Why iPad keyboard clicks, notifications and game sounds are muted
You may realize that you can use the side switch on your iPad to either lock the screen orientation or to mute your iPad sounds but it doesn’t mute all audio.
The side switch (toggle switch) only mutes certain sounds like keyboard clicks, alerts, notifications, sound effects, and game audio. Audio such as music, podcasts, movies, videos, and TV shows are not muted.
This can be a little confusing because when people think of mute buttons or switches they usually mute all audio. It leaves some iPad users wondering, why are my keyboard clicks or notifications not working because I can hear audio from music, videos, etc.
To make matters worse the default settings is to use the side switch as a mute switch. Since keyboard clicks, notifications and other sound effects can be muted individually, I recommend using the switch for lock rotation.
The change can easily be made by going to Setting-> General-> under “Use Side Switch to:”, select Lock Rotation.
You still have two ways to mute all the sounds on your iPad:
- Hold down on the volume up/down button on the side of the iPad for a couple of seconds and it jumps straight to mute.
- Double-click the Home button to display the multitasking bar, go all the to the left of the multitasking bar and tap the Mute button.
When the original iPad was released the side switch had only one option, lock rotation. Apple changed it to only a mute switch after releasing iOS 4. There were many complaints about the change Apple gave users the option to choose what to use the switch for with the release of iOS 4.3. I mention this because occasionally Apple does listen to feedback from their customers.