If you’ve ever been on the phone and tried to adjust the volume on an iPhone and found the volume buttons unresponsive, you’re not alone. This is an annoying hypothetical bug that can happen on the iPhone, and the volume buttons seem to stop working during calls, although sometimes they still work normally for music, videos, or alerts.
You’ll know you’re being affected by this because if you turn the volume up or down on the iPhone during an active call, the volume doesn’t change. Usually the volume slider itself doesn’t even appear. This makes it impossible to adjust the phone’s volume in any way, and can be very frustrating.
Fortunately, there are a few straightforward troubleshooting steps you can take to resolve the problem and get your iPhone volume buttons working again during calls.
How to Fix iPhone Volume Buttons Not Working on Phones
If the iPhone volume buttons do not adjust the sound during calls, try the following solutions.
1: Touch the Mute Button Off and On
This is a tricky trick but it seems to fix the unresponsive volume button problem for many iPhone users right away: toggle the Mute button on the screen on and off, then try using the volume buttons to adjust the phone’s volume again, and they usually work again quickly.
While this doesn’t work in all cases, for many it does, and it’s the easiest way to solve the problem.
2: Try Changing Phone Audio Output – Speakerphone, Bluetooth, Wired Headphones, CarPlay, etc.
Sometimes the iPhone’s volume buttons don’t respond because the iPhone mistakenly thinks the sound is being routed somewhere else. So, sometimes simply switching the iPhone to a different output mode while on a call can fix the problem.
Try turning the iPhone into a speakerphone, or plug in a set of AirPods, or use wired earbuds, or just hold the iPhone up to your head, then switch to another sound output and back again. This little dance noise can solve the problem.
You can do this while on the phone, which can be useful and give you a faster response.
3: Disable & Enable Change volume with buttons
Changing the quick settings can sometimes solve the strange volume button behavior:
- Open the Settings app
- Go to “Sounds and Haptics”
- Toggle the “Switch with buttons” option to OFF
- Wait for a while and then switch it back OFF
It is also possible that this feature has been disabled at some point, in which case it enables us to fix the unresponsive iPhone volume button problem.
4: Clean the Volume Buttons
Sometimes visible debris can prevent proper button contact. Check the volume buttons for any obvious grime or gunk, and wipe the iPhone if so. iPhone volume buttons generally feel responsive and clicky, so if they feel fuzzy or stuck, there may be something lodged in there that is affecting performance.
5: Restart the iPhone
This almost always solves the unresponsive iPhone volume button problem, but the obvious disadvantage is that you cannot do this while on an active phone when experiencing the unresponsive volume button problem.
However, a simple reboot usually fixes the problem for most users, but it tends to come back over time.
Turn off the iPhone, wait a few seconds, then turn it on again.
You can also force restart by pressing Volume Up, then Volume Down, then press and hold the Power/Lock button until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
6: Install iOS updates
Since there appears to be a bug that may affect the functionality of the volume button on iPhone calls, installing iOS software updates may resolve the issue.
Go to Settings > General > Software Update and install what you see available.
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Have you ever encountered this problem when the volume buttons do not work on the phone with iPhone? Running through the steps described above usually solves the problem quickly, without requiring more advanced troubleshooting, but it’s still frustrating.
As we have said, this may be a mistake. It has also been complained about for a long time by a large number of iPhone users on the Apple Discussion boards with many different iPhone models and iOS versions, so hopefully a future iOS version will fix the mysterious volume button on phones problem once and for all. In the meantime, try the steps we mentioned above.
Let us know your experience, and what worked for you.