iPhone bug could mean that your alarm does not sound as normal, Apple says

Users say they have failed to wake up because of problems with sound

(Getty Images)

Apple is working on a bug that means that iPhone’s alarm might not sound as usual, it has said.

It follows reports from some users that their alarms were not going off as usual and so had failed to wake them up.

Apple told the Today show that it is aware of the problem and working on a fix for the bug. It did not give any information about how it happened – or whether it was possible to work around it in the meantime.

However, a range of affected users have suggested tips that should make the alarm more reliable, whether or not it is affected by the bug.

In recent days, users began to report that their alarms were not making the expected sound, or not making sounds at all. It is unclear how widespread the issue is, and it certainly does not appear to be affecting all users, but it has led to a flurry of complaints on TikTok and other social apps.

Some reported that the problem might be fixed by heading to the Settings app and choosing the “Sounds & Haptics” option, which includes the setting that adjusts how loud the alarm and ringtone is when it goes off. If that has been set to zero or very quiet, then the alarm might not be heard.

The volume can be changed by accident using the buttons on the side of the phone. That option can also be turned off from the same settings page, to avoid the same error happening in future.

Some other users have suggested that the problems might be the result of Apple’s attention-aware features. That uses the iPhone’s facial scanning to know when the device is being looked at, and turn the alarm down if it senses that its owner has seen it.

However, the feature could lead to the alarm being silenced by accident if, for example, its owner is sleeping with the iPhone facing them. That feature can be turned off from the Settings app, under the “Face ID & Passcode” option.

That will however remove other useful attention aware features from the iPhone, such as those that hide the content of notifications until the phone is unlocked and ensure that the device does not automatically dim while you are looking at it. As such, it may be more useful for diagnosing the issue than as a long-term fix.