How can I turn off Focus on my iPhone?

Focus cannot be removed from the iPhone. But as long as nothing is turned on in Settings->Focus, it will do nothing.

When in Settings->Focus, inside each option there (Do not disturb, Driving, Sleep and Personal and Work if setup) will have a switch to turn them on or off and other settings for if and when they may turn on automatically.

For example Do not Disturb:

If the switch is off, then the option is doing nothing.

There's your issue:

Kraig141 wrote:

We do and it works temporarily. My daughters are all on the same account

Apple IDs should not be shared. They are intended for a single person to use. Each person should have their own Apple IDs. When you share an Apple ID you share other settings because to Apple all device slowed in to one Apple ID belong to one person and are used by one person. If one of you daughters sets up Focus for any reason and has the Share with other devices switch turn on, then it will do just that and share with all other devices that are signed in to the same Apple ID.

What you are saying is Apple should get rid of a feature because you are misunderstanding and mi-using it.

We do and it works temporarily.

That means someone has it set to turn on automatically on a schedule and it the share across device es witch is turned on, then it will do just that at the set scheduled. Again, don't use the same Apple ID, or stop everyone from turning it on, or setting a schedule for it.

Go to Settings/Focus, tap on each focus type other than Do not Disturb and delete it. Then it becomes the same as Do Not Disturb. But don’t make Apple take it away for those of us who find it very useful.

There are other possibilities than Focus that can prevent calls from getting to you. Here’s a (relatively) comprehensive list:

FIRST: Are there missed calls in Phone/Recents on the phone? If they are not the problem is in the network, because the calls aren’t getting to your phone. Contact your carrier: 

• check with your carrier that they don’t have a local outage, and that you didn’t have any settings that would have immediately invoked voicemail, such as call forwarding.
• check up on them at Down Detector - outages

If they are in Recents here’s what to check:

• Check the MUTE switch on the left side of the phone, above the volume buttons. It should be towards the screen
• Check the volume setting. With the Home screen displayed, press the VOLUME UP button on the left side of the phone. It’s above the VOLUME DOWN button.
• Go to Settings/Phone. There’s a switch for Silence Unknown Callers. If it is on any calls from numbers not in your contacts will go directly to voicemail.
• Also in Settings/Phone: Make sure Call Forwarding is off.
• iOS 14 & older: Go to Settings/Do not Disturb. Turn it off if it is on. Also turn off Scheduled. With both off none of the other switches there matter.
• iOS 15: Go to Settings/Focus, and verify that all focus settings are disabled.
• Go to Settings/Sounds & Haptics. Make sure there is a sound assigned to Ringtone.
• Go to Settings/Accessibility/Touch/Call Audio Routing and make sure Auto-Answer Calls is off.
• Go to Settings/Screen Time/Communications Limits. Tap each of the 2 entries and make sure both are “Everyone"
• Restart your phone-->RESTART your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
• If all else fails, talk your carrier into replacing your SIM card (thanks to ASC user DShelbyD)

Skibb1477 wrote:

The new Focus is a nightmare, my leadership at my job is super upset that I am always on silent! I have turned everything off and it keeps coming back and despite everything being turned off I am still showing as silent. I’m missing important phone calls for my job and alerts that I need, I am constantly having to apologize to my boss. It has messed up my alarm clock and I have over slept three times to rush to work! Please get rid of Focus and go back to what was there before! This update was garbage, and needs to be rectified immediately!

Silent Mode and Focus are 2 different things. Silent mode has nothing to do with Focus.

If Silent mode is on, it means either your volume level is completely turned down, or you have moved the side switch to the silent position.

Check the switch above the volume buttons, and make sure it is not showing the red marker. If it is, you have physically set the iPhone to Silent mode.

Again, Focus does not put your phone in silent mode, and will do nothing if everything is turned off.

I agree. I missed important patient notifications bc of this app. And it was off!! If you turn off your phone and do a hard reset after turning it off you get notifications again . Also another respondent said to go in and just delete the sleep, personal etc focuses and leave do not disturb and the phone will revert back to your previous expectations. We shall see but I did that.

lainiehix wrote:

This has also been a nightmare for me and if you turn it off, it's still ON in actuality and my phone suppresses texts and calls about my patients. I have to turn my phone off and back on to get notifications again even though it says focus is off!!! This is the only way I've found to actually get it to go away. Despise this feature. There needs to be an update that allows you to disable it permanently. Good idea in theory and horrible in practice.

There's something going on that's not right. When I turn Focus off, it's off. You need to make sure that each profile is off. You also need to make sure that none of them have any automations that will turn them on.

You may want to consider removing all but one (plus maybe driving) to decrease the confusion.

Focus has been a nightmare for me. It disabled my alarm clock and I have been late for work several times. I turned focus off. I even had the IT guy to turn of off and it would be back on the next day. Please please please I want it off my phone. I’m missing calls. It has caused me so many problems. Idk what to do. I need this fixed. It’s affecting my job. My personal phone calls. My friends think I am purposely not answering my phone😩😩

Focus is a terrible feature!! They say if nothing is on then it will not react; not true!! I often miss notifications now because it silenced the text, mail, ect because it overrides the notification settings I already had set up. PLEASE REMOVE IT. I already had settings set up the way I wanted for my lifestyle. I didn’t need group help.

I wholeheartedly agree!! I’ve missed more phone calls, alarms and notifications due to this stupid new feature. I ended up at the genesis bar and on the Lina with Apple. Unfortunately many Apple Care staff have no idea what you’re calling about when you call in.

Just want to comment I ABSOLUTELY HATE FOCUS TOO. Discussions people, please tell Apple to have it removed. Everyone hates it. All I want is DO NOT DISTURB. Nothing is working for me. I disabled focus and focus focus focus and more Focus still comes up with everything that I do. Thank you.

I agree! Ended up at Genius Bar and gal said multiple people having trouble with focus. She suspects Apple might remove it. Hate it. Missing phone calls.

Focus is a nightmare. I haven’t touched it but yet I am not getting text messages. It give me options instead of viewing the test. I hate it.

Focus does not block the reception of text messages, it only silences notifications for them, but there are still received. So contact your carrier to find out why you aren't getting messages, Focus has nothing to do with it.