Getting to work an hour late because your iPhone alarm didn’t go off is one of life’s cruelest tricks, but it’s one that an uncomfortably large number of iPhone owners think they’ve fallen victim to in recent weeks.
As reported by US news outlet Today, many iPhone users have taken to social media to complain of iPhone alarm failures, with many of these instances resulting in missed engagements. “I’ve noticed for the past week or so that my alarm just wasn’t waking me up,” says TikTok user @charkaylotte, who owns an iPhone 11, while @elizabethannswenson, in a separate TikTok video, complains of the same issue with their iPhone 15.
Apple has told us that it’s aware of an issue causing some iPhone alarms to not play as expected, and the company is already working on a fix, but we suspect that at least some of the blame can be placed at the door of a little-known iPhone setting that can erroneously cause alarms to play at a lower volume. Allow us to explain.
@elizabethannswenson ♬ original sound - Elizabeth
Introduced with iOS 17 – which, it’s worth noting, is compatible with the iPhone XR upwards – the ‘Attention Aware’ setting allows your iPhone to detect whether you're paying attention to it and will lower alert sounds if it registers that you are (presumably because Apple thinks you don’t want to be subjected to the Radar tone at full volume while looking down the barrel of your iPhone, which is fair).
Some affected users have reported that turning the Attention Aware setting off has solved their silent alarm woes – perhaps because it’s causing their iPhones to mistakenly sense a face during the night – so to do this yourself, head to Settings, Face ID & Passcode, then toggle the Attention-Aware Features tab off.
Apple itself has also encouraged affected users to double-check their selected alert tones under Sounds & Haptics in Settings and clarified that any iPhones in StandBy mode should remain stationary through the night to function correctly.
Reddit users have previously noted that reducing the number of alarms you’ve got set to go off in quick succession can limit the risk of no-shows, as can switching any custom alarm sounds to default ones (which isn't a bad thing in our book, since the iOS 17 alarm tones are so damn good).
Incidentally, activating Do Not Disturb, the Ring/Silent switch or Silent mode has no impact on the Alarm app, so you needn’t subject yourself to the constant ‘ding!’ of notifications when you’re trying to get a good night’s sleep.
Ideally, though, Apple will soon roll out an update that improves the functionality of the ‘Attention Aware’ setting, which appears to be enabled by default.
For more alarm-related content, check out our roundup of the best (and worst) iPhone alarms to wake up to, according to science.
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