Sunday, December 23, 2012

Samsung Galaxy S3 Alarm - No sound Solution

My wife just upgraded her phone to a Samsung Galaxy S3 and ran into a problem. The alarm suddenly stopped playing an alarm sound. After going through the alarm and sound settings she passed the problem to me.

It took me a while to track down the problem. Lots of other people seem to be having it also. In the end I discovered the problem was caused by a telephone marketer and poor default settings on the Blocking Mode.

The Galaxy S3 makes it easy to block unwanted telemarketing calls and when my wife got one she immediately added it to the offered 'Blocking Mode'. Blocking mode was started and that's when her alarm problem began. She didn't notice it but she wasn't hearing incoming calls either!

It's easy to fix. From your home screen swipe down from the top right hand corner of the screen. You'll see at the top under 'Ongoing' Blocking mode. Tap it and remove the check mark from 'Disable alarm and timer' then go down the screen and turn 'Allowed contacts' to 'All contacts'. Had you noticed that your phone was not playing ringtones?

21 comments:

  1. Thank you very much. Your advise and photos helped me sort out why my alarm wasn't sounding as well, and why I could not hear my phone ring.
    Cheers
    Michelle

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  2. Anonymous8:12 am

    Thank u!!! I turned on blocking mode to save on roaming charges and never have i thought that it will disable the alarm's sound..i've been trying to figure it out for almost a month now..wew!

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  3. I am going crazy with the alarm on my S3. The phone alarms but does not repeat. All since the time change. I cannot find the ongoing block link you referenced above.

    Help please.

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  4. Swipe down from the top right hand corner. If blocking mode is enabled - you'll see it. It's unlikely to be the cause if you hear the alarm but it does not repeat though.

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  5. Anonymous11:24 pm

    Thank you so much. Bought the s3 mini other day and both me and partners alarms where not working making school run and work and phone calls annoying and was going to ring o2 to complain as we bought refurbs and thought they were just broke. Hopefully our alarms will go off in morning :-)

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  6. Anonymous12:25 pm

    Brilliant!

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  7. This was a great help, thanks.

    One thing, blocking mode was of on my wifes phone but still had the issue. Fixed by toggle blocking mode on and then off again. Resolved!

    My wife toggles the mobile data mode on and off write a bit and this is right next to blocking mode. Might be that the mode was selected by accident.

    Hope that helps others!

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  8. Anonymous1:48 am

    Thank you so much. I have tried everything and now its fixed

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  9. Anonymous6:43 pm

    OMG!! Thank you SO much!! I was on iChat with Samsung for 30 minutes and even called the At&t store and no one had the answer. I knew it was something I had done but couldn't for the life of me figure it out!! Bingo! I had blocking mode on!! Fixed it in 20 seconds! No excuse for being late now! LOL! :)

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  10. Anonymous10:42 pm

    Thank you. I missed my alarm today so I overslept and was 2.5 hours late to work. Couldn't figure out how I slept through 2 alarms, 5 snoozes and a phone call from a co-worker. Should be on time tomorrow.

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  11. it didn't help in my case. no blocking was enabled. alarm goes off but no sound. pic of clock appears and an encircled red cross appears

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  12. didn't help in my case. blocking mode not enabled. alarm goes off but no sound. clock pic shows and an encircled red cross mark appears below the clock

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  13. Thanks so much for this! Incidentally my blocking was off but going to settings and turning it on then removing the check mark by alarm has worked. Must be a bug!

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  14. Thanks so much! Incidentally blocking mode was not enabled but going to Settings turning it on then removing the tick by alarm worked.

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  15. I am so pleased that i found this item !!! spent most of the morning trying to fathom out why no alarm sound on my partners phone. When he awakes and thanks me i will say thats ok no prob it was easy . So ssshhh no telling its my secret thanks once again.

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  16. Thanks so much been trying all morning to fathom out why my partners phone had no sound for the alarm. When he thanks me later i will say thats ok it was easy . Its my secret so ssshhh. Will tell him if it happens again.Thanks once again

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  17. Thanks for this it fixed the problem without having to do a factory reset which was the advice from Samsung.

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  18. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I called my phone company and girl on the phone couldn't help me. This worked!!

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  19. THANK YOU SO MUCH. This worked.

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  20. Thank you so much! I am on a trip to India and I couldn't get my timer to work so that I could rest for a set time- I don't want to mess with the actual time settings, but positively needed to set the timer so that I could get a little sleep! I really appreciate you taking the time to post this solution! - Now able to rest in India!
    -Fran

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  21. All I can say is, "I love you". Thanks Soooooo much. This was driving me crazy.

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