Apple fails to fix iPhone Daylight Saving Time alarm bug for US

November 6, 2010 9:27 PM
Devindra Hardawar
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If you live in the US, don’t rely on your iPhone’s alarm clock to wake you up on time Monday morning.

Apple has failed to fix a Daylight Saving Time bug in the iPhone’s Alarm app that has already disrupted mornings for many users in Europe and Australia. Even though your iPhone’s internal clock may automatically fall back an hour Sunday morning, a bug in the Alarm app causes it to ignore the Daylight Saving change, which in turn leads certain alarms to go off an hour late.

The bug specifically affects repeating alarms that are scheduled to go off on certain days. Alarms set to repeat every day, or one-time alarms, are reportedly unaffected by the bug.

Apple recommends that users delete existing repeating alarms and rely on one-time alarms until after the Daylight Saving change to Standard Time (2 a.m. EST, Sunday morning). After November 7, you can recreate your repeating alarms. The glitch will be fixed permanently in Apple’s upcoming iPhone operating system 4.2 update, which is slated to land later this month.

European users (and some US users, inexplicably) dealt with the Daylight Saving Time bug last week, which gave Apple only a few days to release a fix in time for the US. Still, Apple doesn’t have much of an excuse — users in Australia and New Zealand first reported the bug several weeks ago.

The company likely doesn’t consider the issue big enough to warrant a software patch of its own, but I’m sure many unhappy iPhone owners who rely on the device as their only alarm clock would disagree.

Via CNN

  • http://twitter.com/daveheal Dave Heal

    Doesn't daylight savings time start tonight? That is, Sunday at 2am, which is in a few hours. If you wake up late, it's going to be tomorrow, not on Monday.

  • http://twitter.com/websiteworld Mike Biddle

    This is just pure laziness on the part of programmers.

  • http://twitter.com/jbrough John Brough

    Actually – STANDARD time starts tonight. Daylight savings time ENDS tonight.

  • http://twitter.com/TimRoche Tim Roche

    This has killed me the last 3 days in a row, US customer, glad to see I'm not the only one

  • PulSamsara

    So- some people will be early for work, church or to the sunday football chair.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GMMTJDWRS65CNVHMQ4OJVYV2X4 Eric N

    I'm pretty furious with Apple right now. I live in Phoenix and Arizona doesn't observe DST. Right now, my phone reads 3:36 a.m. even though it's 4:36 a.m. Was an hour late this morning. :(

  • http://sambeal.com/ Sam Beal

    There wouldn't be a bug if we stopped this silly habit of pretending the Earth doesn't tilt toward the sun part of the year. Most southern latitude don't follow Ben Franklin's silly invention. It does not “save daylight” or energy (in an air-conditioned) world.

  • http://twitter.com/apphacker App Hacker

    You'd wake up an hour early, not late. If you have not set your clock 4 am would be 5 am, your alarm would have gone off an hour ago if you had it set for four am.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/XG4KCMI2VESVUSNVDN6FKLOO7A DoloresU

    Honestly, if Apple released a full software update to fix this bug, how many people do you think would actually go and update it? I know people with perfectly capable devices that are still in OS3.1 because they are too lazy to upgrade to OS4. Even when it supports multitasking and other cool stuff. Now imagine how many people would upgrade just for a stupid alarm app fix? I bet most people don't even use Apple's built in alarm. I personally prefer Night Stand.

  • http://www.devindra.org Devindra Hardawar

    I can't imagine that more people would rely on a separate app for an iPhone alarm. But the point is that Apple needed to make it available and publicize the bug — at that point it's up to the consumer to be responsible.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/SDWH3JNGS74WV3W52HNLZ2S2KU jabber_wolf

    Remember its your fault, never Apple's !!

    If you had a blackberry or M$ Windoze phone you'd have the same pro… oh wait, they actually had dst patches – neverind…

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/SDWH3JNGS74WV3W52HNLZ2S2KU jabber_wolf

    This just shows that Apple is soooo ready for the Enterprise right?!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BWN2JRP7CKXUMPHZSUIZ6ZHU64 Travis

    Yet another perfect new comercial for the Droid and Windows based phones. Apples can't tell time. BTW I love the new “I'm a Mac” based comercial with the AT&T guy being carried around on the back of an I-phone guy.

  • ttwiw

    …rudely **NOT** awakened!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MOKNHEIZXVOK3277HZ5X5YQRMQ mtg2cool

    I found that my alarms set for weekdays didn't go off (today monday the 8th), I changed one of them to 2 minutes ahead of what the current time it was and worked, I did not have enough time to sit and wait an hour to see if the other did the same. Thankfully I have another alarm clock that woke me up at the time I needed to be up. How is it that last weeks issue did not effect me but this week after the actual DST change my alarms did not go off? Just odd, and the first ever bug I have experienced with this phone.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MOKNHEIZXVOK3277HZ5X5YQRMQ mtg2cool

    I connected my iPhone sunday night, last weeks bug didn't effect me but I wanted to make sure I had a patch if one was released… none was and my alarm didnt work this morning.

  • http://twitter.com/jjvillaescusa Jonathon Villaescusa

    I found out about this the hard way… good thing it was a Sunday otherwise I would have been late to the office! -http://www.GetTimeWebDesign.com

  • http://twitter.com/skizzmm Thad Barnes

    If you are experiencing this with your iPhone… you are clearly holding it wrong. Please reposition your hand on the device.This is an issue with the user, not the device.Please stop reporting on this topic, as we at Apple do not consider it our problem.Thank you,Lord Jobs

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TNPILPJCZQPYMLXXYLGWM2YXSM Clamence Kim

    I was a victim of this very unexpected bug. Tried all morning to explain why I was late to my boss and coworkers.

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