iPhone Won't Ring, Delayed Voicemail Indication

I've had the same problem. the phone stopped ringing a couple of days ago. I stumbled on a fix for broken ringtones by BigBoss (canI mention him on this site?).
Once installed all the ringtones, except the standard "Marimba", work fine.
hope this helps.

hey guys I have the exact same problem. I just got a new 8gb phone Sunday and it has been doing it ever since. I brought it to apple and the restored it. They say if it happens again You will need a new sim card. I'm going today to get a new card I will report if it worked

alright i got a new sim card and activated it.its been working fine until i slipped my phone into an apple contour phone case. i tested it on my own, i called my phone from my house phone while it was in the case and it went to the voicemail. i then tryed calling it when it was out of the case and it worked. this is prob why when a genius tested it and it worked because it was out of its phonecase. but my last call to it went to the voicemail. the geniuses dont beleive me because every time they test it it works. can anybody answer this.

I was having the exact same problem. I couldn't hear my phone ringing. Then, I noticed I wasn't hearing other sounds either, like the click of the phone unlocking. It appears there are two ways to silence the phone.

Silence #1 - Select Settings, then Sounds, and then turn the Silent mode located at the top of that screen to on or off.

Silence #2 - Located on the right side of the phone at the top (note not the 'top' of the phone), there is a button that can be slid up and down. When it's up, there is a orange/red dot that displays. This disables ALL sounds. When it is down, all sounds will play.

Hope this helps someone.

Hey guys,

I have had my iPhone since the first day of release. I didn't start having this issue until a few months ago--so it probably had to do with a software update.

I have gone to the "Geniuses" and I have a new phone now that I have had for a week now. Same problem.

What happens is Someone calls me... nothing happens on my end... it just looks like my phone is just hanging out like normal... whereas the person who is calling me gets one ring...then a pause...then my voicemail.

a couple of minutes later "Ding!" I have a voicemail. It doesn't say anything about missed "recents" --Just a voicemail. And it'll be from a minute ago.

When this happens I have Perfectly good service, my phone isn't moving around...nothing but being "normal."

So the "geniuses" told me if replacing my old phone with a new one doesn't work... the only option is to get a new SIM card. Well, I've done that twice now and there is still no luck. Everyone keeps telling me that my phone is doing it again...! --one ring then voicemail...! That's what they're telling me in each voicemail they leave me that I get a few minutes after they call.

I would LOVE for Apple to figure this out. And like I said, I have a feeling this has to do with something with the software because my first, say, 6 months of owning my phone... this never happened.

Hey everyone

IDbyBB describes EXACTLY the problem my wife is having with her iPhone. One ring...a long pause (no ringing) and then voicemail. It only started happening recently (within the last 2 months; She's had the phone since December). The only common element that I can see is that this happens when the battery is low. This may or may not have anything to do with this, but the problem is consistent and only happens on her iPhone. I am on ATT on a Blackberry and it has never happened. The one ring, delay (like the phone should be ringing but isn't) and then voicemail is a problem in and of itself and I don't believe it is related to anything else (other settings, case, etc.). But if anyone has any wisdom related to this specifically, we'd love to hear it. We will keep working on this and share anything we find.

I too have had the same problem a couple times but mine is even more odd and I've experienced it twice in the last two days:
I'm not sure what the caller hears when he/she calls my phone, but I've seen my phone light up twice while at my desk the last two days (it was not plugged into anything). I found this very odd and ignored it for about a minute, but then my phone beeps, I turn it on, and it says "Missed Call" and "Voicemail." I was stunned because my ringer was on.
I think the problem, however, lies within AT&T & the iPhone. In the last three weeks, I have had an enormous jump in occurrences of Safari telling me that it cannot connect to the EDGE Server. I find it odd because I'm currently in Columbus, OH, a rather large city with great AT&T service. Also, I have not been receiving emails, another indication that there is a problem with the EDGE network/server.

I am having the same issues as everyone else, and I would really like to resolve it. The other day I decided to turn off my phone at night and when I woke up and I turned it on about 7 voicemails popped up, the oldest were 4 days old. Sometimes I miss calls and it doesn't show up. My phone doesn't ring at all, ever.
Another problem I'm having is that when I flip the silent/ring switch, nothing happens. The little bell icon doesn't appear, and it doesn't vibrate once.

The only thing is that I dropped my phone a while back before I started having this problem. I didn't start having these problems until weeks after it happened though. There is a little visible damage by the switch though. It's a small dent, but I'm afraid that will be enough for apple to say that it's accidental damage, even though my problems are pretty consistent with what everyone's saying here.

What should I do?

To the people that are experiencing one ring, a long pause, then voicemail:

I encounter this problem when calling my wife and she isn't using an iPhone... Rest assured that this problem isn't software. It is possible that it may be battery related, but I would bet on network issues first.

My iPhone also chooses what calls that it wants to receive. Sometimes it will ring, and sometimes I will access the phone and see 17 missed calls when I have the phone with me in good signal range. I am going to try a restore and then try a new SIM card. Last resort will be Apple store. This is my second replacement phone... I hope that if I need another it will work...

On a side note, my experience with the Genius Bar is exceptional. The support staff is helpful and kind.

My phone would not ring. And the only way to receive my voice mail was to shut it off then turn it back on. I rebooted it by pressing the top and the button at the bottom at the same time. I also went into settings, general, reset, reset all settings and had complete success! Not sure which event was the cure, but it was cured.

Tried your suggestions, but my old, EDGE iPhone still won't ring! Also, it has "seizures" where it will suddenly light up (with the bell symbol), then after a few seconds, go back dark (no calls, no text msg, just lights up and goes off). Then it might light up with the bell symbol and the slash thru it. It repeats this multiple times, then quits for minutes or hours. As you can imagine, this behavior wreaks havoc on the battery charge!

I think I am going to order a new 3G, then try sending this old one to Apple to get fixed so I can sell it. My local ATT store gave me a handout with the Apple service number on it. No Apple store in my area.

In reguards to the phone not "ringing" but it does vibrate. Check the "Mute Switch" on the upper left side of the phone and make sure that it's off as it will cause this problem.

Hope that it helps!

Just to let everyone know,
I feel your frustration. Let me setup my scenario for you.
I was one of the first people to get an iphone (first generation) in Atlanta.
My phone worked beautifully until it was stolen while at college my first semester.
I bought a new 16gig 1st generation phone (3g still not out).
When the new 3g did come out, I updated to the 2.0 software and I guess a few days later, started experiencing the problem being discussed in this thread (can't receive calls in standby mode).
I made an appointment with the apple genius bar at my local store and show up 10 minutes early just like apple asks its customers.
They are behind schedule by about 20 minutes (perks of an Atlanta apple store) so I sit patiently and finally get my chance to see the genius.
I tell him my problem and all he says, "If the problem persists, bring it back in." He told me he would just make a note on my account.
The next weekend (no possible chance to go to apple store during the week) same scenario with waiting etc... and this time they replace my phone.
The genius suggests that when I upgrade to 2.0 again, don't restore from an old backup file.
I go home and have to update to 2.0 since it was a refurbished 1st gen iPhone and do what the genius says and realize the next day that this "Refurbished" phone is doing the same exact thing.
I go into the apple store the next weekend (next possible chance) and the genius says lets go ahead and restore it (since its another new genius and he doesn't understand even though I explained all this to him).
Still doesn't work, so he says that it is most likely an AT and T problem then.
He calls them for me in the store and AT and T says there is a problem with my account so they fix it.
Now I have an iPhone in the store without 2.0 software that AT and T says they fixed it and the genius calls my phone from other phones in the store and my phone rings.
I explain that its because it isn't upgraded to the 2.0 software.



It has been 2 weeks since this. So no calls to my phone for over a month now.
What I have noticed:
Will not receive calls in standby mode (obviously)
My phones clock slowly shaves minutes off of the time. (this might be a factor for the next things)
I will get a text message (no chime or ring, same symptoms like as my phone not ringing in standby mode) and look at it and the time stamp will be for up to 5 or 6 hours earlier.
I will not receive voicemails until I turn my phone off then back on.
Lastly, the feeling to want to throw your iPhone into the cement because people are getting frustrated with you because you are not answering/receiving/returning their calls because you don't get them period.

Hope this helps because it helped me vent.
~Michael

I have the same problem. It began immediately upon updating to v2.0. When my phone is asleep, SOMETIMES it will ring, other times it will not. I notice that EVERY time I wake my phone up manually that Wi-Fi connection seems to have disappeared and has been replaced by the "E" symbol. I have to go into "Settings>Wi-Fi" to force it to reconnect to the Wi-Fi signal. I have also noticed that many times when I wake up my iPhone the AT&T reception is zero. Nothing. No bars. I have to turn off my phone, then start it back up. Upon restarting, the reception jumps to full, and my Wi-Fi network automatically connects. Often times it only then notifies me that I have missed calls. My only workaround thus far has been to constantly check to see if my phone has gone brain-dead (zero AT&T reception, "E" symbol instead of Wi-Fi status), and if so, restart my phone.

Notes: this obviously applies to locations where I KNOW I have full AT&T as well as Wi-Fi reception, such as at my office and house. My email is set to "manual" receive.

Again, my phone worked perfectly from December 2007 when I got the phone until two weeks ago (~August 1st, 2008) when I updated to software v2.0. I would love to go back to v1 until this is fixed. Is this possible?

To everyone else who has the "not ringing while asleep" problem, have you noticed that when you wake up your phone, the reception (phone and Wi-Fi) are zero? In my case, the phone is obviously not ringing because it lost reception (even in a full reception area). Curious if this is the problem for other people.

Axiously awaiting a fix, as I can see many other people have the same problem!!!

Hi,
I have the same issue. My iPhone will not ring 90% of the time.
This is very frustrating, AT&T representatives advised me to
get a new SIM card, we'll see how it goes.