Lately, I hear voiceOver announce, "ring mode," every time I press the up volume button. Can anyone tell me why this is happening, what the phone is trying to tell me, what other modes might be available, how to change modes, and more important than anything else - how do I turn this apparently pointless announcement off?
Here's how I just reproduced it. I realized it had been a while since I restarted my phone, so I did what I always do: press the up volume, then the down volume, then hold in the side switch for about 15 seconds. But, as soon as I pressed the up volume button, VoiceOver said, "ring mode."
I think this is new with iOS 18 but can't say for certain when it started happening. Any info would be appreciated, thanks.
Comments
Noticed this
On my iPhone 15 pro running 18.3 I've noticed this. I think but not totally sure this only happens immediately after you unlock your phone and turn up the volume. For me it doesn't keep saying ring mode just one off times. Not all the time either so can't really remember exactly when it happens. I'm guessing this is some kind of odd bug.
Yeah
Thanks, you're right, right after an unlock. Just playing around with other ways to reproduce it. It's not just up volume, it does it with down volume as well.
Ring Mode.
On the iPhone 16, there's a button above the up-volume called the Action Button. Unless it's actions are changed, it says Ring Mode. Press it again and it will say, hold for silent. And if you do this, when you press it, it will say silent mode. As I said, you can change this button's actions in Settings. There's an Applevis Podcast on this.
Thanks gailisaiah
Months ago, I changed the action button behavior to record voice memos. If I press the action button, VoiceOver says, "hold to record," which is correct. If I hold it, it gives me a chime when it starts recording. That's all correct. The problem is with the volume buttons, not the action button.
A couple of things
First, I believe this is a bug with the iPhone 15 and 16 models. For example, I did not get this, however I am on an older model iPhone, iPhone SE 2022 in fact.
Second, unsure if you all are aware, but you can just ask Siri to reboot your device, without doing the Button gymnastics required.
To do this, say, "hey Siri, restart my device."
HTH.
16 pro max
Is not on the 16 pro max. Might need to do a reset. If not done already. You probably did a restart already.
I'm starting to understand
I think I finally understand what it's telling me. It's giving me the current state of silent mode (by default, that's toggled with the action button). If Silent mode is off, the volume button says "ring mode," and if it's on, I get "silent mode."
But, most of the time I hit the volume button, I'm turning VoiceOver up or down, or turning an audiobook or music up or down, or I'm rebooting my phone. So telling me whether silent mode is on or off is just extra information that I don't need.
It sounds like some of you aren't hearing this, so I'm still very interested in a way to disable it.
Ring
Change to see if that will make a different. What would happen if you change the action button from ring to something else? Would that affect the volume?
I know what it is
So if you go to your settings, > Sounds and Haptics then change the Change With Buttons setting to off.
Hopefully this helps
Huh
Thanks for the suggestion.
I was skeptical, because I thought that setting would make it so that you could not change the volume with the volume buttons. But, surprisingly, even after I set it to off, I was still able to change volume for both VoiceOver and Music. Apparently the "change with" setting applies only to ringtone volume.
Alright, I turned it off. Let's hope that eliminates the "ring mode" and "silent mode" announcements.
I have seen this on an iPhone 14 Pro.
My iPhone 16 Pro Max behaves normally, where you do not get this announcement. Like somebody else mentioned, this might have something to do with the change with buttons option in settings. I have this turned off.
The persons 14 pro that I used did experience this bug, and I know that their change with buttons setting is on, because they asked me to turn it on for them.
RE: ring mode
First, this is not a bug if you have "change ring mode with volume buttons" set to on. I have it off. I am pretty sure if you turn that off, it will go away. You can still change the main volume, without ring being affected. I very often, for example, used to change my ring volume before knowing this option existed. Then I found it in sound and it is a game changer, in a way. I have an iPhone 13 pro, though, so if it's a really particular model bug, that would be very sad indeed. I hope you managed to fix it, somehow.
That did it
Nearly a full day with that setting disabled, and no more annoying ring mode or silent mode announcements. Thanks allabtech.
Glad to hear that you were…
Glad to hear that you were able to get it fixed. I'm hear for support.
I have the same thing.
I have the same issue on my IPhone 14.
Just Tried Mine...
I've got an iPhone 14 as well, and just tried this out. I went into "Sounds and Haptics" under the settings and briefly turned on "change with volume buttons". Then I tested out those and mine just changes the ringer volume. It does not keep repeating "ring mode" or "silent mode". This appears to be standard behavior, and I like it as well. What has been happening though, is that for some reason when I set my phone to "silent mode", I still hear the ringers. I think this has something to do with my hearing aids, but I'm still figuring that out.