During the spring, iPhone users were sleeping late and arriving at work, school, or doctor’s appointments very late due to a problem with the handset’s alarm clock. On April 30th, some TikTok videos from iPhone users were shown on NBC’s Today Show, where they complained that their preset iPhone alarms were not going off. Apple then stated that it was working on fixing the issue, but iPhone users continued to complain.
Yesterday on Reddit, user Bryanlolwut posted a picture of his iPhone and Apple Watch together, showing that the alarm he set for 10:30 AM didn’t go off until 12:42 PM. The problem isn’t just with the alarm, but also with reminders set on the iPhone, which are malfunctioning. According to one Redditor, the reminders he set for 10:30 and 10:45 (AM or PM was not specified) went off randomly after 11:00 AM.
Another Redditor mentioned that those who are calling it an iOS 18 issue are wrong, as their alarms and reminders were delayed by hours, but their iPhone was running iOS 17. In fact, this is not a new problem; it has been an issue since 2009. There is even a case of a user who purchased a cheap alarm clock after missing an important exam because the alarm on his iPhone never went off.
While this may not seem like a serious issue, the consequences of oversleeping can be just as severe. As one Redditor wrote today, “I use my iPhone alarm along with an alarm from Amazon. One morning, it just didn’t go off and almost failed.”
When a similar problem occurred in 2023, Apple asked iPhone users to go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and enter their passcode. On the next page, they should toggle off “Attention Aware,” a feature that keeps the iPhone display from dimming and-if it detects you staring at the screen-reduces the volume of some alerts. It was believed that alarms weren’t going off because the device was mistakenly recognizing your face while you were looking at the phone’s display.
Apparently, this is still an issue for many iPhone users who rely on their iPhone alarms to wake up at a certain time. If you are experiencing this issue, you can always rely on the alarm on your Apple Watch or iPad. If you have an old phone lying around, charge it up, connect it to your Wi-Fi network, and set the alarm on that device. Hopefully, we will eventually see Apple release an update to fix this issue, which is causing many iPhone users to lose their jobs, miss school, or fail to get a serious health diagnosis.
