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Text message alerts

Why do I sometimes get an alert sound and sometimes not?

iPhone SE (3rd generation)

Posted on Mar 23, 2023 4:46 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 23, 2023 4:58 PM

There could be a couple of reasons. One could be that Hide Alerts is activated for one or more of your conversations. Open the Message app and look for a small "crossed out bell". out of the conversations. You deactivate Hide Alerts by swiping from left to right on the conversation in the overview and tapping the purple bell



The other could be that you have Do Not Disturb, or another Focus profile which activates automatically.


If Do Not Disturb or another Focus profile activates automatically, then a Schedule is active.


To disable or delete this schedule, go to:

Settings Focus → Select Profile → find SET A SCHEDULE → Tap into the time → tap Delete Schedule or just deactivate.


You can read more about how to use Focus here:

Use Focus on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 23, 2023 4:58 PM in response to david afromchapel hill

There could be a couple of reasons. One could be that Hide Alerts is activated for one or more of your conversations. Open the Message app and look for a small "crossed out bell". out of the conversations. You deactivate Hide Alerts by swiping from left to right on the conversation in the overview and tapping the purple bell



The other could be that you have Do Not Disturb, or another Focus profile which activates automatically.


If Do Not Disturb or another Focus profile activates automatically, then a Schedule is active.


To disable or delete this schedule, go to:

Settings Focus → Select Profile → find SET A SCHEDULE → Tap into the time → tap Delete Schedule or just deactivate.


You can read more about how to use Focus here:

Use Focus on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support


Mar 23, 2023 5:25 PM in response to Community User

Oh my. I misunderstood your advice and got things reversed. Sorry to have jumped too quickly. In fact I did not have the little bell-with-line on any conversation until I swept from right to left and clicked on the purple bell-with-line. That removed the line from the purple-background-bell and added the little bell that shows the alert had been silenced for that conversation. Shucks. I could return the alert request. But I think I will return to having only some of my messages producing an alert sound.

Mar 23, 2023 6:45 PM in response to david afromchapel hill

Okay hehe. If you still find that your messages are missing sound, check my other advice about Focus.


Some Focus profiles, for example Do Not Disturb can have a Smart Automation, or Scheduled time where it starts automatically. This may cause notifications to be set to silent. It is not certain that this is the reason, but it could be one of them.

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