Control volume with Keyboard Volume Buttons

[chfriedrich]

Hi,

when I play music on my internal notebook speakers, I can control the volume by using the keyboard volume keys (F10, F11, F12).

But when I play on an external device using spotify connect, the keyboard volume buttons do not have any effect, I have to use the volume control in the spotify player.

Is there any way to use the keyboard buttons for turning volume up/down like it is on the iPhone? It is very annoying allways to open spotify just to change the volume.

Best,

Christoph

Plan

Premium

Country

Austria

Device

Macbook Air

Operating System

Mac OS 10.14.6

[Loxer]

Hey @chfriedrich, welcome to the Community.

Hope you're doing great!

Could you try using CTRL + CMD + UP/DOWN arrow keys?

Keep me posteed 🙂

[chfriedrich]

Hi,
unfortunatelly this works only if the spotify player is in the foreground, and is the currently „active“ app.
The advantage of the keyboard shortcuts is that they work always, also when I am working in other apps.

On the iphone the spotify volume is coupled with the „system volume“, so there the buttons work.

[nzjoel]

As the original poster said in a follow up, this only works when Spotify is in the foreground not behind other apps or in a different "Space".

I am expecting that when I change the volume on my mac using the volume keys, or using cmd + f11/f12/up/down for example, the volume on Spotify in the background would change accordingly. 

[Katerina]

Hey there @nzjoel,

Thanks for posting about this here in the Community!

Changing the volume on your Mac with the volume keys (F11/F12) or by using cmd+F11/F12 should adjust the volume on your device, rather than just the app itself, when it's playing in the background.

If you'd like to see the volume of the app changing as the device's volume is adjusted, we'd recommend sharing it in our Idea Exchange. This way, other users who would like to see this feature can add their support and contribute to the discussion. You can find more info on how ideas get implemented or tips for writing a new idea in this our series of Spotify Answers starting here.

Let us know how it goes! We'll be right here if you need more help.

Have a lovely day 🙂

[fudo7jahic]

that is a dumb way to change the volume. Why is it so hard to fix this issue? You can easily change the song back and forward and pause but you cant change the volume? This issue has been happening for over couple years. Can you fix it ?

[fudo7jahic]

What bothers me is that I can change the songs and pause the song but not change the volume? its been so **bleep**ing annoying. Like how hard is to fix this. and what the **bleep** im a paying for if it doesnt work right?

[krystof]

You can use this app on mac

https://github.com/alberti42/iTunes-Volume-Control

[exyfeplin]

I agree, this would be very useful.  It is also how the Spotify App works on Android, and it makes good sense**. 

If this is not done or not possible on the Mac , then what the application DEFINITELY needs are Volume up and down buttons.  The slider is TINY and it is really difficult to make fine adjustments to volume.  It almost always requires 2 or more tries to get it right.

Thanks.

**What also would make sense BTW would be some enforcement of UI/UX consistency between the apps on different platforms.

[exyfeplin]

Thanks.  Useful to be reminded of this.

I note that the actions are ⌘↑ and ⌘↓

CTRL isn't needed.

[exyfeplin]

That might not be desired, so it needs to be an option.

If I'm playing music via Spotify Connect for instance, while working on other things on my laptop, I would often want the volume keys to control the audio volume of the active application.

[apaternite]

Thanks for the tip krystof! This worked!

https://github.com/alberti42/iTunes-Volume-Control

[tr309]

This is the solution. Mac volume buttons have only ever controlled the device volume and not a running app. The suggested application overrides this default behaviour.  

[joriswitteman]

This works great!

[AnalogMan]

An old thread, but FWIW, the iTunes-Volume-Control app also worked for me.

Thank you!

[AnalogMan]

Using a late 2021 MacBook Pro, iOS Ventura 13.5.1, Spotify Premium.

The F11/F12 keyboard volume controls no longer control the volume on Spotify playback. The slider on the app works, and likewise Command <Up> or <Down> arrow work to control volume, but no longer the F11/F12 keys. 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you!

[AndrewDeLuce]

I found this annoying as well but I discovered this issue can be easily solved with Logitech keyboards that use the logitech options software. The MX Keys for Mac and other Logitech keyboards have a key remapping feature which allows you to map the command+down arrow key combo to the volume up and down buttons. As the others noted this only works when Spotify is in the foreground on the computer - I was able to mitigate that issue with a "Smart Action". Logitech options allows you to map a series of actions to the key, so for spotify volume up and down all you need to do is set an action to bring spotify to foreground first, then another action for the cmd+up arrow key press, then a third action which hides Spotify returning you to your previous active window.

[Shano-]

9.01.2025 - This app simply called Voume Control works great and does what I think you want it to do:Just Google github alberti42 volume control 

This app allows controlling the volume of Apple Music, Spotify and Doppler with the shortcuts [⌘ CMD] + [Vol. up] or [⌘ CMD] + [Vol. down].

You can toggle whether the modifier key [⌘ CMD] controls the volume of the current music app or the system volume.