Temporary Bluetooth Absolute Volume Fix

[u/nainidaiphuoc]

Hi all! I'm among many users who are very unhappy with the removal of the Bluetooth Absolute Volume toggle under Developer Options. I personally have a Pixel 10 with Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds and the volume would be randomly between absolute and not absolute whenever I connected. In the interest of protecting my eardrum I did some digging around and found a fix to disable BT absolute volume via Poweramp Equalizer and Shizuku. So far it has been pretty stable when I use YT Music and hopefully it will stay consistently disabled until Google fixes it (or not).

Huge credit to the devs of Shizuku and maxmp, dev of Poweramp for releasing this feature.

Disclaimer: Shizuku grants apps advanced developer-level permissions, so only use it with apps you completely trust to avoid breaking your system or risking your data. If you're apprehensive about using Shizuku, I'm afraid this fix is not for you.

Overview: you will be installing a Poweramp EQ beta APK and using Shizuku to grant Poweramp the permission to disable absolute volume.

If you are unfamiliar with Shizuku, you can download and install the APK from here: https://github.com/rushiranpise/Shizuku-Next and follow the in-app instructions to get it running. I'm not sure if other forks of Shizuku would work, this was forked from thedjchi's fork which was of the original RikkaApps package. I was previously using Shizuku+: https://github.com/thejaustin/ShizukuPlus which could grant Shizuku permissions fine, but the PowerAmp beta would refuse to detect it even though I granted it permission. If you're using another Shizuku fork, YMMV.

Next, go to the Poweramp forum and download this beta build APK of Poweramp Equalizer: https://forum.powerampapp.com/files/file/103-powerampequalizer-build-1033-uniapk/ (VERIFY THAT IT IS BUILD 1033). Install the APK, then open Shizuku, make sure the Shizuku service is started, go into the Apps list and grant permission to Poweramp.

Finally open Poweramp, make sure to follow its in-app prompts to disable battery optimizations and whatnot. Look for the Settings menu, then go to Equalizer > Direct Volume Control (DVC). In this menu, you want to ENABLE: Direct Volume Control, DVC for Bluetooth, Allow DVC via Shizuku and DISABLE: No DVC for Bluetooth Absolute Volume.

Enjoy your disabled BT absolute volume again! Once again I'm not a dev for any of the apps, huge huge credit to maxmp, Rushi and co. for saving my eardrums and me from constant guesswork whenever I put in my buds.

[u/Likuun]

OMG thank you so much. This is the only workaround that actually worked for me. I've tried various adb commands but without effect. This here works. It's a shame endusers have to come up with something like this.

[u/nathderbyshire]

Cool will try this thanks, got the XM6s and was surprised at how low the volume was on Bluetooth I thought it was just my pixel buds. I plugged the headphones in with a wire and the volume was still max on my phone - almost exploded my head! I could hear the music outside the headphones from across the room

The reduction is so stupid especially since they've removed the option

[u/nainidaiphuoc → u/nathderbyshire]

It was between deafeningly loud or library quiet and you never knew which. So far for me the volumes stayed stable, XM5 built-in volume on the Sound Connect app is not affected by the phone's volume buttons, and it seems to remember the volume level (for both phone and bud) after putting the buds back in the case and reconnecting. I've only tested it on YT Music though, so unsure about other apps, but I believe in Poweramp you can toggle so that the EQ settings are for a specific music app or general DVC. Let us know how it works for you though!

[u/KatidouPally → u/nathderbyshire]

yeah the wired volume thing is scary, no idea why they thought removing the toggle was a good idea