The alarm is one of the most widely used features on any smartphone. Many people rely on their smartphone’s alarm app to wake up in the morning.
But what happens when your alarm doesn’t go off? It can be a nightmare, especially if you have an important meeting to attend or need to be somewhere on time. Unfortunately, this is what has happened to a lot of Galaxy S21 users.
Users have reported the Samsung S21 alarm not going off or working correctly. There were a few solutions out there, but none seemed to fix their issue.
Why does this happen on such a high-end device? And more importantly, what can be done to fix the issue? In this guide, we’ll explore possible causes of this problem and provide fixes that you can apply to make your S21 alarm app work again.
Note: Solutions in this guide will work on any Samsung Galaxy S21 model (S21, S21 Plus, S21 Fe, and S21 Ultra models.)
Editor’s note: We created these instructions using a Samsung Galaxy S21 running Android 12. Depending on your device’s software version, some steps and menu positions may look slightly different.
Table of Contents
Why Alarms Not Going Off on My Galaxy S21?
A common question people have asked is, “Why are my alarms not going off on my Samsung S21?” In order to save you time and get straight to the point, we’ve listed the most common causes of this problem below:
- The alarm is set to only go off once, not every day.
- Your device is in Do Not Disturb mode or Power Saving mode.
- The alarm tone is not set up properly, or the volume is set too low.
- Glitches in the Android system or the alarm app itself.
- Caching issues.
- Other misconfigurations within the alarm app.
That is a lot, isn’t it? But there is nothing to worry about because next, we are going to see what solutions actually work to fix the alarm not working problem for your Samsung Galaxy S21. Keep reading…
Fix 01: Test the Alarm Right Now
Did you test the alarm when you woke up? There is no need to explain that the best way to ensure the alarm works correctly is by adding and testing a new alarm. Then we can address the issue.
If you are confused, let me show you how to add and test a new alarm on your Galaxy S21 in the right way.
- Open the Clock app and tap on Alarm.
- Tap on “+” icon.
- Set the time after 2 or 3 minutes of the current time.
- If the time is in 12h format, choose the Am/Pm correctly.
- Turn on the Alarm sound and vibration.
- Wait until the alarm goes off.
If the alarm went off, it means the alarm is working on your Galaxy S21. All you have to do is check the alarm volume, which is explained in the next solution.
If the alarm doesn’t go off, you need to do some troubleshooting. Follow the rest of this guide.
Fix 02: Increase Alarm Volume
As you might know, on your Galaxy S21, there is a separate volume section for alarms. If that volume bar is turned down, you won’t hear even if the alarm works correctly.
Therefore, whether the alarm goes off or not in the previous test, follow these steps and turn the alarm volume to max to make sure you will hear the alarm tone after fixing the issue.
- Press any volume key.
- Once you see the volume bar, tap on the three dots on top of it.
- Increase the volume, which has a bell icon on the bottom of the volume bar.
Once you increase the volume, go back and test the alarm to make sure you hear it loud enough.
Fix 03: ReCheck the Alarm Settings
As I said earlier, misconfigured alarms won’t work correctly. Therefore, before going for the other solutions, check these settings are configured correctly;
- Make sure you have selected every day to ring the alarm.
- Also, check whether you have enabled the “Alarm sound” and “Vibrates” options.
- Make sure you chose the correct time and the AM/PM.
- Finally, check the snooze time and set it to a low rate.
If one of these settings is not configured or not enabled, that is the reason why your alarm is not going off.
Fix 04: Restart Your Galaxy S21
When you restart the device, every app and service refreshes with the Android system. Also, if there are any temporary glitches, they will be fixed when you restart the device.
Therefore, Press and hold the power button and restart the device. And test if the alarm works correctly.
Fix 05: Turn Off Power Saving and Do Not Disturb Modes
The power-saving option can stop the alarm service on your Galaxy S21. On the other hand, the do not disturb mode cuts the alarm sound from coming out from the speaker.
Therefore, it is better to turn both features off when you want the alarm to work correctly. Slide down the notification bar and turn off the power-saving mode and do not disturb mode.
Fix 06: Clear Clock App Data
Like every other app, the alarm app generates special data called the cache. The cached data stores data from repetitive process and allow the app to work smoothly.
The app won’t function correctly if the cache files are corrupted or missing. That is why when there is any problem with any app, they suggest you clear the cache.
But clearing the cache won’t help to fix some problems. That is why we suggest you clear the app data instead of the cache, as other guides do.
You will lose the alarms you set up before, but that won’t be a problem because you can add the alarms again, or you can take a screenshot of the currently added alarms to set up later after you clear the data.
- Go to Settings > Apps.
- Tap on the Clock app.
- Go to Manage storage.
- Tap on Clear data.
Once you clear the data, go ahead and perform a test to make sure the alarm goes off as you want.
Fix 07: Update “Clock” on the Galaxy Store
To fix the bugs on the Alarm app that prevent it from going off, you can update it to the latest version from the Galaxy Store (If the app exists on the Google Play Store, you can update from there). Here is how to do that;
- Open Galaxy Store.
- Tap on the menu.
- Select Updates.
- You can see if any update is available for the Clock app tap on it to install the update.
After you update the app, do not forget to follow these steps and clear the app cache;
- Go to Settings > Apps.
- Tap on the Clock app.
- Go to Manage storage.
- Tap on Clear cache.
Fix 08: Perform a Software Update
Software updates often include bug fixes. If the alarm doesn’t function because of an Android system issue, you can perform a software update to fix such issues.
Tip: See our Samsung Galaxy S21 software update tracker
- Open Settings.
- Tap on Battery and device care.
- Tap on Software update.
- Then, tap on Download and install.
Wrapping Up
This guide was about the alarm not going off issue on Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphones. We hope the solutions given in this guide helped you to fix the issue.
If you have questions regarding this guide, feel free to comment below.
Have a nice day!