If your iPhone alarms aren't going off, you're not alone

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It might not be "new year, new me" for the iPhone yet, as scattered reports across social media show that the iPhone is, yet again, failing to wake people up.

Smartphone screen displaying time 9:46 AM, date Thursday, January 23, weather partly cloudy, temperature 18F, alarm with snooze button, battery level at 97%.
The iPhone seems to be sleeping on the job once more



Nothing starts the day off on the wrong foot like missing your alarm when you've got somewhere to be or something to do. Unfortunately for some iPhone owners, that seems to be the exact situation they've found themselves in.

Stop us if you've heard this before. A quick check on X shows plenty of iPhone owners reporting that their alarms are not going off or are going off silently. A smaller subset of people are reporting that their alarms are going off at the incorrect time.

Why is my iphone alarm never going off recently what is this

-- Skyler (@Airbenderjpg)



It looks as though the problem began on or slightly before January 22. Prior to that, most of the complaints were about the iPhone alarm sound resetting to 100% loudness, and not the lack thereof.

That volume bug regularly affects one AppleInsider writer, while two others have had the silent treatment. There doesn't appear to be a common link, though, and most AppleInsider staffers have not experienced any alarm problems -- with our web developer being a notable exception.

Currently, Apple hasn't acknowledged the problem or offered a fix, but we do know that this is far from the first time this bug has been reported. It was a problem in 2019, and then became a notable problem again in 2024.

As is typical, many users have reported that their alarms are going off, but are silent. For that reason, it's always worth double-checking the volume settings on your iPhone.

  1. Open Settings

  2. Scroll down and tap Sounds and Haptics

  3. Slide the Ringtone and Alerts slider to an appropriate level
Two smartphone screens showing Settings menus: one with options like Notifications and Sounds & Haptics; the other on Sounds & Haptics settings, featuring ringtone and haptics controls.
How to check the volume of your iPhone alarm



You may also want to toggle off Change with Buttons, as it may have accidentally become enabled at some point.

AppleInsider also suggests deleting and re-creating your alarms -- especially those that you have set to repeat -- for good measure. Also ensure that you haven't accidentally bumped it to the wrong period, such as setting an alarm for 5:00 PM when you meant to set one for 5:00 AM.

You may also want to turn off Attention-Aware Features, should they be enabled. This was the workaround for the issue when it cropped up in 2024.

  1. Open Settings

  2. Tap Accessibility

  3. Tap on Face ID & Attention

  4. Toggle Attention-Aware Features off



Attention-Aware Features enable your iPhone to use Face ID to check whether or not you're paying attention to your device and act accordingly. When enabled, your display will lower the volume of your alerts if you're looking at your iPhone. Unfortunately, it seems that sometimes the feature persists, even when you are no longer looking at your iPhone.



Read on AppleInsider

SmittyW

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    riverkoriverko Posts: 251member
    I have reported this bug during summer in the developer beta - it was over multiple versions of them… either it didn’t go on at all, until i unlocked the phone, or instead of my alarm sound it used some of those very silent built-in sounds…
    not resolved yet as i can see
    appleinsideruser
     0Likes 0Dislikes 1Informative
  • Reply 2 of 14
    LOL and I been accused of just being an apple complainer on mac rumors. This bug is very annoying to me happened on 2 iphones, the 15PM and the 16PM. I had to download Alarmr app to actually get woken up and now i set both. Such a basic app. how can that possibly be messed up?
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 3 of 14
    jSnivelyjsnively Posts: 459administrator
    It happened to me just the other week. Usually does about once or twice a year and has for a while. No real rhyme or reason 🤷
    appleinsideruser
     0Likes 0Dislikes 1Informative
  • Reply 4 of 14
    The bug or a related bug that hit at the same time also prevents the music I have set up to play with an alarm from playing, I’m sure it’s related to the Hi-Res music issue that surfaced when Apple made the hi-res formats available, where the Alarm app is incapable of playing all music file formats.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 5 of 14
    Yeah, this has been super frustrating.  I've been able to rely on the iPhone alarm for YEARS.  My work around is to make sure my Focus/Sleep time ends 5min before when I have my alarm set.  Obviously this is a first world problem and not an Apple QA showstopper, but it's still a frustration.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 6 of 14
    What the heck Apple! My brother and I were late to work today bc of this lol

    While I'm complaining.. siri seems just as bad for me as it's ever been. I asked for directions yesterday and it started a podcast I've never listened to before.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 7 of 14
    This is unacceptable by Apple.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 8 of 14
    JinTechjintech Posts: 1,085member
    I also feel like the alarm setting is just kind of flakey in general. It seems like there are to many variables for it not to go off... phone is muted, the volume is not high enough, etc. It's an alarm. It should only have one volume and it should be annoying. Maybe have two options "light wake up" which will gradually wake you up or "hard wake up" which is just an annoying volume to ensure you wake up.
    appleinsiderusermarklark
     1Like 1Dislike 0Informatives
  • Reply 9 of 14
    I had to repeatedly change the alarm sound to something else and back, as Settings forgot the setting and didn’t have anything to play. The sound level was still too quiet.

    Apple’s volume control system seems limited. You can set volume levels for different things, but you must be in a specific mode to do so. There is probably one person at Apple who knows what all the different contextual modes for setting the volume. I do know that changing the volume while using Apple Maps requires waiting for navigation to change it. Changing the volume of an alarm requires doing it while the alarm is playing, but touching the volume buttons silences it. To work around this, set a five-second timer, open Control Center, and tap the volume control. When the alarm goes off, the volume control will switch to controlling the alarm’s volume.

    However, this solution doesn’t address accessibility needs. Why isn’t there an Accessibility section to set volume levels for all modes?
    JinTech
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 10 of 14
    JinTechjintech Posts: 1,085member
    I had to repeatedly change the alarm sound to something else and back, as Settings forgot the setting and didn’t have anything to play. The sound level was still too quiet.

    Apple’s volume control system seems limited. You can set volume levels for different things, but you must be in a specific mode to do so. There is probably one person at Apple who knows what all the different contextual modes for setting the volume. I do know that changing the volume while using Apple Maps requires waiting for navigation to change it. Changing the volume of an alarm requires doing it while the alarm is playing, but touching the volume buttons silences it. To work around this, set a five-second timer, open Control Center, and tap the volume control. When the alarm goes off, the volume control will switch to controlling the alarm’s volume.

    However, this solution doesn’t address accessibility needs. Why isn’t there an Accessibility section to set volume levels for all modes?
    It's an absolute cluster of confusion and really should be simplified. 
    marklark
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 11 of 14
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,790member
    A few years ago a stopped using my old school clock radio as an alarm and started using my Apple Watch.   It chimes and taps.  

    It’s never missed.   Although, a few times I slept through the taps on silent and slept in a little.   

    What I didn’t know what that my phone was downstairs vibrating and chiming away, also.  Sorry, bird.  
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 12 of 14
    I have experienced this many times over the years and it’s been extremely frustrating. 

    I have found recently what the issue is. Randomly, during the night while my iPhone is charging, it will reconnect over Bluetooth to my AirPods which are sitting in a drawer. 
    Yes the AirPods are in the case. 
    I may not have used the AirPods for days. 
    But when I’ve had the “no alarm” situation, every time now it’s because the sound output is going to my not-being-used AirPods. 

    Definitely worth checking. 

    A friend of mine complained about the same no sound issue and I told him all this. And yes, he had the same issue. 

    Not sure if it’s relevant, but it is the AirPods Pro that I have. 
    muthuk_vanalingam
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  • Reply 13 of 14

    I think the nightstand mode feature is too sensitive and lowers the alarm volume too quickly, often before I’m actually awake. 

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  • Reply 14 of 14
    These alarms issues are really annoying.

    I have problems with my phone notifying me of VERY important things. One of them, I am responsible to go fetch my awesome, very young girl for lunch and end of day at her school. At her age, not being there is absolutely not an option even if it’s walking distance.

    I missed it thrice, once with my girl arriving home alone. Nothing bad happened, but these are the kinds of things where you simply want to throw your phone, watch, and entire ecosystem out of the window as hard as you can and move on to see what’s so great about Android, get a PC, and go buy a vintage Rolex with a two alarm complication.

    For ref, I got calendar events that didn’t want to play alarms even if they are set with two different reminders, I changed all the settings to be as obnoxious as possible, and made the banners persistent, my modes don’t disable that, it vibrates even if no sound, everything I could think of, I added it. No matter, the banners weren’t even on the screens or on my watch.

    I also added up alarms. And, well, you see what happens there.

    Now, I resorted to use my work’s PC to give an extra event through Google, and it saved me more than once. And I also now start a timer. Because FML it would happen again.
    marklarkmuthuk_vanalingam
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
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