Your hearing is something that can be impacted negatively if you are constantly playing loud music through headphones.
But as you listen to audio more and more frequently, you might not realize that the music is loud enough to be problematic.
Your iPhone has an option that will automatically reduce loud sounds that it detects over a certain decibel level.
If you want to turn off this volume limiter on your iPhone then you can go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety> and turn off the Reduce Loud Sounds option.
Listening to loud music can be fun, and the iPhone is capable of making some pretty loud sounds. But if it seems like your iPhone isn’t playing music as loudly as it should be, then it’s possible that a volume limit for audio is set on the device.
Fortunately, this is a setting that you can check and disable if you find that a volume limit has been set. Our tutorial below will guide you to the iPhone Music app’s Volume Limit setting so that you can disable it.
How to Turn Off iPhone Volume Limiter
- Open Settings.
- Choose Sounds & Haptics.
- Select Headphone Safety.
- Turn off Reduce Loud Sounds.
Our guide continues below with additional information on the iPhone volume limiter, including a way to shut off the volume limiter on old versions of the iOS operating system.
Old Method – How to Disable a Volume Limit in the Music App on an iPhone 7 (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 7 Plus in iOS 10.3.3.
This guide assumes that there is currently a set volume limit on your iPhone and that you want to remove it.
There is an actual physical limit to the volume at which the iPhone can play music, so you may have hit that maximum volume limit already if the sound won’t go any higher, and there is no set volume limit on the device.
Step 1: Open the Settings menu.
Step 2: Scroll down and select the Music option.
Step 3: Scroll down and select the Volume Limit option.
Note that it should say On next to Volume Limit if there is currently a volume limit on the phone.
Step 4: Drag the slider all the way to the right to disable the volume limit.
Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion on adjusting the iPhone volume limit.
More Information on How to Proceed with iPhone Volume Limit Removal
There are some other options on your iPhone that you may want to consider while trying to remove the volume limit. Note that the options below were performed on an iPhone 13 in iOS 15.3.1.
If you go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety > you will see a Reduce Loud Sounds option. When that is enabled there is a volume slider where you can choose a decibel level over which you don’t want your headphone sound to eclipse.
There is also a Headphone Notifications counter that shows you how many times the iPhone has given you a notification about listening to your headphones too loudly.
The option to enable or disable these Headphone Notifications can be found at Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Notifications.
One other thing to check is whether or not you can set a device type for headphones that are connected to your iPhone. If you go to Settings > Bluetooth > then tap on the i next to your headphones, you should see a Device Type option. If you choose that and select “Other” then your iPhone shouldn’t try and limit your volume. Note that you aren’t able to select a device type for certain headphones like Airpods.
Note that there have been some issues with this setting in some countries on versions of iOS 14, so it may not fix the issue depending on where you live and what version of iOS you are using.
Are you running out of room on your iPhone for all of the music that you want to save to the device? Learn how to clear iPhone storage by deleting old apps and files that you aren’t using. or don’t need anymore.
Kermit Matthews is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with more than a decade of experience writing technology guides. He has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Computer Science and has spent much of his professional career in IT management.
He specializes in writing content about iPhones, Android devices, Microsoft Office, and many other popular applications and devices.