we can. We understand you're having issues with the volume of ringtones on iPhone. Have you tried restarting your iPhone? This simple step resolves a multitude of issues: Restart your iPhone - Apple Support


"How to restart your iPhone X, 11, 12, 13, or later


Press and hold either volume button and the side button until the power-off slider appears.


Drag the slider, then wait 30 seconds for your device to turn off. If your device is frozen or unresponsive, force restart your device.


To turn your device back on, press and hold the side button (on the right side of your iPhone) until you see the Apple logo."


If that doesn't resolve the issue, does your iPhone need updating to iOS 16.5.1? Do you have a recent backup for the data in your iPhone in iCloud or your computer? If not, we recommend that you create one as described here: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support


Then update your iOS as outlined here:  Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


We hope this helps.


Cheers!

Question marked as Best answer

Jul 5, 2023 5:54 PM in response to Cherub7171

Hi Cherub7171,


Although the ringtone volume is up in settings, this might be due to the volume being lowered on the phone. Try calling your wife and as the call is ringing, have your wife press the volume up button. Does the volume appear to be turned up all the way on the slider that appears? If so, you can lock the ringer volume in and prevent it being changed with the side buttons by disabling Change with Buttons if you'd like. Below guidance is from Adjust the volume on iPhone - Apple Support.


"Lock the ringer and alert volumes in Settings

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Tap Sounds & Haptics (on supported models) or Sounds (on other iPhone models).
  3. Turn off Change with Buttons."


Also, check if your wife is looking at the phone while you call. This new feature called Attention Awareness will lower the volume when the camera sees the owner looking at it. Turn Attention Aware features on or off on your iPhone or iPad Pro - Apple Support


She can also turn that feature off, and test, OR have the phone facing down when you test.


Kind regards.

Nov 4, 2023 6:48 PM in response to Eric--F

Pre-iOS 17 I found that just disabling attention aware features did nothing. I had to completely disable FaceID to get loud ringtones again.


The upgrade to iOS 17 re-enabled attention aware features, and I disabled it and Face ID again, but ringtone volumes are still completely borked again since media volume now also controls ringtone volume.

iPhone ringtone quiet - even on loudest setting

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