13 Fixes for iPhone Not Ringing for Incoming Calls in iOS 16

If your iPhone isn’t ringing when you’re receiving a call, it can be easy to miss out on an all-important phone call. Fortunately, the solution isn’t usually too hard providing you know what to look for. We’ll walk you through what to do when your iOS 16 device isn’t ringing so you won’t miss another call.

Why Is My iPhone Not Ringing When I Get a Phone Call?

Silenced calls don’t necessarily mean you have a major problem with your iPhone. There are various reasons why your iOS 16 device won’t ring when someone calls, including:

• Your ringer volume is turned down.
• Your phone is on Focus or Airplane mode.
• You turned on call forwarding.
• Your phone is paired with a Bluetooth device
• There’s an issue with a third-party ringtone.
• The speaker port is clogged.
• Your phone is physically damaged.

Fixes for iPhone not ringing after iOS 16 update

If your iPhone is no longer ringing when someone calls you, there are some fairly simple fixes that usually correct the matter. Here’s what to do when your iPhone isn’t ringing so you won’t miss another call.

1. Check your iPhone for dust, dirt, and damage

First, look at your iPhone and check for any damage such as dents or cracks—these could be a sign that your phone may need to be replaced, but we’ll hold off until we’ve tried a few other fixes. Next, check the speaker port for any dust or dirt, which you can easily remove by blowing it off or cleaning it with a cotton swab dipped in a drop of rubbing alcohol.

2. Restart your iPhone

Often, simple tricks are the most useful. So, before you jump to other solutions, restart your iOS 16 device. You never know when that magical spell will help you.

1. Press and hold the Side and either of the volume buttons until the Power off slider appears.
2. Drag the slider to power of your iPhone.

3. Turn the Ringtone Volume Up

If a simple restart doesn’t work, it could be an issue with your ringer volume, especially if you can still hear other media like music or videos. Sometimes, we accidentally press the volume buttons which may reduce the ring volume to zero.

To check and increase the ringer volume:

1. Launch Settings.
2. Tap Sounds & Haptics.
3. Drag the sound volume Bar to the right to increase volume.
4. You might also want to turn off Change with Buttons. Doing so will prevent you from lowering the ringtone volume using the physical volume buttons. When this option is disabled, the volume buttons only change the volume for media, not your ringtone.

4. Make sure your iPhone isn’t on silent mode

Besides the ringer volume, you also need to make sure that your iPhone’s Ring/Silent switch isn’t in the Silent position. It should, of course, be flipped up toward the screen. If it’s down (with a band of red visible) it’s set to silent, and your iOS 16 device won’t ring when you get a call.

The Ring/Silent switch is located on the left side of the iPhone, above the volume controls.

5. Turn off Focus mode

Another important setting that you need to check is the Focus mode which is different from the silent mode. The Focus mode feature allows you to temporarily silence your ringer and pings from texts. Once you’ve enabled this feature, you’ll need to switch it off to hear your phone ring again.

1. Swipe down from the top right of your screen to open the Control Center.
2. Tap the Focus icon to turn it off.

Alternatively:

1. Launch Settings.
2. Tap Focus
3. Select Do not disturb.
4. Check that the setting is off. If it’s not, Turn it off.
5. Check the Schedule settings and other settings to make sure it won’t turn on later.

6. Make sure Airplane mode is off

If you set your iOS 16 device to Airplane mode during a flight and you forgot to disable it when you landed, your iPhone won’t ring. Here’s how to turn it off:

1. With the device unlocked, swipe down from the top right of the screen to open Control Center and check whether Airplane mode is on.
2. If it is, tap Airplane mode to turn it off.

7. Make sure Call Forwarding isn’t on

The iOS 16 include a call forwarding feature in the Settings app. You may have turned it on by accident.

Here’s how to check if Call Forwarding is enabled on your iOS 16 device.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Phone.
3. Select Call forwarding.
4. Turn off Call Forwarding.

8. Turn Off Silence Unknown Callers

the Silence Unknown Callers feature mutes all incoming calls from people not in your contact list. It also suppresses rings for people you have never contacted or received their phone number (via call, text, or email).

So if someone like a distant relative or delivery person calls, you might not hear the incoming ringtone with this setting enabled. To fix this, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Phone.
3. If the switch next to Silence Unknown Callers is On, tap this field and turn the slider off from the next screen. Now, you should hear the ringtone for all incoming calls, unless you have the person blocked.

9. Double-Check if You’ve Blocked the Caller

After you block a person on iPhone, they cannot call, FaceTime, or text you. It’s possible that you blocked a person by accident, or no longer need to have them blocked. To address this, here’s how to check your block list and unblock them:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Phone.
3. Scroll down and tap Blocked Contacts.
4. In the list of blocked contacts, swipe left on the desired entry and tap Unblock. Alternatively, tap Edit > red minus button > Unblock.

10. Check Bluetooth

If you’ve paired your iOS 16 device with headphones or earbuds and aren’t using them, you won’t hear your phone ring. To turn off Bluetooth pairing:

1. Open Settings > Bluetooth.
2. Turn off Bluetooth.

Alternatively:

Pull down from the top right of your screen to open Control Center and tap Bluetooth to turn it off.

11. Remove third-party ringtones

Third-party ringtones sometimes include a software bug that can cause your iOS 16 device not to ring. If you’ve downloaded one, this could be the problem. As much as you love the sound of a quacking duck when your mom calls, try switching back to a default ringtone on your iPhone. Here’s how:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Select Sounds & Haptics.
3. Tap Ringtone.
4. Select one of the default ringtones.

12. Complete a factory reset

If you’ve worked through all these options and your iOS 16 device is still not ringing, try completing a factory reset to restore your device to its original factory settings.

Make sure to back up your device before you start so you won’t lose any data.

How to Backup your iPHONE using iTunes, Finder or iCloud!

Then, follow these instructions to carry out a factory reset:

1. Open the Settings app and select general.
2. Tap transfer or reset iPhone.
3. Tap erase all content and settings.

13. Get help from Apple

By this point, one or more of the above solutions should have fixed the problem of iPhone not ringing after iOS 16 update. If not, you probably have a hardware problem with your iPhone, like a damaged speaker or a fried port.

You can go to Apple’s support page and set up a Genius Bar appointment to have someone look at it in person.

This is how you can fix the iPhone not ringing in iOS 16 issue

We hope that you’ve found these tips useful to getting your iOS 16 device ringing loud and clear again!