One of the things that’s so useful about iPhones is that they serve many different purposes besides just making phone calls. Each one is like a miniature computer, and, as such, there are all sorts of tasks that you can assign to your device. For instance, many people like to use theirs as an alarm clock to help them get up in the mornings. But what if your iPhone’s alarm isn’t going off like it is supposed to? We researched this problem and came up with a few possible solutions for you to try.
Check Your iPhone’s Sound and Volume Levels
As with any iPhone problem, it’s best to eliminate the most obvious-seeming answers first. In this case, that would mean checking the device’s sound and volume levels. Go to Settings, then Sound and Haptics. Scroll down to where you see Ringers and Alerts. Turn the volume up as high as it will go by dragging it to the far right. That might be what it takes for you to hear the alarm loud and clear again.
The other thing that you can do in this area is to make sure that you don’t have the alarm sound set to None. This is one of the options for the alarm, and if that is what you have it set to, it’s essentially the equivalent of silence even if the alarm is going off.
Tap Clock, then Alarm. Tap the plus icon that you see in the upper right-hand corner. Next, tap Sound and choose one of the ringtones that you would like to use for your alarm.
Resetting the iPhone Might Fix the Alarm
If that didn’t work, you could next reset the iPhone. This option fixes so many minor software glitches, and it’s easy to do. Go to Settings, then General. Go to Reset, then Reset All Settings. This should not cause any data loss, so you don’t have to worry about backing the phone up beforehand. Once the process is complete, test out the alarm again and see if it is working.
Have You Installed Any Third-Party Alarm Apps?
You might have chosen to install and use a third-party alarm app rather than using the function that comes built into the iPhone. There are many different third-party apps for this purpose, and the one you chose might be interfering with the functionality of your device’s alarm.
Usually, the only way to tell whether that is happening is to uninstall the third-party app. Do this, then try the iPhone’s alarm again. If it works now, you’ll know that it was the third-party app that was causing the problem.
The Issue Might Have to do with the Bedtime Feature
When iOS version 11 came out, one of the new features that was a part of it was called Bedtime. The intention of it was to help people who were having problems with their sleep cycle go to bed and wake up according to a set pattern. There was a minor bug with it in some cases, though, where it worked helping people go to bed but not so much in waking up the next morning.
To see if Bedtime is the problem, go to the Clock app, then disable Bedtime and create a standard alarm instead. Try it to see if it works. If it does, then that was likely the culprit.
You might also try installing the most recent version of iOS to see if this fixes the bug. To do it, head to Settings, then General. Hit Software Update. If there is an update available, you will see a notification for it. Hit Install Update and the iPhone will download the latest version of iOS for you.
Restoring Your iPhone with iCloud Might Fix the Alarm
The next thing you can try if none of our suggestions so far have worked is to back up and then restore your iPhone. You should first do a backup through iCloud.
- If you are restoring your device through iCloud, then you’ll need to go to Settings, then General, and Software Update. If there’s a newer version of iOS available, then install it.
- Next, go back to General, then from there go to Reset.
- Scroll down to where you see Erase All Content and Settings, and tap it.
- On the Apps and Data screen, you will see the option to Restore from iCloud Backup. Sign in to iCloud.
- Go to Choose Backup. Select the most recent backup that you did for the device. Wait a couple of minutes as this process occurs.
When it’s finished, any minor bugs or glitches should hopefully be eliminated, including whatever was happening with the alarm.
You Can Also Try Downgrading the Version of iOS You’re Running
Generally speaking, it’s advisable to have the latest version of iOS running on your iPhone. It’s going to have the latest features from Apple. It does sometimes happen, though, that one particular version of iOS proves problematic in certain areas.
If you just got the latest version of iOS, and you notice that only then are you having problems with the alarm not going off, then it makes sense to think that the two could be related. You could go back to the earlier version of iOS that you were running, and that might fix the issue.
To do so, you can plug your iPhone into a laptop or PC on which you are running iTunes. Look on the upper left-hand side of the screen, where iTunes should recognize the device. Click on Summary, where it will say what version of iOS you are running.
You should see the option that says Restore iPhone. Make sure that it is the right backup before clicking on it, the one that was running the older version of iOS. Once you confirm that is the case, go ahead and do it. Within a minute or two you should get the older version back on your phone, and now you can check to see if the alarm is functioning normally again.
It Might Be a Hardware Problem
If none of this has worked satisfactorily, then the issue is likely one of hardware rather than software. The easiest way to know whether this is likely or not is to consider whether anything has happened to the phone recently. Has it been out of the protective case and you’ve dropped it, for instance? Has it gotten submerged in water, or has another liquid or some food spilled on it? Have you been traveling and it has gotten bounced around in transit? 
If there is any external damage or you know that the phone has gone through some rough treatment, then it’s possible the alarm not working is one of the results. If you suspect that is the case, the best thing that you can do is to take the iPhone to an Apple Store where the Geniuses can look at it. They can open it up to check for damage, and replace any broken components that they find.
