XBox One: Change Volume Level Increment

Not being a gamer, I wasn’t all that excited about the most recent update, with feature adds like updated Friends lists, Twitch, etc. But one feature I was looking forward to was the ability to adjust the increment that volume levels will change each time you say the command, “XBox Volume Up” or “XBox Volume Down”. On my Sony Surround Sound (which controls the volume levels for the TV), with each voice command the volume would only change 2 clicks, or from 37 to 39 for example. That is not nearly enough, and would require me to repeat the same command multiple times to get anywhere.

I had some free time last night so I started searching for the setting. First stop was TV & OneGuide, but there was nothing (obvious) there to change volume levels. Then it was off to Display & Sound. Seemed to make sense to me, but apparently not to Microsoft. Should have probably gone to Network to block (oh wait, we are not playing Hollywood Squares are we), but I gave Preferences a try instead. Nope, not there either. Kinect (it is a voice command after all). Nada. System, Power & startup, No, and no again.

I finally asked Bing for help with my phone and was offered up the below informative video. Turns out the setting is under TV & OneGuide, but hidden in the Troubleshooting section. Who would have thunk. Not me. Once you open Troubleshooting, navigate to Audio/Volume Change. There you can change the increment from 1 to 10. By default, XBO is set to 3, but as I stated earlier, my Sony unit only increments 2 clicks. Probably something to do with the IR blast delay. I changed my setting to 5, which now increases/decreases volume by 4 clicks with each voice command. In most instances I wouldn’t have to repeat a command more than twice to achieve the necessary volume (like toning down commercials for example).

There are several other important settings hidden in the Troubleshooting tab. No idea what the folks in Redmond were thinking, or smoking, when they chose to hide these settings in such an unintuitive place. But hey, now you know to never “ass um e” that the Help and Troubleshooting tabs are useless.