Android is a very flexible and customizable operating system, which can sometimes cause confusion even in advanced users. Something very usual are the sound settings, which in Android has certain peculiarities that have led to more than one misunderstanding. I think it's time to address the issue thoroughly and expose different theories of why your phone does not ring even when the volume is at its maximum .
When a sound is played on our terminal, it is because the operating system or some application has requested it. The issue is that Android divides the sound settings into different layers or categories . This is what causes confusion and causes misunderstandings.
To give an example, a few days ago, an inexperienced person with Android like my mother, told me that she had the volume to the maximum but that she listened very low when they called her. This was something that surprised me, because I have used your mobile several times and never had this problem. After a little digging into the settings I found with the problem, I had the volume of the calls very low and the multimedia volume to the maximum.
Different categories of sound in the sound settings of Android phones.
As we already anticipate, the Android operating system has different sound categories, so that we can adjust the volume individually each one. This seems to add complexity where it is not necessary, is actually a great idea that allows us to accurately define the sound behavior of our smartphone .
Different categories of audio on Android:
- Calls : this category allows us to adjust the volume level when a call comes in and the corresponding tone sounds.
- Notifications : this section allows us to adjust the volume of the different notifications, for example when they send us a message, an email, etc.
- Multimedia : this category covers the volume of audio, video, radio, video games, etc.
- Alarms : the last category refers to the volume with which the alarms sound, for example the alarm clock.
Each of these categories can have its volume configured, so that we can have calls with a high volume, but notifications silenced. This granular configuration gives us a really useful flexibility.
Beware of the volume up and down buttons.
The origin of the problem lies in many occasions in the volume up and down buttons. The first question that comes to mind is about which category of audio these buttons act on. The answer is "it depends" , since they will act on the category of active sound at the moment of pressing the button .
For example, if we are watching a Youtube video, pressing the up or down volume buttons will act on the multimedia category. This is what sometimes confuses us, since we think that by pressing this button we act on all the categories and this is not the case.
Why does not my phone ring?
Having all of the above clear, let's see what reasons may be causing your phone not to ring. The possible causes are:
- That you have silenced any of the audio categories without wanting to. This is easily reviewed in the sound settings of the smartphone.
- Some application is activating the "Do not disturb" mode or you have activated it by accident . This mode deactivates all the sound of the device.
- Hardware failure , so nothing is heard. In this case, little can be done, except take it to repair the technical service.
- My phone still does not ring and it is not any of the previous cases. Then it only remains as an option to restart the mobile and see what happens .