Bluetooth Volume......sucks

[BaMaDuDe87]

I received and update last Friday, I think it was. Didn't really pay attention to what it was actually for. I know I know. Ever since my Bluetooth Volume is very very low, like to the point with the slider all the way up I still need more.

Anyone else notice this? Have a fix?

Also, before the update I could push a button on my bt headset and it would pause YouTube videos, pause radio, etc and now that doesn't work.......booooo

 

[GSDer]

Do you mean you received an OS update? Like the July Security patches?
Unfortunately there's not an easy way to roll back those updates (it's possible but it involves flashing the previous firmware and then you'd have to block the current Security update).
If you haven't already tried it I'd suggest the usual course of action: 'forget' the device and then re-pair it and see if that makes any difference. Otherwise bite the bullet and perform a Factory Reset.

 

[BaMaDuDe87]

Correct on the July patch.

I did try to forget the device and reconnect. no dice.

It just sucks this phone relies heavily on Bluetooth connection for listening through a headset, but has low low volume.

 

[steven porter3]

disconnect and forget your Bluetooth device then reconnect it. same happened to me.

 

[TraderGary]

What Bluetooth Headset do you have?
I have a Sony WH1000XM2 wireless noise cancelling Bluetooth headset.
I'm connecting using my Pixel 2 XL 128.
Thankfully my Bluetooth connection doesn't appear to be affected.
Everything, including volume settings, works just as it did before doing the update.

 

[Mike Dee]

Correct on the July patch.

I did try to forget the device and reconnect. no dice.

It just sucks this phone relies heavily on Bluetooth connection for listening through a headset, but has low low volume.

Have you tried the headset with other devices to rule out a bad headset?

 

[osubeavs728]

mine does it periodically actually. I usually just disconnect and reconnect to my device and that fixes it. it use to just quit working about 5 mins after being connected. then I would have to disconnect-reconnect, get the low volume then disconnect-reconnect again for it to be normal.

 

[Ca_lvn]

Shouldn't half to accept that kind of Behavior from Bluetooth ^^^^^
I would message Google support

 

[TraderGary]

The quality of Bluetooth hardware/software on both sides of the Bluetooth connection are important. Bluetooth quality on the Pixel side of the connection is excellent. Bluetooth quality on some inexpensive devices maybe not so much.

 

[Rukbat]

Bluetooth quality on the Pixel side of the connection is excellent.

True. It works with my cheap Kenwood aftermarket car radio - and I could probably get arrested if I turned the volume all the way up with just Maps giving me an occasional direction. The app I use for NPR has a bit lower output, but I could still probably blow the car speakers with it. And that's every time, just getting into the car and starting it - no intermittency.

 

[Mike Dee]

Shouldn't half to accept that kind of Behavior from Bluetooth ^^^^^
I would message Google support

Wouldn't it make sense to rule out the headphones first?

 

[BaMaDuDe87]

I did not try a different Bluetooth transmitter, but I did get my "regular" volume back. At first I forgot the headphones and reconnected.....no change. Then I forgot the headphones restarted my phone twice then reconnected the Bluetooth headphones and the volume was back to "normal".

The reason I don't think it is the headphones though, is because it would have to have happened with two different pair at the same time. I did try two different Bluetooth headphones with the same results.

 

[TraderGary]

You nailed the problem. Updates often require re-establishing connections again.
Thank you for reporting back. You may very well have helped someone else in the future.

 

[Mike Dee]

I did not try a different Bluetooth transmitter, but I did get my "regular" volume back. At first I forgot the headphones and reconnected.....no change. Then I forgot the headphones restarted my phone twice then reconnected the Bluetooth headphones and the volume was back to "normal".

The reason I don't think it is the headphones though, is because it would have to have happened with two different pair at the same time. I did try two different Bluetooth headphones with the same results.

Right....I only suggested trying other headphones because we had no way of knowing. Glad to see you fixed it.

 

[Ca_lvn]

What a surprise it was the phone's BT

 

[TraderGary]

What a surprise it was the phone's BT

No, it wasn't. The phone's Bluetooth connection was always working as designed.
It is standard procedure in software/OS updates to reset devices in order to re-establish connections/communications.

When both devices were reset/resynchronized, Bluetooth again worked as designed.

 

[Mike Dee]

What a surprise it was the phone's BT

In the process of trying to help people by troubleshooting we can't always focus on one possibility. As Gary pointed you sometimes have reset Bluetooth connections after software updates.