"Mysterious" iPhone Issue

[CoolRich59]

I have been having the strangest issue with my iPhone (a 2-year old iPhone 8).

Sometimes I will get a call, but the phone will not ring or even show a missed call until I open the phone "app". Then, the app badge will pop up with a "1" to indicate the missed call or a "2"to indicate the missed call and voice mail.

It does not happen consistently, so when it happened, I just thought that I actually did miss the call. But, this evening I had a call scheduled and had the phone sitting in front of me on my desk. Once the caller was 5 minutes overdue, I picked up the phone, opened the app, and sure enough, they had called but the phone never rang, nor did I get a v-mail prompt.

I am perplexed by this and don't even know where to start. Is it a phone issue? An app issue? (e.g., I have a VPN app on the phone) A carrier issue? (I use an MVNO (Total Wireless)).

Any thoughts/insights would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[davebarnes]

Lizard People.

 

[Jerry1]

Wish I could help you, but all I can say is that my DW has the same thing happen. I just read this post to her so she doesn’t feel alone. I don’t think it’s ever happened to me. We don’t have a VPN and our carrier is Sprint. She used to have a 6S but now she has an 11. I don’t think it’s ever happened on her new phone, but we’ve only had it for a couple weeks.

I’ve generally chalked it up to a poor signal, where the signal has dropped out at the time the call is coming through.

 

[Just_Steve]

Make sure all of your "Do not disturb" items are off.

 

[Philliefan33]

I’ve been having the same issue with my iPhone 7 recently. I powered down the phone and restarted, and that seems to have fixed it.

 

[CoolRich59]

I've tried shutting down and restarting, but it's made no difference.

I may do a reset (ugh )

 

[Jerry1]

I've tried shutting down and restarting, but it's made no difference.

I may do a reset (ugh )

Yes, resetting in my experience works better that restarting, though I have no idea if it will help this issue. Every time it happens to DW I tell her to do a reset. Mostly, it just makes me feel better to act like I have some level of a solution for her (I don’t ).

 

[CoolRich59]

Mostly, it just makes me feel better to act like I have some level of a solution for her (I don’t ).

I'm better off in that regard. My DW is so technically challenged that she gets stumped if she accidentally puts her ringer on mute. When I "fix" that for her, she thinks I have magical powers.

 

[Sunset]

I’ve been having the same issue with my iPhone 7 recently. I powered down the phone and restarted, and that seems to have fixed it.

I had that problem with a non-apple phone, a reboot - a total shutdown fixed it.

 

[TrvlBug]

I've had this happen twice on my iphone 10 in the past 1.5 years. After checking all the settings, I just attribute it to the gremlin having a bad day.

 

[target2019]

My wife has had similar problems that persisted through iPhone upgrades. This is with Verizon. I don't recall any problems with call notifications on various Android models, like Pixel 3.

 

[braumeister]

I've had that happen but it always seemed to be a robocaller who hung up a split second after the connection was made and before a ring tone could be generated. We know they do that all the time, just to identify numbers that are live.

 

[latexman]

Make sure all of your "Do not disturb" items are off.

^^^^^ This, and power your iPhone off then on every day or two or three.

 

[donheff]

DW had that the other day, She accidentally flipped the little swicth on the upper left side that turns the ringer off. After fixing that it still didn't work and we found that the sound was set down in settings. Another easy mistake is you might have accidentally set do not disturb to always be on at home. That is the little moon shaped icon in the control panel that ou access in the upper right of the screen (battery, camera, et al). If the moon icon is white on black DND is off.

 

[sally4th]

I have an 8. When I first got it I was always having trouble with my volume and brightness.

I finally noticed that when I picked it up and carried it, the control panel would be open and where my palm touched the screen was over those controls.

Now I shut off the screen before I pick it up to carry it.

 

[Katsmeow]

Yes, I have had this problem. We used to have it lot where we used to live where our Verizon connection was OK, but not the best. After we moved we have rarely had the problem although I had the same issue recently on T-Mobile although it much more rare now. In other words, I think this is sometimes tied to not having a good strong cellular connection at a particular location. It can be good most of the time but occasionally not and that is when this tends to happen.

 

[ocean view]

This was standard operating procedure for my just replaced iPhone 5s. My issue was poor signal inside our house. If I was lucky, I got one bar. I could not use it as a phone at all. I just replaced it with the new iPhone SE, which supports WiFi calling and like magic, my phone is now a phone!

If this problem just started for you, I would contact your carrier and see if they changed the service, or lost a tower, etc in your neighborhood.

Also if you haven’t turned on WiFi calling yet, give that a try.

 

[KB]

I have the same problem.

I have an Iphone XS. I have T-mobile with a booster to give me 4 bars. I have wifi on and volume up. I shut down my phone once a week and restart it. I do have Do Not Disturb set from 9 PM to 7 AM, and it does shut off at the right time. But my phone still doesn't ring. It did at one time, but it doesn't now.

I haven't contacted Apple about it yet but reading about others with a similar problem, maybe I will.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Is it possible you enabled the "Silence Unknown Callers" feature that arrived in iOS version 13 (the most recent major upgrade)?

Check Settings > Phone > Call Silencing and Blocked Callers

If enabled and a call comes in from someone who is NOT in your Contacts, it will not audibly ring. It goes straight to voicemail. However, on mine, it does show an indicator on the Phone app icon even before opening the Phone app. This feature was added to fight the multitude of SPAM calls coming in from randomly generated phone numbers.

 

[KB]

Is it possible you enabled the "Silence Unknown Callers" feature that arrived in iOS version 13 (the most recent major upgrade)?

Check Settings > Phone > Call Silencing and Blocked Callers

Thanks, that is exactly what was 'turned on'. However it must be the default.

Right after I posted my previous post, I got a call and my phone rang. But it was someone in my contact list.

Thanks for your help, I believe it fixed my problem.

 

[MBAustin]

ER-org saves the day again!!!

 

[CoolRich59]

Thanks, that is exactly what was 'turned on'. However it must be the default.

Right after I posted my previous post, I got a call and my phone rang. But it was someone in my contact list.

Thanks for your help, I believe it fixed my problem.

Yep. Same here. I checked my Settings and it was turned on my phone as well.

Thanks PaunchyPirate!

 

[GalaxyBoy]

“Silence Unknown Callers” is a feature I won’t live without. Yesterday I had to disable it because the plumber was scheduled to call before he showed up, and the robocall madness started again.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Yep. Same here. I checked my Settings and it was turned on my phone as well.

Thanks PaunchyPirate!

Glad this helped. As mentioned above, it's got downsides too. If you're expecting a call from the delivery guy before he shows up with your new stove, you might miss the call. I try to turn it off when I'm expecting a call, but sometimes I forget. But I like it turned on most of the time. I have a small circle of friends/family and they are all in my contacts. Almost everyone else can leave a message or be ignored.

 

[Paulz]

Not to diminish the issue with your phone, but there is a service I use called "Slydial" which is how I leave messages for people I really don't want to talk to. Works like a charm and I often get messages back apologizing that they never heard the phone ring.