Incoming volume max and not adjustable

[dishe]

Outgoing calls are fine, I can adjust volume and hear the caller clearly. But incoming calls seem to be at maximum levels and are so loud I can barely understand the person without it crackling in my eardrum!

It looks like this is well documented problem with no clear solution:
https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/115284

My question is, why does this only seem to effect some users and not others?

I tried the suggested listed there- resetting, turning off noise cancellation, nothing seems to fix it. I can press the vol up and down buttons, and the slider responds on screen, but the actual audible volume doesn't seem to change. This is a pretty significant limitation to effectively using the handset as a phone!

 

[Rukbat]

See if there's a warranty of merchantability in your state. If there is, Sprint's legal options are repair, replace or refund (and they can't invoke the ETF). Their claim that the problem can't be repaired, even if they replace the phone, is legally inadmissible. The law doesn't allow them to sell a device that can't be used for the purpose for which it was sold (and if a phone wasn't sold for the purpose of making and taking phone calls, what the heck WAS it sold for?)

There are enough states with W of M, that if every Sprint customer with one of those phones demanded a cancellation of contract and a full refund (they broke the law, so they can't claim payment for calls - proceeds of a crime), Sprint would be in a very bad place.

 

[dishe]

Handset was purchased off ebay.

 

[dishe]

Found some references on XDA that discuss modifications to a file System/etc/default_gain.conf to tweak the volume on an S3.

I'm wondering if it works the same way for us. If so, perhaps I could compare the contents from someone who's phone does NOT exhibit this problem, and see if it looks different.

Additionally, in case this really can't be fixed that easily, perhaps this file can control how loud the default maximum volume is. Maybe push it down a notch or two so it isn't ear-drum splitting.

Thoughts?

 

[Madbat]

Our phone doesn't appear to have that file.

 

[dishe]

Our phone doesn't appear to have that file.

Yeah, I didn't have the phone on me to check when I posted that.

Still, if there is some way to limit the maximum volume, at least that would be helpful.

Meanwhile, I reached out to Samsung directly for support and linked that Sprint forum thread to ask if this was a known issue they are working on.

Here's the answer I got:

Thank you for contacting Samsung Telecommunications America.

After reviewing your email, we understand that you are unable to decrease the volume of the incoming calls on your phone(SPH-L300).

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. We do understand the importance of resolving the issue.

This is not a known issue at Samsung. However, we would try our best to assist you by providing the required information.

The support channel that you have reached has only the information regarding the technical troubleshootings of the devices. We are unable to speculate when/if the device might be available due to the fact that it might lead to confusion.

Here are a few suggestions to fix the issue :

1) Please press the volume down key at the right side of your phone in order to decrease the volume.

2) Kindly disable the Noise Reduction feature on your phone as it improves the call quality when there are any background noises.

Below are the steps to disable the Noise Reduction feature :

a. Start the Phone app.

b. Hit the menu button on the lower left side.

c. Select "Call Settings" from the menu.

d. Scroll to "Additional Settings" and select it.

e. Uncheck "Noise Reduction".

3) Please perform the Soft reset on your phone. Soft reset refreshes the internal settings of the device.

1. Turn off the handset.
2. Remove the battery and wait for 30 seconds.
3. Reinsert the battery and turn ON the device.

You can try the above steps if you have not performed them after the issue started, trying soft reset mostly resolves the issue.

4) If the issue persists, please try with the steps below which clears the cache on your phone. Wipe cache partition will delete all the temporary files and refreshes the device. These steps will not erase any data on your phone :

a. Power off the handset (for best results, remove the battery, and then put the battery back in).

b. Press and hold Volume Up key, then press and hold the Power Key.

Note: If the battery was removed from the phone, wait approximately 5 seconds before reinserting the battery or the phone may turn on prematurely.

c. Release the Power Key when the phone vibrates.

d. Release the Volume Up key when the first boot screen displays.

e. Using the Volume Keys, scroll to wipe cache partition and press the Power Key.

f. Reboot your phone.

Please perform the above mentioned steps and we are positive that the issue would be fixed.

Feel free to get back to us if you have any further concerns. We would be glad to assist you.

I was totally expecting a canned response when I wrote to them. To be honest, this isn't quite as canned-sounding as I expected... yes, the instructions are clearly just cut and paste form their list of predetermined solutions to tell everybody, but at least they responded to me more directly saying things like "this is not a known issue" and my personal favorite is "Please perform the above mentioned steps and we are positive that the issue would be fixed". At least it wasn't a generic response, someone clearly read and understood my concern, which means a lot for a big operation like Samsung.

I actually tried most of the suggestions above already and it didn't help, but I'll try the last one as well (clearing cache). I don't have high hopes for that being the magic fix, but heck I'll consider everything before going back to them.

 

[Madbat]

I can't believe they actually told you to boot into recovery and wipe cache. Remember if you rooted you don't have the stock recovery, you would have TWRP , so navigating with the volume key isn't necessary. You would just navigate by touching

 

[dishe]

I can't believe they actually told you to boot into recovery and wipe cache. Remember if you rooted you don't have the stock recovery, you would have TWRP , so navigating with the volume key isn't necessary. You would just navigate by touching

I know that and you know that. They don't need to know.

I know, its a weird suggestion from them. I especially loved the certainty in which they say it will work. I'm going to try it just to say I've exhausted all possibilities. But seriously, if others have this issue and are seeing this, please make sure Samsung knows.

 

[Madbat]

I know that and you know that. They don't need to know.

I know, its a weird suggestion from them. I especially loved the certainty in which they say it will work. I'm going to try it just to say I've exhausted all possibilities. But seriously, if others have this issue and are seeing this, please make sure Samsung knows.

Just making sure. You would be surprised how many ppl have no idea what they have once rooted. I saw one guy call twrp a rom!??

 

[dishe]

Just making sure. You would be surprised how many ppl have no idea what they have once rooted. I saw one guy call twrp a rom!??

LOL- I'm out of practice, but I've been around the Android dev block a few times.
Used to tinker with getting CWM ported to devices that didn't support it back in the day.

 

[pfoneguy]

This is actually problematic and I am not sure why more are not complaining of this issue. It does not seem to be high call volume from incoming calls but the inability to adjust in call audio volume up or down, period. I have two Sprint Victories and both are unable to adjust the volume in call and where the volume seems to be preset and I know of 3 others who have this problem as well. I think Samsung has turned a blind eye to this inherent problem and now that it is End of Life, it is screw those who own the phone.
I also called Samsung and was also told to perform this procedure:
Let's try to troubleshoot the issue by performing Wipe cache partition. Wipe cache partition will recycle the internal circuit of your phone and it will delete unwanted files. Shall I proceed with the steps?
Visitor: Sure
Valerina: 1 Power the device off (remove and re-insert the battery).
Valerina: 2 Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
Valerina: 3 When the device vibrates; release only the Power key.
Valerina: 4 When the Android system recovery menu displays; release the Volume Up and the Home key.
Valerina: 5 Navigate with the Volume keys to the Wipe all cache .reset option and press the Power key to select.
Valerina: 6 press the Power key to reboot system now.

I did not follow through because the phone is rooted and I was unsure if this would screw the phone. Any word on whether this helped?

Well the wife just got home, so I tried this wipe and it did not change anything, still no way to adjust volume in call, no matter if incoming or outgoing.
How much you want to bet if you return to ICS it is fixed!

 

[Madbat]

I have the virgin mobile victory, rooted stock jellybean 4.1.2, in call volume works fine. So something in the sprint one only it seems. I know that doesn't help but it may make you feel a little better that we on virgin have to pay full price for ours. Lol. I paid $200 for mine (got it early on)

 

[pfoneguy]

I have the virgin mobile victory, rooted stock jellybean 4.1.2, in call volume works fine. So something in the sprint one only it seems. I know that doesn't help but it may make you feel a little better that we on virgin have to pay full price for ours. Lol. I paid $200 for mine (got it early on)

Ya, nothing like over paying for a device married to one company.

Just activated a Zact Victory and in call volume works, so it would seem to be a software issue and most likely due to a conflict of some sort with the OTA JB update since both the VM and Zact Victories were shipped with JB factory installed.

 

[dishe]

I know that doesn't help but it may make you feel a little better that we on virgin have to pay full price for ours. Lol. I paid $200 for mine (got it early on)

I don't get phone subsidies on Sprint anymore (Framily plan). In fact, Sprint is supposedly trying to stop offering subsidies PERIOD soon. Getting on the bandwagon of separating phone with service costs (which T-mobile has demonstrated works, as well as most of Europe).

That's part of why I picked the Victory over other phones- it wasn't worth the difference in price for a flagship Galaxy (and I'm not into monster screens).

Ya, nothing like over paying for a device married to one company.

To be fair, I bought this guy used.

Just activated a Zact Victory and in call volume works, so it would seem to be a software issue and most likely due to a conflict of some sort with the OTA JB update since both the VM and Zact Victories were shipped with JB factory installed.

Not necessarily. I'm under the impression that there is something physically different about the Sprint version of this phone, since some of the VM development wasn't compatible with it. It could be a bug that only exists in the phone app for this version of the hardware.

It could be my imagination, but it seems like it is happening more often now. I used to be able to initiate a call and be able to adjust it, it was only incoming calls that were stuck... but now it is happening on calls in both directions. Speakerphone has the same problem (also stuck, moving volume only updates on screen, no audible difference in decibels coming out of the speaker). Since apps that can use the internal speaker (VOIP, etc) don't seem to have this problem, it really seems to be something to do with the dialer/phone application specifically. Every other part of the system works fine.

My solution for now might just be to use a Bluetooth headset more often. That seems to work last time I tried it. Either that, or if it continues to get worse, put the Victory back up on ebay and look into the LG Optimus F3 again. I went with the Victory because it was cheaper than the LG and had a better camera, but this volume glitch is really annoying.

 

[Madbat]

I always keep my phone volume on max anyways

 

[dishe]

I always keep my phone volume on max anyways

Madbat, than your volume must start lower than the Sprint version as well. With the noise reduction control on in call settings (default is on), the call volume is sometimes so loud that the little speaker can't handle it, causing a lot of overpeaked crackling which makes the caller very difficult to understand at best, inaudible at worst.

Turning noise reduction off (as recommended by Samsung to "solve" the problem) helps a little. Which is strange on its own too- why would turning on/off noise reduction affect how loud the OTHER caller is? Isn't that a mic control? Weird.

But I still find myself often holding the phone an inch away from my ear because of the volume. Just yesterday, someone called and wanted to ask my wife a question- first thing she said after handing over the phone was "OMG, why is your phone so loud? How can I turn it down?". :/

 

[Madbat]

Yeah that would be annoying. I don't think mine even goes loud enough to distort like that. I never touch the volume and its all the way up.

 

[Enzomatrx]

just jumping in to say you're not alone. i don't really notice it since i typically do listen at max volume, but even the voicemail apk doesn't want to change volume during playback.

and people i know can talk really loud, so i do want to be able to change the volume of a voicemail as it's playing back so everyone around me doesn't hear it.

 

[dishe]

Something I noticed in the BAW thread on the subject:

I did find out an interesting thing....If I try to make a phone call before activating it, the recorded message from sprint I get I can adjust the volume. As soon as I activate it and before loading it up, it is now bad. Samsung says that Sprint can download settings that can affect the volume but of course Sprint denies this.

If it works before Sprint provisions it, and it works on other carriers, perhaps there is truth to this? I've never heard of anything like that before, so I sort of dismissed it at first. But now I'm thinking about it- it works on Virgin, and I think there are a lot of people who bought this phone to take with them on Ting because it was inexpensive, and I haven't seen any reports of Ting users complaining about volume levels. Maybe it really is something Sprint is doing?

Anyone with this issue have access to a Ting account to experiment with?

Another option which popped into my head, perhaps using a custom ROM like Sprintorious would make a difference. Just shots in the dark here.

 

[salsahead]

Anyone with this issue have access to a Ting account to experiment with?

No, it is a major headache for me on Ting. They throw some independent customer service at the problem, over and above Sprint, but no actual tech is tearing into the problem. See here for some of the discussion. I have a very long open ticket that is not going to resolve, I am pretty sure.

There are assertions that the VM and Sprint Victories have hardware differences, which may explain the asymmetric distribution of complaints on this issue. There are certainly software/firmware differences. I did come across a complaint about the call volume on VM's site, so the problem may not be exclusive to Sprint.