Separate volume control for alarm and ringer

@lanicaanvenice What version of iOS are you using? On 8.3 I confirm that it is all set to 1 volume, "Ringer". I'm not mocking, just stating fact. I really meant for you to read the thread...there really is no way to set alarm and ringer volume separately at different levels in iOS.

I realised the first post is form 2013 but here is my answer anyway.

I have an iPhone 5c with iOS 8.4.1 software

If you disable the option 'Change with Buttons' on the volume menu, the volume for the ringer and alerts will be separate than the one for the alarm, which can be set with the side buttons.

Ringer and alerts (text tone, new voice mail, new mail, set mail, tweet, calendar alerts and so on)

Settings --> Sounds --> Ringer and alerts volume option: just slide it to the volume you want.

**Important, unable the 'change with buttons' options. When you do, the extra info text reads: 'the volume of the ringer and alerts will not be affected by the volume buttons'.

Alarm

Just adjust the volume to the level you want by using the side buttons. That's it.

Result

Ringer and alerts will sound at volume level set through Settings --> Sounds menu, regardless of the volume set through the side buttons.

(Morning wake up) Alam will go off at the volume set with the side buttons.

Tips

a) You can silence the in calls and alerts by using the 'silent' side slider. The alarm will still go off normally (and soundly).

b) By turing the silent side slider on and off you can check on your screen the volume the ringer is set up at.

I've tried all the above and it worked for me. Hope it works for you too.

Ok. After all the complaining for years about the alarm/ringer volume (that they cannot be controlled separately) here comes iOS9. And...... NOTHING!

Why wasn't this done with the iOS9 upgrade? It is such a basic feature and cannot be hard to fix.

In a way this is really a security issue. Since I have to get up before everybody else in the family and do not want to disturb my husband, I set the alarm on min. volume. Then later in the preparing-the-kids-for-school and going-to-work-rush I often forget to turn the volume back up. This does happen often and not only to me as I can see in this trail of comments.

And then it happened. The school called me to pick up one of my kids from school and take him to the hospital because he had an accident at school. AND I DID NOT HEAR MY PHONE. Some stranger had to take my son the the hospital. I hope you can imagine how horrible this is for a mother.

So now I will have to find an alarm app that allows me to set the alarm volume on low while the ringer volume can remain high. Really, apple? Weak.

This is not just a superfluous feature. It is important and goes back to the most basic need to have a mobile phone to begin with: be reachable in emergencies.

Apple has made a lot of effort to protect people from their own forgetfulness and - let's name it - stupidity for much less important features. Why not for this?

Thank you for posting this KatharinaWW!

You nailed my issue. And it still amazes me that there are some folks who just say, "well, deal with it. It isn't that hard to just adjust the volume" Right. It isn't. But how many times have I had similar situations as yours? I miss important notifications because I generally adjust my ringer very low for my alarm clock each night. And like you - sometimes life gets in the way of remembering to turn the dang thing back up for daytime use.

Additionally, there is the merely "annoying" aspect of having the problem the other way around. After a day in noisy environments with the ringer up high, I sometimes fall asleep first, or just forget to lower the volume for my alarm... and that starts my day off quite poorly after my wife peels me off the ceiling.

Yeah, this isn't rocket science to fix. And it can merely be an option so that those who really find great utility in having the ringer and alarm volumes tied together can continue down that blissful road.

katharinaworldwide wrote:

The school called me to pick up one of my kids from school and take him to the hospital because he had an accident at school. AND I DID NOT HEAR MY PHONE.

Sorry to hear that - and yes, i just don't get it!

If you think of it the other way round, why would they NOT implement it? What possible reasons are there?! And why would there not be people working at Apple who say to their line managers, sort this out please.

The only conclusion that i can have is that the upper echelons of Apple management don't use their phones to wake them up in the morning. Even if one or two of them did, wouldn't they have the same problems we're having; then they'd talk to their colleagues and things would get sorted - no?

It just doesn't make sense from so many different ways of looking at it!

I recently moved from Android to Apple. Thanks apple for making me miss my work today because of this. didn't realize Ringer and Alarm Volume cannot be separated. I read this whole thread and blogs, it appears there is no way to do this. It is really annoying to know that IOS is missing some of these basic functionalities. It makes more sense when you open alarm app and press the volume button, it changes just the Alarm volume. Don't even know whether Apple reads these customer discussions to make improvements.

This worked for me on solving the volume control issue for phone and wakeup alarm. Still there are some sounds I like for other stuff that are rather quite and it would be nice to have individual volume settings for each type of alert for the different phone functions.

@Meg, I did leave Feedback to Apple.

IMO they will get around to this because it is a very common use-case scenario. ****, I'll take an iOS update that preserves the old behaviour but gives you several setting toggles that will make iOS mimic Android's separate volume controls. So whoever is OK with the current/old behaviour won't have to touch a thing but the rest of us could fine-tune our iOS.

The problem with turning down the volume at night and turning it up again in the morning is that it's annoying and I don't want to have to be bothered every day, I don't want to have to think about it.

ibeeMe wrote:

The problem with turning down the volume at night and turning it up again in the morning is that it's annoying and I don't want to have to be bothered every day, I don't want to have to think about it.

I know! Thinking is so icky and annoying.

As a new iPhone owner, I was shocked to learn that it was missing such a basic function. Initially I just assumed that I was not able to find the correct setting due to being a brand new user, until I searched online and came across discussions such as this one.

Even ancient brick and flip phones allowed for a separate alarm volume setting, so I took it for granted for as long as I have owned cellphones and smartphones, and I definitely would have never guessed that such an expensive phone would be missing such a basic feature.

Having to change the volume every night and morning would not even be as much of an annoyance if it were not also for the fact that raising the volume also makes new text message notifications and phone calls really loud, which needlessly wake me up if someone decides to contact me at night or when I have an opportunity to sleep in. I know I could just set the phone to silent, but then I would have less to complain about. 🙂

I was even more surprised by the fact that some of the discussions on this subject are years old, yet Apple still has not done anything about this issue.

Do not get me wrong, other than this nuisance I really like the phone so far. I am mainly just curious if it is an intentional design choice, and if so, what the reasoning behind it is, or if for some reason it is not possible to implement due to the iPhone's hardware, though that would make even less sense, especially after it has been around for several generations.

_Matej wrote:

Do not get me wrong, other than this nuisance I really like the phone so far. I am mainly just curious if it is an intentional design choice, and if so, what the reasoning behind it is, or if for some reason it is not possible to implement due to the iPhone's hardware, though that would make even less sense, especially after it has been around for several generations.

No one here would be able to answer those questions. Apple hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, made any statements on the matter. I'm guessing (and that's all it is) that Apple had their reasons and that not enough people put up a fuss to cause them to reconsider the design choice. I encourage you to submit feedback.

Best of luck.

HI,

This very issue infuriated both myself and my partner. Such a simple and obvious need should already exist on a leading OS.

I have now installed 'nightstand central' and life has greatly improved.

Let's hope Apple sort this out and give us a capability that I had enjoyed on other phone manufacturers over 15 years ago.

BlackTigerAP wrote:

"You are alarming yourself wrongly!" (c) Apple

Is there a question in that grammatically-challenged sentence? If you're trying to give feedback to Apple, use the feedback link already provided.

Actually shows shoddy code, I never want my phone to ring only vibrate, but do use alarm so want it to have some sound there - old iPhone did this no problem new one doesn't. I can set sound on any item like email or message to "none" but can't do that on phone - poor functionality hopefully they fix