Wednesday, January 02, 2013, 02:23 pm

Apple says New Year's 'Do Not Disturb' bug will fix itself Jan. 7

By AppleInsider Staff

Apple has posted a support document on its website, informing users that a bug with the "Do Not Disturb" feature in iOS 6 will automatically be resolved after Jan. 7.

The document, published on Wednesday, acknowledges the "symptom" of the problem, in which the Do Not Disturb mode stays on past its scheduled end time. The bug went into effect with the start of the new year on Tuesday.

"Do Not Disturb scheduling feature will resume normal functionality after January 7, 2013," Apple's document reads. "Before this date, you should manually turn the Do Not Disturb feature on or off."


Users can manually switch the automatic feature of Do Not Disturb on or off by opening the iOS Settings application, choosing "Notifications," then "Do Not Disturb," and switching "Scheduled." Until next Monday, Jan. 7, the feature will not auto-enable or disable as it has done since the launch of iOS 6 in September.

The timing of the bug is noteworthy as Apple released an ad on New Years Day to tout the Do Not Disturb function as a key feature of the iPhone 5. The ad features tennis players Venus and Serena Williams playing ping-pong in a dream against a narrator, voiced by actor Jeff Daniels.

The iPhone has a history of New Year's bugs, with another issue arising at the start of 2011 that prevented non-repeating alarms from ringing. When the bug became known, Apple suggested that users set recurring alarms until Jan. 3 of that year, when the alarms automatically began working again properly.