iPhone 17 Pro Max speaker volume fluctuates during songs

Also, make sure you have all audio enhancement features turned off such as spacial audio enhancement, Dolby Atmos, 3D audio, etc.

As I mentioned before, the problem is not present when using headphone

And that is why I suspect it could be a phase cancelation issue.

its only when playing through the speakers.

Ok, then make sure all audio processing is turned off, then try external Bluetooth speakers and see if the issue happens with them.

But if you add a compressor that only reacts to certain frequencies on an already compressed track, you would get this drastic bad fluctuations

I understand what you are saying but I seriously doubt the iPhone has a multi band compressor in it.

Its like they added a compressor to the audio system.

Actually a compressor would do the exact opposite, it would compress all audio to the same level.

Let's try an experiment. Are the headphones you are using Bluetooth? If so, try using a pair of Bluetooth speakers and see if it still happens. This might be a phase canceling issue.

Since headphones go over your ears and the sound from one speaker can't interfere with the sound from the other speaker, phase cancelation can't happen.

With Bluetooth speakers, you can have phase cancelation and if the same volume effect happens with the internal speakers along with the Bluetooth speakers, then it's a phasing issue.

If you don't get the issue with the Bluetooth speakers then you know it's an issue with the audio signal being sent to the internal speakers.

Ochiboy wrote:

It confirmed my suspicions that it's not just an isolated case, but instead is widespread.

How widespread? There are roughly 2 billion iPhones, and roughly 500 million have iOS 26. If this was “widespread” that would mean something like 10 million to 500 million have the problem. That clearly isn’t the case, because if it were you would see millions of comments on it, not a dozen.

Have you tried changing settings/Sounds & Haptics? Specifically Volume Limit and Reduce Loud Sounds.

AMANOProd wrote:

I confirm that I have the same issue, plus I checked on friends' iPhones, and they have the same issue, plus I checked a showcase iPhone 17 Pro Max on an Apple Distributor store, and I noticed the same issue. I'm pretty sure it's software related and I hope the next IOS version will fix that. As a musician I'm finding it very frustrating to have such an issue on a brand-new phone.

You do realize the music is RECORDED with varying volume levels? It is called “dynamic range”. If you go to a live concert it will be both loud, medium and soft, and a quality recording will attempt to match that.

Hi, I'd like drop-in and say that I am experiencing the exact same issue with my iPhone 17 Pro Max (Cosmic Orange).

One specific song that's a good example is the "Sparkle - Movie Ver." from the movie "Your Name". Regardless of where I play the song, Apple Music, Spotify, or even Youtube, the issue is that when it's only the instrumental, the volume is noticeably lower, even if the phone is at max volume.

When the vocals kick in (around 00:32), the volume goes up to what it should be, then goes down again when the instrumental kicks in. So basically, throughout the song, the volume goes up and down, or in other words, fluctuates.

I've also tried check what settings I can change, but I couldn't find a fix.

Using earphones doesn't seem to have issues though. The issue only lies with the phone speakers.

It's not just tracks, it happens even Youtube videos as well. I stumbled upon this video while doom scrolling: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/thIGUI5IShg and noticed that the same issue occur.

On parts where only the Canon piano plays, it will sound muted/muffled, but when the audio is mixed with the audio from the badminton match, the volume will go loud/normal level.

It looks like the volume will not go muted/muffled when there are constant "background noise" on the audio played.

This needs to be fixed.

Then tell Apple about it. Complaining about it in a user only forum isn't going to get you anywhere.

You can ket Appleknow about it here -

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Is this all tracks from all albums, or just some? And from different or the same publishers?

Music has a wide dynamic range, and some tracks may just be recorded that way.

It confirmed my suspicions that it's not just an isolated case, but instead is widespread.

I don't have to RMA my device if it's an innate issue for many, and can be fixed by a software update.

This needs to be fixed.

I confirm that I have the same issue, plus I checked on friends' iPhones, and they have the same issue, plus I checked a showcase iPhone 17 Pro Max on an Apple Distributor store, and I noticed the same issue. I'm pretty sure it's software related and I hope the next IOS version will fix that. As a musician I'm finding it very frustrating to have such an issue on a brand-new phone.

Are you using the iPhone Music app, or a 3rd party music source?

This needs to be fixed.

Ok, then let Apple know

Feedback - iPhone - Apple