iPhone 12 mini refuses to keep quiet – bug or feature (or doing it wrong)?

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So on Friday I received my new 12 mini to replace my original SE. It’s a very nice device and I’ve had no problems with it so far (apart from still wondering [as I did on my old 6] which genius thought moving the power button opposite the volume buttons was a good idea). The one issue I noticed though is quite odd. As I had it set up on the old SE, the 12 mini is set to vibrate in addition to any ring tone or message alert. It does that fine. However, on the old SE that meant most time I got just a vibrate since I usually had the silent switch set to on. On the new 12 mini despite all the same settings (AFAICT), when the ringer switch is set to silent (IOW down, i.e. showing the orange marking), the phone not only vibrates, but also beeps when a text or email comes in. It doesn’t ring for phone calls, but it definitely beeps for texts, email, and even calendar alerts. Despite ringer switch set to silent! WTH?

The hardware itself must be fine because I get prompt GUI feedback when I change the switch. It already updated to the latest and greatest 14.2 after I unboxed it.

Am I missing something here or is this a bug?

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Answer: doing it wrong.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but the problem was dumb user, not bug. :blush:

Just in case anybody finds this thread I figured I should follow up. I noticed at some point that the sound my 12 mini was making was in fact different from the one I had selected in settings. That got me to thinking. Turns out that sound it was making was not actually a notification sound, but noise emitted by the device when it vibrates (as selected). Apparently, I work in a really quiet room and when my iPhone is on a stack of papers, the vibrating motor leads to a buzzing sound that I mistook for actual audio output. Both my old 6 and my SE from last year were very quiet when vibrating, but the new 12 mini clearly makes a buzzing sound. It’s still abiding by its ‘silent’ setting. No bug.

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