Database Users

Sound too quiet, try this.

Hi all,
I've always felt that when playing music on my DHD that it's too quiet, when I've listened to music through my headphones I would say it's acceptable however when I've plugged my DHD into a HiFi or into my stereo in my car I could crank the volume to full control without it been deafening. I happen to find a fix yesterday by accident, I had my DHD plugged into my car stereo and the phone rang, I pulled the audio cable out and answered the phone, when I was done I put the cable back in and immediately I was like WTF just happened now, the music was much louder than what it was before I answered the phone, I would say it was about 30% louder.
I tested my theory by stopping the music and unplugging the cable, plugged the cable back in and started the music, while it was playing I opened the phone and simply dialled any random number and ended the call immediately, when it went back to the music it was most certainly much louder. I've tried it several times now and every time it makes it much louder than what it was before I make a call, I can now no longer turn the stereo full blast as it is simply too loud, just by turning it up to half way I would say it's the equivalent of what it was before when I had it turned up to the maximum.
I'm using Poweramp and I don't know if it's got anything to do with that, I will test it with the built in music player and see what it does. I originally downloaded Poweramp as I thought that the built in music player may be the problem.

i'll repet what you do and post some results... really want a louder volumen in headphones. I plugged my headphone in a Wildfire and it's incredible louder, no talking about an ipod! last week in a party i was ashamed when my friend put off his $50 cell phone and i plugged mine on stereo, so low volume....

wtf, that's true.. really don't understand what the phone turns on!! probably the same thing that volume boost turns on!!

Aha that actually works
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

thiagodark said:
wtf, that's true.. really don't understand what the phone turns on!! probably the same thing that volume boost turns on!!
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Good news, it must be a software bug with the volume control.

works here too.. atleast on poweramp and soundcloud, didnt hear any difference on spotify

MarkieSA said:
Good news, it must be a software bug with the volume control.
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let's hope someone let this bug permanently turned on, with no call trick...

Haha! Tried it myself, and it works! Awesome!

I found using shazzam or sound hound while music was playing caused it to go louder. Seems to be when the mic is initialised. Noticed this two days ago
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

Interesting find.
I've noticed a couple of ROMS which suggest better audio volume by 20%.
For example this one. (Speaker Boost +20%)
So somehow, somewhere the bug or issue has been fixed or improved.

Grant Barker said:
Interesting find.
I've noticed a couple of ROMS which suggest better audio volume by 20%.
For example this one. (Speaker Boost +20%)
So somehow, somewhere the bug or issue has been fixed or improved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really, i'm using that rom right now, and what it makes is improve SPEAKER volume, not from headphone. I made my tests in Android Revolution rom and can confirm that headphone is as quiet as stock rom, and it is improved by the "call trick"!

Thanks for sharing! I was experimenting a bit, and it seems like the simplest way to boost the volume is to make a call while music is already playing. The call MUST connect though, or the volume will revert to normal levels. Tested with Winamp.

Maybe have one of the dev's ask to look into this.
If this is different from the already increased speaker volume output, it probably is a bug that can be fixed / feature that can be 'un-featured'

works fine

I had similar experience with my laptop. When listening a mp3 file, the sound coming out from my laptop seems like no effects, standard sound without bass and treble effect. Have to play a movie file first together and stop the.movie make the song hear with the effect.
I believe this issue coming from my sound driver. Using another OS in same laptop. The sound play normally with no issue.
For our Android, it's about the sound driver too?

well well, i just noticed that in the Android Revolution 4 (leaked gingerbread based), the sound is improved by default, no needing the call workaround, looks like HTC fixed the strange bug for the next version...
i just wanted to share!
edit: if someone could try to confirm it, i'll appreciate! =o)

sound problem
hey guys i'm new to this forum, i would appreciate if anyone could help me..
my DHD tones(just keyboard sound, lock sound, shutter sound) have came very low and i can burly hear it.. i turned all the volumes to the max but it's still very low, can anyone help me with that?

indramino said:
hey guys i'm new to this forum, i would appreciate if anyone could help me..
my DHD tones(just keyboard sound, lock sound, shutter sound) have came very low and i can burly hear it.. i turned all the volumes to the max but it's still very low, can anyone help me with that?
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I had the same problem, go to the Market and download "Volume Ace".

MarkieSA, you're an accident hero.
I noticed sometimes my DHD volume suddenly were loud . If I restart the phone, it will go low . I couldn't find out how to make it loud again until reading your post. I'm using PowerAmp too . I think it plays a role in this case.
Thank you for this great finding.

Really useful little trick for 2.2 users, especially for peeps using stock ROM's without the 20% boost via custom kernels. I had tried some of the volume boost type apps before rooting but all they do is invert the phase of one of the stereo channels. All this does is give you a very tinny mono output which is no use to say the least.

[Q] Audio Jack Issues?

Just came across a disturbing report in a very recent Droid Life review of the Note 3 (from a list of N3 reviews posted on this forum) concerning "Audio Jack Issues". Anybody who treasures their hearing and uses their phablet for audio material (including movies, music, audiobooks, etc), especially using earbuds or headphones, might want to "listen up." The following is an excerpt from the review:
"...When listening to music through the 3.5mm jack, you are sometimes met with a very weak sound. It’s as if the sound of the music isn’t “full” or quite loud enough. Then, after a few minutes without touching anything while at full volume, the volume just explodes and you are left deafened by the surprise volume attack. Some people are pointing towards low-impedance headphones being the issue, but I have had the problem on multiple pairs of headphones, in-ear buds, through car decks, and everything else. It’s a very frustrating and reoccurring issue that I wish Samsung would find a cure for. Until then, I fear listening to music out of this device because I don’t want to go deaf. It might sound crazy, but it’s a very real issue that I experienced over the course of time I had the device."
I've had 3 Samsungs: a flip-phone a few years ago, a Fascinate 2 years ago, and currently Galaxy S3, and just preordered a Note 3. Of the three previous phones, two had infrequent but definitely-occurring audio issues where the volume changed unexpectedly. The flip phone blew out my ears once, and swore after that would never buy another Sammy (what a kidding-myself that turned out to be). What's unnerving is this seems to have appeared intermittently in multiple samsung phone models (the article reports yet another audio jack issue in the S4).
Chatted online with a VZW customer service rep. about this, who was really no help (wasn't her fault, i guess). She just regurgitated the company standard lines--14 days to return, restocking fee, can get a replacement if the problem occurs, etc. But she pretty much stated if there turns out to be a Note 3-specific issue, the customer is stuck with that model of phone; don't expect help from the carrier other than replacing with an identical unit might likely have the same problem; if you enjoy any kind of audio produced by the phone's audio jack, use it at your own risk. (Even more dicey is that it's intermittent--no guarantee you'll be able to demonstrate it to the carrier's service rep.)
Furthermore, i was one of those who got a free continuation of unlimited plan (thanks to the VZW ordering "system glitch" last weekend), which has been reported in the last day that VZW is going to honor contracts which show unlimited data. This rep completely contradicted that and claimed my data will be capped at 2gb at activation time. So with this diametrically-opposed chatter from VZW, what is one supposed to believe? Really suggests getting a satisfactory resolution from any carrier on a brand-specific phone problem like this to be wishful thinking.
Any thoughts or has anybody experienced thru-the-audio-jack sound issues with sammy phone products? My take is i'm not going to be on the bleeding edge of this one, too much of a hearing risk, cancelling preorder and wait for more reports on the N3 as time goes by.

For sure something is wrong with mine. (tmobile N3) The output levels are maybe half or less what my N2 can put out. I have carefully setup audio systems in my house and car, and it is unusable. Its also not USB compatible with the new Kenwood KMM 100u deck that plays FLAC files. It must be a glitch they can fix, i hope! The jack SQ sucks right now.

I hope mine won't have this problem.

*wierd double post an hour later*

dareo said:
For sure something is wrong with mine. (tmobile N3) The output levels are maybe half or less what my N2 can put out. I have carefully setup audio systems in my house and car, and it is unusable. Its also not USB compatible with the new Kenwood KMM 100u deck that plays FLAC files. It must be a glitch they can fix, i hope! The jack SQ sucks right now.
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I got that the first time you said it.

im experiencing this too with an AU Telstra Note 3.
ive tested it a bit and it seems like its 2 separate things to me, but I could be wrong.
firstly it seems like all EQs either crash or just lose their settings at random moments. this can be things like between track changes or when the 3G signal drops out. if you go back into the EQ panel it will kick in again, almost like it was off and you've launched it again.. very annoying. ive verified this with both the stock EQ and noozxoide. the difference in volume is minimal though, its more quality / bass / whatever EQ you use.
the second part with the volume dropping out completely only happens to me between track changes. if i pause the music for a couple of seconds then play it again, it will play at normal volume. fast forwarding between tracks is the most obvious since every other track will be minimal volume, and the ones in-between normal volume.
ive only tested this with google music. although my phone isnt stock now, the same behaviour was there out of the box. using etymotic earbuds with reasonably high impedance but i doubt thats the issue since pause/replay fixes it.

Doesn't happen to me on N7player or PlayerPro. (nor on videos in Dice, MX or VLC.)
Try not using stock apps if you have the issue. Might just be a stock problem.
I can't test Google music, I disabled that. Stock player itself is too annoying for me to try.
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk

kanemari said:
im experiencing this too with an AU Telstra Note 3.
ive tested it a bit and it seems like its 2 separate things to me, but I could be wrong.
firstly it seems like all EQs either crash or just lose their settings at random moments. this can be things like between track changes or when the 3G signal drops out. if you go back into the EQ panel it will kick in again, almost like it was off and you've launched it again.. very annoying. ive verified this with both the stock EQ and noozxoide. the difference in volume is minimal though, its more quality / bass / whatever EQ you use.
the second part with the volume dropping out completely only happens to me between track changes. if i pause the music for a couple of seconds then play it again, it will play at normal volume. fast forwarding between tracks is the most obvious since every other track will be minimal volume, and the ones in-between normal volume.
ive only tested this with google music. although my phone isnt stock now, the same behaviour was there out of the box. using etymotic earbuds with reasonably high impedance but i doubt thats the issue since pause/replay fixes it.
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Got the same here. N9005 with Google Play Music. Sometimes it's also (it seems) input-triggered. Sometimes when I push Menu or Back button, volume goes down and when I open Browser volume goes up. I know this sounds like voodoo and I'm completely crazy but I got this situation some times now.
With original sound files this problem came very often but after installing sound mod, it became seldom but not solved.
Annoying!
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Silberpfeil3110 said:
Got the same here. N9005 with Google Play Music. Sometimes it's also (it seems) input-triggered. Sometimes when I push Menu or Back button, volume goes down and when I open Browser volume goes up. I know this sounds like voodoo and I'm completely crazy but I got this situation some times now.
With original sound files this problem came very often but after installing sound mod, it became seldom but not solved.
Annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually moved to the stock sammy app since it was irritating me so much. i have to say though, that if you can be bothered syncing a playlist to your phone that the sound is much better through that... hard to pick fault with.
i set up galaxy adaptive sound first, which is the one that plays high med low tones through left and right channels on your headphones independently and lets you tune it. found a much more balanced tone coming out after that, to which I then applied higher bass EQ settings from within the sammy music player and it sounds pretty good. some distortion on really heavy bass tracks at high volume, but very nice otherwise. MUCH BETTER than variable bass and audio volume on the google music player.
i think samsung neglected to test the standard music APIs and borked them, but their own proprietary ones work fine. the adaptive music filter doesnt work in any player apart from the sammy one I read.
since i cant cross-flash regional roms without voiding knox warranty i havent tried the updated EU roms, but maybe they fix it there?

Experiencing same problem on my AT&T note 3. Google Music tracks will randomly apply a shoddy EQ setting that is either too loud or too soft. Then the next track will be normal. It explodes my ear drums constantly. I have the EQ set off also, but that doesn't seem to matter. Also unplugging and re plugging the headphone jack "fixes" the issue as well. I'm pretty annoyed by this problem.

[Q] Volume automatically increase

hi, mine is XXUBMJ1, after 3 weeks of usage, the volume automatically increase sometimes, what could be the problem, is it a bug or hardware ? should upgrade the firmware ?

afiqsabri said:
hi, mine is XXUBMJ1, after 3 weeks of usage, the volume automatically increase sometimes, what could be the problem, is it a bug or hardware ? should upgrade the firmware ?
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anyone experience like this?

Do you have any apps installed that control the volume on their own?

MohJee said:
Do you have any apps installed that control the volume on their own?
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nop, just original

afiqsabri said:
nop, just original
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Then I have no idea, sorry. My other guess would be is that you're accidentally pressing the volume key in you pocket or something without realizing it. You could try factory resetting the phone. It can sometimes fox weird issued like yours.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

have u check the adaptive option under the settings->sound->adapt sound?
Could it be that the adaptive sound is processing at certain point of time trying to give you the best sound that its think of?

Yes, I have experienced this under the following conditions:
-Phone just purchased, unrooted, completely stock. Playing music with PowerAmp with and without the EQ/Tone/Limit features, also happened with stock music app. The effect nearly blew out my eardrums once, but it happened several times. Music would play and very suddenly there would be a violent increase in sound, almost as if an EQ crashed. Sound went back to normal after I pressed the volume rocker in either direction. I am not so sure that this has to do with Adaptive Sound because I remember experiencing the same problem before and after i configured it. Overall, incredibly annoying and dangerous for my ears.
-Phone rooted, Viper4Android installed as a user app. The same problem happens using PowerAmp, Xenoamp and stock music app, but the increase is not so violent (not sure why, yet). Marginally tolerable, but still very annoying.
I have not found a fix yet, but still keeping an eye open.
That being said, my phone has music playing almost all day every day so I probably encounter the problem more often than others. I use earbuds, headphones and my car stereo. There is a Droid-Life.com review that mentions the issue and credits it to the phone's audio jack: http://www.droid-life.com/2013/10/01/samsung-galaxy-note-3-review/
See the subsection for Audio Jack Issues. Here is an excerpt:
"Then, after a few minutes without touching anything while at full volume, the volume just explodes and you are left deafened by the surprise volume attack."
I would be interested to see if anyone reports the problem when playing music via the phone's speaker.

have u check the adaptive option under the settings->sound->adapt sound?
Could it be that the adaptive sound is processing at certain point of time trying to give you the best sound that its think of?

afiqsabri said:
hi, mine is XXUBMJ1, after 3 weeks of usage, the volume automatically increase sometimes, what could be the problem, is it a bug or hardware ? should upgrade the firmware ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[Update] Looks like this is not an isolated issue. My friend's wife also facing the same problem and she sent in to reflash the unit at Samsung Care Center and the problem just disappear. My friend told me factory reset doesn't help though.
I have exactly the same issue you have. Same XXUBMJ1 ans using the device for a month now. Unknown and just reported to Samsung and was asked to walk in to get advice.

Random Actions in Default Music App?

I haven't been using the default music app because randomly it does an action after a while of playback, pretty much every few minutes; back, forward, pause, whatever, it random action just randomly happens. I've wondered if I somehow accidentally used some sort of gesture or touched the screen, but it happens when the screen is off as well and there doesn't seem to be any gesture that would affect the music app anyway. Does anyone have any idea what can be causing this?
I've been using PowerAmp which doesn't seem to support the A7's DAC. I have it set to 24 bit sound in the last Alpha of PowerAmp (which was many months ago, I've given up on any update for PowerAmp ever arriving) but after side by side sample comparisons they do sound different. The problem is I'm not sure if there's a slight volume difference between programs causing that, or if it's some setting, or if it really is due to the output being done on different DACs resulting in the differences. Pocket Now's video stating it only outputs 16 bit downsampled audio has also stuck in my mind, but despite contacting them twice on different social media, they never responded. That's infuriating, making a bold statement like that, then never providing an explanation and leaving it ambiguous, never stating if the downsampling was at software level, firmware level, or anything.
So I basically have no idea what the hell is going on with the audio on this thing in any way, from software to hardware. That's incredibly frustrating considering the DAC is a major reason why I bought this phone instead of something else.
Edit: I forgot to ask, what software should I use to confirm what sort of bit rate depth the Axon 7 is outputting? I have a Sound Blaster ZxR for recording, so I can plug the A7 right into that.

I can't tell you how to test the depth of the audio coming from the cell. If you can't tell the difference is there any real point? It it just a matter of wanting the product you thought you were paying for?
For the other issue, a really simple thing you've probably done already is checking that ZTE's voice software isn't enabled for media control. An old S4 of mine would go "back" any time a sound remotely like a short "a" played.

PiArc said:
I can't tell you how to test the depth of the audio coming from the cell. If you can't tell the difference is there any real point? It it just a matter of wanting the product you thought you were paying for?
For the other issue, a really simple thing you've probably done already is checking that ZTE's voice software isn't enabled for media control. An old S4 of mine would go "back" any time a sound remotely like a short "a" played.
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I can tell a difference, on the default music player it sounds better, for example instruments sound more crisp and separated from the rest of the audio. The issue is that I can't tell if that perception of more crisp/separated sound is due to a slight difference of volume between programs which is difficult to perceive. Just to add to the confusion, different songs seem to have different volume levels on each player, which aren't consistent. For example song A may be louder on PowerAmp, but song B is louder on the stock player. In those cases where the songs are clearly different volumes (maybe 10% of the time) it makes it extremely difficult to tell which one sounds better to me. This is with all equalizer/Dolby settings disabled.
Humans easily mistake higher volume for "better" quality in various ways. That's really the reason for the "volume wars" or whatever it's called; music was often mastered with levels just blasting instead of balancing the audio properly.
What I was asking is what free program can I use to record audio from my phone to check if it's outputting 24 bit audio? But on that same note, yes, I suppose that would also let me directly measure volume as well.
As for the voice recognition, I'll try disabling that and see if it helps, but isn't that supposed to only work when holding down the back key anyway? Also, often when it did a random command like next or previous song, I was silent.

Ah, I see. Sorry to not be helpful whatsoever.

Hmm y somehow ZTE has volume differences. I also noticed it if i enable/disable Dolby Atmos.
But i also think that ZTE set up some DSP stuff on AK4490/61. I would be happy if there was an app which could change DSP etc settings of this DACs :/

I also noticed the fluctuating volume, for me it's via bluetooth.
It would progressively become quiet and when the next song starts it would scare the crap out of me (much louder), then repeat.
Rarely, it would continue to play randomly after I disconnect from bluetooth (not immediately after).
So it would be nice if someone found a good music player that takes advantage of the DACs and not exhibit random behavior -- alternatively if this was fixed that would also be good.
EDIT: For me, it happens in a certain volume range in the upper end. Anything lower or higher this does not happen.

Solved: Bluetooth volume defaults to maximum on each new connection

I have found that each time that I connect my bluetooth audio devices to the phone the volume resets to the loudest setting. The change seems to happen as soon as I start audio the first time after connecting. When I adjust the volume I can see momentarily that it was on a lower setting and then it jumps all the way up to maximum. This has happened with three different brands of headsets. It does not happen with wired earbuds. An app called "Bluetooth Volume Control" will automatically adjust the volume based on the bluetooth device connected. This work reasonably well but not 100% so far. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.
Edit: I found a solution for this. In the developer options under the "Networking" heading, there is an option to "Disable absolute volume." Turning this option on allows the volume to stay where I put it.

Well, I love having mine maxed out every time. I had the Nexus6p which did something much more annoying. It would always set the Bluetooth volume to the middle and then I would have to turn it all the way up every time. I set up a Tasker option, but like your app, it didn't work 100% of the time either.

ArkAngel06 said:
Well, I love having mine maxed out every time. I had the Nexus6p which did something much more annoying. It would always set the Bluetooth volume to the middle and then I would have to turn it all the way up every time. I set up a Tasker option, but like your app, it didn't work 100% of the time either.
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In the past it would have been less of an issue but the combination of the new phone and my newest bluetooth set means that half way is ear damaging. My older sets were less so but are still uncomfortably loud.

My god, I hope no one else complains about this. I can't stand devices that default to a safe volume limit. FYI, when connected via BT, the phone volume is software based and what ever device you are using is hardware based. It is ALWAYS recommended to max out the software volume and then use the hardware (actual device) volume to adjust to your preference. On other phones I would always have to readjust both volumes, not fun. OnePlus does it right.

Joecascio2000 said:
My god, I hope no one else complains about this. I can't stand devices that default to a safe volume limit. FYI, when connected via BT, the phone volume is software based and what ever device you are using is hardware based. It is ALWAYS recommended to max out the software volume and then use the hardware (actual device) volume to adjust to your preference. On other phones I would always have to readjust both volumes, not fun. OnePlus does it right.
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Not all bluetooth earbuds have volume controls. It would be nice to just have the volume stay where I put it. That would be the "right" way. you could leave it high I could leave it lower.

So I found this. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phascinate.precisevolume&hl=en
It allows granular control over volume, presets for different devices, boosting or reducing the overall volume... etc.
For example, in my car maximum volume is preferred because I would rather use the volume control on the dash, however my wireless earbuds have no volume control and this newest pair have a truly ridiculously loud maximum volume, and I want them to default to about 50 percent. This app lets me set up separate presets for each.
It also lets you adjust the maximum volume and the rate of change when you use the volume controls. This was useful also.
free to use with ads but it is $2.99 to make it useful though.
I think that is problem solved but I wish that I didn't need an app to prevent an automatic volume change. It isn't about loud or soft. It is the fact that I put it where I want it and the phone changes it. In my case these headphones are capable of such loud volumes that starting soft would be preferable.
Here are the headphones by the way. A bit expensive but very worth it.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/jam-tra...-ear-headphones-black/5796033.p?skuId=5796033
as a point of comparison I have also had these
https://www.amazon.com/SoundPEATS-B...TF8&qid=1501000430&sr=1-7&keywords=soundpeats
and these
https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-HBS-760-Bluetooth-Wireless/dp/B00WE1QYX0/ref=dp_ob_title_wld
The Jams are way better than both in every respect.

Finally found a real solution. In the developer options, under the "Networking" section, there is an option to "Disable absolute volume." turning this option on allows the volume to stay where I put it.

kutluch said:
Finally found a real solution. In the developer options, under the "Networking" section, there is an option to "Disable absolute volume." turning this option on allows the volume to stay where I put it.
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Thank you,I have been searching for a solution months!
I was getting affraid to use my headphones... :crying:

kutluch said:
Finally found a real solution. In the developer options, under the "Networking" section, there is an option to "Disable absolute volume." turning this option on allows the volume to stay where I put it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the solution! I've been having the opposite problem, i. e. every time I connected my Bluetooth earplugs the volume was always at the minimum. Now it's working fine.

kutluch said:
Finally found a real solution. In the developer options, under the "Networking" section, there is an option to "Disable absolute volume." turning this option on allows the volume to stay where I put it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed this and had it on but I turned it off, then I noticed that the volume was not staying like it did when I used other bluetooth earbuds. After reading your post, I then reenabled the option and works nicely. I got the IdeaUSA v203 headphones today, and I was trying to keep the volume about the same via bluetooth and aux cable, in-case I ran out of battery and need to plug in aux to use headphones. This works perfectly for me. I use Poweramp and nicely done for this. It says up to 40 hours playback but I think with the way I got it might give me a few hours less playback but I am willing to sacrifice for volume. One reason I love Oreo or higher OS now. My S7 Edge is nice with this.:good:

THANKS! Worked for me!

I have 'disable absolute volume' ON and i still have this problem. Its a very big problem, because having music defaulted to large scares the me so much and also is causing damage to my ears.

littlemermaid1 said:
I have 'disable absolute volume' ON and i still have this problem. Its a very big problem, because having music defaulted to large scares the me so much and also is causing damage to my ears.
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Same here. Toggling that did nothing at all.
My issue was that if I took a phone call while any media was playing, when I hung up on the call the media volume would jump to max and playback would resume which DESTROYED my ears.
My solution was to uninstall the Samsung Sound Assistant app and then rebooting my S9. (Because the behavior persisted until rebooted after the uninstall.) That fixed the issue entirely. I miss the functionality of Sound Assistant so I might try reinstalling to see if it works itself out but for now having the problem fixed is very nice.