iOS update forthcoming to fix Alarm Clock app bug

Our intrepid Kiwi reporter, Chris Rawson, recently told TUAW readers about a mysterious bug that hit his iPhone on the morning of September 25th when New Zealand switched to Daylight Saving Time. iOS users in Australian time zones that follow Daylight Saving Time had a similarly rude awakening on the morning of October 3rd when recurring alarms in the iOS Alarm Clock app went off an hour early.

What's happening? There's a bug in the Alarm Clock app that has been affecting users when a change to DST occurs. Other iOS users in Queensland, Austraila also reported that their alarm clocks adjusted to the Daylight Saving Time change on the 3rd, despite the fact that they're not in a DST zone.

There are workarounds available -- users can set the alarm for one hour after the time they actually want to wake up, or they can turn off the recurring alarm and set a non-recurring alarm every day.

Apple Australia apparently told ZDNet Australian Edition that they were aware of the problem and have developed a fix that will be included as part of an upcoming software update. It's expected that the update will appear before daylight saving time changes happen in other parts of the world, including November 6th (USA) and October 30th (EU). That means that we may see another interim iOS release prior to the expected arrival of iOS 4.2 in late November.

[via AppleInsider]

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Source: http://www.zdnet.com.au/ios-daylight-savings-bug-alarms-user…

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Bugs/Recalls Apple iOS

Our intrepid Kiwi reporter, Chris Rawson, recently told TUAW readers about a mysterious bug that hit his iPhone on the morning of September...

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misterlevitan

The bug has stricken the US. Lovely that it has been a known problem for 10 weeks.

November 08 2010 at 11:40 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

john

I am uk resident and just returned from Miami yesterday. I have daily reminders set for uk time and they didn't adjust for Miami time (+5 hours). Alarms at 11 uk time went off at 6am Miami time. I reset time using city code so was surprised it didn't adjust too.

October 12 2010 at 6:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Phill

I'm from Queensland and can confirm being woken up two hours earlier on that day. I thought it was related to the carrier stuffing up. My alarm was set for 5:30 am weekdays. The following day it went of at 4:30am so I disabled it and re-enabled it and it has gone off at the right time ever since.

October 12 2010 at 4:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mikko

Dear Apple, please fix the proximity sensor issue also. 4.1. made it even worse.

October 12 2010 at 3:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom

Those users in Queensland that found their iPhone using dst were probably on three and had their phone set to follow network time. Nothing to do with the iPhone dst bug.

October 12 2010 at 12:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sean

now if they could only keep the phone from sounding-off in your ear if you just so happen to be on a call!!

*Apple needs to redesign their alert system (PERIOD)

October 11 2010 at 6:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kiwi_doug

It looks like it's already fixed. I had the problem last week but today it's working fine. Maybe Apple programmed NZ daylight savings changeover to hi on 10 Oct instead of the correct date, 26 Sep.

October 11 2010 at 6:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to kiwi_doug's comment

Chris Rawson

I can confirm this. I just went through and set a recurring alarm for 13:51, which earlier in October would've guaranteed it'd go off at 12:51. 12:51 hit, and nothing happened.

I then set the recurring alarm for 12:52, and it went off on schedule at 12:52. Looks like our long, national nightmare is over.

October 11 2010 at 7:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

taiminghang.henry

I've no problem at all... You could try to delete the old one and add a new one : )

Cheers

PS: I'm living in NZ ATM

October 11 2010 at 6:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply