Erratic Behaviour Of iPhone/iPod Alarms Continues

The erratic behavior previous experienced by both iPhone and iPod users regarding how iOS handles the changes in daylight saving appears to be back in full force this week, with many users reporting both via Twitter and Apple’s official support forums that they are seeing alarms going off too late, and in some cases, too early.

It first started in November last year, when users in Europe experienced their iPhone alarms failing to go off en mass. Just two days later Apple officially acknowledged the issue, providing the following response.

To resolve this behavior for existing alarms, set the repeat interval to Never. You will need to reset these alarms for each day you need them. After November 7th, 2010, you can set your alarms to repeat again.

It later came to light that European iPhone users weren’t the only ones affected by the bug, with later reports claiming U.S users also experienced the alarm fails. But that wasn’t the end of the issue. On January 1, 2011, iPhones and iPods across the world failed to go off again.

Apple then acknowledged the issue for a second time, stating:

Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison confirmed to Macworld that Apple is aware of the problem. “We’re aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2,” Harrison said. “Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.”

But on January 4, 2011, just a day after Apple said things would sort themselves out a number of reports flew in that the issues were in fact not fixed for some users.

Now, Engadget reports the same thing is happening again — Will it ever end?

Since DST went into effect on Sunday in the US, many didn’t notice issues until this morning, but even eagle-eyed iPhone owners could have a nasty surprise as one Engadget reader reports: “My iPhone 3GS changed time correctly yesterday, but for some reason over night it reverted back an hour, thus leaving me an hour late for work.” There doesn’t seem to be a single easy fix, but affected users report a variety of ideas might work — restarting the device, changing the Time and Date setting away from Automatic, calling the iPhone with another phone, or turning on and off Airplane Mode.

Luckily, this time the issues only seem to be affecting the U.S.