By some unknown way, a friend managed to activate a Focus “Do not disturb”. The partial moon symbol is on her Mac (Sequoia) and iPhone (iOS 18.x)
Under Settings on both devices I didn’t manage to switch this completely off, the friend simply doesn’t want to use anything like this Focus stuff. Lengthy web research followed, eventually pressing ‘F6’ on the Mac’s keyboard worked. Syncing focus via iCloud also OFF and peace about an unwanted feature was restored. Phew.
Is there any good reason why it’s so difficult to disable such functions? The only option under Settings is changing how the focus is triggered (eg Off for one hour or Off until tomorrow), deleting it or switching it completely off is nowhere offered.
I dislike DND Focus too. On Sequoia, sometimes ‘Do not disturb’ automatically turns on, far outside of my scheduled hours. This must be a bug.
Today it did that too, which I only know because I let Focus show in Menu Bar when active. That menu should let you turn off DND, but it doesn’t. Silbey is correct, the Notification Center lets you turn that off.
I agree, it should work, but it does not for me. Perhaps it does not work because the DND auto-on hours are outside the range that it auto-activated. Maybe it thinks there’s nothing to turn off, despite turning on automatically.
The menubar icon for Focus Off is a lighter version of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ icon. So, at a glance, it can appear to be on when it is actually off.
Since I am on Tahoe, I’m not sure if this works in Sequoia, but you can reduce confusion by having a Focus appear in the menu bar only when a Focus is active via System Settings > Menu Bar.
I noticed that when I turn a Focus off, the Focus Off icon appears in the menu bar for several seconds.
I’m generally not a fan of the Focus modes. It seems to me (but maybe/probably it’s user error) that focus modes sometimes decide to activate on their own.
On each device, check to see if the Focus “Share across devices” feature is enabled. If it is, then setting the focus mode on one device will set it on all other devices (logged in to your Apple ID that also have Focus sharing enabled).
This is useful in some cases, so activating a mode from your watch can also change your phone. But it can also be annoying if the two devices are not near each other.
Also, if you have multiple devices logged in to Messages, it will report you as in DND mode if any of your devices is in DND mode. Several relatives have reported confusion about this while trying to figure out which device it might be.
Thanks David, that’s a good summary and certainly covers those situations. In mine, I do sync the identical Focus modes across a few devices and they’re all set the same. I never manually activate Focus or DND, I just have DND turned on during sleeping hours, which is why it’s so frustrating seeing it automatically on several hours later.
Maybe it’s a sleep bug, as I usually notice Focus auto-turned on after waking the Mac from sleep (several hours past those scheduled hours). Restarting or logging out doesn’t help Focus realize the error of its ways, only turning off DND in the Notification Center.
Speaking of Sleep, another bug is sometimes being auto-logged out of Messages on the Mac after waking it. Only restarting the Mac will fix the problem and I’m auto-logged in to Messages as I should be. Then my devices are alerted with a “new” Mac being authorized for my account. Really Apple? I just restarted to fix your bug. I’ve heard podcasters talk about this too.
Assuming you have an iPhone, have you tried using the Sleep function of the Health app or using Sleep Focus directly? I reserve DND for periods during the day when I don’t want to be disturbed (working hard, attending meetings, concerts, family gatherings, etc.). I usually turn it on manually and set it to turn off when I leave the location, if that is appropriate.
IIRC DND came out first, a simple on/off to block notifications/sounds or something. Then it turned into Focus, with many more complications and linkings, and now DND is a subset of Focus or something. I never understood it and am glad I don’t need it. I wish there was an easier way to ‘turn it off’ or delete it but Focus is one of the unremovable Control Center items (on Sequoia Mac anyway) and seems to be ‘always on’. I have just gone thru and made sure ‘nothing is configured’, as that is as close as I can find to ‘turning it off’.
(I’d also like to remove Control Center since I don’t use it and it takes up space; but I digress..)
As you found, it’s easily invoked by mistake. I know an iPhone user who variously thought the moon symbol appeared at night, or meant tapping the moon icon meant the screen would dim. When I explained it was DND, the user on subsequent visits couldn’t remember turning it on but thought it meant the iPhone was tellingher to not disturb it, thus we hadn’t heard from her in a while.
On my own new MBAir years ago I found myself in DND/Focus several times until noting the Function row had a Mic and Moon symbol where the Backlighting used to be, and I used those often. Found an under the hood method to change the F5 and F6 back to Backlighting. Maybe an excessive step for your friend, but if it continues to be and issue maybe worth considering.
There is something seriously wrong when a phone system has been overloaded with too many functions. Why the developers thought it was a good idea to add yet another set of functions is anyone’s guess. Is this all they could do to tame the beast they created?
For me focus is not that. I use multiple different focus modes, most which auto-launch (DND at night on a schedule; Fitness when I begin a workout, which ends when the workout ends; Sleep focus overnight; Morning focus on a schedule; Driving when my phone connects to my car). All of these focus modes turn off notifications of different things at different times, among other things (on my phone they also change home screens, turn off badges on icons, etc.)
If you don’t use them, don’t use them. But I am very glad that they exist and have the added functionality that they have.
But you should let Apple know you don’t like it by submitting feedback.
There are surely use cases in the world, like @ddmiller ‘s, where this is a useful feature. If a person uses the phone intensively, is smart enough to set up the different ‘focusi’ and has a routine life then sure it makes sense and enhances their life.
For those who have no use for it, it would have been nice if Apple had allowed users to simply turn it off, or delete it, instead of digging thru menu levels to make sure that nothing has been activated.
Why they thought it a good idea, anyone’s guess, maybe those who invented it wanted it for themselves. Perhaps Apple’s data collection about how and what people do with their iDevices was a factor.
If I am in a situation where I don’t want iPhone to ping, I flip the silent switch or shut it down. Or put it in Airplane Mode.
I might have used DND on occasion when it came out to temporarily use it as @dianed143 noted . As soon as it got complicated with Foci I went back to just silent switch or turning iPhone off. So I don’t have any existing Foci, never did. But Apple often turns things on without notice to the user.
What I would wish for, is an on/off button at the top of the Focus Settings.
Instead there is:
Do Not Disturb > (tap to see what’s there… then scroll, scroll, tap tap)
Allow Notifications
People
Apps
Options
Customise Screens
Lock
Home
Set a Schedule
Add Schedule
Focus Filters
Add Filter
Personal > Set Up (tap tap…)
Sleep > Set Up (tap tap…)
Work > Set Up (tap tap…)
Share Across Devices (on/off hurrah! except if on, changes settings on other devices, which one could easily forget about; given that many users have several devices, I would hope that turning it on then reveals a list of devices for on/offing)
Focus Status > Off > (tap tap tap…)
I lose focus just going thru the options!
So to determine it is ‘not configured for anything’ (vs. the unavailable ‘off’) and not interfering with other devices, there is a fair bit of digging.
This isn’t the only Apple software ‘feature’ to experience this, lots of the Settings entries are similar. This is part of why I dread Apple software update/grades. It takes a good 45 min per device to go through every setting and every level to see what they have turned on, changed, added, etc.
Certainly it’s complicated and difficult for Apple to try to keep this all simple while also offering complexity for those who benefit from it. Ah well, at least we don’t have to pay $29 for each update!
