Fix: iPhone not vibrating on silent

The Silent mode on iOS and Android is irreplaceable, especially in this day and age when you get tons of notifications from all kinds of services, not just messages and calls. Which is the reason to tackle today’s problem swiftly. It seems that the iPhone is not vibrating on silent for some users. Don’t worry, though, the solution for this is usually simple.

Table of contents:

1. Enable Vibrate on Silent
2. Check Accessibility options
3. Update iOS
4. Reset your device to factory settings

Why Doesn’t My Phone Vibrate in Silence? And How to Fix?

When this happens, there are usually two toggles to check. Vibrate on Silent in Sounds and Vibrate in Accessibility. Alternatively, you’ll probably want to update your iOS and, if nothing helps, reset your device and restore it from iCloud or iTunes.

1. Enable Vibrate on Silent

The first thing to check is the Vibrate on Silent option. iOS conveniently offers separate vibration settings for Ring and Silent so you can choose by yourself. Of course, it goes without saying that if the Vibrate on Silent is off, your iPhone won’t vibrate in the Silent mode.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Sounds.
3. Toggle on the Vibrate on Silent option. You can do the same for Vibrate on Ring.
4. Test it out to see if your iPhone is still not vibrating on silent.

If this fails, try the next step.

2. Check Accessibility options

The next step is to check the Accessibility options. In there, there’s a toggle to disable vibration feedback system-wide. So, we need to make sure that the Vibration is enabled under Accessibility > Touch.

Follow these steps to enable Vibration in Accessibility:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility (on older iOS versions Settings > General > Accessibility).
3. Select Touch.
4. Scroll down and enable Vibration.

3. Update iOS

The next thing to try is simply updating your iOS firmware. It seems that, based on reports, certain iterations caused the problem at hand. We can’t pinpoint which one exactly as the problem spans over various iOS versions. However, updating usually helps when dealing with nasty software bugs. Unless it doesn’t — when updates broke some essential features.

To update your iPhone, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update. Install any available update. Also, if you are enrolled in Beta testing, reporting the problem to Apple sounds like a good idea.

4. Reset your device to factory settings

Finally, if none of the previous steps worked for you, the only remaining troubleshooting step that comes to mind is the factory reset. You can either go through iPhone settings or use iTunes on your PC or Mac. Either way, don’t forget to back up everything to iCloud. We don’t want you to lose your data.

• Fix: iPhone not backing up to iCloud

Here’s how to reset your iPhone to factory settings:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap General.
3. Select Reset.
4. Tap Erase All Content and Settings.
5. Make sure to back up everything to iCloud. Navigate to Settings > Your Account at the top > iCloud > iCloud Backup and tap Back up Now.
6. Enter PIN/Password when prompted and confirm.
7. Once your device reboots, choose Restore from iCloud Backup.

And, on that note, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and feel free to share your questions and suggestions in the comments section below. Your feedback is invaluable.