Any idea why Do Not Disturb isn't working properly?

TidBITS Talk
#1

My Mom has a bunch of friends who will text her at odd hours, but we need to be able to keep in touch. I have myself added to her Favorites list for all methods (voice/iMessage/FaceTime), and Favorites are set to be allowed through.

But when we went to test things, results were mixed. I could call her without problem, but she never saw the text I sent until she manually woke up her phone. It didn’t vibrate, and the screen never even lit up.

We’re both frustrated, and she is tired of having to manually silence multiple texting conversations each night.

I’m using an iPhone 11 running 14.4.2, and she has an iPhone 6 Plus running 12.5.2.

Any ideas?

#2

Unfortunately for you, it is working properly. Do Not Disturb suppresses all notifications, including for any messages. The only exceptions are that you can allow phone calls from certain people, and if you set an alarm in the built-in Clock app, it will ring.

With Do Not Disturb, you can silence calls, alerts and notifications that you receive when your device is locked. You can also schedule Do Not Disturb and allow calls from certain people.

Full details:

#3

Have her open contacts, tap on your contact in the phone, tap “edit” on the top right, then tap “text tone” and set your contact to “emergency bypass” (the same for ringtone if she wants the same for phone calls.) This will make a sound whenever you text or call, even if the silence switch is on or DND is turned on.

DND bypass for favorite contacts should work, but this definitely will.

5 Likes
#4

Wow, that’s an excellent tip!

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I had no idea this existed. :grin:

1 Like
#5

Thanks! Kids are now set to ring through.

#6

Thank you! That is a shame to hear it’s working as designed. I just assumed anything added to Favorites would go through, since it goes to the trouble of asking which contact method for a person you wish to “favorite.”

The Emergency Bypass is a cool idea, but it goes too far. I don’t have any plans to do so any time soon, but it would suck to be in a movie theater and have an “emergency” call come in, since it doesn’t even respect the silent switch. If I were Apple, I’d not only make the Favorites feature more logical (bypassing all chosen methods, not just phone calls), I’d also add a way to specify various levels of emergency for Emergency Bypass, and a master on/off switch for Emergency Bypass, because, if someone did use the feature and decide to see a movie, it would be very easy to forget just one person as you disable Emergency Bypass one by one…

I’d also make a way to make the alert “vibrate only” to protect against this situation. I realize you can set the ringtone/alert tone as a vibration pattern, but that’s not something I’d want to have to adjust every time my situation changes, either.

Mom and I will have to discuss our options given these limitations.

I wonder if Emergency Bypass also bypasses Do Not Disturb While Driving. I’d hate for a loud/sudden alert to startle her as she’s driving… If that’s the case, I won’t ever try that feature.

1 Like
#7

Airplane mode would be your mom’s friend in this case (funerals, weddings, church service as well.) Or, of course, you could use emergency bypass for text tone only and set alert tone to none, which would use vibration only. (There is no “none” ringtone for calls, though.)

You originally said that texting was the issue, so I think that’s your best solution. Since calls are working without emergency bypass on DND, I’d give that a try.

#8

I apologize for taking so long in replying, but I just wanted to let you know that this was precisely the solution. Thanks!