Why Doesn't My iPhone Ring? 14 Easy Ways to Fix the Issue!

“iPhone not ringing” – can be a terrible experience when you realize you have missed some of your important calls! A call that could change your life and you have missed it? None wants that. That’s why you need to figure out why your iPhone is not ringing!

Most commonly several software settings-related reasons can cause your iPhone not to ring. For example, Do Not Disturb or Silence Unknown Callers features are turned on or your iPhone is on silent mode or its volume is low, etc., are some of the most common reasons. However, sometimes water can affect the speaker if it enters inside your iPhone or your phone has fallen from a height and damaged its sound system.

No matter what the reason is, as long as your iPhone doesn’t ring because of a software issue, you can try out these 15 easy and effective solutions to fix this problem. So without a further delay, let’s start!

Table of Contents

1. Make sure your iPhone is not on a silent mode

A silent mode stops your phone from ringing for incoming calls, notifications, or messages. Therefore, the first thing you should check when your iPhone is not ringing is whether it is on silent mode. If so, then turn it off by pressing the silent switch up. This will set your iPhone back on ringing.

2. Turn off the DO NOT DISTURB feature

When your iPhone has its Do Not Disturb feature enabled, your incoming calls won’t ring or vibrate, rather you’ll find them on voice mails. So make sure you turn down this feature and here’s how!

Open the status bar by swiping up from the bottom of the home screen of your iphone.
You’ll see a highlighted crescent moon option on the left side. Turn it off.

Although you can set exceptions for phone calls to get through the do not disturb mode, turning it off is the best idea.

3. Increase the volume of your iPhone

Is your iPhone ringing and the ringtone is not loud enough or it is fainting? Then you should try to increase its ringtone volume. You can do it by using the physical volume button or by opening the settings app.

To increase the volume of your iPhone using the Settings app:

Open Settings and open Sound & Haptics.
Drag the Ringer & Alerts slider to its right (drag to its maximum for the loudest sound).
If the Change with Buttons option is turned off, then toggle it on to increase or decrease the ringing tone by using physical volume buttons.

4. Disconnect the Bluetooth Audio Devices

It is a rare incident when you keep looking for the reason for your iPhone not ringing while connecting earbuds, AirPods, or other wireless audio devices with it. Having the wireless audio devices connected with your phone will end up ringing through the device rather than your phone’s speaker. Thus if it’s the case for you, disconnect all the Bluetooth audio devices by following these steps.

Open the Control Center of your iPhone.
Tap on the Bluetooth icon to disable all the bluetooth devices.
For individual device disconnection, go to the Settings app and then open the Bluetooth option.

5. Check custom ringtones for different contacts

If your iPhone is not ringing when particularly someone calls, check whether you have set a custom ringtone for the person. Also, check whether the custom ringtone is defected by setting another ringtone. To do that, visit the person’s contact information page. Here’s how!

Open the Phone app.
Open the person’s contact information page.
From the top-right corner, select the Edit option.
Under the Ringtones category, select another ringtone and check if this one is working.

6. Make sure the number is not blocked

Have you accidentally blocked an important contact while blocking the spam numbers or fake calls? Well, this can happen and the iPhone won’t ring if you get a call from your blocked contacts. So to check whether you have blocked an important contact:

Open the Settings app.
Tap to open the Phone option.
Open Call Blocking and Identification and check if you have blocked an important number.
If yes, then swipe the number left and tap on Unblock.

7. Make sure your Phone’s notification is turned ON

There is an enabling and disabling notifications feature for every app on the AppStore and the built-in Phone App of Apple has it as well. When your iPhone doesn’t ring, maybe the phone’s notification is turned off? It possibly can be a reason too. So to check your iPhone’s Phone app has notification turned on:

Go to the Settings app and open Phone.
Check the Allow Notification option is toggled on (green).
If not, toggle it on.

8. Disable the Silence Unknown Callers feature

The Silence Unknown Callers is a unique feature that stops ringing your iPhone if you get a call from an unknown number. That means, it silences calls from the people with whom you have never contacted and also do not have their numbers on the contact list. So if you get an important call from somewhere emergency be it, your kid’s school bus, or hospital, you will never be notified while this feature is turned on. Therefore to turn off the feature:

Go to the Settings app and open Phone.
On the bottom, you will see the Silence Unknown Callers Feature turned on.
Tap Silence Unknown Callers and toggle it off.

Fig. Turn off the Silence Unknown Callers feature

9. Restart your iPhone

Sometimes, restarting your iPhone can solve many minor issues as well as major software glitches and bugs. If your iPhone still doesn’t ring after trying out the above solutions, then you should turn your phone off and wait for a few seconds, then turn it on again. Now call from another device and check if it solved your problem regarding the not ringing issue.

10. Update your iPhone to its latest iOS version

Using an older version of iOS can cause many internal problems with your iPhone. Among them, some major ones are – iPhone’s apps crashing, battery draining fast, it’s overheating and sometimes it can cause your phone not to ring as well. In this case, you should update your iPhone to its latest iOS version. To do that:

Open the Settings app.
Go to General and open Software Update.
Install the update. If multiple versions are available, then install the latest one. After the installation process, restart your device.

11. Turn OFF calls from other iOS Devices

If none of the above mentioned fixes could solve your iPhone not ringing, then you should consider this solution. Do you use other iOS devices like Mac or iPads? And also receive your iPhone’s calls from those devices? If yes, then you should stop letting your other iOS devices from receiving your calls. To turn off receiving calls from other iOS devices:

Open the Settings app and go to the Phone option.
Open Calls and Other Devices.
Toggle off the Allow Calls on Other Devices.

Fig. Turn off allowing calls from other devices

12. Disable the Call Forwarding feature

If you have the Call Forwarding feature turned on, you won’t receive any incoming calls on your number as those will be diverted to another number. This can be a cause when you realize your iPhone is not ringing or you are not receiving any calls on your iPhone. So to disable this feature you should:

Go to the Settings app and open Phone.
Open the Call Forwarding option. It may take a few seconds to load.
Then toggle it off to disable this feature.

Fig. Disable the Call Forwarding feature

13. Check the third-party call blocking apps

Using any third-party call blocking app can falsely identify your important calls as spam calls. Thus sometimes it can also be a reason that you are not receiving calls you were waiting for. Turning off the Call Blocking & Identification feature can solve this issue. To turn off this feature:

Go to the Settings app and open Phone.
Open the Call Blocking & Identification option.
Wait for a few seconds to load and toggle off every option that it has identified.

14. Use other calling apps!

It can be predicted that your iPhone’s Phone App has issues if none of the 13 solutions above could solve your iPhone not ringing issue. By using other calling apps like Whatsapp, Messenger or Skype, you can check whether your phone rings when calls are coming via those apps. If it does, then we suggest you to use these apps for several days before going for the repair or identifying what’s wrong with the built-in Phone app of your iPhone.

Conclusion!

If none of the above-mentioned solutions could fix your iPhone not ringing problem, then the cause is most likely to be a hardware problem. In this case, you should repair your iPhone asap! Make sure you have the complete backup of your phone. Restore your phone using iTunes before going for any repairs.

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