iPhone alarm sound not playing on iOS 26

Another issue I noticed is that if you have headphones, AirPods, or other Bluetooth devices connected, the alarm will play through the headphones instead of the phone's internal speaker. This is an issue because sometimes I fall asleep with an AirPod in, but it is not in my ear in the morning. On iOS 18, that was not an issue because the phone would play the alarm; however, today it was playing through the earbuds, and I was late getting up.

I had the same on my iPhone 13 Pro Max.

It was fixed after turning off Attention-Aware Features. You can find it in Settings —> Face ID & Passcode —> Attention-Aware Features.

Hope it works for you too.

Update: I turned it back on and the sound sill works.

I’ve had this issue too. I used to snooze my alarm by clicking the on/off switch when I was too tired to look at the screen. But I worked out this morning that clicking the on/off switch now mutes the alarm. Bit annoying that I have to unlearn that muscle memory now

On iOS 26.0.1 iPhone 16 pro max but affects all iPhones, there is a bug related to Face ID and the setting “Attention Aware Features” and the volume of alarms. If enabled while looking at the phone the volume of alarms in the clock are low, half volume or less.

Turning off “Attention Aware Features” fixes the issue.

It just happened to me yesterday. Noticed the volume was at its lowest. I didn’t have any alarms set for Sunday but I tried turning the volume up and it kept going to the lowest setting. I hard reset and it went back to normal until this morning. Both my alarms volume was low to no noise and I was late for work. I tried hard resting again. But I can’t afford to be late to work. Apple fix this ASAP. TO ADD TO THIS MY AWARENESS IS OFF AS WELL AS FOCUS. So this is a major issue that NEEDS TO BE FIXED. it’s costing millions of people to miss work and wages.

On iOS 26.0.1 iPhone 16 pro max but affects all iPhones, there is a bug related to Face ID and the setting “Attention Aware Features” and the volume of alarms. If enabled while looking at the phone the volume of alarms in the clock are low, half volume or less.

Turning off “Attention Aware Features” fixes the issue.

Exactly @cgilson33! I have the same issue and the scary thing is this looks like a new way it has been designed.

Now with one click to the side button that would snooze the alarm before, it now completely silences the alarm and NEVER gives you another alarm after a snooze period because it is prompting you on the screen to see if you want to snooze it or stop the alarm. This is diabolical and is probably making thousands of people late for work, school, meetings, everything. We have collectively learned that one side button push snoozes the alarm, it doesn't stop the alarm never to return. Fix this Apple!

This has been happening to me too. I was late for work because it turned the alarm off…

also, what’s up with the volume? Before it would work with the ringer level and now it’s completely doing its own thing, it’s either too low now or blaring. I got such a fright this morning.

I thought I was going crazy that I keep missing my alarm every morning. I’ve been late this entire week and I am so annoyed that they removed this feature. I also press the side buttons and this makes the phone alarm for me useless now. Gonna get an oldschool clock to fix this. Thanks for nothing apple

I’m having the same issue, I’m a heavy sleeper and had been having problems with my alarm until I discovered the attention feature, everything has been fine until the ios 26 update. Now my alarm is either silent or really quiet and no amount of messing with the buttons and volume settings is fixing it. My partner has also got this problem and is taking to pulling all nighters when he has to get up for work due to the anxiety of sleeping in.

Didn’t update to the latest version yet, but turned off Attention Aware features in face id and password settings and it seems to work now. I still always check if I have silent mode off but it seems fixed now.

This is my problem exactly! I sleep with a Bluetooth sleep mask/headphones (at a very low volume) and my alarm USED to sound on my phone at full volume regardless of what I was playing. NOW it will only play on my headphones at the super low volume and it’s not enough to wake me up! This is a HUGE shift in how the alarm functions and needs to be restored to the original functionality please! I can’t imagine this isn’t impacting more people!

Has this consistently worked?

my issue is I have the same routine every night. Phone goes on a stand charger and I sleep with my watch on.

my watch vibrates to be my alarm.

twice now since ios26, I’ve had the issue stated here if the alarm screen (big snooze and dismiss buttons) but no alarm. Every other morning it’s worked fine.

Come on, Apple! My alarm would flash light every other day, but not everyday like it used to. I don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve tried everything suggested on this thread, and can’t seem to find anything on other site.

Subject: Critical iOS Alarm Failure — Loss of Business and Trust

Same here. iOS 26.0.1.

I can’t say I’ve ever been this frustrated or encountered such a failure before. This issue has not only cost us financially but has also damaged our professional reputation.

My partner and I run a medical practice from home. We work long hours serving our community, and this afternoon we both relied on our 3:00 pm alarms to wake from a short rest between clients. Neither alarm went off. We overslept by an hour, arriving thirty minutes late for an important client consultation. We had to reimburse the client and have now lost credibility we’ve worked years to build.

To be frank, I’ve lost trust in Apple. Our entire professional and personal ecosystem runs on Apple — from iPhones, iPads, and Macs to Apple TVs used for client x-ray reviews. I’ve tolerated the growing instability of iOS over the past few years, but a fundamental alarm failure — a problem that feels straight out of 2010 — is unacceptable in 2025.

This isn’t a minor inconvenience. Our alarms are essential to how we run our lives and our business. They structure our 4:30 am starts, client reminders, report preparation, medication schedules, and even basic tasks like timing meals or ending a therapy session. The reliability of iOS alarms has been a cornerstone of our time management — and that reliability is now gone.

This experience has introduced a constant background anxiety where there was once trust. A basic system function that used to quietly support our work now demands constant doubt and double-checking.

I expect Apple to treat this as the serious regression it is.

Cheers,

Tom