iPhone alarm is silent randomly

I am having this problem, too, and I don't have multiple alarms set. (I have about 30 created, but only 1 set at a time. In the past, I've often set 2 and had no problem.)

The first sign of a problem was with google maps not interrupting a phone call yesterday to tell me the directions. Then today, I was speaking on app Just Press Record and the maps app was silent, so I drove 20 miles out of the way before I noticed.

Tonight, a timer went off silently. I saw the screen saying it was going off, but no sound. I tried the alarm, and it rang a single tone at about half volume, and then continued at barely audible volume. This repeated each time.

I messed around with everything suggested, changing the ringer volume to various settings, include max and zero, to try to reset it, shut the phone down and restarted it twice, tried airplane mode, and changed the ringtones for alarm and timer several times, and deleted about half my alarm settings.

After all this, the timer is now going at about half volume, and the alarm was going about 3/4 volume. (In each case, when I select the ringtone, I hear that at full volume, and that's my comparison. (I keep setting the alarm to go off a minute later, and with the timer, 5-10 seconds later, so I hear it right after, so I have a proximate comparison.)

Now I have removed more alarms and set them to "silk" again and for the moment, both alarm and timer are suddenly working. That's after 45 minutes fiddling with all these things. No telling how long this will last. Maddening.

It's 5 minutes later. I tried them again. The alarm is back to half volume, the timer 1/4 volume. Neither would wake me. Sigh.

(I have never used bedtime or Do Not Disturb. I double-checked that they are both off, as is the box to allow the volume buttons to control alarm sound. (In hopes of resetting something, I actually activated each of those, went out of settings, returned and turned them off.)

I had the same problem. Never had this issue before before iOS 11. Now the alarm sound setting flips to 'none' on its own. Missed several important corporate meetings; very embarrassing for a director level employee to try to explain. So why does Apple think anyone would choose 'none' for an alarm sound????

Dn74649 wrote:

This is a bug, not user error with the volume settings. Apple, please look into this and feel free to contact me for the logs off my phone.

This is a user-to-user forum. Apple engineers are not reading here. If you want to talk directly to Apple, you can use the Contact Support link at the top right of every page of these forums. In addition to trying to help you, they will also log your issue.

You can also submit feedback here:

Product Feedback - Apple

douglas2010 wrote:

I don't believe "Apple" reads or monitors this discussion forum. Everyone who has had this alarm problem should contact Apple Support and let them know it is a problem.

I believe that very fact has been mentioned several times in this thread. This is a user-to-user forum. Apple's participation is limited. You can contact support using the "Contact Support" link in the upper right corner of every page of these forums.

You can also let Apple know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

This has happened to me lots of times. I plug my phone on charge and missed all the alarms, the phone won’t vibrate or make any sound, even if you try to make a call where is no sound but some static sound. Rather is no key tones when you press the passcode to unlock the phone and the only way to get any sound back is to turn the phone off and on again. I’m on the latest software and my volume is on full and I never use do not disturb at all.

andie512 wrote:

So it's June 2019 and this issue hasn't been resolved? Is there a way to indicate the "Apple Recommended" response does not address anyone's issue?

As there is more than one issue with the same end result, it's going to be hard to present a single answer.

Apple, please fix this issue! You can't have an alarm function that randomly completely fails. People really depend on their alarm.

Apple is not reading here. If you want Apple to know you have a problem, contact customer support using the Contact Support link at the top right of every page of these forums. In addition to walking you through troubleshooting, they will log the problem. So, even if they don't manage to figure out what the issue is in your case, they will have a record. The more data points they have, the more likely they will be able to find solutions to this troubling but, fortunately, rare problem.

I use an App called " Alarm Clock for Me - Wake Up ! " (catchy name isn't it?) , instead of the Apple alarms. And I also rely on a physical alarm clock. I like the iPhone so much that this long-time alarm problem of theirs is not going to cause me to switch phones.

j0hnnyscene wrote:

I had been doing that for a few years. Always setting backups a minute or so after the prior alarm. Woke up (thanks to my Echo) to several alarms showing onscreen on my phone but apparently all snoozed (the phone wasn't even where I could easily reach it), then another alarm went off with no sound at all (without me looking at front camera). Ringer volume was set to max. I have iPhone X.

Unfortunately, it's a rare problem with what appear to be multiple causes. That makes it hard to troubleshoot and hard to resolve. I suggest that everyone who has this problem contact Apple Support. Unless Apple has enough reports and enough information, it's going to be way down the priority list.

fast-tl wrote:

Let me add to the chorus. I have awoken to find the alarm going off, but with no sound. When that happens, the phone (iPhone X) will not play sound form ANY apps, until a restart. Well, when I put the phone down at night, to the best of my knowledge the sound is working, so at some point overnight while charging, perhaps some notification corrupts the software. It hasn't made me late to work YET, but Apple should research and fix what is a software flaw. This also seems to happen in the same breath that responses to screen swipes are delayed. I've had it happen with many apps running and also with only 1 or 2 apps running. This issue seems to go back a couple years. I am on iOS12, for the record. HELP!

"Adding to the chorus" here does nothing to get Apple's attention. As I noted before, it's a rare problem with what appear to be multiple causes. That makes it hard to troubleshoot and hard to resolve. I suggest that everyone who has this problem contact Apple Support. Unless Apple has enough reports and enough information, it's going to be way down the priority list.

So, contact Apple directly.

I have a question for everyone reading this thread. Has anyone actually tried to "Factory Reset" their iPhone ? And if so, did that actually fix this problem? When I contacted Apple Support about the silent alarm bug, that was their final recommended solution to me, but I never did try it out myself. (I use a physical alarm clock, and have been satisfied with that for now.) I think they recommended backing up photos, mail, contacts, etc., before doing the reset, but it was not something that I wanted to deal with at the time I was talking to them.

I started closing all my apps before I sleep about 3 weeks ago and so far no silent alarms.

I still use my 4th gen IPad as a back up alarm. Like many of us I have a job where being late for work is not an option.

It’s not the alarm clock that affects it. Iv has this issue a few times and the whole sound goes and you can hear music or make a phone call. You’ll be able to hear some sort of buzzing sound and once you turn your phone off and on it’s back to normal. It’s coming to a year I bought my iPhone XS Max and never had this issue with my iPhone 7 Plus.

Settings—>Face ID & Passcode (about midway down the options)

There is nothing that can be done. None of the solutions including the one here solve the problem. This has been going on since the iphone 5 and is still present in the iphone 7, and probably the 8 as well. Apple does not know how to fix the problem.

angushc wrote:

This seems to be the common factor - having multiple alarms. Several posters above mention it and have the exact same symptoms that I do. I wonder if some of the other posters with soundless alarms also have several alarms on.

For what it's worth, I generally have about 6-8 alarms set on my phone. They are all recurring. Right now I have six and four of them are enabled. I've never had mine fail.

Because of the fact that this has been a persistent issue over a number of years, devices and version of iOS, I suspect there are really multiple causes. Sadly, that combined with the fact that it affects a comparatively few number of people, means it's brutal to troubleshoot. And, I'm not dismissing anyone's problem by saying it happens to a comparatively few number of people. Obviously, if you're one of those people, it's a big problem. But, if it happened to most people who had an iPhone, it would probably have gotten solved ages ago.

Things that have been implicated:

Recurring alarms

Bedtime

Not having the time settings on the phone updating automatically

The fact that the way the volume settings work on an iPhone are less clear than they might be

And, all the human error stuff.

There are more I'm not remembering