12 ways to fix your iPhone if it won't ring properly

• If your iPhone won't ring, it may be a volume or settings issue that can be easily resolved. 
• You can try fixes like checking the volume and turning off Focus, Do Not Disturb, or Silent mode. 
• CarPlay and Calls on Other Devices can also interfere with your iPhone ringing properly.

If your iPhone isn't ringing properly, there may be several reasons why. Before you take your phone to get serviced, there are a lot of things you can do to fix it yourself – and you can troubleshoot an Android that won't ring in much the same way. 

Here are a dozen of the top tips on how to check your settings and fix your iPhone if it's not ringing.

Turn off Do Not Disturb or Focus mode

If your iPhone is in Do Not Disturb mode, incoming calls will go straight to voicemail without ringing. The same is true if you have a Focus mode enabled that's set to block calls (on iOS 15 or later). 

To check if you have Do Not Disturb or Focus turned on, swipe down from the top-right corner of your iPhone's screen to open the Control Center. There, look at the rectangle next to your brightness controls — if it says Do Not Disturb, Driving, Sleep, or something similar, it's turned on. Tap this button to disable your Do Not Disturb or Focus mode.

Check custom ringtones

If the iPhone won't ring for a specific caller and that person isn't blocked, then check to see if a custom ringtone you assigned to them isn't working.

You can change a contact's ringtone through the Phone app. Open the Phone app and tap the Contacts tab at the bottom, then select the contact whose ringtone you want to change. Tap Edit in the top right corner of the contact's page. Tap Ringtone, then select a non-custom ringtone from the list of available options and then do a test call to see if your iPhone still won't ring. 

Try playing the ringtone and assess its volume. It's possible it might have a silent section or is simply too quiet for you to hear it properly, especially in a noisy situation. If in doubt, switch back to a standard ringtone and see if that solves the problem.  

Check that your iPhone isn't stuck in Bluetooth or headphones mode

It's possible that your iPhone is "stuck" in headphones mode, meaning that it's sending your ringtone to a device that's not actually connected. This might include earbuds that aren't plugged in or a Bluetooth device that isn't turned on.

Here are a few things you can try to "wake up" your iPhone's audio connection so it's working properly:

• Plug earbuds into your phone and remove them again to coax the phone into recognizing there are no earbuds plugged in. 
• Make sure you're not connected to another audio device. Swipe down from the top right corner of the screen to display the Control Center. Tap the Airplay icon in the music pane (you'll either see a triangle with three circles or an icon that resembles earbuds) and if anything other than the iPhone is selected, choose the iPhone.
• Enable and disable Airplane Mode by tapping the airplane icon in the Control Center.

Check to see if CarPlay is on

If your car offers CarPlay, you may take advantage of the convenience – and relative safety – of using your phone hands-free using the large display in your car's center console. CarPlay launches automatically when you plug the iPhone into the car's USB port. 

Your iPhone won't ring when it's connected to CarPlay – the ring will be sent to your car's speakers instead. If you want the phone to ring, disconnect CarPlay by unplugging the phone from the car's USB port. 

It may occasionally get confused and think it is still connected to your car even when it is not. If that happens, there are a few other ways to turn off CarPlay quickly, such as forgetting your car in the list of synced vehicles or disabling CarPlay in your iPhone's Content & Privacy Restrictions settings.

Make sure the number isn't blocked

Apple gives you the ability to block specific phone numbers, which is handy if you get a lot of telemarketing and other spam phone calls.

To make sure you didn't accidentally block an important number by accident, you can check which numbers you've blocked. In a nutshell, open the Settings app and tap Phone, then scroll down to select Blocked Contacts. If there's anyone on this list that shouldn't be, swipe left and tap Unblock.

Quick tip: There are more ways to stop robocalls and other spam calls from reaching your iPhone than just blocking them.

Flip the switch to turn off Silent Mode

Make sure that your iPhone's Ring/Silent switch isn't in the Silent position. You can find this switch on the left side of the phone, above the volume controls.

It should be closer to the screen. If it's flipped down (with a red band visible), it's set to silent.

Check your iPhone's volume

The iPhone's volume may be an obvious thing to check, but for that very reason it's easy to overlook. If the volume is too low to hear it ringing when a call comes in, you'll want to make your iPhone louder: Start the Settings app, tap Sound & Haptics, and then drag the Ringtone and Alert Volume slider until it's loud enough to be heard. 

Disable "Silence Unknown Callers" setting

If you want to minimize interruptions from spam callers and phone calls from people you don't know, you might have enabled the iPhone's Silence Unknown Callers feature. It's a handy way to avoid unwanted calls, but you might discover that it sometimes prevents calls you actually need to receive – if an unknown caller tries to reach you, the phone won't ring and the call goes directly to voicemail. 

You can turn this feature off. Start the Settings app and tap Phone. Tap Silence Unknown Callers and then, on the Silence Unknown Callers page, swipe the button to the left to turn it off. 

Turn off calling on your Mac

In some instances, setting up your Mac to receive phone phone calls can interfere with your iPhone's ability to ring when a call comes in. To see if this is the bug that has bitten you, disable calls on other devices. 

To do that, start the Settings app on your iPhone and then tap Phone. Tap Calls on Other Devices, and then turn it off by swiping the button for Allow Calls on Other Devices to the left. 

Turn off call forwarding

Call forwarding is handy if you need to temporarily send all incoming calls to another phone. That means that if you aren't getting any calls on your iPhone at all, there's a chance you had previously set up call forwarding and all calls are being redirected to another number. 

It's easy to check to see if you have set up call forwarding on your iPhone and to turn it off. Start the Settings app and tap Phone. Tap Call Forwarding, and then turn off Call Forwarding by swiping the button to the left. 

Restart or reset your iPhone

If none of these other steps worked, consider restarting your iPhone. Akin to rebooting your computer, restarting your phone can flush out an intermittent software glitch that's keeping your phone from ringing the way it should.

If even that doesn't work, consider resetting the iPhone back to factory conditions. Beware: This is a drastic troubleshooting step because it will erase all your apps and personal data, and you should definitely have a recent backup before you begin. 

That said, if you want to try this step, reset your phone and then test the ringer by receiving a phone call before you restore your data from a backup. If it works, restore your backup and your phone should be restored to full operation. 

Get your iPhone serviced

If none of the other troubleshooting tricks solved your problem, you probably have a hardware problem such as a damaged speaker. 

It might be time to take your iPhone to a professional. On the Apple support webpage, you can choose options such as sending your phone to an Apple Repair Center, finding an authorized service provider, or scheduling an appointment to get support from a Genius at an Apple Store. 

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