iOS 18.1.1 Auto-Lock interferes with timer alarm

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iOS 18.1.1 Auto-Lock interferes with timer alarm

If my phone is set to Auto-Lock in 5 minutes, a timer set for 5 minutes fails to sound. A 4:59 or 5:01 timer works fine. If you then change the Auto-Lock duration to, say, 30 seconds, then a 30 second timer fails to sound, but any other duration works fine.

You see the screen dim when there are 8-9 seconds left on the timer, then just as you'd expect the screen to turn off completely and/or the alarm to ring, instead the lock screen pops up at full brightness for 2 seconds and then the screen turns off - but no timer alarm.

Note that you have to set the phone down for this to occur, if you're holding it and watching, it won't autolock and the timer works fine.

I found an ancient post discussing the same bug from 2020 with no replies:

Auto-Lock and Timer - Apple Community

iOS 18.1.1

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Feb 1, 2025 10:24 PM

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Answer 1

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lacheur Author

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Feb 2, 2025 01:15 PM in response to MrHoffman

I called Apple and they confirmed it was an "emerging issue" and basically wait for the next update and hope they fix it.

Once it happened on my wife's phone too AND after an OS update, I was pretty convinced it was a software bug. It was just surprising I couldn't find other people talking about it online!

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Answer 2

Feb 1, 2025 10:37 PM in response to lacheur

Even if the Auto-Lock setting is configured to the same duration as the timer, the timer alarm will still go off even if Auto-Lock is enabled. When the timer reaches the end of its countdown, it will wake the screen and sound the alarm, ensuring that the user is alerted regardless of whether the device has automatically locked.

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Answer 3

lacheur Author

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Feb 2, 2025 12:30 PM in response to MrHoffman

Confirmed the same behavior on my wife's phone, also on 18.1.1. Also, it turns out that while it does ring if the timer triggers before the lockout, the audio from the timer gets shut off when the phone actually locks, as if you'd cancelled it. However, the timer itself is still running - you can see the X at the top to close the timer briefly when you unlock the phone, but it quickly disappears without having to tap to close it.

So basically, if you set a 29 second timer, you get approximately one second of ringing before there's no more sound, even though the timer app is continuing to run in the background until you unlock the phone.

I just updated the OS to 18.3 and the behavior is exactly the same.

Have you tried it yourself?

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