PSA: If Your AirPods Are Ear-Piercingly Loud on Incoming Calls, Try This

This probably didn’t permanently fix it, but for a few days now I have noticed a much quieter pattern. I’ve had this issue for years. Incoming calls and alerts through my AirPods were so loud it hurt, no matter what I changed in the settings. I tried everything: • Accessibility > Tone Volume • Reducing loud sounds • Resetting my AirPods • Forgetting and re-pairing • Even turning off Attention Aware features.

What finally worked for me what a few nights ago while I was receiving an incoming call, I swiped down on the volume stalk on the AirPod stem to lower the volume while the phone was still ringing and…

…this seems to have fixed it.

Hope this helps someone else — this issue has been a nightmare and this fix was stupidly simple once I stumbled into it. Apple really should document this better. I really hope this is the end of this stupid software nightmare.