How to Enable Volume Slider on iPhone Lock Screen

For the majority of existence for iPhone, anytime that music, podcasts, audiobooks, or media was being played on the device but the screen was locked, a volume slider was visible on the iPhone Lock Screen.

The volume slider made it easy to see what volume something was playing at, and also made it very easy to control the volume precisely of whatever was playing, without having to use the volume up or down buttons.

Strangely, Apple removed the constantly visible volume slider from iPhone Lock Screen a while back, but now the feature has quietly returned, albeit it is disabled by default and now appears as a setting in a curious location, Accessibility.

We’re going to show you how to get the volume slider back on your iPhone Lock Screen again.

How to Get Volume Slider Back on Lock Screen of iPhone

To re-enable the Lock Screen Volume Slider on iPhone, you will need iOS 18.2 or later on your iPhone. Assuming you’re on an updated iOS version, here’s how to enable this feature again:



1. Open the “Settings” app on iPhone




2. Go to “Accessibility”
3. Select “Audio & Visual”




4. Look for “Always Show Volume Control” and toggle that ON



5. Exit Settings and return to the Lock Screen to see the volume slider visible anytime audio is being played on iPhone

Now whether you’re playing music, podcasts, audiobooks, media, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Audible, or whatever else you are listening to, the volume slider will appear for that audio on the Lock Screen of iPhone again.

It’s not entirely clear why Apple removed the volume slider from the Lock Screen on iPhone, but perhaps they figured it was redundant since users can simply use the physical volume buttons on iPhone to set volume up or down. Fortunately, with the latest iOS versions, the helpful feature has returned, you just have to enable it manually as instructed here.

By the way, if you’re not entirely sure what we’re talking about or you want to see the before and after difference, here is the iPhone Lock Screen volume slider enabled again:

And here is the current new default on iPhone, with no visible volume slider on the Lock Screen:

What do you think of the Lock Screen volume slider controls on iPhone? Did you use this feature and miss it, and now happily re-enabled the functionality? Did you never care for it in the first place? Share any and all thoughts in the comments.