iPhone Alarm Sound Not Working When I Wear my Watch

This may be “expected behavior” but it is a significant change from iOS 16.x. Now when I wear my Apple Watch to bed to track sleep, my Wake alarm (which used to make a sound on my iPhone) no longer makes any sound. Instead, my watch vibrates. (I keep my watch silenced all the time.) Please modify the settings to give the user the choice: Wake alarm on phone, on watch, or both. FWIW, I love and use the new horizontal display. (iPhone 14 Pro)

You are going to make me oversleep after conditioning me to use Apple Sleep and Wake!

Yea, this wasn’t a setting requested. Not sure why they took it upon themselves to add it. It’s now a nuisance. Now I have to decide do I wear my watch to bed and run the risk of oversleeping if I’m that tired because the watch alarm is nowhere as loud as the phone. Apple please fix this!

Try this, it’s worked for me after having the same issue.

1. ensure you watch and iPhone are fully updated.
2. Open up Apple Watch app on your iPhone
3. tap my watch, tap clock, then turn OFF “push alerts from iPhone”
4. then set alarm for 1 minutes time and see if it works whilst wearing the watch.

I called Apple Support and went through some trial and error. It turns out that the audible Wake Alarm on the iPhone does not sound when the iPhone is in the new StandBy (horizontal display) mode. It works as before when not using the StandBy mode.

I submitted a bug report.

“No, it has always been this way.”

It hasn’t. At some point in the recent past, the phone would sound the alarm and the watch would tap my wrist. I could end or snooze the alarm from either device. And what we’re saying is now, the phone isn’t sounding the alarm. We’re only getting taps on the watch.

This is why I find these “discussions” useless. This is not Apple help this is only Apple users.

Yesterday I upgraded from an Apple Watch Ultra to the Ultra Watch 2 - & the iPhone alarm would not sound on the new watch. On my previous watch the iPhone alarm always sounded & displayed on the watch & allowed me to stop/snooze the alarm from the watch with no issues.

All my settings from my original watch were reinstated on the Ultra 2 when I paired it to my iPhone. I realise the U2 has some new settings (such as gesture controls) but can't see any changes in any of the alarm related settings (including all of those mentioned above which I have checked - they were all correct but I still toggled them on/off to see if that made a difference).

The watch is now 'intermittently' sounding / showing the iPhone alarm but not consistently - it seems to work around 3 times in 5 without changes to any of the settings on either device.

My background is tech - the logic of what I am seeing definitely seems to suggest their is an issue with the code used for the alarm hand off between the phone & the new watch. I should mention that I did upgrade my iPhone to iOS 17.1.1 before pairing the Ultra 2 - so perhaps this has a bearing.

Either way I hope that someone at Apple is noting this issue & that we may have an answer / fix in an interim software release.

Are you saying the expected behavior is if I’m wearing my my watch to bed my morning alarms won’t sound? Because that’s what’s happening to me. If I don’t wear the watch, the phone’s alarms sound. Sleep is a bit different from the other focus types and when you use the health/sleep app to set a wake up time with an alarm, it should disable sleep at that time it sounds the alarm. Sleep turns off, but with no audible alarm.

Not accurate.

all alarms from the first iphone to now are ‘breakthrough alarms’, meaning: the alarm app is the only app with the ability to set an alarm, which completely ignores the silent mode switch on the side of your iPhone. That switch is now and has always been irrelevant to this discussion. If Apple designed the Apple Watch in such a way that engaging the silent mode on your watch, secretly overrides and silences and nullifies the alarms that you have set on a completely separate device… end it did not provide a huge red banner, warning on the screens of the devices…

[Edited by Moderator] 

This is also happening to me on my brand new iPhone Max Pro. None of the stock suggestions is the case, everything is set to the proper settings and levels. Anyone have any new suggestions - I'm missing any alarm that is AFTER the first alarm which tends to go off, all subsequent alarms go off but are silent.

“It is hardly my responsibility to make sure you, an adult, get up on time. I don't even know you so how could I make sure you got up on time?”

Not really helpful.

Apple should offer a more thoughtful array of options here, unless there is a setting that has been changed through the update process. But I’m pretty sure you understood that.

It seems like there might be a setting or configuration causing this issue with your iPhone alarm when your Apple Watch is worn and not charging. Here are a few troubleshooting steps you can try to resolve the problem:

1. Check Do Not Disturb and Silent Mode: Make sure that neither your iPhone nor your Apple Watch is in Do Not Disturb mode or Silent mode. Check the settings on both devices to ensure that they are not set to silence notifications and alarms.

• • On iPhone: Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to open Control Center. If the crescent moon icon is lit, Do Not Disturb is enabled. Tap the moon icon to disable it. Also, check the side switch on your iPhone; if it's showing an orange dot, the device is in Silent mode. Toggle the side switch to turn off Silent mode.
  • On Apple Watch: Swipe up from the watch face to open the Control Center. If the crescent moon icon is present, tap it to disable Do Not Disturb.

1. Check Alarm Sound Settings: Verify that the sound for your iPhone's alarm is set correctly. Go to "Settings" > "Sounds & Haptics" on your iPhone and ensure that the "Ringer and Alerts" volume is turned up and not muted. Also, confirm that you have selected an audible sound for your alarm.
2. Check iPhone and Watch Connection: Ensure that your iPhone and Apple Watch are properly connected and paired. If they are disconnected or not paired correctly, it could lead to notification issues. Try unpairing and re-pairing your Apple Watch to your iPhone.
3. Check iPhone Audio Output: Sometimes, the iPhone may redirect audio output to other devices, causing the alarm sound to be silent. Make sure your iPhone's audio output is set to the phone's speaker. You can check this by playing some music and ensuring that it is coming from the iPhone's speakers.
4. Restart Devices: Try restarting both your iPhone and Apple Watch. Sometimes, a simple restart can help resolve temporary software glitches that might be affecting the alarm sound.
5. Update Software: Ensure that both your iPhone and Apple Watch have the latest software updates installed. Software updates often include bug fixes and improvements that could resolve issues like this.

If the problem persists after trying the above steps, it's best to contact Apple Support for further assistance. They can provide more in-depth troubleshooting and help you resolve the specific issue with your devices.

AhsokaTano22 wrote:

According to ChatGPT's answers, it gives a good, reasonable answer and gives many ways for you to try if something is wrong. Yes, in some ways, ChatGPT cannot be useful but I read through their answer to make sure it is reliable information.

Unfortunately, as you've given few answers of your own, we have no way of knowing how able you are to judge the information you're posting.

Just go to the Watch app then to NOTIFICATIONS, scroll down to MIRROR IPHONE ALERTS FROM and turn off your alarm clock app. Worked for me!

I recently bought an Apple Watch and had the same issue happen. I have been trying different things to test what works and what doesn’t, and here is what I am trying for the next time my alarm goes off. I will reply with an update and report back how it goes!

In my iPhone settings, I go settings > focus > sleep and then from there I can edit what apps and people I can receive notifications from. I had no notifications on anything going through while sleep mode is on. When I click on the apps section, I ensure it is set to “allow notifications from” and then I tap “alarm” when I go to add the notification. I am hoping this helps! Updates to come.