Okay, so I got my principal iPhone working. Yay, me. But all of a sudden the bluetooth earpiece I habitually wear wasn’t telling me when I had a new text. And that’s the main reason I wear the damned thing.
I communicate with neighbors with texts. Which my earpiece keeps me honest about. In particular, Neighbor L is having trouble because her husband, Neighbor D, is back in the city many many miles away for (serious infection-related issues leading up to) more major surgery that wouldn’t have been necessary if the first round of surgery hadn’t been screwed up. And frankly he’s not in the kind of shape where you would expect him to shrug off more major surgery. I’m worried. I expect she’s basically frantic, and I’m trying to be supportive. So I’m trying to pay attention to texts. And my goddam phone suddenly isn’t telling me when they arrive.
I went over the software settings again and again. There was no reason why I shouldn’t get blasted with a trumpet call in my left ear whenever I got a new text. But it wasn’t happening.
Finally I checked the tiny little toggle switch on the side of the phone. The only such switch on the whole gadget. No reason it should have been set to silence – maybe it somehow got switched when I put the surrounding armor back on? I didn’t know, but I’d checked everything else. So I arbitrarily set it to its opposite setting. Did I just turn it on, or off? I didn’t really know.
Just got a text from her, and was startled by the fanfare in my left ear. Yup – that was the problem all along.
It’s times like these when it would have been nice to have a 10 year old around.
Should be an icon, indicator on the screen.
Right? Why isn’t one just issued with the phone?
When you flip the switch towards the back of your phone, you’ll see a small orange line. This indicates that your phone is now in silent mode.
Another example of Occam’s Razor.
This happens to me often. I have a case that has a rubber hinged cover over that switch. I drop my phone ALL the time and the impact flips that cursed switch and because its covered, I forget it’s even under that flap.