Event Notification Sounds

Apple has provided a myriad of ways, some obvious, some not, in which you can end up NOT hearing notification sounds. If you're relying on the event countdown announcements from Photo Ephemeris, it's important to check that you're not going to be caught out by them.

Test Notifications

Photo Ephemeris includes an option to schedule a test notification within the app. This will play a test countdown notification where the countdown should complete 10 seconds after you schedule it. From the Timeline page, choose Notifications status and then tap Schedule a test notification:

A 10 second countdown begins. After around 3 seconds, the test notification is delivered and the announcement is played. The spoken countdown, "5-4-3-2-1" should complete after 10 seconds have elapsed.

Be sure to schedule a test notification before any important events.

Additionally, you may wish to schedule a test notification and then immediately lock your device to check whether you hear the notification announcement when your device is locked - if you do not, then check out the troubleshooting tips below.

Built-in Checks

Photo Ephemeris checks as many settings as it can on your behalf and, if all is set optimally, will show a green checkmark for each item. Be sure that your device is showing all green, and that you address any items that are showing warnings in yellow or red .

Manual Checks

Silent Mode must be 'OFF'

For iPhone, the button or switch on the side of your device is used to enable or disable Silent Mode. If Silent Mode is enabled, you WILL NOT hear any event notification sounds:

Be sure to disable Silent Mode in order to hear notifications:

Ensure Volume is Turned Up

Even if Silent Mode is disabled, if your device's volume is turned down, you WILL NOT hear event notification sounds.

NOTE: if you adjust the volume while a notification sound is being placed, it will be immediately silenced. (It's unclear why iOS does this - it's unhelpful for tuning the notification volume, and the behaviour is not replicated when playing audio or video.)

Ensure Ringtone and Alerts Volume is Turned Up

In Settings, under Sounds & Haptics, ensure that the volume for Ringtone and Alerts is turned up.

This is a slightly confusing one. Even though this screen states "The volume buttons will not affect the volume of ringtone and alerts.", that is not what we have experienced in testing. It appears instead, that the general volume setting is applied in combination with the Ringtone and Alerts volume setting to determine how loud notification announcements are played.

For example, if you have general volume at max, but Ringtone and Alerts volume very low, notification announcements are quiet.

You need both settings to be increased in order to ensure notification sounds are audible.

Apple Watch Considerations

If your device is locked, and is paired with an Apple Watch, and you have the watch configured to "mirror iPhone alerts" (which will be the default state), notification sounds are NOT played. There are a few workarounds for this.

Firstly, in the Watch app, under Notifications, set TPE to disabled under Mirror iPhone Alerts From:

Notification sounds are now played on the iPhone, even when the device is locked.

Secondly, you can keep Photo Ephemeris as the foreground app while awaiting notifications - when the event countdown is active, the device will not lock and notification sounds will be played.

Alternatively, disable Auto-Lock on your iPhone, but be aware of the security implications of doing so:

Usage with AirPods

If you have AirPods connected to your iPhone while using event notifications with TPE, then, if the phone is unlocked and active you should hear notifications through the AirPods.

In the device Settings app, under Notifications, you can have Siri set to Announce Notifications. When enabled, this will announce time sensitive notifications when connected to "headphones" (but they actually mean AirPods - this doesn't work with other headphones, in our testing).

You probably want to disable this for TPE.

If the device is locked and you have Announce Notifications set to On, Siri will read out the text parts of the notification but you won't hear the intended spoken announcement. This is particularly problematic for precise timings, such as the countdown to second contact of a solar eclipse.

We recommend that you set Announce Notifications to Off for TPE in the Settings app:

System Camera App

When in use, the system camera app suppresses sounds for notifications. This is a built-in iOS feature that prevents your video or photo being interrupted by an unexpected notification. There is no way to disable the behavior.

This means you WILL NOT hear event notification sounds if the system camera app is in the foreground, even if all the other settings are correct.

Some workarounds:

• Use a second device for notifications
• Use a 3rd party camera app on a single device. For example, the well known app Halide does not suppress notification sounds from other apps

Unlocking Your Phone During an Countdown Announcement

Unlocking a locked device while a notification sound is playing will immediately stop playback of the sound. This may be unwanted and unexpected during a countdown.

We recommend leaving your device unlocked and the display active if you will be checking the countdown visually in response to notification sounds. (The app will keep your display active and unlocked by default while the countdown is active, but you can still manually lock the device if desired.)