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How can I disable "vibrate" on my Apple iPhone?

I love that on my new Apple iPhone 3G I can flip a switch and turn the phone from ringing to muted so I don't bother people. Problem is, the darn thing vibrates like a sex toy and it's still annoying in meetings and at meals. Is there some way to disable the vibrate feature too? Thanks.


Dave's Answer:

Wow. Did you really say that your iPhone vibrates like a sex toy?

I though we had a "G" rated Web site here!

Nonetheless, I know exactly what you're talking about, and I have long since turned off the vibrate mode on my phone both with the audible ring and with the muted ring. Turns out that's pretty darn easy to do, but the switch is in a somewhat illogical location.

First, though, here's the switch on the left edge that lets you switch from audible to muted rings (and actually disables all sound, including within games):

apple iphone left edge buttons

It's a bit hard to see but the switch shows you an orange dot if you're in "mute".

Now, on your iPhone you want to tap on the "Settings" icon. That takes you here:

apple iphone settings

Hopefully you've been here before!

What you need to tap on here that's a bit counterintuitive is "Sounds" even though we're talking about a vibration, not an audible feature.

Do that and you're here:

apple iphone settings sound

As you can see, there are "Vibrate" settings for both Silent and Ring mode, along with the many different ringtones that are included with the iPhone itself.

There's no "Save" needed: tap on the ON|OFF switch to set it as you'd desire, then simply leave the screen and go somewhere else.

Now your phone will be even more discrete. Good luck with that. :-)


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Categorized: iPhone and Cell Phone Help   (Article 8902, Written by )
Tagged: apple iphone 3g, iphone ringtones
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Reader Comments To Date: 4

Rob said, on May 18, 2010 6:30 PM:

Afaik, the mute slider thingy can be ignored by apps. They don't have to honour it. I have a number of games that have caught me out this way.
I mucked about with iphone dev, for kicks of course, and the dev docs agree.

James said, on January 17, 2011 12:33 PM:

Thanks for such an informative guide! I've been trying to figure this out for myself for hours!

Ads said, on June 30, 2011 12:01 AM:

I figured that out straight away, but for sone reason my iphone still vibrates when it is muted. Im not sure if this is related to a fault as the phone also thinks it is being muted if it undergoes any form of pressure to the handset, especially when walking with it in my pocket!! Any ideas??

aamailhot said, on March 10, 2013 3:54 PM:

one funny thing to note is that there IS still a way for the iPhone to vibrate *with a ringtone*, even if you turn the 'Vibrate on Ring' option OFF. To squish this last annoyance, tap the 'ringtone' option lower down, as if you were going to change your ringtone. Then the VERY first option to change should read 'Vibration'. 0.o

I know, this silly thing didn't make any sense to me either when I found it, but in any event--just make sure that this is set to 'None' and THEN you should finally be able to enjoy your ringtones in peace and not burn out your battery (from vibrating) to boot.

Thank you Apple, for another *oh so intuitive* toy to use...

-Aa

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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