William Gallagher
An unknown number of iPhone users have been reporting that their alarms may go off on time, but without making a sound, so it's not their fault they're late at all.
Maybe Apple's latest earnings are going to be so bad that the company is experimenting with making people sleep in and miss the call. Or possibly iPhone users are letting their alarms vibrate instead of make sounds.
While there are long-standing threads on the Apple support forums about the issue, the one solid fact appears to be that the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern has a really tight schedule. According to her tweet asking if the rumors are true, she gets up at 6:50 A.M. daily.
Not 7 A.M., not 6:30 A.M., but dead on 6:50 A.M., so she has places to be, things to do — and her alarm works just fine. And, frankly, so do ours.
Today Show called me last night and said iPhone alarms aren't working! I hadn't heard that but Apple confirmed this AM that it is aware of an issue causing some alarms not play a sound and that it's working on a fix.
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) April 30, 2024
My iPhone alarm woke me up right on time at 6:50AM! Anyone out
AppleInsider has reached out to Apple regarding the alleged problem, but as yet can't confirm it or a solution.
There are reports that it may be tied to the iPhone's attention awareness feature. This is the StandBy option that lets users show a clock that is constantly on screen all night, but brightens slightly when it's being looked at.
Allegedly, turning off attention awareness resolves the issue, at least for some users. Here's how to turn Attention Awareness off.
- Go to Settings
- Choose Accessibility
- Tap on Face ID & Attention
- Toggle Attention-Aware Features off
Or alternatively just turn over and have a lie-in. Use this article to back you up.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
13 Comments
I bet she's a commuter.
My alarm is set for 6:40 because I have to leave the house by 7:18 to catch a 7:29 train.
I can’t confirm a cause or a solution, but this happened to me a couple of months ago. I’ve been using my iPhone for years and never had an issue until the day it just didn’t go off. Same repeating alarm that I use every day. I tested another alarm as I was driving to work and it didn’t go off either. It wasn’t just silent, it just didn’t go off at all.
I’ve run into this one recently. My AW will still buzz me, but my iPhone is silent.