iPhone alarm glitch leaves furious users facing a surprise lie-in - as Celebrity Traitors star Cat Burns vents 'what is going on?'

Contents

How to fix a quiet iPhone alarm
Does your iPhone support iOS 26?

A newly-discovered iPhone glitch is making users miss their alarm – including Cat Burns from Celebrity Traitors.

The British singer-songwriter shared her frustrations in a now-viral TikTok video where she urged Apple to ‘sort it OUT’.

The alarm glitch appears to be affecting iPhones installed with iOS 26, Apple’s major new software update.

It turns the alarm into a ‘whisper’, making users late for work and even miss their flights.

Burns said: ‘Is anyone else having problems with their iPhone’s alarm? Because I’m setting my alarm and the morning comes and why am I hearing this?’

In the clip, she then plays the alarm which makes a very soft ‘bur, bur, bur’ noise.

She continues: ‘Why’s it whispering to me? I can’t wake up to that. Now I’m panicked thinking I’m not gunna wake up in the morning because my alarm is so quiet.

‘I’ve turned the thing off, I’ve made it loud, what is going on?’

On TikTok, Cat Burns said: ‘Is anyone else having problems with their iPhone’s alarm? Because I’m setting my alarm and the morning comes and why am I hearing this

In response, someone said: ‘SAME I THOUGHT I WAS GOING CRAZY’, while another posted: ‘Missed my flight this morning because of this.’

A third added: ‘do you not wake up naturally needing to go?? Asking for a friend.’

A fourth said: ‘Yes it’s so annoying. I have to keep checking it before I go to bed cos it’s always turning itself quiet.’

On the Apple Community page, another iOS 26 user said they’d been experiencing a similar issue, although they’d not been hearing any alarm at all.

The user speculated it was an glitch to do with Apple’s Attention Aware features, which lowers alarm volume when users are looking at the phone.

They said: ‘In the two days since I’ve installed iOS 26, I’ve awoken (late) in the morning to see that my phone had my alarm on the screen, but no sound playing.

‘This has been a known issue in the past due to attention aware features, but I have those turned off already.’

Several TikTok users said they’d experienced the same thing, with one posting: ‘I woke up yesterday and watched my alarm go off SILENT.’

iOS 26, Apple’s major new software update, appears to be suffering a glitch that makes people miss their alarm

Generally, iPhone users are able to control their alarm volume by going to the Settings app and tapping on ‘Sounds & Haptics’ to use a slider control

How to fix a quiet iPhone alarm

If you’re similarly affected, go to your iPhone’s Settings app and tap ‘Face ID & Passcode’ to turn off Attention Aware features
If you find this doesn’t work due to the glitch, tap on ‘Sounds & Haptics’ in Settings
Next, under Ringtone and Alerts, drag the slider left or right to set the volume
While you’re dragging the slider, an alert will sound, so you can hear how the volume changes
Turn on ‘Change with Buttons’ to use the volume buttons on your device to change the alarm volume

If you’re similarly affected by a quiet or silent iPhone alarm and you don’t know why, go to the Settings app and tap ‘Face ID & Passcode’ to turn off Attention Aware features.

This should mean your alarm goes off at a decent volume, whether or not you’re looking at your iPhone.

If you find this doesn’t work due to the glitch, tap on ‘Sounds & Haptics’ in Settings and scroll to the part that says ‘Ringtone and Alerts’.

There you’ll find a slider bar that lets you turn up the alarm volume by sliding it to the right – although this will also turn up the volume of your phone calls.

Also note that toggling on the ‘Change with Buttons’ option lets you use the volume buttons on the side of the phone to change alarm volume instead of having to go into the app.

It’s unclear what the best course of action is if none of this works; Apple has been contacted for comment.

Alternatively, users can switch to a different alarm app, or for those who remember such retro concepts, actual alarm clocks.

On TikTok, some users recommended Alarmy, an app described as the ‘most powerful loud alarm clock app for heavy sleepers’ that forces users to complete a ‘mission’ to shut it off which requires them to be properly awake – such as solving math problems or taking a photo of an object. And, if users want, it gradually gets louder the longer it goes off.

The design overhaul brings translucent, glass–like effects known as ‘Liquid Glass’ to app icons, the lock screen, and home screen

Some iPhone users have been complaining that the visual redesign is making them ‘feel drunk’ because the app icons appear slightly slanted

The alarm glitch is just the latest issue with iOS 26, released in September, which is optimized for its new iPhone 17 range (although the update does work with older iPhone models too).

It includes a slick new visual redesigns called Liquid Glass, a new Games app, and a tool called Live Translation which translates calls in real time.

However, iPhone users have already been complaining that Liquid Glass makes app icons appear slightly slanted, making them ‘feel drunk’.

Others have reported battery drain following the software update.