How to change volume programmatically on iOS 11.4

Question

Before, I was setting sound volume programmatically using this approach:

MPVolumeView *volumeView = [[MPVolumeView alloc] init];
UISlider *volumeViewSlider = nil;

for (UIView *view in [volumeView subviews])
{
    if ([view.class.description isEqualToString:@"MPVolumeSlider"])
    {
        volumeViewSlider = (UISlider *)view;
        break;
    }
}

[volumeViewSlider setValue:0.5 animated:YES];
[volumeViewSlider sendActionsForControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];

Till iOS 11.4 it was working well (even on iOS 11.3), but on iOS 11.4 it doesn't. Volume value remains unchanged. Can someone help with this issue? Thanks.

Answer 1

I just added the MPVolumeView as a subview to another view (that was never drawn on screen).

This had to be done prior to any attempt to set or get the volume.

private let containerView = UIView()
private let volumeView = MPVolumeView()

func prepareWorkaround() {
    self.containerView.addSubview(self.volumeView)
}

Answer 2

I solved it by adding new MPVolumeView to my UIViewController view, otherwise it didn't set the volume anymore. As I added it to the controller I also need to set the volume view position to be outside of the screen to hide it from the user.

I prefer not to use delayed volume setting as it make things more complicated especially if you need to play sound immediately after setting the volume.

The code is in Swift 4:

let volumeControl = MPVolumeView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 120, height: 120))

override func viewDidLoad() {
   self.view.addSubview(volumeControl);
}

override func viewDidLayoutSubviews() {
   volumeControl.frame = CGRect(x: -120, y: -120, width: 100, height: 100);
}

func setVolume(_ volume: Float) {
    let lst = volumeControl.subviews.filter{NSStringFromClass($0.classForCoder) == "MPVolumeSlider"}
    let slider = lst.first as? UISlider

    slider?.setValue(volume, animated: false)
}

Answer 3

Changing volumeViewSlider.value after a small delay resolves problem.

- (IBAction)increase:(id)sender {
  MPVolumeView *volumeView = [[MPVolumeView alloc] init];
  UISlider *volumeViewSlider = nil;

  for (UIView *view in volumeView.subviews) {
    if ([view isKindOfClass:[UISlider class]]) {
      volumeViewSlider = (UISlider *)view;
      break;
    }
  }

  dispatch_after(dispatch_time(DISPATCH_TIME_NOW, (int64_t)(0.01 * NSEC_PER_SEC)), dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
    volumeViewSlider.value = 0.5f;
  });
}

Swift version

Answer 4

I had to have a MPVolumeView as subview to a view in the hierarchy for the hud not to show up on iOS 12. It needs to be slightly visible:

let volume = MPVolumeView(frame: .zero)
volume.setVolumeThumbImage(UIImage(), for: UIControl.State())
volume.isUserInteractionEnabled = false
volumelume.alpha = 0.0001
volume.showsRouteButton = false
view.addSubview(volume)

When setting the volume I get the slider from MPVolumeView as with previous posters and set the value:

func setVolumeLevel(_ volumeLevel: Float) {
    guard let slider = volume.subviews.compactMap({ $0 as? UISlider }).first else {
        return
    }

    slider.value = volumeLevel
}