iOS 17 users across the internet are growing increasingly frustrated over a bug that’s causing alarms to fail to go off at their designated times, or sometimes, go off with no sound or vibration, but just an alert on iPhone.
Reports of the bug were first shared back in late September following iOS 17’s public debut, but the issue is now once again gaining steam online. A Reddit post, which at the time of writing is just 24 hours old, has nearly 2,600+ upvotes, around 1,000 comments, and includes users sharing their experience with the inconvenient bug.
Users report a variety of experiences, but they all share the common issue that alarms fail to go off on versions of iOS 17, even when set. Other scenarios include the alarms going off, only to fade away silently seconds later. Some users on Reddit report the issue is only present on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, while others with older devices report a similar experience.
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I don’t know whether to blame it on iOS 17 or the 15 Pro Max. But since I’ve gotten this phone I’ve had 4 alarms “go off” but not make any sound. I’ll wake up after the specified time and my screen says my alarm is going off, but making absolutely no sound, nor is it vibrating. I sleep with DND turned on and that’s never been a problem in the past. Even when I hold the volume down button until it’s at its lowest setting, my iPhone has STILL made noise and been loud enough to wake me up.
u/BROzooka_Arms
Users have diagnosed the issue as possibly being related to Face ID’s Attention Aware feature. Attention Aware uses the iPhone’s TrueDepth camera system to detect when a user is looking at the display, and therefore not lock the screen.
With iOS 17, Apple introduced StandBy mode, which offers a unique landscape experience when the iPhone is docked and charging. The most common use case for StandBy is on a nightstand, and some users believe the TrueDepth camera system is incorrectly detecting a user’s face while they are sleeping and facing their iPhone, causing the system to silence alarms.
While purely speculative as to the cause of the bug, disabling Attention Aware features seems to be the best short-term solution to solving the problem. Other users also found that disabling StandBy itself solved the issue. The most recent bug might have some connection to reports from October of iPhone models shutting down unexpectedly during the night, resulting in failed alarms, silenced notifications, and disrupted background tasks.
Apple this week released iOS 17.2.1 for iPhone users, but did not provide details on what bugs and security patches the update addresses. It’s plausible the update addressed some underlying bug related to the alarms, but the verdict is still up in the air.
