I have terrible insomnia, despite medications (prescription by doctor.) I have Focus set up on my iPhone so I don’t receive notification of any calls/texts between 10pm & 7am (except for my daughters, in case of emergency.) I have also turned off all emergency alerts I could find in Settings: Amber Alerts, public safety, etc. & all Notification settings.
A few weeks ago, I received a text @ 5am from Apple, telling me my package would be delivered that day; happened to be a short period when I was actually asleep. Called Apple later that day to try to see if I’d missed a setting somewhere, got nowhere. IMHO, no reason Apple should send texts @ 5am.
This morning, I received a Weather alert @ 4:30am (surprisingly asleep.) The alert was unnecessary; said we might be getting a short snow squall in the next couple hours & might last for 1/2 hr. So little snow came thru it was barely seen on the grass, none on the streets.
Any idea how I’m receiving texts/alerts when I think I have everything turned off? How are these occasional alerts/texts slipping thru?
Thx for any suggestions. I would keep the phone in another room at night but I want it nearby in case either of my daughters ever has an emergency. So far it’s never happened but I’m a worry wart & have to be prepared.
I totally sympathize with your insomnia! I’m not that bad (no meds), but I definitely have trouble getting to sleep and there’s nothing worse than being woken up for no reason.
A package notification definitely shouldn’t be breaking through Do Not Disturb! You might be able to at least turn off the notification sound for notices coming from the Apple Store app. Then you still get the display notification which you can see later, but no noise to wake you up at night. My policy is a one-strike one – if any app sends me an unnecessary notification even once, I silence it. (If the notification is an ad, then I turn of all notifications for that app. Zero-tolerance!)
A decade ago Apple woke me up in the middle of the night with a horrible klaxon alarm thing. Sounded like the world was ending. I practically had a heart attack. It was an Amber alert for a missing kid in a different state; authorities thought the kidnapper might be fleeing through my state. I live in the middle of nowhere and I’m horrible at recognizing faces (literally the Superman trick of putting on glasses to become Clark Kent would fool me ) so me getting notified of a possible suspect in my area is useless to me. I immediately turned off the “Emergency Alerts” feature that Apple had added to iPhone. Those break through any settings and might be why you received that weather alert.
But you should be able to set custom settings for individual apps to your preference.
I have App store notifications off. I don’t think the Apple text should have even come from the App Store, my order was placed online on the Apple website, not thru the App store but who knows how that all works.
I have all Emergency alerts turned off, turned them off years ago & periodically check to make sure some iOS update hasn’t turned them back on; occasionally that does happen.
I realize this just happens infrequently & it’s not an emergency situation but when it happens, it’s highly annoying. Wanted to be certain I wasn’t missing a setting somewhere.
I originally turned off all alerts years ago when an Amber alert came thru in the middle of the night. While I appreciate & understand the need for them, like you, I was so far removed from where the situation was happening, the alert felt absurd. Same for the snow squall warning, wasn’t as if a major storm was coming imminently & we needed immediate preparation. It was a maybe for a 30 minute squall that never even happened. Even if it had, no preparation would have been needed, the prediction was a maybe for less than 1/2 inch of snow.
Love your Clark Kent analogy, I’m almost as bad w/faces. I have neighbors (husband & wife) I see so infrequently, unless I see them coming out their door, I wouldn’t recognize them.
Your Apple alert concerning a physical delivery would have come from the Apple Store app, not the App Store. Have you dealt with notifications there? I don’t think it makes a difference whether the item was ordered via the app, the website, or in person.
With respect to Emergency Alerts, you can have them appear without sound. Obviously, you’re at the mercy of the agency that issues the alert as to whether THEY consider the situation an emergency. I think Apple has recently added alert classes, so you should recheck your settings to be sure they are set to your preferences.
In the focus setting, do you have “intelligent breakthrough and silencing” turned off?
Tap apps and make sure it’s set to “allow notifications from” (rather than “silence notifications from”) and is set to no apps at all.
Tap people and make sure that it, as well, is “allow notifications from” and is set to only your daughters. Set allow calls from to “allowed people only”. Turn off repeated calls.
iPhone’s on iOS 26.2; don’t see “intelligent breakthrough and silencing” anywhere. Both People & Apps are set to Allow Notifications from, not Silence Notifications.
I got the same Weather alert at the same time (we must live in the same region). But the Weather app has no notification settings. Bad Apple for designing an app with a notification that you can’t disable.
My wife also got a loud blaring emergency alert for the same thing. Just the thing when you’re fast asleep at 4:30am.
I understand the nature of the alert - people who are out at that hour could find themselves suddenly in dangerous conditions. I read several local social media posts from people grateful for it (one got up to bring the horses in out of the field, one was riding a motorcycle and sought shelter). But for the rest of us who won’t be affected, it’s really aggravating. It’s not like a tornado warning, where everybody should be awakened to seek shelter.
I’m mostly blaming my local government for the alert, but I blame Apple for shipping a Weather app that generates notifications you can’t turn off.
Weather shows in my Notifications Settings on iOS 26. It even has a separate “time-sensitive noficiations” enabler which I think might be those that warn you about critical weather. So you can turn it off.
I live in northern VA. While I have the Apple Weather app (pre-loaded on iPhone) I rarely use it, I use AccuWeather. I moved 3 1/2 yrs ago (locally) & while the Weather app allowed me to add my new location, it won’t let me delete my previous one & it won’t allow me to change My Location to my new location. Not a big deal as they’re close to each other but it’s a frustrating inconvenience.
I did check iPhone Settings - Apps - Weather; Notifications can be turned off. But mine is already set to Off so it’s either a flaw in Settings or something else is allowing the audible notification. (Also have notifications turned off in AccuWeather.) As of now, I’m blaming Apple, local government, & anyone else I can think of.
Since I’d previously received a text notification from Apple when my Focus was active, I think Apple is the most likely culprit.
This is where the “Enhanced Safety Alerts” and “Government Alerts” are configured - I have them all turned off.
This is iOS 26.2.
Where else should I be looking?
Update. I found this article from Apple’s web site. You need to click through something in the Weather app itself and then choose to enable/disable notifications. The settings appear in Settings → Apps → Weather only after doing this.
And the system apparently treats them as enabled if you never went through that magic set of menus.
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are activated by local Emergency Managers, National Weather Service, or other government agencies and are not controlled by the Weather app.
Weather alerts are sent for the most important warnings which include Tornado, Flash Flood, Blizzard, Wildfires, and in some cases for Snow Squalls. The latter is included because of the sudden reduction in visibility on highways can result in multi-vehicle pileups.
WEA are geo fenced and should only alert if you are in the specific area.
On my iPhone, in Settings - Apps - Weather, Notifications is the 4th entry, below Search, above Cellular Data.
But I honestly can’t place blame on Weather. I acted so quickly when awakened by the phone, the notification was dismissed before I noticed where it originated.
This was not an Emergency Alert. I have those disabled on my phone, and that alert didn’t happen. They did pop up on my wife’s phone, who does have them enabled.
This notification was from the Weather app itself. The notification bubble said so, and it was a completely different sound from an Emergency Alert.
As I just wrote, you have to jump through a few magic hoops in the Weather app before its notification settings appear in the Settings app. I never clicked through there before, and so I had no such configuration options. But the alert happened anyway. It would appear that Apple has decided that they should default to being on even if you were never presented with a choice.
Weird. I just went to Settings > Notifications > Weather (in the long Apps list).
As far as I know I never clicked any settings inside the Weather app like you mention, though it’s possible I did that eons ago and forgot. I generally use a third party weather app instead of Weather, but it obviously is installed by default.
Settings / Focus / [Choose the Focus you are using]
Typing this, it may be an Apple Intelligence option. If you don’t have a phone that can run AI, or have it turned off, it may not be there.
I’ll say that I use the Sleep focus when I am sleeping and the only time my phone alerts during that focus is when my kids text me. It would if they called, obviously.
You can easily delete all locations except My Location in the Weather App by opening the list of locations, tapping ‘Edit’, and deleting the items you wish to delete. To control how ‘My Location’ is used, go to Settings>Privacy & Security>Location Services. Scroll down the app list to Weather and whether (sorry!) you’d like the app to never use it, use it under various conditions, or always use it. If you select Never, it won’t show up in the list.
That explains the missing “intelligent breakthrough and silencing”. I don’t use any AI features on my phone.
As I mentioned, the weather alert prompted my question today about Settings. Usually I only “hear” notifications during my Focus times if my daughters call/text me; that’s how my Focus is set up. But I previously received a text from Apple during my Focus time - at about 5am - letting me know of an expected delivery. That’s inexcusable if my settings are all in place correctly.
Thank you, that finally worked. Had tried to make the change directly in the Weather app but it wouldn’t let me delete My Location or change the designated My Location. Never occurred to me to check iPhone (& iPad) settings for this, thought it would be a setting directly w/in the Weather app.
Don’t know why things are sometimes so much more complicated than they need to be. Appreciate the help. Enjoy your day.
) so me getting notified of a possible suspect in my area is useless to me. I immediately turned off the “Emergency Alerts” feature that Apple had added to iPhone. Those break through any settings and might be why you received that weather alert.
