How to adjust ringer volume while listening to music?

Question

When listening to music on my phone (running Android 4.0.4 ICS), I am unable to adjust the ringer volume with the hardware volume controls. Pushing either of them adjusts the music volume and not the ringer volume.

If I hold down the power button, a menu appears that provides me with the choice of turning off the ringer completely, enabling vibrate-only mode, and restoring the ringer volume to its previous level. However, there appears to be no way to actually adjust the ringer volume level.

Am I missing something?

Just curious as to why you would need to do this? On my phone, the music goes quiet when the phone rings. And if I can hear the music; I can hear the phone. — MrWhite, Apr 12 '13 at 09:10
Ok, I guess you could have the music on mega-loud and it could be undesirable to have your ringtone mega-loud? — MrWhite, Apr 12 '13 at 10:25
Here's an example: I'm listening to music with headphones on in a library and suddenly remember that I left the riger set to a high volume. As it stands now, I have to pause the music, exit the music app, turn off the ringer, and then return to the music. Very annoying. — Nathan Osman, Apr 12 '13 at 18:38
Possible duplicate of How can I change media volume when no media is being played? — Andrew T., Oct 06 '15 at 01:54

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 12 '13 at 01:13

When an app is playing sound, Android will only adjust the volume for what is actively playing the sound (in this case the media volume). You can manually adjust your sound volume under Settings -> Sound -> Volume

If your ROM supports it, you may be able to enable expanded mode for volume under Settings -> Sound -> Volume Panel Style -> Expandable. This will give you a button to the right of the onscreen volume indicator (when you press the volume buttons). Press that and it will show all the adjustable volume levels and you can change it through there.

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:18

2

If it cannot be done with native support (as described by bassmadrigal), there are several 3rd-party solutions available. Take a look at e.g. Slider Widget - Volumes, which seems a solution you might love:

^{Slider widget, second screenshot with open slider (source: Google Play; click images to enlarge)}

As the screenshots show, it gives you a widget bar with "buttons" for all the different volumes your device supports. Tap the corresponding item once to bring up the slider. Or double-tap to toggle ("That's my favorite song -- no phone calls or notifications now, please! :)").

The playstore offers a lot of similar things, just check it for volume widget if this approach seems useful to you.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:18

Community

1

answered Apr 12 '13 at 06:59

Izzy

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I use an app called Mini Info which, among other things, allows changing the value of different volume settings all on the same screen. But there are a whole host of apps out there that can help with this issue. – ale Apr 12 '13 at 12:16
Yepp, I used that as well. Offers some nice system info widgets, and tapping them opens a "floating window" with a lot of toggles. Good support as well. – Izzy Apr 12 '13 at 13:01

How to adjust ringer volume while listening to music?

2 Answers2