Struggling with your iPhone not ringing for calls? You’re not alone. It’s frustrating to miss important calls, whether it’s a job offer, a family update, or your food delivery at the door. That’s why we’ve rounded up the top 10 most effective fixes to help you tackle this issue head-on, from simple settings changes to hardware troubleshooting.
1. Test Whether Your Speaker Works
Before you start changing various iOS settings to solve the problem of your iPhone not ringing, you should rule out hardware malfunction or damage by testing your speaker.
Open an app like YouTube or Spotify and play any video or song. While the audio is playing, hit the Volume Up button on your iPhone multiple times. If you can’t hear any sound or if the sound is distorted, there’s a good chance that your speaker is the issue.
But before you take it to Apple for repair, try specialized apps designed to clean or unclog your phone’s speaker. Apps like Clear Wave and Water Eject play special combinations of sounds and haptics patterns to make your speaker as good as new, and they don’t cost anything to download.
2. Check the Ring/Silent Switch
On the left side of every iPhone, you’ll find a physical switch designed to quickly toggle silent mode on and off. It’s easy to accidentally flip this switch and cause your device to stop ringing.
When the switch is toggled on for silent mode, a small orange stripe becomes visible, indicating that your iPhone is, indeed, in silent mode. To restore your phone’s ability to ring for incoming calls, simply flip the switch back.
3. Increase Ringtone Volume
Your iPhone may not be ringing because of the Ringer and Alerts volume setting. If this is set to 0, you won’t hear any sound for incoming calls. Adjust the Ringer and Alerts volume slider to a level where you can clearly hear incoming calls by following these steps:
Open the Settings app, and go to Sounds & Haptics. Drag the slider under Ringer and Alerts to the right to increase the volume to the maximum level.
Also, you can turn off the toggle next to Change with buttons. Disabling it prevents you from inadvertently changing the ringtone volume, as the volume keys will only change the media volume.
4. Turn Off Focus Mode (or Do Not Disturb)
If you’re dealing with your iPhone not ringing, one potential culprit could be an enabled Focus mode, such as the Sleep profile. In this state, your phone will automatically silence incoming calls unless they come from people or apps that are explicitly allowed.
Note: Focus modes are available on iPhones running iOS 15 and later. For iOS 14 and older, you will have to turn off Do Not Disturb Mode.
Go to Settings → Focus. Tap the profile that says On, then toggle it off.
5. Turn Off Airplane Mode
Are you not receiving missed call notifications for your missed calls? The culprit could be Airplane mode.
When enabled, Airplane mode disables the wireless features of your iPhone, including cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connections. However, when this mode is active on your phone, it means you won’t be able to receive calls, messages, or any form of wireless communication. Your iPhone effectively becomes isolated from the cellular network.
To turn Airplane mode off, open the Settings app, and toggle off the button next to Airplane mode at the top of the list.
Good to know: learn how to connect more than one speaker at the same time to your iPhone.
6. Check Bluetooth and Headphone Mode
If your iPhone is connected to a Bluetooth accessory, like headphones or a speaker, it could cause your phone to ring on the connected device instead of your iPhone. The simplest solution is to disable Bluetooth on your iPhone:
Go to Settings → Bluetooth, and turn off the toggle next to Bluetooth.
Additionally, older iPhones with a 3.5mm headphone jack could get stuck in headphone mode, making the device think it’s connected to the headphones when it’s not.
This issue can result in the no ringtone problem. To fix this, insert the headphone cable into the 3.5mm jack, then remove it. Blowing air into the jack may also help if dust particles or debris are affecting the headphone connection.
7. Turn Off Silence Unknown Callers
Another setting that could impact incoming calls on your iPhone is Silence Unknown Callers. When this feature is enabled, your iPhone won’t ring for numbers that aren’t saved in your contacts, except for unsaved numbers that appear in your recent calls list. This could be the reason you’re missing calls from places like your doctor’s office.
To turn Silence Unknown Callers off, go to Settings -> Phone -> Silence Unknown Callers.
Turn off the toggle next to Silence unknown callers.
8. Restart iPhone
A classic fix that frequently resolves the “iPhone not ringing” dilemma is a simple reboot. Sometimes, a minor bug or background app interferes with the phone’s ability to ring for incoming calls. Rebooting your iPhone can easily clear out these problems and restore ring functionality.
Long-press the Power button until you see the slide to power off message.
Swipe from left to right on the slider to turn off your iPhone, then turn on the iPhone by holding the Power button again.
9. Reset All Settings
Still nothing? It may be time to reset all settings. Doing so will revert all your iPhone settings back to their default values, meaning you’ll have to customize them again. But don’t worry, though, as your personal files and data won’t be lost in the process.
Go to Settings -> General -> Transfer or Reset iPhone -> Reset -> Reset All Settings.
10. Other Potential Fixes
If the common solutions don’t resolve the issues with your iPhone not ringing, consider these additional methods:
- Check the Default Ringtone: sometimes, custom ringtones can be problematic. To switch back to a default ringtone, go to Settings, select Sounds & Haptics, then tap Ringtone. Choose Default or any preinstalled ringtone.
- Check Individual Contact Ringtones: check whether custom ringtones for specific contacts are causing the issue. Open the Contacts app, select a contact, tap on Edit, then Ringtone. Change it to a default or preinstalled ringtone if necessary.
- Check Blocked Numbers: to check whether you’ve accidentally blocked someone, go to Settings -> Phone -> Blocked Contacts. To unblock, swipe left on a number, and tap Unblock.
- Disable Third-Party Call Blockers: if you use call-blocking apps, check their settings for blocked numbers. You can usually manage these settings within the app or in Settings under Phone -> Call Blocking & Identification.
- Reset Network Settings: this can resolve issues related to connectivity. Go to Settings -> General -> Transfer or Reset iPhone -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings.
Figuring out why your iPhone isn’t ringing can be a headache. The root of the problem can spring from various sources – from accidental settings changes to more complicated hardware issues. That’s why it’s crucial to give multiple fixes a try – you never know which one will do the trick.
Once your iPhone starts ringing for incoming calls, learn how to use your iPad to receive calls and record calls on your iPhone.
Image credit: Pexels. Screenshots by David Morelo.
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