iOS software
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Some iOS users find issues with notifications after an app update
Notification sounds keep resetting
QWhenever I install an iOS update on my iPhone or iPad, all notification sounds are reset to their defaults. It has become tedious and annoying to have to keep reconfiguring them. How can I stop this from happening?
AThis is a sporadic problem which seems more likely with certain recent updates, and is by no means rare. The operating system saves your chosen notification sounds to a file. Normally, when the system is updated, it tries to leave existing settings files in place, which should mean that your choice of sound is left unaffected – but clearly that’s not happening for you.
In your case, on both your iPhone and iPad, something is causing the update to reset your chosen sounds to their defaults, as if there were no existing settings. It’s more than coincidence that this is happening to both devices, which suggests there is another factor in common between them.
That could be due to a misbehaving app you’ve installed on both. In online forums, we’ve seen owners report it occurred for them after updating an app, and a restart fixed it.
If that doesn’t work, consider doing a hard reset, which erases a device completely. Due to when your problem occurs, this is best done when Apple releases a system update. If it sounds worth the effort, make a full backup of a device first, then go to Settings > General > Reset and tap ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ to restore factory settings. Next, set your custom sounds, install the update and see if your changes stick. If so, you’ll need to do another hard reset, restore from your backup, and wait until Apple releases another update to see if your sound choices are still preserved.