Apple has acknowledged ongoing issues with the reliability of the iPhone’s built-in alarm feature, first reported by NBC’s Today morning show. Despite Apple’s efforts to address these problems, many users are still experiencing alarm failures. For instance, Android Authority highlighted a Reddit post where a user reported their alarm set for 10:30 went off at 12:42 instead, coinciding with the time shown on an Apple Watch.
As of Thursday, numerous Reddit users continued to share their experiences within the thread, revealing that they are facing similar issues with their alarms.
One user, Slawek_Zupa, described their experience: “My morning alarm was displaying as going off while making no sound and no haptics for 40 minutes.” Another user reported that their alarm rang at 5 PM instead of the scheduled 7 AM.
The complaints reported in the thread include users still on iOS 17 alongside those who have updated to iOS 18, indicating a widespread issue across different iOS versions.
Some users have attempted to resolve the issue by disabling Apple’s Attention Awareness Features, which may lower alarm volume if the iPhone detects the user’s face. However, this workaround has not worked for many, and disabling it means sacrificing full notifications on the lock screen.
We have reached out to Apple for further insights regarding this persistent issue but have yet to receive a response. Personally, I’ve also observed that my iPhone sometimes fails to produce sounds or vibrations in the morning, though it still shows a notification as if it did. Fortunately, my Google Pixel 8 Pro serves as a reliable backup, and I am experimenting with the Nintendo Alarmo as well, though my wife is not a fan of the frequent Zelda wake-up calls.
