Locking volume buttons for both music & alerts

[rdkendrick]

I did search, but didn't find this particular problem.
Why does iOS8 separate the alert sounds and volume of music/videos, etc?
How do you lock both controls together?
I am used to hearing my email get sent (whoosh), but now, I guess I must have turned the volume down when an alert was happening, and it turned the alert sounds down.
My music is normal volume, but I cannot hear any alerts sounds, unless I go into Settings/Sounds, and turn up the volume for Alerts and Settings.
I USED to be able to control the volume of all sounds. I don't know if it was an update, or my iPad Air, but the volumes of each, are separate, now.
The "change with buttons" and "lock sounds" are both turned on.
How do I lock both sound volume and alert volumes?

 

[twerppoet]

Change with Buttons causes the alert, alarm, and ring sounds to change with the volume buttons. If you turn it off then they will remain at the level shown by the slider above. If you have it on, the all sounds are controlled by the volume buttons.

If you hear hear music, but not alerts, alarms, ringtones, etc. then you've probably got Mute turned on. Depending on what you have set in Settings > General > Use Side Switch To:, your mute switch will be either the side switch or an icon in the Control Panel (swipe up from bottom of screen). The Control Panel is the opposite of whatever the side switch is set to do: Lock Rotation or Mute.

None of this changed with iOS 8, thought it is likely the setting itself was returned to default when you updated. It's pretty common for settings to go back to default after an update.

{The new iPad Air 2 does not have a side switch, so both controls should show up in the Control Panel.}

 

[rdkendrick]

Hi poet,
I already have everything set the way you described, but my alert/ringer/alarm volume will adjust, if I catch it while it is making the sound. Otherwise, my sound buttons on control volume of music/sound effects.
If my alert/ringer volume is turned down, I am unable to turn it back up, because the volume buttons, then, only control the volume of sound effects. (Kinda hard to explain).
The only way, then, is to go into settings/sound, and turn the alerts slider volume up.
My mute button works the way it should.
If I switch my mute button to off, I do get the "ringer mute" message on my screen, but if I try to turn the ringer up, while that is on the screen, using volume buttons, it switches to "sound effects" volume.
Is this normal, or did I just never notice this before?
I seem to remember that, in iOS7, I could change the volume of both, just by adjusting the side buttons.

 

[twerppoet]

I've never seen that behavior, but I've never tried to adjust the volume while an alert or alarm was sounding.

I suppose you can try Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings and see if that fixes the issues. This won't delete anything, but many of the iPad's settings will go back to default. Every now and then it also unsticks settings that no longer seem to work.

It's up to you to decide if it's worth having to re-tweak most of your settings to solve (maybe) this issue.

This also looks a bit like an Erase All Setting and Content when you do it, since it will take you back to a setup screen. However it is not the full initial setup, and won't erase any accounts, passwords, or other critical settings.