[Q] Stock alarm clock is being unreliable?

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aladd04

Member
Jun 17, 2013
16
1
Has anyone else been having problems with the stock alarm clock on the Galaxy S4? Mine seems to be unreliable. Goes off one morning, but not the next. But is random when it works and doesn't.

Current settings:
Android: 4.2.2
Carrier: Verizon
Time: 7am
Days: MTWTF
Repeat Weekly: Checked
Alarm type: Vibration and Melody
Alarm tone: Journey
Sound: Maxed
Location alarm: off
Snooze: off
Smart alarm: off
In "menu" outside that section I have "voice control" off.
Not rooted, no other ROM. Just default, stock Verizon Galaxy S4.

Before I go to bed I double check to make sure my alarm is on and sound is at the max (not in vibration or silent mode). Power saving mode is "off". I have no task killers. I do close all my apps using the default android task manager. But then I turn the alarm clock back on because I'm paranoid. But none of this seems to help.

I've tried factory reset, that didn't seem to help as it still sometimes goes off and sometimes doesn't. I have not tried any other alarms than the stock one. I will be trying one (any suggestions?) and updating this to let you know if it worked. But until then, it would be cool to see if I'm not the only one having this issue and to see if anyone else has solved this!

Thanks!
 

Tortuga

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2010
482
173
Has anyone else been having problems with the stock alarm clock on the Galaxy S4? Mine seems to be unreliable. Goes off one morning, but not the next. But is random when it works and doesn't.

Current settings:
Android: 4.2.2
Carrier: Verizon
Time: 7am
Days: MTWTF
Repeat Weekly: Checked
Alarm type: Vibration and Melody
Alarm tone: Journey
Sound: Maxed
Location alarm: off
Snooze: off
Smart alarm: off
In "menu" outside that section I have "voice control" off.
Not rooted, no other ROM. Just default, stock Verizon Galaxy S4.

Before I go to bed I double check to make sure my alarm is on and sound is at the max (not in vibration or silent mode). Power saving mode is "off". I have no task killers. I do close all my apps using the default android task manager. But then I turn the alarm clock back on because I'm paranoid. But none of this seems to help.

I've tried factory reset, that didn't seem to help as it still sometimes goes off and sometimes doesn't. I have not tried any other alarms than the stock one. I will be trying one (any suggestions?) and updating this to let you know if it worked. But until then, it would be cool to see if I'm not the only one having this issue and to see if anyone else has solved this!

Thanks!
I use the alarm every day as well, and have not had a problem with it not going off. Are you using one of the stock alarm tones, or a custom song/sound? I have used both without issues, but if you're using something other than a stock tone, maybe try one of those to see if it's an issue with your audio file.

Edit: I see that it's called "Journey" so that may be a stock tone. I guess I'm not sure then
 

aladd04

Member
Jun 17, 2013
16
1
I use the alarm every day as well, and have not had a problem with it not going off. Are you using one of the stock alarm tones, or a custom song/sound? I have used both without issues, but if you're using something other than a stock tone, maybe try one of those to see if it's an issue with your audio file.

Edit: I see that it's called "Journey" so that may be a stock tone. I guess I'm not sure then

Correct, the alarm tone I'm using is a stock tone. It's woken me up before, so I don't think I'm sleeping through it :p haha. My only guess is my phone is somehow going into a low power state that's not updating the time every minute, therefore the alarm time is sometimes getting skipped and therefore not getting triggered. I just don't know what would be causing this as I have "power saving mode" off and I haven't ran into any other settings that would do this... I do plug my phone in overnight too, so you'd think it would be going full force anyway. But I just recently switched from iOS so I'm still a bit new to the android side of things :).
 

Tortuga

Senior Member
Oct 28, 2010
482
173
Correct, the alarm tone I'm using is a stock tone. It's woken me up before, so I don't think I'm sleeping through it :p haha. My only guess is my phone is somehow going into a low power state that's not updating the time every minute, therefore the alarm time is sometimes getting skipped and therefore not getting triggered. I just don't know what would be causing this as I have "power saving mode" off and I haven't ran into any other settings that would do this... I do plug my phone in overnight too, so you'd think it would be going full force anyway. But I just recently switched from iOS so I'm still a bit new to the android side of things :).

Have you tried running some daytime tests to see if it rings on time? The clock on the lockscreen may only update when the screen is on, but the phone always knows what time it is. If you can get it to skip alarms reliably, maybe take it to a Verizon store and have them swap it out. I've used my cell phone as an alarm for quite a few years (I have a backup as well, but only because I'm pretty good at shutting alarms off in my sleep) and the only times I had trouble was with older phones when I was rooted and running a less-than-stable custom roms.
 

aladd04

Member
Jun 17, 2013
16
1
Have you tried running some daytime tests to see if it rings on time? The clock on the lockscreen may only update when the screen is on, but the phone always knows what time it is. If you can get it to skip alarms reliably, maybe take it to a Verizon store and have them swap it out. I've used my cell phone as an alarm for quite a few years (I have a backup as well, but only because I'm pretty good at shutting alarms off in my sleep) and the only times I had trouble was with older phones when I was rooted and running a less-than-stable custom roms.

I did run various tests throughout the day yesterday, have a few set for today too. All went off fine so far. The stock alarm woke me up this morning too. Maybe I just had to break it in :) haha. I'm worried it will skip again, though, so I'm using my desktop as a backup alarm clock, lol. If it does skip I will more than likely take it to Verizon, as this doesn't seem normal. Haven't tried any non-stock alarm clock apps yet. Guess I should look for a good backup app just in case eh.
 

alexvv

Senior Member
Jan 13, 2013
135
18
Athens
Has anyone else been having problems with the stock alarm clock on the Galaxy S4? Mine seems to be unreliable. Goes off one morning, but not the next. But is random when it works and doesn't.

Current settings:
Android: 4.2.2
Carrier: Verizon
Time: 7am
Days: MTWTF
Repeat Weekly: Checked
Alarm type: Vibration and Melody
Alarm tone: Journey
Sound: Maxed
Location alarm: off
Snooze: off
Smart alarm: off
In "menu" outside that section I have "voice control" off.
Not rooted, no other ROM. Just default, stock Verizon Galaxy S4.

Before I go to bed I double check to make sure my alarm is on and sound is at the max (not in vibration or silent mode). Power saving mode is "off". I have no task killers. I do close all my apps using the default android task manager. But then I turn the alarm clock back on because I'm paranoid. But none of this seems to help.

I've tried factory reset, that didn't seem to help as it still sometimes goes off and sometimes doesn't. I have not tried any other alarms than the stock one. I will be trying one (any suggestions?) and updating this to let you know if it worked. But until then, it would be cool to see if I'm not the only one having this issue and to see if anyone else has solved this!

Thanks!

yes it's really unreliable not only in your 4.2 s4. it often doesnt go off on my s3 mini too. just download another one.
 

thesoldier

Senior Member
Nov 18, 2012
1,419
357
31
Baltimore
I was just gonna say I've never had a problem with the stock alarm...and what do you know, this morning it didn't go off. I always wake up no matter how loud or quiet the alarm is so I'm fairly certain I didn't sleep through it.

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