Windows Phone 8: The Music Volume bug

Okay, this is the second bug that's irritating me in my Nokia Lumia 920. Well, if you were hoping that Windows Phones were a bug free platform devices, you're wrong. Its not short of bugs, not yet. Infact, there are still others coming soon which I'll post once I get a good proof. I can't bring out much proof here as its not a problem I can visualize.

The Problem

This is not a problem with the Nokia Amber update like the last one. This one was present since I ever started using the phone. However, I never mentioned this as I thought it could be due to bad music files or some other mistakes. I even tried resetting my phone once and doing all the possible updates but this was still there.

And for those who're wondering -- yes, this exists even on older Windows Phone 7.X devices.

The problem is that at weirdly random moments, when you try to increase or decrease the volume of the music you are playing, it won't do so. Well, you can of course see that the volume level is increasing but in reality, the volume never gets bumped up or down when you decrease it. Yes, the numbers will change but the real volume wont change at all.

Again, I was glad to find a couple of threads in the web mentioning the same problem and yes, it happens at weird times. At these times, the volume is stuck at a particular level and you can only change the level once you skip to the next song and go back to the previous one you were listening to.

Its not as easy like that. Say, I want to increase the volume to 27 from 20 for a particular music and the bug occurs, it won't increase the volume automatically. Sure, the number says 27 but the volume will be the same. Now, if I skip to the next song, the new volume will be applied and if I go back, the new volume will still be there.

Symptoms

Again, this is not just a user-interface bug -- i.e, not one which affects user control only. Normally, when an incoming call occurs whilst you are hearing the music, the default effect is that instead of a sudden pause, the volume decreases to the lowest and you start hearing the ringtone in Windows Phones.

So, if the bug is present at this moment and I am not able to change the volume, the same bug prevents the system from lowering the music volume for that fade effect. More elaborately, when the call appears, the music pauses all of a sudden since the system tried to lower the volume but it didn't actually lower it and the ringtone starts. Again, once I end the call, the same fade in effect wont be felt. The music starts all of a sudden instead of fading to original volume.

Workarounds

After listening to some of the threads, I tried switching to Nokia Music and playing the music from there and yes, gladly, it works for the moment. The same bug never occurred here so far and this points to the fact that the problem could be associated with the Xbox Music app. Probably.

Again, this bug is random and you may not experience it all the time. It occurred mostly when I'm listening to music through a headset.

So, what now?

I don't think there's a need to post again in the Windows Phone forums across the web to notify this problem. However, I will still try a post at Microsoft forums to see if I get an official response.

Meanwhile, if you are frustrated with this and need some fix, I can only think of Nokia Music as the best option so far. It works well without any glitches and is a decent alternative for your Xbox music app. Just hope to see a fix soon. Will keep this thread updated.

Update #1: I've posted a query at Microsoft Answers to notify this problem. There were other threads but none had an official reply to the problem. I hope I will get an official statement from someone soon.