Audio Ducking Not Working on iOS 18.1

By Nicholas Stanford, 30 October, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I updated to the official release of 18.1 on my iPhone 14 Pro yesterday, and audio ducking stopped working. It doesn't matter what I set it to, either "When Speaking" or "Always." No effect at all.
The experience with this update has been one of my most buggy iOS experiences in a while. Like not iOS 18 but specifically the 18.1 update. My phone will weirdly forget that I was listening to an audiobook in Audible after I pause it and when I hit play/pause on my AirPods it will start playing whatever song I was last listening to in Music. I also found that VoiceOver was somehow accessing my home screen while my phone was locked, which feels like a pretty major security issue.
Slightly off topic but this strikes me as weird because the simultaneously released macOS Sequoia 15.1 mostly fixes bugs that I was experiencing.

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Comments

By Brian on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

Do this exactly:
1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Audio.
2. Tap on Audio Docking.
3. Set it to either "While Speaking", or "Always".
4. Navigate further to the right on the same screen as above, and adjust the volume to anything, "over", 100%.
5. Audio Docking should now be working.

This has been posted elsewhere on AppleVis concerning the Docking volume issue, including this thread:
https://applevis.com/blog/apple-releases-ios-181-ipados-181-bringing-new-bugs-some-fixes-voiceover-braille-users

By Nicholas Stanford on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

Sorry about that. I looked for a forum thread but I didn't think to check the blog. Do you have any idea what the default volume setting for this is? I didn't realize they added the ability to adjust that at some point, and I've always been pretty happy with the out of the box experience for audio ducking. The update put the stupid thing all the way down to 80 percent for me, so it wasn't ducking at all. I have to go above 150 percent before I can really hear a difference so I'm guessing the default is somewhere around 180 percent but none of it sounds quite right.

By kool_turk on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

They decided to set mine to 50%, so I had to go in and set it back to what I have it set to, and that is 150%.

That's what mine is set to as my personal preference, but your preference might be different.

By Brian on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

I have mine set to 130%. This means that VO will be 30% louder than all other non-VO volume.

HTH.

By Joshua on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

That is what i have mine set to, it was set to 90% when i updated

Apple stop changing settings, this isnt cool

By Ekaj on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

I haven't yet listened to the episode linked here, but I did briefly check out the enhanced Audio Ducking. This is only an observation, but as somebody who now wears hearing aids I think the reason Apple did this was to accommodate different forms of hearing loss. I haven't yet tested this out with my hearing aids, because my father and I exchanged one for the other yesterday at Costco. There was a small glitch in the brand/model of hearing aids which I have, and rather than go without either of them I chose to have one repaired at a time. This was a company recall. But once I have them both again I'll test out the new Audio Ducking. Btw, this was a small glitch and I am staying with this particular brand because they seem to be doing a wonderful job.

By Aidan JK on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

The way they have changed this makes no sense at all. It means to benefit from any audio ducking at all, you have to have your VoiceOver volume set to over 100%. That is really loud! It’s only after 100% that the volume of the voice doesn’t increase when you increase the percentage. Instead, to give users more control, there should be a separate setting to control the extent to which other audio is reduced when it ducks.

By Brian on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

That’s not exactly correct. Don’t let the percentage numbers mislead you. If you have your media volume set to a reasonable volume, your docking volume will only be the percentage, that is above 100%, “of your set media volume”. That is to say, it will not be very loud at all, unless you blast your media volume, that is. 🎧😵‍💫

By Dennis Long on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

I Think once apple did an excellent job of listening to its users. If you listen to Thomas's podcast you will understand it.

By Nicholas Stanford on Friday, November 1, 2024 - 09:21

I appreciate the advice. 180 percent feels pretty close to the former amount of ducking I would get prior to iOS 18. I wish I knew the exact percentage of the system default, but I'm not willing to restore system defaults to find it out.

By Lee on Saturday, November 23, 2024 - 09:21

Guys,

I think many are aware that Apple have altered how this worked in 18.0 as that seemed to cause issues. However, has anyone actually got this to work via the new way? It was working perfectly fine in 18.0 and I noticed things had changed so played around a bit. Now, no matter what settings volume and or ducking percent are set the audio simply is at the same level as VO. If someone has this working what levels have you got set?

By TheBllindGuy07 on Saturday, November 23, 2024 - 09:21

I didn't want to create a new thread but due to these issues on since 18.0 to 18.1.1 I am completely unable to adjust voiceover volume at all no matter my settings in voiceover --> audio. It simply won't move, and I am talking about adjusting the volume with the rotor like we could do on 17 and earlier. Despite many reboots it just won't work on ios 18.1.1.

By Dennis Long on Saturday, November 23, 2024 - 09:21

this is a fix in 18.2 as someone pointed out in another thread. look for it there.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, November 23, 2024 - 09:21

Looks like is not. Using 16 pro max and beta 3 and it does not work. volume of media was on 3 and rase it to 80 and volume for VO and media was high. I put it on 50 and will see if brings down media volume down when using VO. Nuts.

By TheBllindGuy07 on Saturday, November 23, 2024 - 09:21

We are on beta 4 now? :) Updating my iphone as of writing. At least they acknowledged the bug as myself in feedback it says similar reports <10 now.

By Holger Fiallo on Saturday, November 23, 2024 - 09:21

Sorry is the beta 3 letter A as Apple After Thanksgiving be the RC unless Apple releases another beta next week.

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

Well put the media volume to 50 and still have issues. VO is 100%. Again Apple broke it. It was fixed in last iOS now is a pain again.

By Lee on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

Ok, was not going to give up here. I've found a way certainly for me that makes it work again in 18.2 beta. Go to audio under vo settings then choose audio ducking. I have it set to when speaking. Change the ducking rate to what you want. So, I knew it worked I set this at 70% Then under rotor items tick the volume option so it appears in your rotor. Now when your playing your media find the volume item you chose and swipe up/down to a % you want. I set this to 70% and voila it worked. You can also go in to settings and make sure the haptic/sounds are linked to volume so they aren't to loud. Hope this helps someone else.

By Dennis Long on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

This absolutely works! 1 gp into
settings
2 Go to accessibility.
3 Go to voiceover.
4 go to rotor
5 once in rotor go to rotor items.
6 go to ducking amount add it to your rotor!
7 change the ducking amount to what you want.
I have my ducking amount before audio ducking
NOTE! you will have to change wherre this is in your rotor if you wish it to be in a certain place!!!!!!!!!

By Lee on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

Have to admit never seen that. Just checked it out and it looks like it is a rotor setting you can use on the fly to alter what I suggested above in the Vo audio section as the value on the item was the same as what I'd set it to. Just a quick way of changing it if you want to.

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

Works OK, is not perfect. Used same amount but the media does not lower all the way. Oh well, I am sure Apple will fix it in iOS 100. Hope I will be around for the release.

By Earle on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

It's working exactly like I want it to. I have the VO volume set the way I want, and the ducking amount set the way I want. Media is ducking exactly as it should. I'm a little confused about what people would want Apple to change. Maybe I'm just missing something. Who knows?

By Dennis Long on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

It is absolutely working. Some people don't understand how it is supposed to work I think. Maybe applevis can do a podcast on it and better explain it

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

Perhaps those of us who were using it are upset because Apple broke something that was not broken. VO is at 100% and media is at 50%.

By Dennis Long on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

it is not broken!!!! As others have correctly stated it is not broken!!!! If you have 18.2 latest beta it is not broken!!!!!!!!

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

As I said my VO is 100 and media is 50 yet is not working well. What is that? 16 pro max. Maybe is taking a vacation in Hawaii due to the cold weather in Chicago?

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

Thanks to Dennis I got it fix. Thanks for taking the time to help.

By Dennis Long on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

That was the goal. Let me post on hear. First now you set your volume in control center first. if you set that in control center to 68 % like I do. Then put the voiceover volume to 100%. next add ducking amount to the rotor. The more you want the audio such as music to duck the higher the ducking amount. so if you want all the way ducked set ducking amount to 99% This will have the same effect as it was in iOS 18 where you had the volume to 199% I hope that makes sense if not get in touch with me I'll atempt to help fix it I may start charging Chicago Deep dish pizzas :)

By TheBllindGuy07 on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

I still think that some level of disappointment is perfectly justified by us. They do always splashscreens for new features and they even introduced exactly that with 18.0 yet they expect us to read the documentation in its entirety to understand how a feature who hasn't changed for year has changed now? It's not my main topic as mine was only about volume bug which, was!! :) a real bug, but I think they completely lacked in informing us properly about the new audio settings of VO.
PS: since the latest dev beta on watchos is it normal that my media volume randomly goes down around 20 or 15 while it should be at 80%? :)

By Dennis Long on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

If someone doesn't get to it give me a day or two I'll dig into that and give you steps. I would suggest they write an article explaining how the audio ducking works. This I agree would be helpful.

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, November 24, 2024 - 09:21

Sorry but Chicago pizza belong to us. If you ever come to Chicago, I might take out for pizza. Thanks again. It is confusing and a pain.