G4 Automatically Cuts My Volume Down...

[NateHevens]

My Galaxy S4 did this, as well, and all I could ever find is that you first have to root the phone. Which is BS.

Look... I get it. Listening at volumes that are too loud through headphones or earbuds can be dangerous. I'm a musician and I already have tinnitus. So I do get it.

But guess what? I spend the majority of my time listening through speakers! I turn the volume all the way up on my phone and control the volume through the speakers playing what I'm listening to. I don't need my phone treating me like a three-year-old who hasn't figured out how his ears work, yet.

Do I need to log complaints, or has anybody figured out a way of shutting this idiotic thing off without rooting the phone?

 

[Mooncatt]

It's something baked into phones now days. The only explanation I've heard for this, and I can't even verify it, is it had something to do with Google being compliant with some European regulation. I'm with you, though. It's annoying as heck for people using speakers with independent volume control. In my case, I plug into a semi truck stereo. When it cuts the volume down, I can't even turn the stereo up loud enough to overcome road noise, or the electrical noise when charging.

 

[GrooveRite]

I have Tinnitus and I actually appreciate that its there!

 

[Marabak]

I noticed this earlier whilst playing a podcast through an FM transmitter in my car. Pressing the volume up button did raise once I acknowledged an on-screen message, but it's not ideal to have to do that once my car is in motion. I'm sure my Nexus 4 had an option to override this, at least until the next reboot (I think - I had the phone rooted for a while afterwards)

 

[NateHevens]

It's something baked into phones now days. The only explanation I've heard for this, and I can't even verify it, is it had something to do with Google being compliant with some European regulation. I'm with you, though. It's annoying as heck for people using speakers with independent volume control. In my case, I plug into a semi truck stereo. When it cuts the volume down, I can't even turn the stereo up loud enough to overcome road noise, or the electrical noise when charging.

So a European regulation has to effect US-American phones, then? I'm a fan of regulation, but that's ridiculous.

I have Tinnitus and I actually appreciate that its there!

And it's fine with headphones. For the most part, with the exception of a couple of the podcasts I listen to, the recommended volume is perfect when listening through headphones. But I don't do most of my listening through headphones. I do the majority of my listening through external speakers with their own (independent) volume control... like my car.

To be fair, my tinnitus only gets effected if I'm playing music plugged in. At a certain volume decibel, I start to get a vibrating buzz in my ears, accompanied by the usual ringing. It's annoying, but I'm learning to deal with it. Ear pugs help a lot when I'm playing.

I noticed this earlier whilst playing a podcast through an FM transmitter in my car. Pressing the volume up button did raise once I acknowledged an on-screen message, but it's not ideal to have to do that once my car is in motion. I'm sure my Nexus 4 had an option to override this, at least until the next reboot (I think - I had the phone rooted for a while afterwards)

All phones should have an option to opt out of it. There has to be a way to get it. Is rooting the phone seriously the only option? No one's figured out an app or something that can do it without the root?

(Oh... if you want to know why I don't want to root it, I honestly don't have an answer. I think it's mainly because I know my history with electronics [which seem to be allergic to me and like to break down randomly when I'm using them for no reason] that I'm absolutely positive I will screw something up and destroy the phone... that's not the whole story, but for various reasons it's not for me... none of which has anything to do with being against rooting; I'd prefer if phones just came like that to begin with.)

 

[sbudaj]

Try an app called Hearing Saver from Play. While the name is somewhat deceiving, it does what you want. Allows you to set to max volume and keep it that way.

 

[Mooncatt]

I was doing some searching and found this app.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...akebasile.android.hearingsaver&token=u2wTrCwP

Even though it was last updated in 2013, a lot of reviews said it took care of the nanny controls. When viewing the reviews using the "this device only" option, one person said it didn't work on the AT&T Verizon. Several others were just star only ratings. I downloaded it and will try it tomorrow at work again. If it doesn't work, I'll see if any other non-root apps work.

I did find threads all the way back to 2011 from multiple brands of people complaining about this issue, but couldn't find any hard evidence of why these phones are doing this.

 

[sbudaj]

Works fine on my Verizon LG G4 and Nexus 7 tablet.

 

[NateHevens]

Thank you both. I've installed it and am looking forward to testing it out.

Will update after I've given it a run...

 

[Mooncatt]

After using the Hearing Saver app for a week on my Verizon model, I'll say it sufficiently works too. It did have some issues when I first installed it and was playing with it to see how it acted. The volume was still lowering itself, but that was all. During normal use, leaving my AUX cable plugged in for hours at a time and only plugging/unplugging as needed, I haven't seen the AUX volume for media drop once. I will get a nag message about high volume levels, but that's acceptable to me since it's not actually lowering the volume.

 

[NateHevens]

I've been using Hearing Saver for about a week now, too, and for the most part it works as advertised, but not 100% of the time. Two or three times I've had the volume cut down on me despite not only having Hearing Saver enabled, but actually open in the background.

I've had to re-enable it twice.

I can deal with this, though, because so far it's happened at the most convenient times (when I'm at home). The app otherwise works great when I'm driving or elsewhere. Hopefully I can figure out why the phone was able to get around it and stop that from happening for good.

 

[Mooncatt]

I read one review that said it has to be enabled again if you reboot the phone. I haven't had a reboot since using it, but I wonder if that's possibly what's happening to you.

 

[NateHevens]

I've only had my new LG G4 since Black Friday, so I haven't rebooted it at all, yet.

 

[NateHevens]

Update... I've been using Hearing Saver on both my G4s (the one I had when I started this thread got stuck in that reboot loop and I had to get it replaced) all this time.

It is not 100% at all. It does extend the time my phone leaves the volume alone by quite a bit, but eventually the phone wins and I have to re-up the volume and re-enable Hearing Saver.

I need to figure out who to write letters to, because this is ridiculous. Hearing Saver is a bandaid, and like all bandaids, it has to be re-applied every once in a while. It's a very good bandaid, yes, but no bandaid is perfect.