Volume increments stop after step 4

[stefanis97]

So I bout for the first time true wireless earbuds or whatever and whenever I connect them all volume steps above 4 stop working, 1 being almost mute, 2 being barely audible, 3 being too loud, 4 being eardrum rupturing. I tried the volume control on and off solution, I've tried sound equalizers... To no avail. However at some point (and I can't recreate it) when only 1 of my Bluetooth earbuds were one, they actually did have normal volume steps! I'm using haylou t17, please help, this is unbearable.

 

[stefanis97]

Same person here, some mistakes I wanted to correct(had just woken up). Bought* and when I say volume control I meant "absolute volume setting"

 

[VidJunky]

Welcome to Android Central. Thank you for creating an account it will make communication easier.

Well my gut reaction was to look at the ear bud reviews to see what kind of complaints people were having but there are remarkably few reviews. Next not knowing the product I wanted to see pics of them to see their style and features. Again I ran into remarkably few pics. All of the ads and images I found show the same pic. I was mostly looking to see if they have an external volume control which I wasn't really able to confirm or deny. Do they have a volume wheel or rocker or is the volume controlled directly from the device? If they have a wheel or rocker does that change the volume on the device? So if you increase the volume does the volume level change on the device?

The only two pieces of advice I can think of would be to try another audio source and try them with another device and see how they respond. If you're using downloaded files that you've saved on your phone, try them with YouTube or Spotify or some other app that plays audio. It could be the source causing the issue because volume is partially controlled by the settings on the phone but also by the recording level. If the source is pumping out audio at high levels it could account for the audios reduced range. Quickly jumping to levels that are too high. Testing them on another phone would tell you if the issue is your phone or perhaps an issue with the ear buds themselves. If they perform the same on another device the range issue may be that the ear buds just don't have a fine enough control to make listening comfortable. This is what I was looking for in the reviews that I couldn't find.

As for your belief that it once worked while wearing only one and now you're unable to recreate that, perhaps it was what you were listening to or its source that made that possible. When you attempted to recreate this did you also use the same sample and source?

 

[stefanis97]

Thank you for your time. As for the earbuds they have no volume control whatsoever, even the manual mentioned that they are only controlled by the phone itself.
For the recreation, it was a song from my files really, nothing related to YouTube or any other source, that's why it baffled me.
I'll try it on a family member's phone, see how it reacts and return it to the shop if it does the same thing.
Thanks again.
Edit: or come right back if the phone is the issue.
Edit 2 and update: I tried them on a Lenovo pad and a Redmi s2 and they worked fine, the volume steps worked normally and had no ear rupturing music by step 4. My own phone which faces the issue is a Redmi note 9s. Any ideas coming to mind now that we know that my phone is the issue? I've tried absolute volume and restart to no avail.
Edit 3: I think I've found the issue, the other 2 devices I tried them on had the Bluetooth say aptX next to both the earpieces. When it connects to my phone it says aptX TWS+. I go into the developer settings and change the codec to aptX. The left earpiece worked! It had proper adjustable volume steps but the right one defaults to aptX TWS+ no matter what I do so the moment they both connect, it goes back to the 4-step too loud mode. Anyway I can force both of them to simple aptX?

 

[VidJunky]

Thank you for the update. I'm glad you were able to find a solution that works. Hopefully this thread will help the next person.

I'm curious about the force. You can force them both into aptX but is that something you have to do each time you want to use them?

Is there an interface app that works with those ear buds? I'm using an app for two of my BT connections called BluetoothDevicesWidget. It has a lot of settings that you can individualize for each connection and I'm wondering if something like that would help you achieve that default setting rather than having to do it each time.

 

[stefanis97]

I will try it posthaste and update. Hopefully it works and saves other people the headache I went through. Sadly the forced aptX makes only 1 bud work which was annoying so I semi-gave up. Will try that app and update tho, hopefully provides someone else some closure to the issue or they manage to refund them( I trashed the case so not able to return...) Oh well thanks again for the help!
Edit: Sadly didn't work but whoever faces this issue, I've pinpointed it to the MIUI.. and it hasn't been fixed since 2019... Guess it's time to change the OS to android lol. Hope they fix it sometime. Thanks again have a nice day/night.