AirPod low volume on Android: Fix

I gave away my iPhone to someone who needed it more than me, but also because, admittedly, I hated the XR's Face ID and I'm waiting for the new "SE" with the latest CPU but no Face ID.

In the meanwhile, I've been using an old Android phone -- the first Nokia 6, upgraded to Android 9.

I've also been using my AirPods, which I didn't give away, hooking them up as plain ole Bluetooth headphones to the Nokia.

At first, things were great. But yesterday in the Starbucks while I was trying to drone out the, um, ambient noise, the AirPods weren't giving me any serious volume, and I could barely here ye olde tunes at full blast.

Turns out this is a common problem. The solution is insane, but works.

Cnet has a decent overview, apparently stolen from Reddit. I'll hit the high points.

• Open Settings.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap on System.
• Locate Build Number (may be located under About Phone).
• Tap on Build Number seven times, after which you will see an alert congratulating you for being a developer. [you'll also see an alert when you're getting close, that you only have X more clicks to become a developer -mfn]
• Go back to Either the main Settings page or the System page and look for Developer Options and tap on it.
• Scroll down and find Disable Absolute Volume and turn the switch to the On position.

Now for the step the cnet author misses:

• Disconnect and reconnect your AirPods from Bluetooth settings (long press the Bluetooth setting icon to access, or however you normally get to settings). 

I don't think I even needed to "forget" them, just dis/re/connect.

Voila. But be careful. They can go pretty loud now.

I wonder why mine started out loud and then went soft. I kinda wonder if using them with my Mac, for instance, set their internal volume low. Without a switch to change volume, maybe the AirPods use the same idea, but do it all in software my Nokia can't access.

But I haven't tried reconnecting them to my MacBook (I use Tooth Fairy, which makes it pretty easy) to see if I can set them high there and then re-pair with the Android phone. I guess I should.

Not nearly as cool as they are with an iPhone, but still by far the easiest headphones to carry with me, and they're with me nearly as often as my keys are at this point, because I hate "ambient" noise almost as much as Face ID.

No, not true. There are few things I hate as much as Face ID. ;^)