Ring Doorbell 2 Audio Alerts iOS 13

Hello,

We are new to ring and are experiencing and issue where the selected ring adio tones only work with the iPhone is unlocked. When locked, only badges appear on phone. I have been through the settings extensively and cannot think of any thing that would be causing the issue. All other apps send audio tones when phone is locked. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Hey @dwestfall102. Could you try removing the Ring app, rebooting your phone, and then reinstalling the app? From there go into the Main Menu > Devices > Ring Video Doorbell 2 > Device Settings > Alert Settings > and then make the alert tone assigned to what sound you want from the app, as well as the volume it should play at. Please ensure your phone is not on mute, silent, or on DnD. Once you have adjusted the settings, lock your phone and ensure you get the sound notification after dinging your Doorbell. :slight_smile:

@chelsea_ring Unfortunately, I have done that and did retry per your suggestion without any luck. We have 3 iPhones and it does not work on any of them.

Thanks for the update @dwestfall102! If the Ring app is not audibly alerting on any of the mobile devices, please remove and reinstall the Ring app, accept permissions, and also check for silent or do not disturb mode settings. Please also ensure there is not a VPN enabled or any similar apps on your Iphones that might conflict with notifications.

In addition to the Alert tones settings mentioned prior, try also checking on any motion scheduling, snooze, or device mode settings that might prevent alerts to your mobile devices. Feel free to let us know how this goes! :slight_smile:

@Marley_Ring, thanks for responding. I have completed the suggested steps with out any luck. It does seem odd that this is occuring on any iOS device the app is installed on within our household. Are there any other iOS users experiencing this issue? As stated before, if the device is unlocked, the audio alerts work as intended. A new discovery is that when connected to blue tooth audio, the alerts work when the device is locked and playing music from another application.

This is quite an odd occurrence. I’ve tested and checked in with the team here to reproduce this, and in every instance the alerts come through on the latest IOS, while locked and unlocked. Sound will, of course, not play in silent mode, but I see that you’ve checked that variable.

With this happening on multiple IOS devices to factor out any one devices’ settings, I recommend reaching out to our support team for more in-depth troubleshooting. Please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19, so this has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support. Feel free to let us know how this goes! :slight_smile:

As of 2021-01-24:

After two hours on the phone with Ring Tech Support, I have found a solution/workaround to this issue:

  1. Turn off Bluetooth on your iPhone
    OR
  2. Turn off Ring Notifications for your Apple Watch in the iPhone Watch app.
  3. Reinstalling the Ring App doesn’t fix anything – it is a total waste of time.

I chose #2 and now I can hear an audible notification on my iPhone when it is locked.

Running Ring 5.34.0 on iOS 14.3

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I just had the exact same problem and it is the iWatch causing the issue. Now I only get notifications on my iPhone but cannot on my iWatch which is a shame. Can this be resolved? Would be great to have both notifications on both devices.

Had the same problem. Turning off notifications in for ring on apple watch and ring tone now works when iphone is locked. Ring need to fix this

Thank you so much for posting this. It is so ridiculous that there isn’t an option to have notifications on both. Hopefully they are able to resolve this soon.

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I’m having this same issue. Thank you so much for finding the solution. I hope Ring comes out with a software patch so I can get notifications on my watch AND phone.

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I don’t have in the ring app installed on my iwatch and I still not receiving ring notifications on locked screen on iPhone

Thanks, I had the same issue. It was the iwatch notifications stopping the phone. The problem was the iwatch notification was just as generic as a text message notification so got ignored. I have now disabled iwatch notifications so that I can get notifications on my phone. Ring, please resolve this issue to allow notifications to come through on both iwatch and iPhone together

There’s plenty of discussion about this on Apple, too, because it’s designed to work this way, and it’s not just Ring that’s affected.

When your iPhone is unlocked, you’ll get the audible alert on your phone with whatever tone you’ve selected. When it’s locked, you’ll get an alert on your Watch if Mirror iPhone Alerts has been selected for the Ring app in the Watch app on your phone, and nothing on the phone. If it’s not selected, you’ll get nothing on your Watch, but you’ll get the alert on your phone even when it’s locked.

This was possible (alerts on both) if you had both Rapid Ring and Ring on your phone. You’d set one to mirror to the watch, which would get you alerts with a cam’s image on the Watch, and the other to just go to the phone, which would alert you with whatever tone you set for the cam that caused the alert.

Now that Rapid Ring has been discontinued and removed from the App Store, there’s no way to do this. I sent a feature request to Apple to allow Custom notification settings for third-party apps, like they have for Apple apps (most people who use it do it for Messages). I’m not sure that it will be possible for the Ring app to send audible alerts to both an iPhone and an Apple Watch unless Apple implements a setting to allow this and Ring uses it. Or Ring adds a tiny second app just for this purpose.

For now, we are out of luck. The only known workaround is to essentially “disconnect” your Watch from your phone by turning off bluetooth and Wrist detection on the Watch. This has severe limitations, such as several health/fitness features not working, no hard fall detection (you might really need this to save your life), no a-fib detection, no Apple Pay with the Watch unless you enter a passcode, etc.

It’s an ugly and silly situation.

Wow this worked like a charm! Definitely an issue on Apples end, and I work there! Appreciate whoever found this.

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Is there a place to vote on this feature?

Hi @user37821. If you are not able to find a feature request on our Feature Request board, feel free to add a new one. This board helps us to organize and share your requests with our teams here, as well as allow other neighbors to comment and add interest, all in one place.

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