How To Disable Do Not Disturb on the iPhone

Don’t want to be bothered during an important meeting or a romantic night on the town? Just turn on the Do Not Disturb mode and you’ll temporarily exclude yourself from calls, texts, emails, and notifications.

But you shouldn’t forget to disable the mode after the important event ends. Fortunately, you can also set the iPhone to automatically disable/enable Do Not Disturb for you.

The following sections provide you with all the methods you can use to disable this feature. We’ve also included another silent mode you might find useful.

Disabling the Do Not Disturb Mode

There are three ways you can change the Do Not Disturb settings. Go into the Control Center from your Home screen, access and disable the mode via Settings, or set up a Do Not Disturb schedule.

Here is a simple guide for each method.

Controls Center

This method might be the easiest one. Unlock your iPhone and swipe down to access Control Center (if you have an older iPhone, you should swipe up). Then tap on the crescent moon icon to disable the Do Not Disturb mode, and you are good to go.

While the mode is on, the crescent moon turns purple and the icon becomes grey. Once you disable it, the moon becomes white and the icon becomes dark.

A Neat Trick

You can take advantage of the capacitive touch and depress the icon to reveal more options. It’s quick to access the Do Not Disturb schedule from here. The pop-up also allows you to switch the Do Not Disturb on for one hour or keep it on until the next day. If you prefer, you can set it to stay on until you leave your current location or until an event ends.

Settings

To disable Do Not Disturb from Settings, here is all you need to do. Hit the Settings icon on your home screen, select Do Not Disturb and toggle the option off.

But there is much more you can here to automate and tweak Do Not Disturb to your preferences.

Scheduling and Other Options

Hit the button next to Scheduled to toggle it on, and tap the “From and To” section to select the desired timeframe. By default, the timeframe is set between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM. You can also toggle the Bedtime option to automatically enable and disable Do Not Disturb.

With the Bedtime option on, your Lock screen gets dimmed, calls are silenced, and notifications appear in the Notification Center only. When the scheduled time ends, all the settings automatically go back to normal.

Aside from scheduling, you also get to choose different Silence and Driving mode settings. For example, if you set the Silence mode to Always, the incoming calls get silenced when the phone is locked and unlocked. You can allow calls from your list of Favorites or if someone repeatedly calls you within 3 minutes.

Do Not Disturb can automatically be triggered once you connect to a car Bluetooth, and there’s a manual option as well. Plus, you get to set up a custom automatic text message to reply to your contacts while this mode is on.

Pro Tip: You can enable Do Not Disturb from the Clock app. Launch the app, select Bedtime, and follow the set-up wizard. This action enables and disables Do Not Disturb according to your alarm/sleep settings.

An Extra Option at Your Fingertips

From iOS 11 onwards, you can add Do Not Disturb While Driving to your Control Center. Take the following path to add the icon:

Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls > More Controls > Do Not Disturb While Driving

Now you can find a car icon in the Control Center, and tap on it to enable/disable the mode.

Airplane Mode

If you want to go off the grid completely, Airplane mode is the way to go. It temporarily disables the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular network. Like with the Do Not Disturb mode, you can easily enable/disable it via the Control Center.

Just tap the airplane icon to enable or disable it. When enabled, the icon turns orange and it instantly switches off your cellular network and Bluetooth. You can do the same from the Settings or your iWatch. However, there are no automatic settings for this mode.

Get Back on the Grid

You are always just a tap away from disabling the Do Not Disturb mode on your iPhone. But why not utilize all the automatic options that are at your disposal? This can help you keep to a regular sleep schedule. Don’t forget to keep Do Not Disturb on while driving, making your time on the road safer.