18.1.1 update has ruined the volume on my iPhone 12!!!

The same thing happened to me. Volume suddenly diminished to near inaudible levels even when I shout immediately following update. I’ve been racking my brain to troubleshoot and now ended up here. Horrible timing for me as I need for medical situation and I suspect I will have to purchase a new phone as well. No doubt this is related to update as phone speaker and volume were fine pre update

Have you updated to iOS 18.2?

However, 18.1.1 has not ruined the volume of your phone, as it hasn’t ruined the volume of the other estimated 500,000,000 iPhones that have updated.

Have you tried the obvious, using the Volume Up button while using one of the apps with low volume? The volume buttons are context sensitive, so raising the volume from the Home screen will only affect the ringer and notifications, but not change the volume of apps or phone calls.

But if you want to throw away a perfectly good iPhone and get a Samsung, rather than troubleshoot a simple problem, go right ahead. This is a user-to-user forum; one here cares how you throw money around. But I suggest you read the Samsung and Android support forums so you can make an informed decision.

Happened to me too 😞

Have you tried adjusting the volume WHILE USING THE APP? Have you contacted Apple Support?

And which apps specifically? The update did not make my phone ineffective; everything (INCLUDING sounds in apps), is just fine. And, as I haven’t seen any other posts about your issue, it must be solved by you on your phone with this unique problem.