Apple Confirms iPhone Alarm Failure Reports

Apple has confirmed reports [video link] of a software glitch causing some iPhone alarms to fail to play a sound.

I knew it!!!

[MikeDataLink]

Twice my alarm has not gone off in the last couple of weeks. I thought maybe I just hit STOP instead of SNOOZE while still groggy. This confirms it really never went off!

Thankfully, I generally wake up on time without an alarm.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

well yeah it's your mom after all

we both know you're still weaning and we support you son

Re:I knew it!!!

[Chris Mattern]

I just have a cheap digital alarm clock I got as a subscription bonus for some magazine. Too primitive to fail.

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[Fly Swatter]

The right tool for the job. But even clock radios, which were peak alarm clock aren't the same anymore. Press this button to do this, or hold that button 3 seconds to do that.. wtf. One button one function, how hard can it be?

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[sabbede]

Yeah, the controls were a problem on my last one. The most basic functions must be easily accessible to people who are still mostly asleep. So Snooze and Off must be clearly differentiable by touch. Definitely not one big button that also controls lights. (Talking to you Emerson!)

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[MBGMorden]

Just get an older one (I'm sure Goodwills and eBay is swimming with them). The darned things never seem to break. My alarm clock was a free gift from the electric cooperative that my mom received in like the early 1990's. She gave it to me since she already had one - that thing went with me to college and back and is still waking me up every morning.

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[sglewis100]

If someone wants to go "new", Seiko still makes some surprisingly old school alarm clocks. I picked up one of them for travel, given how little I trust in-room alarm clocks.

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[MBGMorden]

Yeah - I understand using your phone as an alarm when travelling and such, but if you normally sleep in the same place every night, it just makes sense to setup a fixed alarm clock there.

While I USUALLY have my phone in my bedroom, there's non-zero chance it might be downstairs or over in my home office. That fixed alarm will still wake me up though.

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[Smonster]

It in my son’s room now. But I still have a cheap radio alarm clock my dad bought me back in 1991 so I could wake up early morning for a paper route before school. It has a 9 volt battery backup in case the power goes. It still works perfectly.

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[mridoni]

Twice my alarm has not gone off in the last couple of weeks. I thought maybe I just hit STOP instead of SNOOZE while still groggy. !

Same for me. And I don't even have an iPhone.

Re:I knew it!!!

[CAIMLAS]

Yep. I've been bit by this several times myself. Thanks, Apple. You couldn't get basic bundled demo software to work...

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[cbass377]

A quality alarm clock can be had for less than $30. A basic for less than $10.

This happens so often, I am surprised it still makes national news.

But don't worry

[Viol8]

In the next OS update there'll be another 20 new emojis!

Apple putting the effort into where it matters.

[Mac owner, sick of endless bugs in recent versions of MacOS]

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[Anonymous Coward]

15 of them better be woke or I'm organizing a rally.
I want the option of a dark skinned pregnant man and a transwoman with a beard.

ArchieFlunker

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[antdude]

Seriously. Apple's QA is getting worse in everything. I wished we were not forced to update our apps and OSes to be online. :(

It's not a bug it's a feature

[Growlley]

it's a silent a;ar, tellign the cops to repsond as there are donuts.

Overengineering at its finest.

[devslash0]

Even the simplest of apps have grown to unimaginable proportions these days. Always-connected, AI-enhanced, attention-aware, insert any other marketing-loaded adjectives here... and all we wanted was a reliable alarm clock that goes off on time. Apps like these deserve every little bit of user anger that's coming their way. Stop "improving" our apps for the sake of improvement. Realise when it's time to call something "good enough" and leave it be.

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[leptons]

Whatever happened to "It just works"? In many, many cases with Apple products, it doesn't "just work".

Asking For It.

[geekmux]

Even the simplest of apps have grown to unimaginable proportions these days. Always-connected, AI-enhanced, attention-aware, insert any other marketing-loaded adjectives here... and all we wanted was a reliable alarm clock that goes off on time. Apps like these deserve every little bit of user anger that's coming their way. Stop "improving" our apps for the sake of improvement. Realise when it's time to call something "good enough" and leave it be.

Speaking of “good enough”, remember when people weren’t so narcissistic as to be offended and embarrassed over the idea of using an actual physical alarm clock for the simplest of jobs instead of choosing the $800 always-connected, AI-enhanced, attention-aware model because it came in limited edition rose gold purple fartflake?

Just in case you forgot who asked for this overengineering. Literally.

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[geekmux]

Realise when it's time to call something "good enough" and leave it be.

The alarm clock has always been an exception to each and every rule regarding sounds. It can always be argued by someone at any point in time that it was never good enough.

Putting the still-drunk and mostly deaf humans aside for someone reasons, it can be argued that an actual old-fashioned alarm clock armed with dual gongs, was most certainly good enough for many decades. You didn’t bother asking what volume settings it had, because it had one; loud and annoying.

Naturally this was back before waking humans insisted their $800 alarm clocks needed to be nourished like a fucking puppy with daily charging, weekly patching, and hourly coddling.

Another exception is permission to play sound

[SuperKendall]

The alarm clock has always been an exception to each and every rule regarding sounds.

Another way it's an exception is that it is allowed to play sounds at times other apps are not - like if you have sleep mode on, or have turned on the mute switch!

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[AmiMoJo]

Alarms combine two hard things: time and low power. Apple keeps getting screwed by things like DST, and things like sounds failing to play are often due to power management not turning the necessary hardware on.

looks like apple

[ACForever]

has put siri in charge of the alarms

Since i'm addicted to watches and clocks,

[TigerPlish]

Since I'm addicted to watches and clocks, I have a discrete alarm clock, the kind with hands, face, an alarm, and a dial / night light. It's a seiko from 10-15 years ago.

Why must every problem be solved by a smartphone? Yeah, I get it, the "batbelt" is obsolete, camera, walkman, address book and phone all in one -- but who says that one thing has to do every job that needs done?

Sometimes the best tool is a discrete tool. This is one of them. Get a real alarm clock.

And yes, my phone sleeps right next to

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[NFN_NLN]

> Why must every problem be solved by a smartphone?

Actual answer as to why I switched:

I can set an alarm for M-F and no alarm for S-S. That's why I transitioned off a legacy alarm clock.

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[cruff]

You could have modded your legacy alarm clock.

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[Calydor]

My clock radio can do that. Also beams the current time unto the ceiling of my bedroom so I can see what time it is at night without burning out my retinas.

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[sabbede]

I've had several clock radios with that feature. Many, if not most, do nowadays. My only problem is that I can't find one that wasn't made by child-slaves in China.

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[TigerPlish]

I can set an alarm for M-F and no alarm for S-S. That's why I transitioned off a legacy alarm clock.

Is flipping a toggle on the side of a clock once a day that much of a hassle?

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[NFN_NLN]

Waking up on time and getting sleep on the weekend are both considered critical functions.
It is too to depend on daily flipping.

That's like asking is going to the well for water once a day that big of a deal? Is washing dishes by hand that big of a deal?

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[sabbede]

I'm right there with you. I was even once mocked for complaining that I couldn't find a good alarm clock - "but you have a phone!" No! I want my clock-radio to wake me up with my local news and weather, not a dang ringtone. And I want it there always, providing the time at a glance.

Anyhow, in the spirit of shared sentiment, I present you with this: https://youtu.be/vlN17gMhnEk?s... [youtu.be]

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[kamapuaa]

Right O. For this very reason I like to go around town with my flip phone. I also carry a camera, a cell phone, a Garmin GPS, and old iPod, a calculator, a laptop, an e-reader, and a flashlight.

So does this mean ...

[Cowardly Lurker]

... who says that one thing has to do every job that needs done? Sometimes the best tool is a discrete tool. ...

So does this mean that iPhones are the systemd of alarm clock technology?

Apple is copying Windows now!

[Voyager529]

Ohh, this brings back memories...

Back in the Windows Mobile days, I had an HTC Excalibur [wikipedia.org] (branded as the T-Mobile Dash in my case).

The alarm was useless because it was a dice roll as to what would happen. Sometimes it would make a sound at 7AM like it was supposed to. Sometimes, it'd make a sound at 9:27. Sometimes it wouldn't make a sound at all, but would instead show a silent screen notification. Sometimes it would make its sound, but would do so with like 30 iterations, so you had to hit the 'stop' butt

Oblig

[Megahard]

https://xkcd.com/937/ [xkcd.com]

excuses.push_back("iPhone alarm had a bug");

[sinkskinkshrieks]

SJ forgot to rollover in his grave because the damn buggy iOS failed. This is what happens when a bean counter is allowed to lead.

Android beats iOS again

[cdmn1]

My alarms have been failing in Android since 3.x days, from ANR's to silent alarms to "missed notifications" with negative time elapsed. Seemed to have stabilized in later Android versions but I'm currently on 13 and the alarms have started failing again. The enshitification is real, alarm clocks or even SD card access seem like an impossible feature nowadays.