iPhone alarm is silent randomly

What seems to trigger this issue for me is playing a podcast that hasn't been completely downloaded. When it reaches the end of the file, a notification appears saying it needs to connect to the internet to download the rest. I'm asleep while this is happening, so I know nothing about it until I wake up late again and see the iPad lit up on the stop/snooze screen, but with no audible alarm.

I only use Bedtime, with no other alarms set.

Bedtime silences alarms. And if the phone is not connected to power when it is locked then Wi-Fi is turned off to preserve the battery. If you charge the phone overnight it should resolve the podcast problem.

I contacted Apple about this problem, and for a while I was in email discussions with them. I finally told them I would use my $12 alarm clock for any important alerts, because the alarms and alerts do work correctly on the phone about 85 percent of the time. Either this bug is not a priority for them, or they do not have a solution yet. (BTW, I have never used BedTime, and the silent-alarm bug did happen to me again today.)

I suspect there is more than one cause for the symptom. When a very small (compared to the number of iPhone users) number of people have an intermittent problem, it can be extremely hard to troubleshoot.

This exact issue is happening to me after the iOS 12 update. Is there any different advice? Btw I didn't accept the update for iOS 12. When I woke 2 days ago my phone was updated and my alarm has not worked since. I've tried every troubleshoot listed on iPhone alarm. Please resolve, would really appreciate an iPhone with functional utilities.

Another user here, with the same issue. In this case, Alarms were just copied over from my old iPhone 6 to the new XS via iTunes backup/restore, and nothing changed. They worked on the iPhone 6, but my first morning with the iPhone XS my phone lit up with the screen indicating the alarm was going off, but there was no sound. On that day, the silence switch was in the silent position. Since then, I've also had the same happen with the silent switch in the normal ring position, so it's not related to that. Behavior is random, sometimes the alarm sounds... sometimes it doesn't. You never know.

In my case, it affects not just the alarm, but timers. No, there are no headphones plugged in, and there is no bluetooth headset or other device in this house to which it would be connected.

APPLE, PLEASE FIX THIS!!!

I’m having the same issue! I’ve overslept for work and classes because of this and it’s really messing up my grades. My alarm won’t go off at random. It works some of the time, and then it won’t go off other times (I’m using the normal alarm function, not bedtime if that makes a difference). I set multiple alarms; some of them are vibrate only (wakes me more gently) and then others are vibrate AND sound to fully wake me up. I’ve had issues with neither going off. Just today I had an appointment earlier in the morning and my alarms went off just fine. The appointment ended up being cancelled so I set new alarms to get up in time for class and went back to bed—then none of the new alarms went off. It was the same day. None of the settings changed, and it can’t be a sound issue because it didn’t vibrate either. My boyfriend confirmed they didn’t go off—he’s a light sleeper and my alarms didn’t wake him up either. It’s really upsetting because I depend on these alarms. I’ve had this issue in the past as well but it’s eventually gone away without any explanation of what was wrong. I’m currently using an iPhone 7 on iOS 11.3.1. I’m going to try updating to iOS 12 and see if that helps but based on the other replies here it might not.…

Unfortunately, IOS 12 didn’t fix the issue. Mine behaves exactly the same. The only option I know of is buy an old school alarm clock. None of my kids’ phones have this issue but if yours does there seems to be no fix.

Same here. I don't keep my volume up for anything and never had this issue before, until the last couple software updates. The alarm volume had ALWAYS been a separate entity, as it SHOULD be. It should never be dependant on the ringer VOLUME or the volume of anything else. Please fix it Apple. I've been in the cell sales game since before the very first iPhone was released and this has never been an issue. Boo.

For that, use do not disturb. In any case, it's quite annoying to get up late, or not at all, because of this glitch. I've sold cell phones since before the first iPhone was released and have owned every iPhone on the market and never had this issue until about the release of the iPhone in September and, subsequently, the new software. Neither have any of my thousands of customers. Trust me when I tell you I'd have heard about it by now and I'm getting sick of hearing if since September. The alarm volume should be independent of ALL other volume controls.

This issue first appeared for me with an iphone 5 C a few years ago (maybe 2014?). I gave up and switched to a 3rd party app which is OK. When I first reported it the apple store swapped out the handset but it happened again immediately. I have just had a go this week with 'bedtime' feature thinking it looked quite good and thinking 'surely the silent alarm bug can't be a thing anymore...' well unfortunately it is!! 3 days in and I wake up later than planned with stop/snooze displayed on the screen with no sound. Back to a standard alarm clock for me! Shocked that this is still an issue.

This is so frustrating to see how Apple is not even caring about one of the critical bug.

When I wake up, I see bedtime display with NO SOUND!

Alarm/bedtime is supposed to make SOUND.

At times I have doubted myself. But after reading this thread, I'm sure that my ears are fine.

Also, in the bedtime Options, there are not many good sounds. All are very low in volume. However, in vibrations, I see a ton of options along with "Create New Vibration"!!. Who the **** is the product manager for this? You are trying to construct a fine building without a basement.!

I would be really happy if this bedtime never works. I would've used some other phone for the alarm. But sometimes it works. That the problem of uncertainty. First, fix this random bug and then add more sounds. Later you can let kids create custom vibrations!

It's not just the bedtime feature, it's the regular alarm as well. If you edit the alarm and then go to the ringtone or sound set for it, then okay the sound over and over until you can adjust the volume as loud as you want, it eliminates the issue... Until the next software update that often happens whole we sleep. Then the whole problem starts again. So frustrating. This volume should NEVER have to be worried about!!!!!!!!

I don't believe that Apple actually reads or monitors this thread. If someone can please post the best link for directly contacting Apple, I think we should all use that link and send Apple an email about this problem so that they will be sure to know about it. Thanks.

Okay thanks. I did use the link at the top right of this page (visible once I had scrolled up to the top). I contacted Apple through Chat. They had someone call me. He said that since I have had this problem through 3 different Apple phones, he thinks there may have been an old bug that got transported from backup to restore each time I upgraded phones. He suggested I set my iCloud settings to backup everything that is worth saving, and once I know the iCloud has a complete backup of everything I need on my phone, I should then do a reset to original factory settings. And he said he will send me an email explaining how to do all of this. I told him I will probably try this solution in the near future when I have more time (but I guess I cannot complain until I have tried it, since he seemed to think it would fix the problem for me).