iPhone Text Tones are All Silent

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Kelly Heffner Wilkerson

Categories: iPhone | View Comments

This morning my husband's iPhone 6 Plus stopped playing text tones. The ringer worked fine, but all of the text tones just vibrated, even while trying to change the tone in the Settings app (built in and custom ringtones.) Here's how we fixed it:

  • First try turning off Bluetooth, and then turn it back on. (See Disconnect from Bluetooth accessories from Apple Support.) I see this work a lot if the sounds stopped because the iPhone still thinks it's connected to your car or headphones.

  • Restart the iPhone if you haven't tried that already.

  • In the settings app, go to Sounds, and then Ring Tone. Click around to a few different ring tone options, and then select your usual ring tone again.

  • In the settings app, go to Sounds, and then Text Tone. If the tone sounds now when selecting different ones, it should be working now. If not, keep going.

  • Back up one screen in the Settings app to go to the sound menu. Turn off "change with buttons" if it's on. Slide the volume slider just above that all the way down, and then back up to your normal ringer volume level. Turn back on "change with buttons." Reboot the iPhone.

  • The sounds should be working now, check again by trying to select a text tone in Settings. In the settings app, go to Sounds, and then Text Tone. If you can hear the tone now when selecting different text tones, select your regular tone and ask someone to text you to do the final test!

If these didn't work for you, leave us a comment with your specific situation, and we will help as best we can!

Update July 12, 2017: After all of the great comments from our readers, we have two more great suggestions to try if your text and other notification sounds aren't working.

Update March 29th, 2016: If all of your sound (text alerts, phone rings, keyboard clicks) cuts out randomly at times, and you have a bluetooth-enabled car, you might find our new post on this topic helpful!