Apple is addressing an iPhone software vulnerability that caused some users recently to fail to play a sound when the time set in the Alarm Clock app arrived. The news comes from NBC's Emilie Ikeda and Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal.
The issue was brought up on NBC's Today Show this morning, and has previously been a concern on social media platforms like TikTok. It's unclear how many iPhone users are experiencing the issue, but not everyone is affected. While some TikTok users have claimed that the iPhone's "Follow Alerts" feature may be contributing to the problem, Apple hasn't revealed the exact cause.
The promised fixes may be included in future software updates, such as iOS 17.4.2 or iOS 17.5, but Apple has not provided a timeline for resolving the issue.
Apple is fixing a potentially effective workaround for the iPhone alarm clock not ringing issue:
Some users believe that the problem may be related to the iPhone's "Gaze Awareness" feature. The feature is designed to adjust notification volume based on what the user is looking at, but users have speculated that it may be incorrectly detecting the user's attention, causing the alarm volume to be lowered even when the user is asleep. Nonetheless, Apple has yet to confirm whether this is the exact cause of the problem.
To disable Gaze Awareness, you can open the Settings app, then tap Face ID & Password, and then turn off "Gaze Awareness.
