iPhone message tone notifications inconsistent

I got an iPhone 8 Plus iOS 11.2.1and none of my previous fixes on the other phones would work so I spent a lot of time trying to find the solution on so many sites and what it came down to in the end was so simple. Turn your Bluetooth off and back on.

I got an iPhone 8 Plus iOS 11.2.1and none of my previous fixes on the other phones would work so I spent a lot of time trying to find the solution on so many sites

Tweagle wrote:

My problem with message tones is this: when a new conversation is started I get a notification tone, but for subsequent messages the tone reverts to a kind of Swoosh in reverse, not audible unless you're looking out for it. If I make any changes in the course of the conversation such as choosing a new tone, the next incoming message sounds it correctly, then subsequent messages lose that tone again. I have checked Messages, Notifications and Sounds settings, have restarted and hard reset, and re-installed iOS11. Any ideas?

and what it came down to in the end was so simple. Turn your Bluetooth off and back on.

Folks for those of you facing the issue where Bluetooth is the is the cause of lost notification sounds here is a fix.

It seems the issue is caused by one of your stored/saved Bluetooth devices. This can easily be resolved by removing/forgetting/deleting one device at a time from your list of Bluetooth devices and sending yourself a test message after removing each device to see if it solves the problem of notifications. Eventually you’ll delete one of the devices and find suddenly you’re receiving sounds notifications again and identify the culprit. Then you can try adding yet device again to the list of stored Bluetooth devices and see if it the sounds keep working or not.

This work d for me and turned it one particular Bluetooth device I rarely used but was stored on the list in my phone was somehow stopping the notification sounds. After reading the device I am still receiving the sounds so the solution worked really well.

Turning Bluetooth off does nothing for me. Still am not getting any audible alerts, just vibrations. This issue just started on my iPhone 7 yesterday 1/9/18. Nothing has been changed or updated on my phone. Still at iOS 11.2. Have not updated to 11.2.2 because a friend of mine had to wipe and restore his iPhone 6 after applying this minor update.

I powered off my phone yesterday and turned it back on. Notification sounds returned for a few minutes, then disappeared again????

Same issue here and turning bluetooth off and back on did not enable the audible alert. If anyone has found a way to have both the apple watch and imessage work fully after the update it would really help.

Tried everything listed here and a few other message boards. The only think that worked was turning Bluetooth off. I tried turning it back on and discovered that I would not get a notification from my lock screen again. I even checked in Bluetooth to see if I was connecting to anything such as one of the cars, speakers, sound bar, etc and I was not. This is very frustrating. I hope Apple fixes this at some point. I do like my new $1,150. iPhone X but for this price they need to get rid of that notch (ok, can’t do that until next phone) and fix this issue with lock screen notifications while Bluetooth on. Apple- please listen.

I have the exact same situation with my X. Frustrating situation as I set the phone down with the conversation open and walk away to come back to a important text with just a "swoosh" sound, no chime or alert tone that had been assigned to this contact.

It definitely has to do with bluetooth.

I have my fitbit connected with my iphone SE.

I do get notifications on my fitbit, but most of the time not on my iphone.

Since one of the latest iOs 11 versions there is also a problem with connecting with my car kit.

Faces with this problem too but followed the recommendations to off the bluetooth and managed to solve this problem. Is Apple doing anything about this? Cannot be the case where we do not use our bluetooth to connect other devices forever?

I'm having this issue too - STILL (iPhone X, iOS 11, up to date.) It's affecting text messages and phone (my phone doesn't ring, but I do usually get a voicemail notification - not much help...) It's about 90% of the time; with text messages I don't get a banner, a sound, or anything, just a badge.

My notification settings are all as they should be, including checking the sounds; DND is turned off, mute switch also off. I tried turning off bluetooth - magically the text notification worked again. After turning bluetooth back on, no text sound.

Fixing it by turning off bluetooth is a huge problem. I use my bluetooth for my watch, my echo, my headphones. Has anyone heard anything about a fix from apple? It's really frustrating.

What's even more annoying is that my phone just doesn't ring. Ever. There I am waiting for important calls and.... I get a voicemail notification. Brilliant....

edited: I also read this at appletoolbox, which I guess solves the question about why bluetooth is the fix. But it's annoying - my watch is usually on silent but with haptics, and I think it usually does buzz for messages (although it's hard to say for sure as I just can't remember)

"If your iPhone pairs to an Apple Watch, by design your paired iPhone does not chime when a new text arrives. Instead, Apple routes your alerts to your Apple Watch, especially when the iPhone is locked.

As of now, there is no option to play a sound alert on BOTH your Apple Watch and your iPhone at the same time. It’s one or the other, based on the locked status of your phone. The rule of thumb is if your phone is unlocked, notifications go to the iPhone. If your phone is locked, notifications go to your watch."

Similar issue here. All notifications set properly. First noticed it with the Ring doorbell. With bluetooth off, the ring notification audio works. With Bluetooth on, only the banner works, but not the audio notification. Text notifications are sometimes, but not consistent. Other apps only work in audio, with Bluetooth off.

I have an iPhone X. I’ve called Apple Support numerous times dating all the way back to November 2017 when I first got the phone, because it would only intermittently emit a text tone. I backed it up and restored it as a new phone, but it made absolutely no difference. Apple finally replaced the phone for me, and when I got home from the Apple store, I found that the problem affected the new phone. I read somewhere on this site that if the text conversation is open, the phone won’t play a text tone. It will make a “whoosh“ sound, but it’s only audible if you’re looking at the phone. But if you use the arrow that’s on the left of the message screen and close out the conversation so that you only see who the text is from and one line of writing, the next time someone texts you, it will play a text tone. It’s somewhat inconvenient, but it seems to remedy the problem.

It's a bit disturbing that it was working (I was getting a tone and vibrate when I got an e-mail message) and within an hour with it just sitting beside me, it started vibrate only. All settings were correct, if I went to Sounds and Haptics the sound was correctly set and I could tap it and hear it without issue (so not a speaker issue or a tone issue), and I never have Bluetooth on, but I followed the first rule of IT: reboot. I turned it off and back on again and it's working again. This is a brand new phone, less than a week old on iOS11.3, so I'm not sure why this started and it makes me a bit nervous for a new phone to do this. Given that this seems to be an issue for a lot of people, and since this is my only phone so I depend on it, I would think that Apple would do more digging into why this is happening since iOS 11 was released. I had it happen on my old iPhone as well (but I blamed it on age and rebooted each time it happened), so it has to be an issue with the operating system. I started seeing it with iOS 11, but it's still going on in iOS 11.3.

I have a brand new iPhone X. Apple replaced the old phone (which was only five months old) because of the text tone problem, but the new phone does the exact same thing. I only intermittently get a text tone. When my husband texts me from his Android phone, my iPhone will make a text sound but, in order for it to make a sound the next time he texts, I have to back out of the text so only the header shows. This is not the case when others text me. Most of my friends have iPhones, and backing out of the text doesn't remedy the problem. Whether it makes a text tone or not is totally random. I have wasted hours on the phone with Apple Support, and they all say they've never heard of this problem. I find this hard to believe since over 1,000 people have posted that they have the same problem. Another of my friends said her phone worked fine until she did the last update, and now her phone doesn't make text sounds either. I'm totally disgusted with Apple and the fact that they deny the existence of this issue, and I don't know what to do except continually check the phone to see if there are text messages on it. There is no point in going back to the Apple store and getting a new phone or wasting more time with Apple Support because the problem is in the software.

Wow! This is a great find. I turned off my Apple Watch, then turned off Bluetooth and magically SMS works perfectly. I just got the SMS code needed to log in for this forum normally.

For me this problem seems to be only SMS and not iMessages. I think some SMS come through to my Apple Watch, but not all. And when Watch is off, they seem to never alert. I called Apple and they seemed unaware of any problem. My case is still open, so I'm going to pass this on. Maybe they'll get it right by iOS 12 or 13.... 😐