In short: Make sure “Sound Check” is off. It sometimes changes the volume of songs from Apple Music with some system updates. Also, turn off Attention Aware Features.
Four to five seconds into a song, you notice the Apple Music volume changing. This happens when you are streaming songs online and listening to songs offline.
Here are 5 things you can do to fix the problem:
1. Disable the “Sound Check” feature
Your first order of business is to disable the Sound Check feature. For those of you who don’t know, this feature on your iPhone basically tries to keep your music’s volume consistent.
Some songs are louder than others. The Sound Check feature is designed to prevent some music from blasting into your ears without you realizing it.
However, it seems to change the volume of songs in a way many people dislike.
In the past, Sound Check adjusted my tracks in the background before playback, but it now seems to do it actively, albeit with a one- or two-second delay after starting to play a song.
For me, turning off Sound Check fixes the issue of Apple Music volume constantly changing. I guess the feature doesn’t work well when it tries to keep all the music on one sound level.
Here’s how to turn it off:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Music.
- Turn the Sound Check off.
This should be the first thing you do. After turning off Sound Check, many Apple Music users have reported no more sudden volume drops a few seconds after starting playback.
Give your iPhone or iPad a restart after turning off Sound Check for good measure.
Any kind of loudness normalization, like Sound Check, often hampers sound and kills audio quality. You do want to hear the music as the artist intended it to sound, don’t you?
2. Change the Audio Quality to Hi-Res Lossless
If disabling Sound Check doesn’t work, the next best thing is to change the audio quality to Lossless, or better yet, Hi-Res Lossless for both Streaming and Download.
Most people won’t be able to notice the difference between regular audio and Lossless. But the goal here is to fix the ever-changing volume, not to dramatically upgrade the audio quality.
Keep in mind that Lossless files are bigger. Whether you are streaming or downloading songs from Apple Music, you’ll need more bandwidth and data to get the job done.
After you made the switch to Lossless, be sure to remove all your downloads from your device. Then, redownload them again the Lossless versions are stored instead of the regular ones.
Give your iPhone or iPad a restart after turning on Lossless for good measure.
3. Match background sounds volume with media
Another fix you can try is to match the Background Sounds volume level with the media volume level, then turn it on to play whenever a media is playing.
Background Sounds play calming sounds, like ocean or rain, to mask unwanted environmental noise. These sounds can minimize distractions and help you to focus, calm, or rest.
To access Background Sounds, go to Settings then select Accessibility. Then, select Audio/Visual and select Background Sounds. Turn the toggle to ON.
What you would want to do is to select Rain as the background sound. Adjust the Rain volume to 50% and turn the toggle ON for Use When Media Is Playing to 50%.
Whenever the Background Sounds toggle is set to off, Apple Music seems to change its volume. Matching the levels between background sounds and media instantly solved it for me.
4. Turn off Attention Aware Features
If you’re dealing with Apple Music volume fluctuations on your iPhone or iPad Pro, then the culprit might be the Attention Aware Features.
When it is turned on, your device will check whether you’re paying attention to your device or not, then it will automatically take action. Some of the actions include:
- Dimming the display.
- Expanding a notification when the device is locked.
- Lowering the volume of some alerts.
Often, the Attention Aware Features can interfere with Apple Music and change the volume of songs. Open the Settings app, tap Face ID & Passcode, then turn off Attention Aware Features.
5. If all else fails, choose “Reset All Settings”
If the methods above don’t work, your last resort is to reset all the settings on your iPhone. This method is a surefire way to fix bugs and allow apps to run properly again.
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap General.
- Scroll down and tap Reset.
- Choose “Reset All Settings”.
Don’t worry, resetting all settings does not erase any data from your iPhone.
It basically just resets all of your iPhone’s settings back to default. This includes network settings, the keyboard dictionary, location settings, privacy settings, and Apple Pay cards.
After resetting your settings, restart your iPhone. Then, sign back into your Apple Music app with your Apple ID and try listening to songs. The issue should now be resolved.
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