iOS 6’s ‘Do Not Disturb’ Not Shutting Off Automatically on New Year’s Day

Some iOS 6 users who use Apple’s scheduled “Do Not Disturb” feature may find that their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch hasn’t automatically disabled the feature on New Year’s morning.


The issue was reported on Whirlpool forums as well as our own MacRumors forums. The “Do Not Disturb” feature silences calls, alerts and notifications when it is enabled. Users may optionally schedule “Do Not Disturb” to activate between specific hours. This allows you to automatically disable calls and notifications while you sleep.

It’s this scheduling feature that appears to be misbehaving on New Year’s Day. MacRumors reader Spacesamurai posted about his experience:I am in Japan so it is 2013, and I am finding that my iOS devices (iPhone 4 and iPad 2) are showing “Do Not Disturb” even though it is outside of the time I set for them. Not sure if this is related to the new year. Reloading the devices does not help and the software is up-to-date.Spacesamurai’s experience has been echoed by others, but not everyone.

Apple has had other bugs in the past related to New Year’s day. In years past, Apple has had issues with alarms not going off into the new year. Fortunately, the “Do Not Disturb” feature does not disable alarms set with Apple’s built-in Clock app.