Bug in Apple's overnight iOS updates turns off iPhone alarms

Posted:
in iPhone edited October 2015
Users who opt to update their iPhone overnight have discovered that doing so will turn off any alarms they may have set, potentially causing issues waking up the next morning.




Readers who reached out to AppleInsider indicated that last week's iOS 9.1 update has brought the issue to light. Overnight updates are available starting with iOS 9.0.

One reader, Gary, said he knows three people who used the new overnight update feature and slept in later than expected because their alarms were unexpectedly disabled.

Others have also taken to Twitter and elsewhere to express their frustration that alarms were disabled as part of the iOS overnight update process. The iOS 9.0.1 update issued last month did fix some issues associated with alarms, but did not address the overnight update bug that remains in iOS 9.1.

Apple has faced alarm clock and time-related bugs before, most notably in 2010 when an issue caused alarms to go off an hour late for users in Europe.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member

    Not related, but, while they're fine tuning, it'd be nice if they'd put back the ability to lock iPhone's orientation in landscape...wouldn't it?

  • Reply 2 of 26
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member

    Special request: make it so that Apple Watch can stay connected to iPhone while in Nightstand mode. I'd rather the Apple Watch Nightstand screen light up with notifications, than the iPhone constantly waking the display. I've also needed to set my alarm on my Apple Watch instead of my phone, since the alarms wont come through Apple Watch unless connected to iPhone while being worn.

  • Reply 3 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by boredumb View Post

     

    Not related, but, while they're fine tuning, it'd be nice if they'd put back the ability to lock iPhone's orientation in landscape...wouldn't it?


     

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pmz View Post

     

    Special request: make it so that Apple Watch can stay connected to iPhone while in Nightstand mode. I'd rather the Apple Watch Nightstand screen light up with notifications, than the iPhone constantly waking the display. I've also needed to set my alarm on my Apple Watch instead of my phone, since the alarms wont come through Apple Watch unless connected to iPhone while being worn.


     

    Because Apple totally reads the AI comment section for ideas.

     

    Try here next time: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

  • Reply 4 of 26

    Oh boy .... Overnight-Update-Gate!

    :smokey:

  • Reply 5 of 26
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    disturbia wrote: »
    Oh boy .... Overnight-Update-Gate!
    :smokey:

    Just wait until DST ends and people's calendar appointments are all wonky. Seems to happen every year.
  • Reply 6 of 26
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by boredumb View Post

     

    Not related, but, while they're fine tuning, it'd be nice if they'd put back the ability to lock iPhone's orientation in landscape...wouldn't it?


     

    That would make zero sense, since the homescreen doesn't even switch to landscape. 

  • Reply 7 of 26
    "Not related, but, while they're fine tuning, it'd be nice if they'd put back the ability to lock iPhone's orientation in landscape...wouldn't it?"

    Pretty sure you could never do that.
  • Reply 8 of 26

    Do they mean alarms that were previously set were turned OFF (disabled), or that users had set alarms ON and then they never went off?

     

    I sure as hell wouldn't go to sleep with my iPhone set to do a software update and expect an alarm I set would still work the next morning. In fact, I'd never rely on ANYTHING on any device while an update is in progress. It's one of the reasons you always do a backup before updating.

  • Reply 9 of 26



    @Slurpy My iPhone 6s Plus's Home screen DOES switch to landscape when I have it on its side. Even the iPhone 6 Plus has had this feature since launch.

  • Reply 10 of 26

    Duh.

  • Reply 11 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post

     

     

    That would make zero sense, since the homescreen doesn't even switch to landscape. 




    Wrong.

  • Reply 12 of 26
    boredumbboredumb Posts: 1,418member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by boredumb View Post

    Not related, but, while they're fine tuning, it'd be nice if they'd put back the ability to lock iPhone's orientation in landscape...wouldn't it?




    Because Apple totally reads the AI comment section for ideas.

    Try here next time: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


    I'm asking readers here if they feel that way about that feature, NOT expecting Apple to care a shred about what I write anywhere, including your link...

    But, hey, a snarky put-down is always a pick-me-up, so, thanks for that!

  • Reply 13 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gonza124 View Post

     



    @Slurpy My iPhone 6s Plus's Home screen DOES switch to landscape when I have it on its side. Even the iPhone 6 Plus has had this feature since launch.


     

    Gonza124...you may be aware of this, but if not....

     

    Go to Settings -> Display & Brightness ->  Change the View to "Zoomed" and the home screen will not rotate.

     

    Yeah, its  a workaround to have to go to "Zoomed", but it has saved me a lot of frustration on the hair trigger home screen rotation.

  • Reply 14 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post

     

    Do they mean alarms that were previously set were turned OFF (disabled), or that users had set alarms ON and then they never went off?

     

    I sure as hell wouldn't go to sleep with my iPhone set to do a software update and expect an alarm I set would still work the next morning. In fact, I'd never rely on ANYTHING on any device while an update is in progress. It's one of the reasons you always do a backup before updating.


    Haha, that is the most apologetic excuse I have ever heard. Stop trying to defend this, you are reaching my friend. It's not a huge deal, but Apple screwed up, plain and simple. 

  • Reply 15 of 26
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by JamesTheLesser View Post

     

     

    Gonza124...you may be aware of this, but if not....

     

    Go to Settings -> Display & Brightness ->  Change the View to "Zoomed" and the home screen will not rotate.

     

    Yeah, its  a workaround to have to go to "Zoomed", but it has saved me a lot of frustration on the hair trigger home screen rotation.




    Wow, never knew that before. Great tip if you don't want that feature. I find myself in the middle. I like it but like you said sometime its gets annoying when I wasn't trying to have it go in landscape. 

  • Reply 16 of 26
    sergiozsergioz Posts: 338member
    It's not a bug it's a security issue...
    You have to unlock your iPhone after update and your alarms will go off without fail!
  • Reply 17 of 26
    mac-daddy wrote: »
    Haha, that is the most apologetic excuse I have ever heard. Stop trying to defend this, you are reaching my friend. It's not a huge deal, but Apple screwed up, plain and simple. 

    Verified. It happened to both my wife and me. She was late to work but I own my own business so it was no biggie for me.
  • Reply 18 of 26
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    This is terrible as without alarm's sound the user will never wake-up and will go into coma. kidding... BUT

    I think biggest issue with IOS update is still messing up the iphone working than forcing to restore(Tunes connect for restore). I am telling you, Apple needs to have a base 32GB as minimum and reserve/hidden some delta memory for strictly future expansion of IOS and or use temporary during updates. So, update don't have to delete and restore Apps and all kind of trick to just update new ios due to memory limitation. Yesterday, my brother told me his iphone 4s 16gb got into funky state during ios 9.x update and only solution was restore. This is a long term lingering issue until more memory is reserved for update and update go smooth for everyone.
  • Reply 19 of 26
    mac-daddy wrote: »
    Haha, that is the most apologetic excuse I have ever heard. Stop trying to defend this, you are reaching my friend. It's not a huge deal, but Apple screwed up, plain and simple. 

    Hardly. After updating my devices countless times over the years I've made it a habit to check certain settings to see if they've changed. For example, Background App Refresh, which can really drain your battery.

    As I stated in my first post, there's a reason why you're always prompted to do a backup before upgrading - updates don't always complete properly.
  • Reply 20 of 26

    Got bitten by this very bug this morning. Updated my spare iPhone that normally lives on my bedside table and functions as my alarm clock - only I set it to update overnight. Lo and behold, massive sleep in this morning! Oops. (Working from home ameliorated any problems, thankfully, but I can see how others might get caught out)

     

    I can see why it did it though - the phone was in "Hello I'm a new phone" mode, so presumably hadn't got as far as thinking about alarms. I'm sure it'll be fine tonight.

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