The Unwanted Guardian
Apple includes a controversial health feature in iOS known as “Headphone Safety.” The operating system continuously monitors the decibel level of the audio passing through your connected headphones. If it calculates that you have exceeded the World Health Organization’s recommended weekly audio exposure limit, the iPhone will violently interrupt your music, throw a mandatory “Volume Turned Down” notification onto the screen, and physically force your system volume to 50%. While well-intentioned, this is incredibly frustrating if you are connected to a Bluetooth car stereo or an external speaker where you must max out the iPhone volume to get adequate line-level output. You must disable this nanny feature.
How to Turn Off Headphone Safety Notifications
You can permanently lock out the decibel monitoring algorithm via the Sound settings.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on Sounds & Haptics.
- Under the “Headphone Audio” section, tap on Headphone Safety.
- Locate the toggle switch labeled Headphone Notifications.
- Toggle this switch to the Off position (the green background will disappear).
Total Volume Control
The change takes effect instantly. The iPhone will completely terminate the background audio monitoring daemon. The operating system will no longer log your decibel exposure, it will never again send you a weekly hearing warning, and most importantly, it will completely surrender the master volume controls back to you. You can now leave your iPhone at 100% volume indefinitely when connected to external amplifiers without fear of automated interference.