Music volume lowers opening other apps

Yes this is very annoying. I'm listening to audio books and if I open up a game the book stops and I have to open the book app and press play to restart it. If the game app is already open it's not a problem but it certainly needs sorting out

( the game settings I always set to silent)

This is something that needs to be addressed. Not everyone wants music lowered when using other apps. This causes me to turn my stereo volume up. When switching to another app the music goes back to its original volume.. which is much louder now that I've cranked my stereo to hear the music at an appropriate volume. Please please please make this something we can manually disable. Thank you apple!

This absolutely needs be addressed as soon as possible. A setting to allow you to turn this function off and/or be able to select which applications it occurs for.

I use my phone for music all day during work and while in my car, and it is so annoying and unnecessary to have to play with the volume constantly. The worst is turning the volume up to compensate for the reduction, then the app causing the reduction goes to sleep after being idle, and next thing you know you have deafening music being pumped through your headphones or car speakers. Apple, please address for the next update!

There definitely appears to be an API for this. A setting called 'AVAudioSessionCategoryAmbient' can be set with a ducking property that lowers the volume for background audio. It can be set without the ducking option to keep audio playing at full volume. So this is definitely an app issue. The workaround I posted almost feels like a bug, then. A notification's audio will interrupt and override the ducking option.

I'm also noticing this. If I start some music up through the Music app and then load up Hearthstone (or just switch back to it) the music volume drops substantially. There really needs to be an option to turn this off if it's intentional. Are you using Bluetooth headphones? I'm wondering if it's only happening on a small selection of headphones and that's why there aren't a lot of reports.

As a work around, what I've beeen doing is launching both Music and starting what i want to hear. Then I load up Hearthstone and THEN load up Messages. If I send myself a Message and then quickly double tap home and switch back to Hearthstone before the notification of a new message, the music goes back to full volume after the notification sound plays. Obviously, this works for me because I just spend an hour listening to music at the gym while playing Hearthstone that whole time. Obviously going to be a bigger pain if you need to switch apps a lot.

I am having the same issue. I noticed it when I updated recently, nit sure why this is happening but until I find a better fix I have a temporary one. First of all I wanted to explain that this happens with Hearthstone and Pokemon Go. The only fix I have is if I go into one of these apps while listening to music, then the volume lowers, if I change the song, for example go to the next one, or go back to the previous one, the sound is fixed. It's still annoying but better than raising the volume and then when I leave the app, getting my ears blown off.

Hi all, I noticed the same problem while using my phone (iphone 7 plus) I found my own work around but I was looking for something much more permanent.

This are what I noticed.

1) if your phone has a notification while in game, it will restore music back to its original (true) volume.

2) if you had a call midway, the music cuts away and when the call ends, the music is restored back to original volume.

3) shutting off

Shutting off the app and turning it on again will repeat the problem.

Hence I found my own work around which temporarily fixes the sound problem.

Once the app runs and the music volume falls, slide your control centre up and swipe to your music controls. Press back to repeat the song/previous song and the volume should instantly restore itself without a problem.

I use the apple earbuds to fast forward or rewind a bit and the volume goes back up to normal. Also, using the control center to FF or REW works too. Any audible notification fixes it too. And yes, crazy annoying.

Yes, I have found it to be determined by the various apps. For instance, when listening to music and then trying to play Scrabble... volume of music goes to half. I tried testing this theory by opening a different app, and music volume was untouched. Therefore concluding, it's an app developer issue... or rather THEIR preference vs Apple. Very annoying I agree. Apps should give the user the option to dim or not dim the Apple Music.

I've found a fix!

First, load up your music and start playing a song or playlist.

Next, load up the app that causes the volume to cut in half.

Once it's loaded, swipe up from the bottom of the touchscreen to pull up the quick menu that adjusts brightness and things like that. Scroll to the left to bring up the "Now Playing" menu: it should show whatever song is playing. Now all you have to do is skip the song or restart it using the << or >> buttons. Once you do that, the sound level will be back to normal!

I hope this helps :)

i am having this happen to me as well. Im really frustrated looking for a solution. ive looked all over settings and cant find anything.

I'd also like to point out that pausing the music causes the volume to lower again when resuming playback.