tl;dr

  1. Check your iOS permissions on your Sleep focus mode Settings > Focus > Sleep > Apps
  2. Ensure that your alarm app is present in that list
  3. Review your notification settings to ensure those apps are allowed to send notifications

I have had inconsistent alarm notification issues on my iPhone 15 Pro for over a year. I started noticing that if the Sleep focus mode was enabled it would counteract with my other alarm apps and I was starting to lose confidence that my alarms would run at all. Over time this became a nightly ritual where I proactively disabled the Sleep focus mode before bed and ensure that my apps would run.

Fast forward to this week, in some sort of dumb luck I was poking through the settings on my phone and noticed that the Sleep Focus didn’t allow any apps to send notifications. I didn’t think much of it in the moment, but for shits and giggles added the Sleep, Alarms, and Sleep Cycle apps to this setting. Lo and behold the following morning I was blasted with alarms from all my apps.

How to check your settings

Focus Mode Settings

  1. Navigate to Settings > Focus > whatever focus modes your use
  2. Within each focus mode review the allow-notification sections for People and Apps

Below is what my problematic Sleep focus looked like:

IMG_2387.jpeg

Here are my settings once I enabled my apps and notifications:

IMG_2389.jpeg

Notification Settings

To be exhaustive and 100% sure that everything is setup for those apps appropriately, check your phone’s notification settings and manually check each app to ensure it is even allowed to send your notifications (and background app refresh).

  1. Navigate to Settings > Notifications
  2. Under Notification Style review each app that you want to allow to send notifications

I typically allow Lock Screen and Notification Center notifications, as well as Sounds, Badges, and Time Sensitive Notifications for my alarms. Otherwise unless the app is crucial to my day to day, or would be really annoying to find out I was missing notifications when I used it (travel apps, real time apps like Uber) I generally turn notifications off.

I hope this helps!