Alarm is no longer working on Apple Watch, but on iPhone instead

Ingo2711 wrote:

Any chance, LED Flash for Alerts and in Silent Mode is enabled on your iPhone?

To check that, go to Settings/Accessibility/Audio & Visual/-> scroll down to -> Visual ->LED Flash for Alerts (Off)-> Flash in Silent Mode -> Off

Yes, they both are enabled, but... They have been enabled since before I even bought the Apple Watch Series 8 over 2 years ago. I have had these both enabled since 2013 on my iPhones simply because I never wanted to annoy other people with hearing any ringtone from my phone - especially during meetings, or out to dinner, or just in general because ringtones are the most annoying thing on the planet - lol.

So with these both enabled I still have somehow had my Apple Watch set to vibrate when the alarm goes off in the morning (which it no longer does), but not the phone flashing or vibrating (which it now does). The ONLY thing that still remains the same is when the alarm goes off is both devices still show the alarm on the screen with the option to snooze or turn off.

So with my previous iPhone 11 (and with the current iPhone 16 Pro since October) and Apple Watch 8 I somehow had it set this way for the Alarm only. Other notifications and calls would always vibrate on both devices, and the phone would flash as well. Just not for the Alarm.

Ingo2711 wrote:

If the watch and iPhone 11 did not have the issue, and the problem started after pairing the iPhone 16, this seems to be related to the iOS 16 firmware.

You must have misread part of the original post, and compared it to my reply. My fault for not repeating it.

The iPhone 16 Pro and the Apple Watch were working exactly the same as with the iPhone 11 since I purchased the iPhone 16 Pro in October... and the problem only started a week ago. So the watch and the iPhone 16 Pro have been working perfectly for close to five months... up until about a week ago. It's also not tied in to any iOS updates because this did not change after the last update on January 27th, but about a week later.

So personally, I do not believe this is tied into the iPhone 16 firmware.

LD150 wrote:

"A few days ago the alarm no longer vibrates on my watch, but instead the flashlight blinks brightly on the iPhone"

Sounds like iPhone, Watch app, My Watch tab, Clock, Push alerts from iphone has been turned off?

That was one of my first thoughts as well, but that is still on.

On another note, as of yesterday the watch is now vibrating again... but the iPhone is still flashing. I'm halfway back to where it was just over a week ago.

No apology needed - I should have mention that in the reply to avoid confusion.

Out of habit I check all of my Apple devices twice per week for updates. I didn't catch the one from yesterday (yet) but will update everything today and see what happens.

I appreciate that you've been following along with replies and helping me on this. Some members here never follow up. Thank you! I'll reply what happens after the updates.

Ingo2711 wrote:

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Did you already install the newest iOS and watchOS updates, which were released yesterday?

Everything is updated with yesterday's releases... still happening though.

LD150 wrote:

My workaround is to set all alarms only on the Watch and forget any on the iphone, except the sleep one. Your symptoms suggest the alarms are set on the phone despite your opening statement.

Let me clarify because you are right, not enough detail in the original post. If I get a call, a text, a notification, those go off on both the iPhone and the Watch. The iPhone will only vibrate and flash the light - no sound at all (by my preference). I prefer that because sometimes I don't have my phone with me, and other times I might not be wearing my watch if I'm doing heavy work.

However... for the Alarm (and only for the alarm) I've had that set since day one with the Apple Watch 8 (bought it when it first came out, so over two years) that my wake up alarm (or any other alarm from that app) would only go to the watch, not the phone. That has been working flawlessly with the iPhone 11, then changing to the iPhone 16 Pro in October, it was working flawlessly on that as well... up until about a week ago.

So this is where I'm missing something, and I can't remember what I did in September 2022 when I first got the watch (****, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday) I can't remember what I did to set the alarm so it only goes to the watch with the vibration,... but on the other hand, any call, text, whatever, goes to both. Well, poor choice of wording. If the alarm was going off on my watch, and then I picked up the phone the screen would then light up so I could also turn it off there - but the phone was not flashing or vibrating like it does for calls and texts.