I remember one time at a very buzzy tequila bar with my husband, I complained to him I couldn’t hear anything he was saying because the music was too loud. He laughed and pointed out a sign behind me that said “If the music’s too loud, you’re too old!”
Nowadays it’s more likely that it’s my music that I want to hear, but the ambient noise is too loud. Whether you’re trying to listen to your tunes whilst on a busy road or a buzzy bar or your hearing isn’t what it used to be, you can boost your volume with these easy adjustments to your iPhone.
If you’ve haven’t already maximized the volume on your smartphone using the volume up button, follow those easy instructions by clicking on this link.
If that’s not enough, here are work-arounds to allow higher volume and better clarity…
Increase Volume using iPhone’s Music App
This is the music program that comes standard with the iPhone, and you can find it in Settings 
(see image below). If you use Spotify, the instructions are very similar, and we’ll cover them separately below.
Select “Music”, then look for “EQ” (see circled image below).
Tap “EQ”, then scroll down to find “Late Night” (image below) and select it. Yes, this is counter-intuitive as you’d expect something called “Late Night” to play softer music, but that’s not the case. You’ll see that by default, the EQ is set to “Off”, which means you’re just using the speakers at a minimal level with no enhancements. Tap any other EQ setting to hear what it sounds like. You don’t have to have music playing on your phone to make a change, but if you do, you should immediately hear the difference. Tapping “Late Night” should increase the volume clarity by about 20%.
Adjusting the Volume when listening on Spotify
The steps mirror those outlined above, but first you need to open the Spotify app. 
As before, you’ll be able to compare the difference before and after adjusting the volume if you have music playing at the time, but it’s not necessary.
Open the Settings icon (wheel) at the top (see circled in below image).
Now scroll down to find “Playback” (circled, image below).
Choose “Equalizer” (circled, image below).
Scroll down to find “Late Night” and tick it (second arrow, image below).
With music playing, go ahead and experiment what the other options will give you.
Enabling Louder Volume by Turning off “Headphone Safety”
If you’ve found that listening to music through your headphones isn’t loud enough, Headphone Safety may be enabled. This is a feature that Apple uses to help protect your hearing. Keep in mind that this setting exists precisely to protect your hearing, so consider leaving it as is especially if you’re not having trouble hearing music through your headphones.
If you do decide to turn it off:
- Return to the iPhone’s Settings menu .
- Tap Sound & Haptics in the second group of settings.
- Tap Headphone Safety.
- Toggle the “Reduce Loud Sounds” switch to “Off”.
You’ll see a safety warning from Apple advising that they will send you a notification after 7 days to remind you that your Headphone Safety is switched off.
We trust that these steps will give you a better listening experience whether listening to your music on the Apple Music App, Spotify app and whether you listen aloud or on your headphones. Happy listening!
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