- Users are reporting problems with the iPhone’s built-in alarm function
- A Reddit thread reports that some users’ alarms go off late, while others don’t go off at all
- We’ve reached out to Apple for comment, but have yet to hear back
iPhone users are reporting abnormal behavior from their phones’ built-in alarm function, with some alarms sounding hours after the scheduled time and others not going off at all.
A Reddit post shared to r/iphone by user bryanlolwut (via Android Authority ) shows that an iPhone alarm set for 10:30, actually starts at 12:42 p.m., sparked a thread where dozens of users have shared similar experiences.
Some users noted that this has been an ongoing problem – KnowingFalcon, for example, said: “This has been happening to me for ages and I thought I was going insane. I woke up two hours after my alarm went off, looked at my clock and the alarm went off silently with no sound or haptic.”
Others shared stories of alarms going off during their commute to work, with a comment suggesting the issue traces back to iOS 9, which was released in 2015. User giveback11 simply said in response: “I feel justified”.
Whether or not all of these comments reflect reality is almost impossible to determine, but what is clear is that there is a real sense of dissatisfaction in the iPhone user base with what should be one of the most reliable features of any smartphone.
Also, this is not the first time we have reported this issue. After a segment on NBC’s Today Show that highlighted problems with iPhone alerts, Apple issued a statement saying a fix was on the way. Nine months and a full version of iOS later, and it appears the problem persists.
In our previous report, we explained that the Attention Aware feature added with iOS 17 may bear some of the blame – this is a setting that lowers the volume of alerts when your iPhone detects that you’re looking at it.
Still, we’d like to think the iPhone is context-aware enough to determine when a user is asleep, or to simply exclude alerts from the Attention Aware feature.
Granted, we don’t know exactly what model of iPhone or version of iOS user bryanlolwut is working with, but the image shared (above) shows the alarm notifying via Dynamic Island, which would make the phone an iPhone 14 Pro or newer and shows , that even the latest and greatest iPhones are not immune to the problem.
We reached out to Apple for comment on the issue, but have not received a response at the time of writing.
Still, iPhone-owning oversleepers will surely feel some relief from these continued reports, which at least suggest that waking up late might not be entirely their fault. We’ll get the latest updates as we hear them via our dedicated iPhone coverage.
