New iPhone 5 volume issues

I can confirm: the bug is still open in the Apple Bugreporter! For me also very disappointing, I am not sure if it will be fixed before iOS 7 :-/

My assumption is that maybe one last 6.1.1 update will be following and that's all until summer. A lot of capacity seems to be invested in iOS 7 instead of bugfixing iOS 6.

This is just related to the fact that the headphone volume is stored separately than the speaker volume. Set the volume to equal levels for both and it will work the same. This is not the problem.

The problem is that the phone reverts to using the current volume setting (headphone or speaker, whatever you're using) as the volume setting for alerts, instead of using the alert volume setting. Which. Is. A. Bug.

Absolutely true: it's a bug.

Response from Apple developer to my bug report:

04-Dec-2012 11:05 PM Apple Developer Bug Reporting Team :

This bug has been closed as Duplicate. We are aware of this issue and are tracking it under the Bug ID listed below in the Related Problem section of your bug report. To check the status of the original bug report, please visit the Related Problem section of the Problem Detail view of your closed duplicate bug.

Related problem:

We have to wait for a software update to fix this.

More than disappointing... it's just unbelievable that a company like Apple would issue a new iOS that does not fix a known bug. I am no engineer or software expert, but there was no volume control issue before the iPhone 5; how difficult can it really be to fix? Or is it something that just a small number of people know and complain about? See, for instance, the thousands of replies to the Battery Life bug thread

I have seen this bug as well. I just got my iPhone 5 last week. Last night I used Turn by Turn navagation for the first time and I was throughly confused why my text tones were muffled this morning. I find it pretty incredible that this bug has exsisted since 6.0 and there is still no fix.

So, for me it has something to do with the SONGZA app. If I open the app, play some music and turn down the volume and then pause the music and leave the app, my alerts are quiet. When I actually close the app by double-clicking the home button and then hold the app icon until it wiggles and then hit the minus sign, all is good. Not sure if any other apps take over like SONGZA. This may not be as much of an Apple issue as it is an app issue.

I've been living with this since I got my iPhone 5 in October. My wife and daughter both have 4S's. They have no problems. I'm jealous. It's to the point where I don't even use Siri, because I'm afraid I'll miss my next text/alert. Do we have any hope of this going away? Really disappointed. Losing faith.....

It's sad, but I'm in the same boat as you. I don't expect Apple to fix this until iOS 7 (and even then wouldn't be surprised if it was still around). I've also stopped using Siri because having to reboot my phone after asking Siri for the anything is a first world problem not worth it. It takes me less time to pull down the Notification Center for the weather, or Google the score to a football game (because Google's improved those query results) than it does for me to reboot my phone.

Actually, the situation is worse than I thought. Today I drove for about 6 hours, mostly listening to music via the headphones port (plugged into my aux input on my car stereo). For the life of me, I could not figure out how to get ringtones and alerts volume to be loud enough. Trouble is, there are really six volume settings:

Phone speaker media and ringtones/alerts

Headphones media and ringtones/alerts

Headset (ie with microphone) media and ringtones/alerts

And, of course, you can only access two of them relatively easily. I think today, somehow, my ringtones/alerts volume took on the media setting from my headset, which is pretty low. That's the only one I couldn't change while driving. I think the ringtones get to pick one of the six at random.

I did the reset all settings maneuver, and that seemed to do the trick, but we'll see how long that lasts. It was also a lot less painful than I thought it would be. All my email accounts and passwords were restored, for example.

Apple, please kill this bug. You guys have done audio so well, this minor bug is really quite beneath you.

Yet one more quality issue that Apple seems to be dealing with now (I'm on 6.1.2 and not only has this issue not been fixed, but now I must remember NOT to accept calendar invites from my corp Exchange server, or else the battery runs down in like 60 minutes).

I'm guessing if Steve Jobs were alive, he would not have tolerated it.

Just another indicator that the company is on a downward trend, as also reflected by its share price.

Got my first iPhone a week ago and this low volume sound problem is driving me crazy! I do not see any way to fix this short of a software update. Also maddening that Wifi reception is weak... similar to Bluetooth reception, but that's another topic.

I did a little test and found that alerts/ringtones volume is the same on pre-loaded ringtones/alerts between ip 4 (ios 6.1.3) & 5 (ios 6.1.4).

New polyphonic ringtones/alerts, on the other hand, play with a noticeable difference in the sound volume.

Been close to a year since my comment on my then new iphone 5. Somehow the sound issue got better and the wi-fi reception is now acceptable. Not sure if they got fixed, possibly due to software updates, or if I got used to the performance. Either way, I'm lovin' my iphone.

I did some DIY, and find out it is the new earpods what is mainly responsible for this symptom. Mine worked fine on my iPhone 4, but since I upgraded, they are way too quiet for me.

I replaced the speakers from a broken Sennheiser earphones and the volume is all fine and loud even at 80% now.