Can't turn off alarms in iOS 26

By Magic Retina, 18 January, 2026

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I have a vague memory of this coming up in one of the threads, but it's a big enough problem that it seems worth posting a dedicated post for.

Since iOS 26 was released, I can't turn off any alarm with Voiceover on. The alarm connected to the sleep schedule can be turned off with the side button or from the lock screen. But every other alarm is not recognized by Voiceover and requires turning it off before I can stop it. I'm currently on 26.2 and this is still happening. It's the worst when a banner that I used to be able to tap shows up while I'm trying to read something. I used to rely on these alarms for daily tasks and now a basic function of the phone has been made so obnoxious to use that I have it disabled (I turned them back on the other day because I forgot this was why they've been off since September). I really lothe iOS 26...

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By Gar on Monday, January 19, 2026 - 07:09

Hi there,
I understand the turning them off with the lock button, but what other common techniques are you not able to use now? Also, what device are you using? On my iPhone 17 Pro Max, I have no trouble turning off alarms when they go off. I haven't had any issues doing so on iOS 26.

By Magic Retina on Monday, January 19, 2026 - 12:50

I'm using a new 16e and so far the alarms don't turn off via banners that appear at the top of the screen (not even with screen recognition on). If the phone is on when the alarm goes off, the side button just turns it off while the alarm keeps ringing. Turning the On the lock screen Voiceover doesn't recognize the alarms either. So the only way I've been able to interact with them at all is to turn Voiceover off completely. This has been an issue since the first 26 update for me and is still going in 26.2.

By Mlth on Monday, January 19, 2026 - 14:04

Hi

If you want it to revert to the previous behaviour, you can toggle that in settings/accessibility/touch/Prefer Single-Touch Actions

Best
M

By Gar on Tuesday, January 20, 2026 - 00:11

Hi there,
I think you have to explore by touch. For me, the relevant controls appear in the center right at the top of the screen.
Hope this helps.