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Why is the only option to silence calls ALWAYS OR ONLY WHILE LOCKED?? I need to hear my phone ring when it’s locked!!!!

Why is the only option to have my phone silence ALL CALLS? Silenced while locked is the only option?! The point of a phone is to RING

iPhone 8, iOS 14

Posted on Jun 7, 2021 11:03 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 7, 2021 11:10 AM

dbwinters wrote:

Why is the only option to have my phone silence ALL CALLS? Silenced while locked is the only option?! The point of a phone is to RING

if you're referring to Do not disturb - that only works if you it turn on, otherwise it doesn't matter.


There is a settings for silence unknown callers - don't know where it is, but you can search for it and disable it.

12 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 7, 2021 11:10 AM in response to dbwinters

dbwinters wrote:

Why is the only option to have my phone silence ALL CALLS? Silenced while locked is the only option?! The point of a phone is to RING

if you're referring to Do not disturb - that only works if you it turn on, otherwise it doesn't matter.


There is a settings for silence unknown callers - don't know where it is, but you can search for it and disable it.

Jul 2, 2021 6:21 PM in response to jodianne1

I agree that the prior response from razmee209 is inaccurate. However it was not long ago that I would have said the same thing. I feel like this is a very recent change. As other forums have stated, the issue is that the DND is turned on when the phone is locked but this cannot be un-selected. It’s either that DND is always on, or it’s on when the screen is locked, which is 100% of the time when I’m not actively using it. This is a ridiculous update and surely must be an error in the coding for the most recent update.


I can only hope Apple is paying attention to these forums and will issue an update to fix it.


Jun 13, 2021 11:28 AM in response to razmee209

It doesn’t matter if the DND is on…this is happening to 3 of our phones in our house as well. As soon as our phones are locked, and someone sends a text message, we don’t get a sound notification for it. As soon as we unlock the phone & receive a text message we hear the notification sound with it. This is the SILENCE setting that is under DND…but it effects it even when it’s not turned on. There’s no other option. I can’t tell you how many messages I miss because my phone is locked & I never heard the notification.

Jul 2, 2021 6:39 PM in response to RBinford2

I should have tried this already, but after reading an old APPLE recommended response that said the following, I turned off my phone and turned it back on and it started functioning again as described below (though prior to resetting the phone, it did NOT function as described).


”If Do Not Disturb is not turned on, you should receive all notifications no matter which one of those is checked. The only difference may be if you have Silence Unknown Callers turned on in Settings>Phone, or if you have an Apple Watch paired to the iPhone.”

Aug 12, 2021 11:44 AM in response to njphilups

Then you have something else going on that is causing your phone not to ring. It is not those settings in Do Not Disturb. My is set to scheduled Do Not Disturb from 10:30pm - 7:00am daily. It also has it set to Always. When DND is off, the phone rings. As a matter of fact, I had to stop typing this for a moment to answer a phone call that rang until I answered it.

Why is the only option to silence calls ALWAYS OR ONLY WHILE LOCKED?? I need to hear my phone ring when it’s locked!!!!

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