How to remove the do not disturb focus on my iPhone?

What a nightmare this is now. It won’t turn off but keeps resetting to DND so my phone does not ring at all. I’ve tried disabling and it just resets. Apple please just gives us a straight driving mode and we can silence our own phones.

Instruction to "Tap on any Focus settings that you will never use and remove them (you

can add them back later if you change your mind, and even create new,

custom ones)" is unclear to me. Following the first two steps, I see "Do Not Disturb >", under it, I see "Sleep Setup >" and then "Work Setup >". Two items follow "Share Across Device" which is off (I assume the white button means off) and "Focus Status Off >" Pressing "Off >" brings up the title "Focus Status" and "Share Focus Status" as the unknown white button AND "Do not Disturb" green button. However, I cannot toggle it. I plan to call the Local Apple store and see if phone support is available. If not, I will book an appointment with someone to fix this horrid process.

Thanks for this, but I want to add that the process is very confusing, because after you delete all of the focus groups, the phone will default to do not disturb. Also since do not disturb will not go away I’m afraid of my phone automatically turning it back on again, even though I turned in schedule off. The only reason I have any modes on my phone is because my iPhone automatically created them for me. They were fun for a while and good for a normal person that can risk missing one or two calls from a friend or a family member while they’re at work but again for someone like me who is a small business owner, who needs to be on the clock 24 seven, this is very destructive to my business. There should be a more simple way to let my phone operate as a phone and allow all notifications to come through no matter what.

nabijung wrote:

Thanks for this, but I want to add that the process is very confusing, because after you delete all of the focus groups, the phone will default to do not disturb. Also since do not disturb will not go away I’m afraid of my phone automatically turning it back on again, even though I turned in schedule off.

Unless you have Smart Activations turned on or you have a schedule, Focus will not turn on by itself any more than the old Do Not Disturb did. In previous versions, you couldn't remove Do Not Disturb, either

The only reason I have any modes on my phone is because my iPhone automatically created them for me. They were fun for a while and good for a normal person that can risk missing one or two calls from a friend or a family member while they’re at work but again for someone like me who is a small business owner, who needs to be on the clock 24 seven, this is very destructive to my business.

Once you set up a Focus option correctly, it can be very powerful but there is a steep learning curve then with DND. And you can set them up so that you get all calls.

There should be a more simple way to let my phone operate as a phone and allow all notifications to come through no matter what.

There is a very simple way and it's the default option: Don't turn on Do Not Disturb.

Donorditurb wrote:

Do Not Disturb need to go away.

it has cost me money.

Phone calls drive my business and Do not Disturb is disturbing my business

Don't use it if it doesn't meet your needs. It's all under your control.

This is the worst (and least intuitive) feature I have encountered on iPhone since its release. Hey Apple UI designers, you messed up. Take the do not disturb out or make it easy to turn off PERMANENTLY.

Markasaurus415 wrote:

This is the worst (and least intuitive) feature I have encountered on iPhone since its release. Hey Apple UI designers, you messed up. Take the do not disturb out or make it easy to turn off PERMANENTLY.

Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

I would point out that the features that Apple has been adding to the Focus, formerly Do Not Disturb, are ones that people have been begging for for years. But, if you don't want to use Focus, you don't have to.

My iPhone 8, after owning it fir under two years without any issues, started kept turning Do Not Disturb on automatically. I was missing important texts coming in. After two weeks with this issue, unable to fix it, I purchased a new iPhone 13, but the issue is still there. I have googled this problem which countless others have. The one video on a person showing how to fix it on iphone13, my iPhone 13 does not have the same screen to slide the ** Nit Disturb permanently off. Another online person also said his iPhone 13 does not have the same screen to turn off the slide as the video showed. HELP!

On several posts I see 'you can just turn it off', 'very powerful feature', etc. For a long time, the feature worked well for me. Recently, like others have reported, the phone keeps going into Do Not Disturb at random times and I cannot figure out why. To the best of my understanding I have everything disabled, including scheduling but I am randomly missing calls and texts which is a real issue.

I saw someone mention smart activations. Can you elaborate on this and where I might be able to figure out if this is what's happening? If you're referring to the 'personal, sleep, work' modes in the focus setup, they are disabled already.

Honestly, it's a little odd that there isn't a simple (permanent) enable/disable on the focus setup. I suppose that when working properly they felt it wasn't needed.

Thanks,

I only use the ”Sleep” focus mode and I want to delete the “Do not disturb” focus mode.

My reason is simple; to be able to toggle the sleep mode on, I first have to navigate past the do not disturb mode. By default this is the main focus mode, there is no way of setting a different focus mode to be the default. Because of this, I need to long press the control centre focus button and then toggle the other mode on. Instead of simply tapping the focus mode button if Sleep is my only focus mode.

I think I’d probably use the do not disturb focus mode more if it wasn’t forced to be the main option & unable to be deleted.

I hope Apple engineers are aware of this.

iPhones are terrible now. This is my last one. Missed a call about a close ones death because I accidentally had do not disturb on. I would NEVER had turned it on , on purpose. This is my last Apple product until they get their act together.

[Edited by Moderator]

MiklaDfar wrote:

iPhones are terrible now. This is my last one.

You should absolutely buy the phone that best meets your needs. And I've heard Android phones are absolutely perfect. They have absolutely no features that you don't want or don't understand. Nothing ever goes wrong with them. Now that Samsung seems to have solved the exploding battery problem, the hardware lasts forever.

What a joke… l have done AII THOSE THINGS and OUT OF THE BLUE IT STILL JUST ACTIVATES IT. Doesn’t show symbol on screen, doesn’t show it is activated when you pull down control and when you look at “focus setting it doesn’t show it is activated but it is STILL activated and sending calls direct to voicemail!!! STOP this mess. I HATE FOCUS and want it gone!!!!

bsbeaches wrote:

What a joke… l have done AII THOSE THINGS and OUT OF THE BLUE IT STILL JUST ACTIVATES IT. Doesn’t show symbol on screen, doesn’t show it is activated when you pull down control and when you look at “focus setting it doesn’t show it is activated but it is STILL activated and sending calls direct to voicemail!!! STOP this mess. I HATE FOCUS and want it gone!!!!

If you don't see Focus active anywhere, it's not active and the cause of the problem is something else.

Start here:

Why doesn’t my phone ring? - Apple Community

Vicdib wrote:

DND and focus have ruined the iPhone experience for me - for the first time I’m thinking of ditching my iPhone. Apple seems to want to tell who with and when I can communicate

Or, you haven't taken the time to learn how to use the features. It's very hard to learn new things if you are angry about them.

Focus gives you, not Apple, the ability to decide who gets to communicate with you. But, yes, there is a learning curve.