Wondering why your iPhone and iPad volume buttons can’t control Spotify Connect? Apple has discontinued the underlying technology.
Apple has Discontinued the Technology that Allowed iPhone and iPad Volume Keys to Work with Spotify Connect
Spotify Connect is a great little feature that turns your iPhone and iPad into a remote for controlling music playback on other devices, such as a home theater system, a smart speaker, etc. You can use your device’s hardware volume buttons to adjust volume level, too.
However, users just realized that the physical volume buttons on iPhone and iPad no longer work with Spotify Connect. Instead, you have to use the software slider inside the Spotify app to adjust volume.
Spotify says Apple is blocking this feature, but Apple says it is not and has just discontinued the underlying technology that allowed this feature to work. Basically, any app that made use of the physical volume buttons now have to use software buttons or sliders to adjust volume.
Spotify has a complete section on its support page explaining how to adjust the volume now that the hardware buttons don’t work. You can check it out by going here. Long story short, if you want to adjust the volume of Spotify, just click the volume button once and you’ll see the volume slider inside the Spotify app. Previously, you had the luxury to control the volume from anywhere in iOS and iPadOS. Now, that’s no longer the case.
Given I don’t use Spotify Connect at all, I remain unaffected by this change. If you’re using Spotify with a HomePod, you can still use the volume buttons to adjust the volume, it’s not an issue there.
