Europeans wake up an hour late as Apple fails to fix iPhone alarm clock bug

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
A still-unfixed bug with Apple's iPhone caused alarms in Europe to go off an hour late Monday as the continent switched from daylight saving time, but their phone's alarms did not.



A number of readers contacted AppleInsider Monday to note that their handset's alarms failed to go off Monday morning. Instead, alarms went off an hour late, not automatically adjusting for the change in clocks.



"Both iPhones (3GS and 4) in my house failed to go off this morning," one reader said. "Even after checking and switching the settings in time/date and in the alarm app, there is still no alarm going off. Apparently this happened before. I had to delete, all the alarms, restart my phone then re-set the alarms before they worked as expected."



Most countries in Europe conclude daylight saving time on the last Sunday in October. The same bug affected iPhone users in Australia and New Zealand in September, causing their alarms to go off an hour early in the southern hemisphere.



In North America, the switch from daylight saving time occurs later this week. Clocks will be rolled back on Sunday, Nov., 7, and if Apple doesn't issue an update for iOS, the glitch will likely affect users there as well.



In October, Apple said it was aware of the issue and had "already developed" a fix that would be available to users in an upcoming software update. That fix could be a part of iOS 4.2, which Apple said would be released for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch in November.



Though Apple indicated last month that the software fix had already been developed, it was not issued in time for the end of daylight saving time in Europe.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 81
    nceencee Posts: 857member
    This sucks. Everyone will have to use an ALARM clock, instead of their PHONE to wake them up.



    I don't know about you, but my ALARM clock works great.



    Skip
  • Reply 2 of 81
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ncee View Post


    This sucks. Everyone will have to use an ALARM clock, instead of their PHONE to wake them up.



    I don't know about you, but my ALARM clock works great.



    Skip



    So your alarm clock allows you to set an infinite number of alarms, alarms only on certain days, and tells you what the alarm is for?



    That's pretty neat. Because I have to use my iPhone for appointments and the like because of early-stage severe memory loss.
  • Reply 3 of 81
    It happened to me also..but all you have to do is delete your alarm setting and re-enter it (just as the one reader said).



    But how could a bug like this be entered? (in perl hehe)



    $alarm_time = <STDIN>; # mine is 0830

    if ($continent ne 'North America' && $daylight_savings == 1)

    {

    $alarm_time += 100;

    }



    It doesn't seem like the alarm app and clock app are in sync concerning how they evaluate time.
  • Reply 4 of 81
    darkpawdarkpaw Posts: 212member
    In London, my iPhone 4 (4.2 beta 3) got me up at 6:30AM as set. My partner's iPhone 4 (4.1) also went off at the right time.
  • Reply 5 of 81
    lilgto64lilgto64 Posts: 1,147member
    at least in the case of a computer or an iPhone you can have software that gets fixed.



    My TV has an alarm function and a daylight savings time function - but no way to reprogram the DST dates - so I got up late this morning.



    Many devices such as VCR - Oven - MIcrowave - Thermostat - either do not have an auto DST or if they do cannot be reprogrammed with the new dates. Then again I don't depend on any of those to wake me up in the morning.



    I have also had some oddness with things such as setting a reminder while traveling in a different time zone and then finding the appt time shifted when returning home.
  • Reply 6 of 81
    They've already developed a fix... Hmm.. I guess Apple felt the DST/Alarm bug is too insignificant to release a fix ASAP prior to 4.2 release?



    Well at least Europeans got an extra hour of sleep. Hopefully their bosses will take the iPhone glitch as an excuse. Unless of course their boss has an iPhone too.
  • Reply 7 of 81
    No wonder my alarm clock went off this morning while I was on the bus. Luckily I woke up 15mins before I usually get up. But this is annoying. hurry up apple and fix it.
  • Reply 8 of 81
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    What is it with Apple and Daylight Savings Time? Aperture had a DST bug, too, that they just fixed with the 3.1 update...just in time for DST to be over! Great timing Apple.
  • Reply 9 of 81
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ncee View Post


    This sucks. Everyone will have to use an ALARM clock, instead of their PHONE to wake them up.



    I don't know about you, but my ALARM clock works great.



    Skip



    From your post it sounds like we shouldn't hold Apple's feet to the fire for issuing a patch to fix a clock on a $300 phone? Do you pack your ALARM clock when you travel? I prefer to leave my ALARM clock at home. One less thing taking up space in my suitcase and I don't have to worry about leaving it in a hotel room somewhere. And before you mention the ALARM clocks in hotel rooms, let me say you can never trust those things. They are worse than the ALARM clock function built in to the phone.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post


    They've already developed a fix... Hmm.. I guess Apple felt the DST/Alarm bug is too insignificant to release a fix ASAP prior to 4.2 release?



    Well at least Europeans got an extra hour of sleep. Hopefully their bosses will take the iPhone glitch as an excuse. Unless of course their boss has an iPhone too.



    But if your boss had an iPhone wouldn't he/she be more understanding?
  • Reply 10 of 81
    My iPod Touch was fine. Apple have been remiss in not fixing this, however, and it demonstrates two problems - a) Apple can't send out minor patches for issues like this, and b) Apple don't seem to care about this kind of problem, otherwise they would have fixed it. Perhaps Steve is holding it back to announce as an extra bullet point at the next Keynote, like he did with the proximity sensor problem.
  • Reply 11 of 81
    djsherlydjsherly Posts: 1,031member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by knightlie View Post


    My iPod Touch was fine. Apple have been remiss in not fixing this, however, and it demonstrates two problems - a) Apple can't send out minor patches for issues like this, and b) Apple don't seem to care about this kind of problem, otherwise they would have fixed it. Perhaps Steve is holding it back to announce as an extra bullet point at the next Keynote, like he did with the proximity sensor problem.



    Steve has the luxury of being able to get up whenever he damn well pleases. Others, not so lucky.
  • Reply 12 of 81
    How can anybody be an hour late? Since on sunday morning the clock was set back from 3 A.M. to 2 A.M. the alarm should go off an hour early if it did not adjust!
  • Reply 13 of 81
    djsherlydjsherly Posts: 1,031member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by avdbauw View Post


    How can anybody be an hour late? Since on sunday morning the clock was set back from 3 A.M. to 2 A.M. the alarm should go off an hour early if it did not adjust!



    hmm. when the DST started here my 6am alarm went off at 5am. It stands to reason that when DST ends, the opposite occurs.



    If the time for the alarm is absolute, then DST ending (the clock going back 1 hour) means that 25 hour would elapse between consecutive alarms. Ergo, one hour late.



    EDIT: just tested deleting all my alarms and recreating them. I had to set the alarm one hour ahead to set it off the time I wanted.
  • Reply 14 of 81
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    So your alarm clock allows you to set an infinite number of alarms, alarms only on certain days, and tells you what the alarm is for?



    Don't be so touchy. Defensive.
  • Reply 15 of 81
    t_kt_k Posts: 11member
    I think the lesson here should be obvious. It's time to stop this DST madness!
  • Reply 16 of 81
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    Don't be so touchy. Defensive.



    Not at all. I just find it humorous that he'd pitch a run-of-the-mill alarm clock as an alternative to an iPhone's alarm functionality.
  • Reply 17 of 81
    I don't know about you but I'm in Cyprus my iPhone was set corrreectly and the alarm i nthe morning woke me up the correct hour!
  • Reply 18 of 81
    Here is the solution:



    Settings -> General -> Date & Time -> Set Automatically -> Off



    EDIT:



    Another site is reporting that the time changes for DST, but the alarm clock is still going off at the wrong time unless you remove your alarms and add them back in. I'm pretty sure my alarms always go off at the right time when I change timezones (but maybe I always change my alarm time), so it is probably still DST related somehow.



    I guess the biggest problem is that we expect our phone to be right even though all of our other clocks are wrong.
  • Reply 19 of 81
    I'm in North America and my alarm went off an hour EARLY this morning. I was so confused.
  • Reply 20 of 81
    It's not just European iPhones. I am in North America on EDT and my alarms started going off an hour early yesterday. Also, I am guessing re-entering them does not work, since they were alarms I created yesterday. I had to tell everything to go off an hour later than I wanted. I won't say this diminishes my faith in the entire product, but it does seem like if you can't get the code right for something simple like an alarm, how can you be trusted to get more complicated things right?
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