If you use AirPods or wired headphones with your Mac, you might occasionally encounter a frustrating safety feature. You are listening to a podcast or music at a high volume, and suddenly, macOS forcibly turns the volume down. If you attempt to turn it back up, the system resists or immediately turns it down again, citing a “Headphone Safety” limit.
Apple includes this feature to comply with health regulations regarding hearing damage from prolonged exposure to loud audio. However, if your headphones have a high impedance (requiring more power to produce normal volume) or if you are outputting audio to an external speaker system through the headphone jack, this “safety” feature completely ruins your listening experience. You can disable this automatic volume reduction.
How to Stop macOS from Automatically Lowering Volume
You can turn off the Headphone Safety limits in the Sound and Accessibility menus.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your Mac’s screen.
- Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions).
- Scroll down the left-hand navigation sidebar and click on Sound.
- Under the “Output” section, ensure your headphones are currently selected as the active device.
- Look for a toggle switch labelled Reduce loud sounds (Headphone Safety). If you see it, turn it Off.
- If you do not see the option in the Sound menu, go back to the left-hand sidebar and click on Accessibility.
- Scroll down and click on Audio (under the Hearing section).
- Locate the Reduce loud sounds setting and toggle it Off.
Once disabled, your Mac will no longer actively monitor your audio output levels or forcibly drag your volume slider down. You will have full, unrestricted control over your Mac’s maximum audio output capabilities.