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My iPhone doesn't always ring, why?

I've had my iPhone 4S since it's introduction, I love it, except it doesn't always ring when I get a call. Yes, Airplane mode is off, the ringer is on. Take yesterday for instance, over a period of 5 hours, four calls didn't ring, 3 went to VoiceMail, one showed as a missed call, three other calls came through normally. During this entire time the phone was sitting on my desk, fully charged.


Has anyone else had this problem?

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on May 30, 2012 2:44 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Nov 14, 2012 7:06 AM

I know this sounds obvious but always try the simple stuff first. Toggle the physical mute button on the side of your phone. Some people, like me, accidentally mute our phones and don't realize it. Even if you phone's mute is is not on (muted), toggling it may help. I've experienced similar issues with the iPad. In fact, turning any service off and then back on is a good first step when that service is not working.


I hope this helps.

107 replies

Oct 30, 2013 8:20 AM in response to jackfrommontague

That means your iPhone is in "Do Not Disturb" mode which will cause you to not be alerted when you get a notification (such as a phone call, message, Facebook/twitter notification).


To turn this on or off, go to:


Settings<Do Not Disturb<"ON" or "OFF"


You can also edit the times you want "Do Not Disturb" to be on by going to


Settings<Notifications<Do Not Disturb


Hope this helps

Oct 30, 2013 5:35 PM in response to AgentWilco

No, my iPhone is not in "Do Not Disturb" mode, or in "Airplane" mode. The "ringer" is set to on. The phone just refuses to ring normally at times. I will have a conversation, hang up, a few minutes or so later the phone will not ring while a new call will go directly to Voice Mail, emitting the usual notification sound. For some reason the phone simply will not ring at times. This has been a known problem with iPhones for the past several years. I'm not the only person with the problem.


I don't know if the problem is with the iPhone or the carrier. My carrier Verizon blamed Apple, Apple blamed Verizon. Verizon was kind enough to offer me a $300 signal booster, which I declined. Personally I think it's a combination of a poor signal (which varies from time to time for no apparent reason) and the inability of the iPhone to grab the signal properly (remember the antenna problem with the iPhone 4) . I will say, with the iPhone 5S, the problem seems to have been minimized at least for me.


At least a broken clock is right twice a day, a phone that doesn't ring is worthless.

Nov 2, 2013 4:01 AM in response to jackfrommontague

I have a 4S & it has started to play this little trick on me too. I'm in Australia so it's not caused by AT&T or Verizon because they don't operate here. I have had missed calls before that were puzzling when my phone was in my pocket but I thought I may have been in a noisy place but the vibrate didn't happen either, Tonight I had the phone on my lap in a quiet room & I got an IM "ding" & looked at the sceen to see 2 hangup messages from calls made by my neighbour. I sent her a IM asking had she called & within 30 seconds my phone rang & it was her. I hadn't moved, signal strength was 3 dots & hours later still is..... What's happening

Nov 2, 2013 2:50 PM in response to gergmu

This is a madding occurance. No one seems to be able to explain what is happening. My guess is the iPhone is just not getting enough of the signal to generate a ring, perhaps a problem with the antenna not working properly. Both my son and my daughterinlaw have experienced the problem and they are on a different carrier than I am.


My only suggestion is to call Apple and complain, if enough people complain perhaps they will acknowledge the problem. For me the iPhone 5S seems to have solved the issue for the most part. I did get one silent call last week while sitting on my sofa with the phone 2 feet away on the coffee table.


Good luck solving your problem.

Nov 11, 2013 6:16 AM in response to jackfrommontague

I've noticed this issue on my wife's iPhone 5. We both have an iPhone 5, same IOS build sitting in the same place. However, if her phone sits for a few minutes it's like it goes to sleep. When she receives a call, the first one always goes to voicemail. Then if you call her phone again a few seconds later, it will actually ring just fine. So, you have to call her twice to reach her. My phone always rings fine, I've reviewed all the settings and they are both setup identical.


Another interesting item of note is that her phone will show the calls as missed when she looks at it. Even though it clearly never rang and sent the caller directly to voice mail.


Super frustrating!

Nov 11, 2013 7:11 AM in response to jackfrommontague

I just started having this issue with my 5s which I've owned for 2 weeks. Never had it with 4s. Reading this forum alerted me to check my Do Not Disturb setting and sure enough, it somehow was set to ON. I did not got there so it had set it by itself. Now I recall noticing the little moon icon and wondering what it was. It indicates Do Not Disturb is on. This setting sends first call to voicemail but allows second calls from same caller to ring, explaining previous posts about sometimes going to voice mail and then ringing. I hope this will fix it for me. My wife has iPhone 5 with updated OS 7.0.3 with no problem. I have previous 7.0.2. Perhaps it's the OS and is now fixed with the update. I'll get it when I have access to wifi and won't be usiing my Verizon data allowance.

Nov 11, 2013 12:11 PM in response to allanfromcochecton

Yes, Do Not Disturb "can" be the source of your iPhone not ringing, but it's not always the cause. Read the thread carefully, the phone can alert you to a VM when it never rang, then a few minutes later another "different" caller will get through and the iPhone will ring as it should. Do Not Distrub is not engaged. The ringer is set to on. It seems that signal srength is a factor. What is unclear is the problem with a weak signal from the carrier, or does the iPhone fail to receive a signal because of its antenna? Perhaps it's a combination of the two factors.


In my case the problem seems to have been solved with the iPhone 5S. The new phone seems to get a much stronger signal in many parts of my home than the iPhone 4S did. My wife now uses the 4S and last Saturday she was at home and I called her, sure enough I got her VM, she said the phone didn't ring. Yes all her settings were as they should have been.😟


Go figure!

Nov 11, 2013 12:27 PM in response to jackfrommontague

You may be correct. Although I did find Do Not Disturb enabled, I also have intermittant signal problems. But my wife's phone has not failed to ring, even with the signal problem. In other cases, my guess would be that the call comes in when there is no signal and then goes to VM as the signal restores. I think that may be reaching, though. Good luck to us all with this.

Nov 11, 2013 7:33 PM in response to jackfrommontague

Same problem for me. Apple replaced my phone today, iphone 5. Problems still there, called Verzion, support ran all kinds of tests, re-provisioned my phone etc. He tried to call me twice, and if didn't ring. He said it shows my phone is not evne on the network when it's not ringing - it's like it's powered off (which it clearly isn't)


I was told to go get a new sim card. I did, called from the store, it worked, got in my truck and my wife called me three time..... On her end it rings 3 or 4 times and to voicemail. We tried from her cell which is AT&T and my office landline at home.


Went back in, guy offered to swap my phone out again and a new sim. What's the point? Both the sim and phone were less than 3 hours old.


I notice this mostly if my phone is in my pocket, coat pocket, jeans pocket etc. Had verzion for almost 1 year with NO issues until this. I'm on the latest build of iOs 7. What a nightmare of a problem to have. Unless its some junk call - No one leaves voicemails really anymore, so I guess I'll have to live with not knowing what calls I'm missing.

Dec 5, 2013 2:48 PM in response to jackfrommontague

I have had the same issues for weeks, and it was the "do not disturb" option,

I now remember how it got turned on to begin with, it was when i had a reminder go off on phone then i clicked "do not disturb" to make it go away and ever since it has been that way , it wont ring even when i call it and look at it, but will ring if someone keeps calling back over and over, i wasnt even getting anything until i turned on the phone to see i missed calls, texts, voicemails,


I thank you all for helping me , my wife and family has been bothering me forever to find out why 🙂 🙂 🙂

Dec 10, 2013 1:29 PM in response to jackfrommontague

I went to apple store today with problems discussed in this forum. My phone was not ringing,had no alerts. I could be looking at the phone and see it but I would not get ring. I would then get a voice mail without any alert. These symptoms were also irratic. Apple did quick test and suggested a reset. Go to settings > General> Scroll toReset at bottom and select Reset All Settings. You do lose some settings but nothing that can not be reset. My iphone 5S is operating normally now. HOPE THIS HELP

My iPhone doesn't always ring, why?

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