How Do I Get My Iphone To Ring For Longer

Your iPhone may not ring for incoming calls due to misconfigured settings, software bugs, or hardware problems. Because of these issues, you can unknowingly miss important family and work calls, which is never good.

But don't worry. Let's look at some reasons why your iPhone might not ring, then walk through solutions to fix this issue.

Why Does My iPhone Not Ring?

If your iPhone hasn't suffered a hard fall or other physical damage, you can probably rule out hardware failure as the reason for not getting a ring. To be sure, open YouTube, a music app, or similar and play something. Use the Volume up button on the left side of your device to increase the volume.

If you hear the media sound, breathe a sigh of relief. In case you do not, look at how to fix a non-working iPhone speaker.

Once you are confident that the speaker is working, the most likely reasons for your iPhone not ringing are misconfigured settings or temporary glitches. This includes having the phone in Do Not Disturb or silent mode, setting the ring volume to the minimum, silencing unknown callers, and similar.

The solutions below will address all these problems. Let's start with the basics.

1. Turn Off Silent Mode

If your iPhone is set to vibrate-only mode, it won't ring when you get a call. To fix this, put your phone back in ring mode by pushing up the silent switch, which is at the top-left edge (above the volume buttons).

When in ring mode, the slider will be closer to your phone's screen. In silent mode, it displays an orange strip.

2. Confirm Do Not Disturb Is Disabled

The Do Not Disturb feature on iPhone disables sound and vibration for call, text, and app notifications. If you've accidentally enabled DND, your iPhone won't ring on incoming calls.

To check this, open Control Center and see if the crescent moon icon is purple with its box lit up. When the icon is purple, that means DND is enabled; tap this box to turn it off. Now you should start hearing the ringtone when you get any calls.

3. Disconnect Bluetooth Audio Devices

If you leave wireless audio devices like AirPods connected to your iPhone, your incoming call ringtone may output through these instead of the phone speaker. This mostly happens with non-Apple earbuds that do not automatically sense when you are wearing them.

You can disconnect all wireless devices by opening the Control Center and tapping the Bluetooth icon. To disconnect devices individually instead, head to Settings > Bluetooth.

Once the Bluetooth devices are disconnected, the incoming call ringtone should normally sound via your iPhone's speakers.

4. Turn the Ringtone Volume Up

If you hear only a faint tone for incoming calls, you can fix this by increasing the ring volume. Here's how:

Open Settings and tap Sounds & Haptics. On older iPhone models, this is called Sounds.
Drag the Ringer and Alerts slider to the right. The further right it is, the closer your ringtone is to the max volume.
You might also want to turn off Change with Buttons. Doing so will prevent you from lowering the ringtone volume using the physical volume buttons. When this option is disabled, the volume buttons only change the volume for media, not your ringtone.

5. Turn Off Silence Unknown Callers

On iPhone running iOS 13 and later, the Silence Unknown Callers feature mutes all incoming calls from people not in your contact list. It also suppresses rings for people you have never contacted or received their phone number (via call, text, or email).

So if someone like a distant relative or delivery person calls, you might not hear the incoming ringtone with this setting enabled. To fix this, follow the steps below:

Open the Settings app and tap Phone.
If you see On next to Silence Unknown Callers, tap this field and turn the slider off from the next screen.

Now, you should hear the ringtone for all incoming calls, unless you have the person blocked.

6. Double-Check if You've Blocked the Caller

After you block a person on iPhone, they cannot call, FaceTime, or text you. It's possible that you blocked a person by accident, or no longer need to have them blocked. To address this, here's how to check your block list and unblock them:

Open Settings and tap Phone.
Scroll down and tap Blocked Contacts.
In the list of blocked contacts, swipe left on the desired entry and tap Unblock. Alternatively, tap Edit > red minus button > Unblock.

7. Restart Your iPhone

Restarting your device is a simple and effective way to fix common issues without much trouble. If you are not hearing a ringtone after trying the above, turn off your iPhone and turn it back on after a minute before moving on.

8. Choose a Different or Louder Ringtone

Sometimes you might miss phone calls because the tone you have chosen is not loud or distinct enough. In this case, you should try out other ringtones and use the one that's the loudest or clearest.

Follow these steps to change your ringtone:

Open Settings and tap Sounds & Haptics.
Tap Ringtone.
From here, tap to hear the different tones. When you've found one that suits you, hit Back.

You should know how to make new ringtones on your iPhone if none of the default ones fit your needs.

The ringtone you set above applies to all contacts, unless you've added a different tone to someone. If you miss calls from only certain people, follow these steps to ensure their custom tone is clear:

Open Contacts or the Phone app and go to your contact list.
Tap the contact's name.
If you see the Ringtone section, you have added a custom tone for this person. Tap Ringtone, choose a different tone for them, and tap Done when satisfied.

10. Fix an iPhone Stuck in Headphone Mode

In rare situations, your iPhone may incorrectly think it is still connected to wired earphones, even though it isn't. As a result, there may be no sound from the built-in speakers when you play media or receive phone calls.

To get out of this inconvenience, see how to fix an iPhone stuck in headphone mode.

11. Try Turning Off Calls on Other Devices

If you own other Apple devices and have opted to receive iPhone calls on your Mac, consider turning this feature off to see if it fixes the ring issue for you. Here's how:

On your iPhone, open Settings and tap Phone.
Tap Calls on Other Devices.
Turn off Allow Calls on Other Devices.

12. Check and Turn Off Call Forwarding

When call forwarding is enabled, you do not get any notification or hear a ring, as incoming calls are diverted to another number. Here's how to turn off call forwarding to ensure you receive calls as usual:

Open Settings and tap Phone.
Tap Call Forwarding and give it a few seconds to load.
If it is enabled, tap the Call Forwarding toggle to turn it off.

13. Review Third-Party Call Blockers

Suppose you are waiting for a call from your bank. Any third-party call identification and spam blocking apps you have installed may think the customer service number is a robocall or spam, and thus block it.

To fix this, open the app and whitelist all desired numbers. You may also turn off all call blocking from inside the app or by following the steps below:

Open iPhone Settings and tap Phone.
Tap Call Blocking & Identification.
Turn off any call identification apps you see here.

14. Additional Fixes if Your iPhone Still Doesn't Ring

By this point, one or more of the above solutions should have fixed your iPhone not ringing issue. But in case you're still having a problem, make sure you update your iPhone (and calling apps like WhatsApp, Skype, and Zoom if you use them).

Though you get call banners and hear the ringtone even if you turn off notifications for the Phone app, it's best to open Settings > Notifications > Phone and make sure Allow Notifications and other options are enabled for the Phone app. You may miss alerts about missed calls and voicemails otherwise.

Finally, if nothing else works, open Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. This will not erase personal data like music, photos, and apps. However, all settings you have changed, like Wi-Fi, the Home Screen layout, notifications, and more, will return to default. It's a bit of a hassle, but it confirms that no settings are causing your iPhone not to ring.

Your iPhone Rings Clearly Now

By now, your iPhone ringing problem should be fixed, ensuring you do not miss future calls. To check, ask a friend or family member to call you, or try calling from a Google Voice number if needed.

Now that your call alerts are working again, you may want to spice up your experience by turning your favorite song into your iPhone ringtone.

How to Make a Song Your Ringtone on iPhone

Tired of your current ringtone? Here's how to turn your favorite song into your iPhone's ringtone.