iPhone alarm glitch leaves thousands of furious users facing a surprise lie-in - as one vents 'I felt crazy trying to explain this to my boss'
There's nothing more panic-inducing than waking up and seeing you've somehow slept through all of your alarms.
But if missed alarms have made you late to work recently, it might not be your fault.
An iPhone glitch has caused alarms not to ring on time or to trigger silently, leaving thousands to face a surprise lie-in.
Apple said it was working on a fix for this issue as far back as April last year, but furious users say the feature still isn't working.
Despite last week's software update, which provided 'important bug fixes', the issue appears to be affecting even the latest versions of iOS.
Frustrated Apple fans have flocked to social media to vent their annoyance and share examples of their faulty alarms.
On Reddit, a user shared an image of an alarm set for 10:30 which ultimately triggered at 12:42 later that night.
One commenter wrote: 'Thank you! I felt crazy trying to explain this to my boss and not sound like I’m lying.'
An iPhone glitch is causing thousands of users to face an unexpected lie-in when their alarms fail to activate or produce any sound (file photo)
Apple first acknowledged an issue with the alarm feature in the clock app last year when it revealed that engineers were working on the fix.
However, since then, users have continued to report significant issues with their alarms.
The glitch causes alarms that are set for a specific time to fail to trigger or only to activate several hours later.
'I over slept today for work and was p***** started driving to work as I got there late my alarms started going off,' one Reddit commenter wrote.
Another said that their alarms set for five in the morning only turned on at seven later that day.
However, many users also report that their alarms activate only as silent notifications on the home screen rather than ringing in any way that could wake them up.
On Reddit, a commenter wrote: 'My morning alarm was displaying as going off while making no sound and no haptics for 40 minute.'
Another added: 'I’ve had multiple days where I’ve been late because my alarm goes off… in silent mode. I look at my phone and the alarm screen is up, but the phone is silent.'
One Reddit user shared a picture of a 10:30 alarm (left) which actually went off at 12:42, as shown on the user's Apple Watch (right)
On X, iPhone users slammed Apple for failing to fix the issue which has been causing the alarm app to malfunction
One user joked that Apple was a 'trillion dollar company but can't make a functioning alarm app'
Additionally, users report that these issues occur on multiple iPhone models and software versions including the latest iOS 18.2 update.
In another post, one user said they upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro Max to an iPhone 16 Pro Max in the hopes of fixing the problem.
However, the user found that their alarms were still ringing silently.
Meanwhile, on X, commenters slammed Apple for failing to fix this key issue with one user joking: 'Apple trillion dollar company but can't even make a functioning alarm app lol.'
Another commenter wrote: 'Apple needs to get its act together. My iPhone and Apple Watch alarm have failed to ring countless time.'
If you are experiencing problems with alarms not ringing, the first thing to check is whether your phone's volume is actually turned up.
Cranking up your iPhone's media volume, which makes music or videos louder, doesn't actually change the volume of alerts.
To do this, open Settings and tap on the tab marked 'Sound and Haptics'.
Apple acknowledged the issue last April when it said that a fix was on the way. However, users' reports suggest that the big is still causing problems (file photo)
One possible solution is to turn off 'Attention Aware Features' which turns down the volume on some alerts when the phone recognises a user's face
From there, turn the 'RINGTONE AND ALERTS' slider up to full to ensure your phone will ring loudly.
It can also help to turn 'Change with Buttons' off since this makes it easy to accidentally mute your alarms throughout the day.
If that doesn't work, some users have reported success by disabling the 'Attention Aware Features' on the iPhone.
This option checks whether you are looking at your phone to do things like expand notifications on the home screen, but it also mutes alarms that go off while you're on your phone.
If you sleep with your phone on a stand or the bed near you, this might mute alarms before they have a chance to wake you up.
To turn this feature off, open Settings and navigate to 'Face ID & Passcodes' and toggle 'Attention Aware Features' off.
While this has worked for some users, not everyone says this has fixed the issue and deactivating the setting means missing out on some handy features.
Apple has been contacted for comment.
Apple Intelligence: The best features
Apple Intelligence is essentially a snazzy brand name for Apple's new-found focus on AI, triggered by the huge success of the ChatGPT.
Here's a look at some of the best features of Apple Intelligence, which comes to the UK via the new iOS 18.2 operating system.
ChatGPT-Siri integration
Surely the biggest part of Apple Intelligence is the integration of OpenAI's hugely popular chatbot ChatGPT with Siri, Apple's in-built virtual assistant.
With better 'language-understanding capabilities' enabled by ChatGPT, Siri will help you across multiple apps and 'accelerate everyday tasks', Apple said.
You'll be able to press and hold the side button to activate Siri as normal, but with ChatGPT behind it Siri will be able to 'answer thousands of questions about how to do something' that it couldn't before.
iOS 18 users will be asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer
For example, you could say, 'Play that podcast that Jamie recommended' and Siri will locate and play the episode, without the user having to remember whether it was mentioned in a text or an email.
Or you could ask, 'When is mum's flight landing?' and Siri will find the flight details and cross-reference them with real-time flight tracking to give an arrival time.
AI-generated emoji
If you can never quite find the emoji you're looking for during chat conversations, Apple has the answer.
One of the more fun parts of Apple Intelligence is AI-generated emoji, which Apple has called 'Genmoji' (a mix of 'generated' and 'emoji').
In the Messages app, you can type a short description of the emoji you want – such as 'smiley relaxing wearing cucumbers' or 'squirrel DJ'.
AI-generated emoji: In the Messages app, users can type a short description (e.g. 'smiley relaxing wearing cucumbers') to get a unique emoji to send to someone
Similar to AI tools that just need a few words to create weird artworks, from that single prompt Genmoji returns an AI-generated approximation of what you had in mind.
If you don't like what the AI has made for you, there are a few back-up options for you to choose from.
Clean Up
Apple's Clean Up tool for the Photos app makes ultra-clean edits to photos – without any telltale signs that the snap has been tampered with in any way.
It lets users remove 'distracting objects' from the background of a photo – for example a photobomber in the background of a family snap.
Clean Up is very similar to Google's photo-editing technology 'Magic Eraser' for its Pixel phones, heavily promoted in Google adverts in recent years.
The new Clean Up tool in Apple's Photos app can identify and remove 'distracting objects' in the background of a photo
But the technology has been described by some as 'Orwellian' as it can distort reality and 'create a false memory'.
Referring to Clean Up, one commenter said it 'can be misused' because it 'makes deleting evidence easy'.
Image Playground
AI also powers a new image-generating tool called 'Image Playground', which is available on multiple apps, including Messages and Pages.
With Image Playground, users can create images in a few seconds, choosing from three styles – 'animation', 'illustration' and 'sketch'.
Image Playground allows users to create fun images in seconds, choosing from three styles - Animation, Illustration and Sketch
A promo image appears to show a photo of a person being turned into a video game-style 3D avatar wearing a spacesuit in the 'animation' setting.
Rather like Genmoji, this 'exciting' image creation tool will help iPhone owners 'communicate and express themselves in new ways', the company says.
Movie Memories
The vast media storage capabilities of an iPhone means its always tempting to look back through your photos and video for a burst of nostalgia.
Recognizing this, Apple has come up with 'Movie Memories', an AI tool that creates the perfect home movie to watch on your device.
By typing a short description – for example 'last summer in our garden' – the AI can search your media library and and arrange photos and clips into a movie 'with its own narrative arc'.
Movie Memories picks out the best photos and videos based on a user’s description and arranges it all into a movie with its own narrative arc
And as no movie is quite as good without a bit of music, you'll get song suggestions from Apple Music to match the memory.
Again, Apple stresses the privacy aspect of using an AI to search through your private life.
'As with all Apple Intelligence features, user photos and videos are kept private on device and are not shared with Apple or anyone else,' it says.
AI writing tools
Using AI to make your writing extra concise is not a new thing – for example Microsoft's Copilot AI is creating first drafts and suggesting edits in Word.
But now Apple is jumping on the bandwagon with its own AI-powered writing tools.
The tech will rewrite, proofread and summarize text on multiple apps, including Mail, Notes and Pages, as well as some third-party apps.
'Whether tidying up class notes, ensuring a blog post reads just right, or making sure an email is perfectly crafted, Writing Tools help users feel more confident in their writing,' the firm says.
