iPhone 5 Volume Buttons Don't Affect Ringer Volume

Question

Level 1

5 points

iPhone 5 Volume Buttons Don't Affect Ringer Volume

This thread concerns the brand new iPhone 5 running IOS 6.0 and the loss of volume button functionality with regard to controlling the Ringer and Alerts volume levels.

Here are the symptoms;

When the volume buttons are pressed on the home screen I see a generic speaker symbol appearring with no text (label) above it such as 'ringer' or 'headphones'. The generic speaker level indicator DOES increase and decrease as I press volume + or -.
When in Settings, Sounds, and I press the volume buttons, I again get the generic speaker symbol with no text above it. Everything is the same as above in bullet 1. The intended behavior should be that the Slider, for the Ringer and Alerts area, should increase and decrease with respect to the volume button presses. It is unaffected regardless of the setting of the 'Change with Buttons' option. I have tried it Off and On, numerous times.
When I manually slide the Ringer and Alerts volume slider with my finger, the ringtone and alerts volume is correctly changed.
When I manually slide the Ringer and Alerts volume slider, the phone plays a 'sample' of the current ringtone at the chosen and appropriate volume level. *** At this exact moment, the Volume Buttons do actually work correctly for about 2 seconds of the sampling. After the ringtone sample/demo stops playing, the volume buttons go back to behaving as in the previous steps.
If I go to the Ringtone selection area, where I get the full list of ringtones to choose from, I can select a different ringtone to use. As usual, when I select a new ringtone from the list, it plays back that ringtone for me to hear. *** At this exact moment, the Volume Buttons will correctly and successfully alter my Ringtone and Alerts volume until the ringtone playback stops. Then it goes back to the broken behavior yet again. Note: I successfully see the volume slider for Ringtones and Alerts going up and down as I adjust it with the Volume Buttons until the ringtone playback stops.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Apple, can you assist?

Thanks,

Alan

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 25, 2012 2:20 PM

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Answer 1

Swooperz Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 25, 2012 2:34 PM in response to Swooperz

Well, I tried everything and I must admit that I always struggle with the suggestion that tech support reps over-recommend... the old reboot. Happily, I put aside my pride and rebooted the phone with a Home+Power combo hold for 3-5 seconds and it came back up with the correct Volume +/- behavior! I'ts working!! =)

I hope that this helps anyone that runs into this issue. I don't know what caused it, but a reboot fixed it. Perhaps a power off and on (power cycle) might fix it too. Good luck! 🙂

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Answer 2

eckerti5

Level 1

0 points

Sep 25, 2012 6:02 PM in response to Swooperz

This has happened 2 times on my phone and the (Home+Power combo hold for 3-5 seconds) worked both times, its been 3 days without the problem.

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Answer 3

Swooperz Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 26, 2012 7:27 AM in response to eckerti5

I wonder what is causing this and more importantly, I hope that Apple figures it out and patches it with an update.

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Answer 4

Sep 26, 2012 10:01 AM in response to Swooperz

Someone has found it's tied to Siri, but I haven't confirmed it on my phone. Reboot, then test, and don't use Siri. After you're convinced it's working, try Siri and apparently the problem comes back.

There are many threads about the "normal system volume controls alert volume". Hopefully Apple is aware of this and push out an update soon (hopefully one that also fixes the broken push notifications/apsd crash)

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Answer 5

Swooperz Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 26, 2012 2:21 PM in response to Frank Malloy

I've used Siri a few times today after the reboot and so far so good. Everything is still great.

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Answer 6

wotan07

Level 1

0 points

Sep 29, 2012 6:20 AM in response to Swooperz

Have you all noticed as well that when you change your video playback volume it is somehow linked to the actual ringtone and alerts volume? That is I have to go back and play the video or launch the game again to adjust my ringtone volume. This is dumb cause many times I like to put videos on mute, if you know what I mean :P

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Answer 7

Eeyore40

Level 1

0 points

Oct 1, 2012 4:26 AM in response to Swooperz

I've had the same issue and it does have something to do with the volumes of apps/video affecting the overall volume.

It can be fixed by going to whichever app you last changed the volume on and turning it back up. I assume this will be fixed in an iOS update soon... But it is quite annoying. I've missed many texts due to my unwillingly muting my phone.

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Answer 8

Swooperz Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 1, 2012 8:27 AM in response to Eeyore40

I have started to have this problem again and I think you're right - playing a video (youtube maybe?) or a song via the web over my speaker causes it to "detach" the Volume Buttons from the ringtone and alerts control.

I was able to fix it by going to the Sounds section under Settings and manually adjusting the Ringtones and Alerts slider bar and (important) while the sound is played back to me to demonstrate the volume level, I started hitting up and and down on the Volume buttons and it re-synced itself.

Maybe that will work for someone else as a temporary fix since Apple still needs to fix this permanently. 😉

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Answer 9

wotan07

Level 1

0 points

Oct 2, 2012 4:01 AM in response to Swooperz

So here's another solution that may work out if you are not planning on changing your ringtone volume every 1 minute. If you set the "Change with Buttons" setting to off then, for some reason the ringtone volume will be completely independent from your playback volume in videos and games. Again, Apple still has a bug to fix (or many) but in the meantime this might do the trick.

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Answer 10

Whitetoo

Level 1

0 points

Oct 10, 2012 7:36 AM in response to Swooperz

Hi guys,

I started having this exact same issue as Swooperz has described in detail. I know there are many other threads like this one but the testing and solutions are the most clear here. My problem started when I was using the headphone jack, since then I cannot turn the main volume up and it's stuck to "off". When I hit + or - volume controls the volume speaker symbol appears but no slider activity.

If I switch to settings and sounds, the volume has been correctly entered for the "ringer" volume but as far as trying to increase/decrease app and music/video volume I have had no luck. Like Swooperz if I touch the ringer and alerts slider manually, so the ringtone sounds and then press the + / - volume buttons, the buttons only then control the slider. This doesn't however resolve the MAIN sound volume, only the ringer.

I've tried several "soft resets" and have ensured that both port and jack are clean, the only thing I have left to try is compressed air incase something is blocking the contacts.

If I plug my headphones into the jack, all sound and volume controls behave correctly. 😟 so frustrating!

Hardware/software: iPhone 4s with iOS6

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Answer 11

Oct 15, 2012 9:35 AM in response to Whitetoo

I am getting the same issue, just on the main springboard if i press the volume buttons on the side, it only changes the ringer. However when I open music or youtube, it blasts full volume, and I have to adjust that accordingly. I used to be able to change the ringer level when the phone rang in, and any other time the volume would affect the main volume, however it's not just the ringer volume I can change, unless I go into music to change it there. Please help with this,......

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Answer 12

csdav1s

Level 1

0 points

Feb 1, 2013 12:29 PM in response to Swooperz

I updated to iOS 6.1 ysterday and this problem still exists. If you perform HOME+PoWER reset it does clear the problem, then turn Change with buttons to off. So much for Apple fixing this on the next patch!

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