Notification sounds but no notification

I have the same problem and I discovered it yesterday.

My iPhone 6 with new iOS 12.5.2 pinged and vibrated when I had no notification. This was especially weird since I haven't used vibrations in years. So I made sure they are 100% off across the board.

Now it just pinged for no reason (no vibration). My only sound should be for messages. App notifications such as breaking news or mail received have no sound. I doubled checked.

I changed my message sound and will need to wait to see if the new sound is adapted by these phantom messages.

This is all too strange. As far as I know it only started yesterday and only happened a few times. I updated to iOS 12.5.2 last week.

Thankfully, I have not heard phantom notifications on Do Not Disturb.

Hello Flooky21,

It's our understanding that you are trying to prevent notification sounds from occurring on your device. We're happy to offer some suggestions.

As you indicate you've already checked the application or notification settings, we have a couple of solutions that may help you achieve the desired end result. The first is the Do Not Disturb feature. This function is covered in detail at our site Use Do Not Disturb on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and will ensure you do not get notifications when they are not wanted.

Another simple option is to place your device on vibrate or silent mode. How to put your iPhone on vibrate, ring, or silent mode covers the use of that switch and how you can expect it to operate to quickly toggle this mode on or off on your device.

Cheers!

This has happened to me a couple of times with the default text tone but I don’t have any messages or notifications and default text tone isn’t my tone its set as popcorn so the only thing that makes that noise is my what’s app and no messages there. It’s also happened a couple of times with the fb messenger tone but I haven’t got a message? This is really frustrating as I’m constantly asking people is that your phone or mine? I just want to know is this to do with iOS14 or iPhone 11? A few people have had this problem and no one has explained what has caused this it started in October 2020 for me and has happened a few times. Just to clarify I don’t have the gmail app so it’s not that either.

Sueperbly wrote:

the only thing that makes that noise is my what’s app and no messages there. It’s also happened a couple of times with the fb messenger tone but I haven’t got a message

Remove or offload both apps from your iPhone temporarily for 24-48h and see if that sound stops. If yes, the issue is caused by one of the apps and in that case contact Facebook Devs for help.

If you don’t want/cannot delete those apps for some reason, Screen Time > See All Activity > Notifications section might come handy to pinpoint the culprit app; that section of Screen Time feature gives a breakdown per hour for notification your device received and what app was it.

Thanks , it’s only happened a handful of times since October last year my phone is usually on silent so that’s probably why. I was just wondering . Would it show up though on the see all activity notifications section since it’s just the noise I’m hearing I don’t actually have any messages.

Hi All,

I just want to update. This seems to have gone away (iPhone 6, 12.5.2, popcorn my chosen sound but phantom was a ping).

I obviously double checked everything. Then I changed my chosen sound and let it stay that way for a few days. No problems. I went back to popcorn message sound. No problems since.

I've recently started carrying the phone around with me a lot more so I'll be spending more time with it. Cross fingers the problem is really gone.

Good luck to you,

-Suzan

i thought maybe it had something to do with the iOS 14 but if you’re not using that I wonder what the issue is that causes random notification sounds? When you say the “ping”sound do you mean the default text tone which sounds like a “ding” noise? That’s the one I’ve heard too but without it being my actual chosen tone. Mine is popcorn. It’s happened with the Facebook messenger message tone too but no message is there. It’s very annoying There seems to be a few threads about iOS14 bugs but most people seem to have the opposite problem from us where they get no noise and or no notification. I’m just glad I found a few people who are experiencing the same issue as myself!

I've only had the problem once since April 28-ish. I was using popcorn as my text sound, but I can't really identify the stray sound. It's definitely not the default sound. It happens so infrequently. Best of luck.

Is it your chosen text sound or is it a default text sound? Did you ever get it with the fb messenger noise?