Summary: This article lists possible solutions to an "iPhone 4 volume control not working" problem, where your iPhone 4 volume may be too loud (or too quiet) when using earbuds or headphones.
I had a weird problem yesterday where the volume control on my iPhone 4 wasn't working properly. Actually, it wasn't working at all. Whenever I played a song from the iPod app (now called the "Music app" in iOS 5), the iPhone volume controls had no effect at all, and the volume in my earbuds was way too loud. (I've read that other people have had the same iPhone volume problems with headphones as well.)
Other than upgrading to iOS 5, I don't have an exact solution to this iPhone "iPhone 4 volume too loud" problem, but I'll be glad to share what I learned when trying to solve this problem.
1) What worked
First, I'll jump right to what worked for sure: I upgraded my version of the iPhone iOS operating system from 4.x to 5.x. Once I did this, the volume controls began working normally again.
That's kind of a drastic step that may not be appropriate for everyone, so I'll share some of the other things I tried, and how I think they worked. (I'm working from memory here, so I'm not 100% positive about a couple of these solutions.)
2) Possible solution: Reboot the iPhone
At some point I rebooted my iPhone 4, and I believe this probably helped with the problem more than anything. iPhone apps can have something known as "memory leaks", and my best guess is that this is what happened, causing my iPhone volume control to not work, making the earbud volume too loud.
So, suggestion #1 is to reboot your iPhone, then test the volume controls again. If that doesn't work, read on ...
3) Possible solution: Adjust iPod/Music volume limit
The first thing I tried was to adjust the volume limit of the iPod app on my iPhone 4. To do this, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings
- Tap iPod (or "Music" on iOS 5)
- Scroll down to Volume Limit
- Turn on the Volume Limit if it's not already on
- Adjust the slider control on the Volume Limit
My problem was so severe that this had no immediate effect. But, in a strange twist, I had to take care of some other things, so my iPhone turned off and on, and when I tried the volume controls some time later, they worked, at least a little bit. So, it's possible that just turning your iPhone off and then on after adjusting the volume limit may help. (When I say "turn it off and on", I just mean to press the power button to turn it off, then press the power button or Home button to turn it back on. I don't mean a full reboot at this point.)
However, even those this helped a little bit, and I was able to change the iPhone earbud volume slightly, it still wasn't working very well.
4) Possible solution: Try the iPhone EQ and Sound Check controls
I also tried two other things in that iPod/Music settings area. You may have noticed these two controls when you first got to the iPod settings panel:
- Sound Check
- EQ
At some point I also turned on the Sound Check, which is a simple on/off slider. Frankly, I have no idea what this control does, but I read it as a possible iPhone volume control solution on the Apple support forums, so I tried it.
Around the same time I also started experimenting with the iPhone "EQ" setting. I assume EQ stands for equalizer, so I tapped on all of the different EQ options (Acoustic, Bass Booster, Bass Reducer, and so on), to see if any of them would help with the volume control.
As I worked through all of these EQ options, I came across the "Loudness" control, so I chose that one.
Again, none of these settings helped with my earbud volume problem immediately, but again, after turning my iPhone 4 off and then on again, the volume control worked slightly better.
iPhone 4 / iOS 4 volume problems
As you can tell from my writing, I don't know the exact solution to the problem. Based on what I've read on the Apple forums, I suspect there is a bug in the iOS 4.x operating system that causes the iPhone volume to be too loud or too quiet with earbuds or headphones under certain circumstances.
As I mentioned, this may be a problem which gets worse over time, which implies that it is the result of a memory leak. In this case, a reboot of your iPhone should fix the problem.
If it's not the result of a memory leak, and a reboot doesn't help, well, that's something Apple is going to have to fix on their own. I just thought I'd try to share what worked for me, and again, what worked for me, in order from "best solution" to "helped a little bit" is:
- Upgraded to iOS 5.x (this definitely solved the problem)
- Rebooted my iPhone 4
- Adjusted the Volume Limit, accompanied by an off/on cycle
- Adjusted the Sound Check and EQ settings, also accompanied by an off/on cycle
Again, I'm sorry I don't know the exact answer here, but I thought I'd share what I know at this time. If you know the exact solution to this "iPhone 4 volume control" issue, or even a good guess at the solution, feel free to leave a note in the Comments section below.
books by alvin
 |
 |
 |
 |
