Android GPS volume weirdness

May 15, 2014 8:39 AM

I have a Samsung base model phone running whatever the current version of Android is. I like to hook my phone up via headphone jack to an FM transmitter to hear GPS navigation and Spotify streaming. The two used to play well with each other: Spotify would mute whenever the GPS had directions to give. However within the last two weeks the GPS is nearly inaudible when it takes over, while Spotify returns at full volume. I think the problem is that I listen to Spotify at full volume to improve the quality over the FM transmitter, since oherwise you can hear staticy intetference. I've noticed that whenever GPS takes over it pops up a hearing damage warning due to the phone being at full volume. I feel like this happened in a recent update, and is causing the intetoperability problems. Is this likely the case, and can I turn off the hearing protection feature? If not then what else might be causing this?
posted by codacorolla to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Yes, you can probably turn off this feature. Go into settings, then find Sounds. Within that settings screen, you should find something about hearing protection or loudness warnings or something.

Without knowing your specific phone model it's tough to give more specific instructions.
posted by trivia genius at 10:30 AM on May 15, 2014

Response by poster: Nope, I just checked and there's nothing there. Just the option to set volume for "media", notifications, ringtones and system.

I just checked the phone info, and it's a Galaxy Stellar 4G.
posted by codacorolla at 10:35 AM on May 15, 2014

I don't have any answers for you, but my S3 running CyanogenMod 10.2 (Android 4.3.1) is doing this too, so it's not specific to you or your phone. And it's annoying. I do have a "Safe headset volume" option, but mine is already turned off.
posted by natabat at 11:38 AM on May 15, 2014

Best answer: Ah ha. It appears to be a Spotify bug [link].
posted by natabat at 11:47 AM on May 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

Maybe they (Spotify) were trying to fix the earlier problem, which was Spotify getting VERY LOUD after a notification (Google Hangouts in my case). Guess they swung the pendulum back to the opposite end...
posted by kuanes at 12:09 PM on May 15, 2014

Response by poster: Awesome, thank you natabat. That's incredibly irritating, especially since the latest version of Spotify is also terribly ugly and more resource intensive than previous versions. I'll play around with volume settings and post back to the thread if I find anything.
posted by codacorolla at 2:09 PM on May 15, 2014

Response by poster: As a follow-up, Spotify fixed this in their most recent patch. Not much to solve, aside from waiting, but thanks for the help.
posted by codacorolla at 1:01 PM on June 14, 2014