Apple Watch app bug: Volume control via Digital Crown will stop working
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When using the Pocket Casts watchOS app, sometimes when I use the Digital Crown to adjust the volume, the actual volume goes to zero (no sound) and I can no longer change the volume from the PC watch app. Turning the crown does nothing and the circular gauge around the speaker icon remains static, usually showing the last position before it stopped responding.
I either have to use watchOS’s Now Playing app where the Digital Crown still works, or change the volume directly on my iPhone. Force quitting and relaunching the Pocket Casts watch app will get it to work again.
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That’s interesting as it works perfectly in the watchOS’s Now Playing app.
The problem is with the Pocket Casts watchOS app. The Digital Crown will initially work just fine and I can raise/lower the volume. But after a period of time, it’ll stop working. When that happens the actual volume will go to zero, yet the on-screen volume control will change, but it doesn’t change the actual volume. It’s like they become disconnected.
It’ll work again if I force quit and relaunch the Pocket Casts watch app. So it seems like a bug to me.
If it’s indeed a problem on Apple’s side, perhaps you could open a Technical Support Incident (TSI)?
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It looks like there’s already a GitHub issue for this (from 2022!):
Adjust Volume on Apple Watch could make volume go zero #487 -
It appears there’s a bug affecting the Apple Watch app, where volume control via the Digital Crown stops working. This could disrupt user experience, especially for those reliant on precise volume adjustments. Hopefully, Apple addresses this issue swiftly through updates.
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FWIW, I used to have this bug intermittently, but after upgrading to iOS 17.4 and watchOS 10.4, it happens to me all the time (tested on a factory reset of the watch running watchOS 10.4 though I’m not willing to factory reset my phone to test it on a truly “clean” install).
I’m not sure if the issue lies in iOS or in watchOS, but for me it started occurring after I upgraded both my watch (to watchOS 10.4) and phone (to iOS 17.4). I did not encounter the issue (at least not most of the time under iOS 17.3.1 and watchOS 10.3.1). The update to iOS 17.4.1 does not appear to fix the issue.
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Hi @alisontyler7414 & @cramp379
Thanks for your feedback. This is certainly a bug on Apple’s end, so if you can report the issue to them, it might help them prioritise fixing this issue.
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Can you tell us what specific Apple API or call we should mention in our feedback to Apple?
If we simply report that the Pocket Casts watch app’s volume control isn’t functioning, they may just dismiss it as not their issue. And that’s assuming they’ll review the feedback…which may be a stretch! 🤣
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The problem also appears on other podcast players that use the clock like sound control on apple watch. ICatcher! For example switched the apple watch ui from the now playing sound bar to the one also used by Pocket Casts. And the volume ICatcher! with the Digital Crown immediatley stopped working.
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That’s an interesting detail @gertschallenberg. Thanks for sharing it!
@bikrrr You can just mention that the digital crown doesn’t work with Pocket Casts. You can share a link to this thread and others like this one for other apps: Crown isn’t working for volume anymore?
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I experience the same issue. Turning the crown does nothing more than draw a circle around the speaker icon on the watch face. Note that turning the crown works perfectly if I play a podcast via Apple’s Podcast app. This all seems to have started with IOS 17.4 on my iPhone 12 max.
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Hi @weinstockstl! Apple entirely controls how the digital crown works, down to its UI. The same thing happens on several other watchOS audio apps (Overcast, Castro), so it’s not just Pocket Casts. It is almost surely something Apple “changed” in the latest update.
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I finally updated to watchOS 10.5 yesterday, and it seems to have fixed this issue! 🎉
I won’t get too excited, as before it was hit and miss, but things are looking promising.
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I concur that it appears to be fixed in 10.5. I did notice, however, that the latency is increased as compared to before the issue cropped up. There seems to be a noticeable lag between rotating the crown and the time that the volume change takes effect.
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Fixed for me as well with the watchOS 10.5 release (if anyone cares, upgrading to iOS 17.5 did not fix it, but subsequently updating to watchOS 10.5 is what did the trick, at least for me, so it was something in watchOS rather than iOS, I guess?)
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Thanks for confirming and reporting here @github6d70adbab6 @cramp379!
We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the fix remains!
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