How to Fix iPhone Not Ringing

Can’t figure out why your iPhone is not ringing?

There’s nothing much more annoying than a mobile phone that does not notify you when someone is calling. Sadly, this has been the case for some iPhone users who missed multiple calls due to their device not ringing. 

There are several reasons why your iPhone is not ringing when receiving calls. Most of the time, this problem is caused by the ringer volume of your device is turned off or set at a low level. It is also possible that the ringer switch of your iPhone is set to silent mode. 

On the other hand, it can also be due to corrupted data, a bug in your software, or improper configurations. 

To help you out, we’ve decided to make a guide on how to fix your iPhone if it’s not ringing. 

Let’s get right into it!

1. Restart Your Device.

Before troubleshooting the issue, we recommend restarting your device first if you encounter issues with it. This should reload your system resources and eliminate temporary errors that may have occurred during runtime. 

For iPhone X, 11, 12, or later: 

  1. Hold down the Volume Down button and Side button until the ‘Slide to Power Off’ prompt appears. 
  2. Now, drag the slider to the right and wait for 30 seconds. 
  3. Press the Side button afterward to turn on your device. 
Restart iPhone

For iPhone 6, 7, 8, or SE: 

  1. Locate the Power button on your device. 
  2. Now, hold the button until the ‘Slide to Power Off’ prompt shows up.
  3. Drag the slider to the right and wait for 30 seconds before turning on your device. 
Force Restart

Once done, observe if your iPhone will ring when someone calls. 

2. Check The Ringer Switch. 

iPhones have a dedicated ringer switch that allows users to mute or unmute their devices instantly. Some users forgot that they had set the ringer switch to ‘Silent’ mode, causing their iPhone not to produce any sound. 

To ensure that your device is not in silent mode, the ringer switch should not show an orange color. 

3. Check Ringer Volume. 

As mentioned, it’s possible that the ringer volume on your iPhone is turned all the way down or set too low, causing you not to hear anything when someone is calling. To rule this out, check your settings and make sure your ringer volume is set properly. 

Here’s what you need to do: 

  1. First, open the Settings app on your iPhone
  2. After that, go to Sound & Haptics
  3. Lastly, look for Ringer and Alerts and ensure that your volume is turned up. 
iphone not ringing

4. Disable Do Not Disturb or Focus Mode. 

Do Not Disturb is a feature that allows you to silence calls, alerts, and other notifications when your iPhone is locked. If this feature is enabled, it explains why your iPhone is not ringing when receiving calls. 

To fix this, follow the steps below to disable do not disturb: 

  1. Go to your home screen and open the Settings app. 
  2. Next, tap on Focus and choose Do Not Disturb
  3. Make sure that the feature is disabled. 
Do Not Disturb

Try asking one of your friends to call you and see if your iPhone will ring. 

5. Check If Your iPhone Is Stuck in Headphones Mode. 

iPhones have a known issue where they get stuck in headphones mode, causing them not to produce any sound. If your iPhone is not ringing when receiving calls, there’s a good chance that it’s stuck in headphones mode. 

To address this problem, you can check out our detailed guide regarding this issue to help you out. 

6. Try Using Default Ringtones. 

If you are using custom ringtones on your iPhone, there’s a good chance that they are not working or not compatible. To confirm this, we recommend using a default ringtone in the meantime and see if the problem goes away. 

Here’s how you can change your ringtone: 

  1. Head to your home screen and tap on Settings
  2. Next, go to Sound & Haptics
  3. Tap on Ringtones afterward and select a ringtone from the list. 
iphone not ringing

Wait for someone to call and see if your iPhone will ring. 

7. Check Your Blocked Contacts List. 

Apple gives iPhone users the option to block specific phone numbers, which can come in handy if you don’t want to receive unnecessary calls from random numbers. However, you might have blocked some of your contacts by accident, explaining why your iPhone is not ringing when they call. 

To confirm this, see the guide below to check your blocked contacts list: 

  1. Unlock your device and go to the home screen. 
  2. After that, tap on Settings
  3. Access the Phone tab and tap on Blocked Contacts
  4. Finally, double-check if you’ve blocked important contacts on your device. 

Once done, ask one of your friends to call your number to see if the problem is solved. 

8. Update Your iPhone. 

The version of iOS you’re using might have an underlying issue that causes your device not to ring when someone is calling. To rule this out, try updating your iPhone to the latest version possible. 

Here’s what you need to do: 

  1. Open the Settings app on your iOS device. 
  2. After that, go to General > Software Update
  3. Finally, go to Automatic Updates and enable all the options under it. Head back to the previous page and tap on Download and Install
iphone not ringing

Once done, see if your iPhone will now ring when someone calls. 

9. Reset Your iPhone Settings. 

If your iPhone is still not ringing after the update, you might want to consider resetting your device’s configurations. You might have changed some settings, causing your device not to ring when someone is calling. 

See the steps below to reset your iPhone’s settings: 

  1. First, go to your home screen and launch the Settings app. 
  2. After that, tap on General and access the Transfer or Reset iPhone tab. 
  3. Now, choose Reset and tap on Reset All Settings
reset settings

Ask your friends to call you afterward to check if the problem is solved. 

10. Contact Apple Support. 

At this point, the last thing you can do is report the problem to Apple’s team. Head to Apple’s support page and submit a ticket to ask for assistance regarding the issue you’ve been experiencing. 

iphone not ringing

When asking for help, make sure to provide the model of your device, the version of iOS you’re using, and other necessary information that can help Apple’s team assess the situation. 

That brings us to the end of our guide on how to fix your iPhone if it’s not ringing. If you have questions, please drop a comment below, and we’ll do our best to answer them. 

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Author

  • Jake Kovoor

    Jake is the Editor-in-Chief of Saint and an independent software developer, with a Bachelors in Computer Science from Lancaster University, UK. He loves trying out various tech from the Flipper Zero to coding Raspberry Pis for automation. He started Saint back in 2016, having written over 100 posts, with the sole purpose of creating guides for software that had yet to exist back then to help users navigate around their technical problems.

68 comments
    1. Mine won’t ring when my SE is locked and NOT happy about it. Have not found a way to change that either! Any ideas?

    1. YES!! Thank you for telling us about the switch on the side of the phone! My phone was switched OFF!
      This made my day

  1. Thank you sooo much. You just made my day. Was confused on wat to do until i found dis awesome site. God bless ya!

  2. Many, many thanks. I was going bonkers trying to figure out this “no vibrate” problem. Checked out a half dozen other websites – with no luck – before I found this one.

    1. Mine was number one too. Just had an Apple Genius replace my battery yesterday. They must have turned off the ringer during their two hours of replacing the battery. Thanks for your help.

  3. Thank you. But what about “silence” in Do Not Disturb? There’s a mandatory check mark for either Always or While iPhone is locked. I can’t eliminate it.

  4. Thanks. Very helpful. In my case the manual setting for do not disturb was off so I turned it on and now my phone rings and I get message tones.

  5. Thank you. Have been searching my phone settings, enlisted help from two other people and nobody knew about the little switch on the side of the phone.

    1. Thanks so much! This has been driving me crazy. Mine ended up being the switch on the side of the phone that I never even knew was there.

  6. Awesome! Thank you! I had already checked settings but DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THE ORANGE SWITCH!!! Good work

  7. Thank you so much! It was very elaborate and helpful. Got my ringer sound back. However the ringer sound drops very significantly after the initial phrase. Do you have any clue?

  8. First solution worked a treat – new to iPhones and my wife missed some calls as the switch was on silent.
    As an Android user I am wondering why on earth have a separate switch!
    Anyway, all sorted so many thanks.

  9. THANK YOU!! The button on the left side was on off. I spent hours pouring over google searches. A couple mentioned that button but I thought they were talking about something on the screen. You are the only one that included a picture. It was as easy as that. The button got moved when my hubby took the case off. So easy but so frustrating. You saved me a trip to the Apple store. Thank you!!!!

    1. I think for rush silencing perhaps. That moment you can’t open your phone or emulate any light and must turn your volume off.

  10. Husband on emergency trip hard-dropped iPhone (in a serious case too) and it stopped ringing or vibrating. His voicemail gave Full Message too. His local phone tech, the wife, spent 3 days researching. Found your excellent tutorial early this am. He called me from the road and I told him I would send your pic but just hearing the Fix he got his ringer back! I’ve been reading for days w/o finding this.
    (The full voicemail thing was hard too. Apple support forum so many had spent hours on phone with Apple or Their carrier, but one guy told that all your DELETED messages are still creeping and you have to go to deleted then Clear All. Another great fix!)

  11. Super Helpful! It was the silent button on the side. I will mention that my life proof case flips it to silent every time I put it on, but you can actually turn it back off if you get a good grip over the spot on the case with your fingernail and slide it back to make it ring.

  12. Thank you. I tried everything until I realized all this time that the silent button to the side was switched on. How silly of me!

  13. well, the little “ring/silent” button was flipped, under my otter case. no orange stripe, but it was easy to figure out, once i just flipped it a few times, and found it really did move. thanks, for this easy fix.

  14. Thank you for this comprehensive diagnostic and solutions tool. You have tips that others don’t mention and solutions that work immediately. God bless you for your service.

    1. I can’t believe how many sites I visited to find out the cause of the issue and this one pointed me right to the issue. (Button was on silent on the side of the phone.) I almost re-set my phone to factory settings – went through the process of doing this long backup. (Not a bad idea. I don’t like storing my stuff in the cloud so backing up occasionally is a good idea.)

      Thank you! I really can’t thank you enough!

  15. Unbelievable I didn’t even know that silent switch was on the side of my phone thanks you have saved my sanity.

  16. I have done all the things in your article and the iPhone still does not ring. The only way I know I have a call coming in is if I am looking at the screen to see it light up when a call comes in. I just switched from a iPhone 7 to the Xr because the 7 was doing the same thing after the last 2 updates. So after the latest updates the iPhone is now a piece of garbage.

  17. Thank you a million times!! My new iPhone XS MAX has worked perfectly since I bought it 11 months ago. It worked so well that I had forgotten all about that lil button on the side of the phone, above the volume. Yes, indeed, my orange button was showing!! Thx again. I change cases all the time. I changed my case 3days ago, ironically the day it stopped ringing!!

  18. THANK YOU! I’m usually pretty good about troubleshooting, but I too had forgotten that little orange button. I’ve missed so many calls! I think it happened when I took my phone out of its case, as someone else suggested.

  19. One more… if you turn on the new feature under IOS 13, “Silence Unknown Callers” and subsequently forget about it, then it will drive you bonkers why you keep missing calls (all those calls that suddenly pop up in the recent call list and/or go straight to voice mail). With this setting on, only calls from people in your contacts ring through; everybody else gets sent to voicemail.

    I completely forgot that there was such a setting and that I’d turned it on. So it was driving me nuts why I would see calls popping up as just missed or see a new voicemail pop up and I didn’t even hear the phone ring (or vibrate). Oh well…

  20. I just had to come to drop a comment cos it does help. I’ve been worried for days now and it happened to be my Side button (Method 1). Thanks a lot.

  21. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a ring/silent switch, and NO ONE else mentioned it. I kept reading that I needed to turn off my Do Not Disturb button, which of course was the first thing I tried. In seconds you helped this non-techie fix a month long problem. You rock!

  22. Thanks so much, my grandson must have set the phone to ring/silent, and as soon as I saw your magic word “orange” I knew what had happened!!!!!!!!

  23. Thank you so very much! I spent much of my day trying to figure out why I was not hearing my phone ring. I kept going to settings over and over again.

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