Want your morning to start off with music for iPhone alarm instead of a ringtone or classic alarm noise? If so, we got you covered with our step-by-step guide to having your favorite song wake you up!
The official Clock application on iPhones can be of utmost importance for those who use it as an alarm clock on a regular basis. While Apple integrates an array of pre-loaded ringtones to use, there is also a way to use some of your favorite songs to be used as an alarm.
This feature was initially introduced with iOS 6 but has continued to be updated and improved over the years.
There are a few caveats to this, as you will need to have songs saved explicitly to your device for this to work.
What this means is that you won’t be able to just use the top song on Apple Music’s top charts as your favorite song (but that would be pretty awesome). The convenient aspect here is that you will be able to use songs from your various Apple Music playlists.
Pick a Song To Play Music For iPhone Alarm in the Clock App
When setting up an alarm for the first time, you’ll need to access your iTunes library during the process, which is obtained directly from the Clock app.
Here are the steps needed to take to set a song as a ringtone for a new alarm:
Open Clock app
Tap the “Alarm” section at the bottom
Tap the “+” button in the top right-hand corner
Pick the specific time of the alarm
Determine when you want the alarm to repeat
Enter a label for the alarm
Select ‘Sound’
Under the ‘Songs’ section, select ‘Pick a song.’
Scroll through and find the song in your library
Tap the song
Remember the song must be downloaded onto your device to work
Press the Back button at the top-left corner
Tap Save to keep that alarm and its song
Enjoy!
Want to Change That Song?
If you decide you want a different song for your morning alarm, Apple made it very easy to edit and change any setting, including pick a song, on all your alarms. Scroll down to “add a song to an existing alarm” to learn how.
As a note, the Clock application shows you some of your most-played songs before switching over to iTunes Library.
This can be extremely convenient if you are someone of simple tastes and don’t want to go searching through all of your playlists to find the right song.
Add a song to an existing alarm on iPhone
Let’s say that you already set the alarm, but are reading this for the first time and want to change the alarm for that existing alarm.
Switch your alarm sound to a song in your library
Open Clock.app
Tap the “Alarm” section at the bottom
Tap ‘Edit’ in the top left-hand corner
Select the Alarm you want to edit
Adjust the time of the alarm
Determine when you want the alarm to repeat
Enter a label for the alarm
Select ‘Sound’
Under the ‘Songs’ section, select ‘Pick a song.’
Scroll through and find the song in your library
Tap the song
Remember the song must be downloaded onto your device to work
Press the Back button at the top-left corner
Tap Save to keep that alarm and its song
Enjoy!
As expected was the case above, the Clock app will still show some of your most-played songs if you aren’t in the mood for browsing through your entire music library.
Bonus Tip To Get Music for iPhone Alarm!
Once you have reached the step where you go through browsing the iTunes library, you can skip some of the fuss to a certain extent.
When accessing the iTunes library, there is a search bar at the top of the page, which allow you to find the exact song that you’re looking for.
If you have any more questions regarding the clock app and integration with Apple Music, feel free to let us know in the comments below.
Pick A Song Not Working As Music for iPhone Alarm?
Quite a few of our readers tell us that when they pick a song for their morning (or anytime) alarms, that instead of playing the chosen song, the alarm defaults to the Radar (Default) Alarm sound.
After a bit of testing, we discovered that if you download songs to your device, then your alarms use that song. But when the songs not downloaded to the device, the alarm goes back to that default Radar sound.
It’s supposed to work with all songs, whether downloaded onto your device or streaming from iCloud or Apple Music. But as of now, streaming is not working at all!
Andrew is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US.
He has written for a variety of sites over the years, including iMore, Android Central, Phandroid, and a few others. Now, he spends his days working for an HVAC company, while moonlighting as a freelance writer at night.
When I try to use one of my download songs to my alarm it does not work anymore. I never had this problem before. Is there a reason why this is no longer working on my iPhone 10.
My iPhone 11 won’t play any songs that I have downloaded and instead plays the std radar ring. My last iPhone 8 worked just fine. I could choose different songs for different alarms. Have a solution for this?
Is there any way that you can pick a certain spot for the song to begin? I’ve tried a ton of ringtone maker apps but none of them worked. I also suck with tech.
I have a problem with choosing a song, I’m not sure if I saw this problem w somebody else.
I added an mp3 file to my iPhone with another app (bc I have an old mac and it won’t let me use iTunes w my iPhone) and it is showing in the Music app on my phone, but when I am trying to choose a music for my alarm, this song is not showing up, while the others do.
Is there anything I can do to be able to set as my alarm, or is it because the app I added it to my iPhone with? Thank you in advance!
I was able to use an iTunes song for my iPhone XR’s alarm tone iOS 13.3. However, I was sad and frustrated to find out that my song was cut off straight up after only seconds. I want my alarm song to play in its entirety, which is roughly 3.5 minutes. Is this possible and how do I do it?
the alarm woke me up to the song but stopped playing after 15 minutes the song should have played for 23 minutes is there another setting I am missing? Or is there a default amount of time the alarm runs for?
Slide on your mute button on the side of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to mute any ringtones–just remember to slide it back on if you want to hear your calls and notifications after your wake up.
We don’t know why, but Apple does not provide a way to delete these songs from your list of alarm songs!
It should only show between 5-6 of your most frequently used songs so the list should not continue to grow and grow.
The only other thing that might work (we haven’t tested it though) is to reset all settings–but this is likely not worth it.
Reset all settings
* This is usually the last resort since it resets all your personalized features back to factory defaults
* Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All
* This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms
* Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
* Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files
* You need to reconfigure these settings once your iPhone or iDevice restarts
It would be great to be able to change the options in the “Wake Up Alarm” and choose the ‘wake-up-sound’ from the playlist via downloaded music in Itunes or purchased.
The only way to do this on Apple 5 is to select the ‘alarm’ and have both go off at intervals?
Currently, alarm music must be on your device to show up and play. If the song you selected has a cloud next to it in your music library it won’t work.
If using Apple Music (subscription), choose “Make Available Offline” to download the song to your device and then set it as your alarm.
Allowing any music as an alarm would be nice, whether on the device or via iCloud. Please consider providing Apple your experience and feedback–so maybe they’ll consider it for the next iOS update.
My alarm keeps going back to the default ringer it won’t let me set my Apple Music and I didn’t have this trouble with my other apple phone, can you please help me with this issue?
My iPhone still goes to the default Radar alarm despite following all the instructions on previous posts. Disappointing and the Radar sound is too harsh for waking up!
This is exactly what happens in my experience. Can someone comment on why this might be and what can be done to remedy? My old iPhone operated better than this one, waking me with Pachabel Canon every morning, not that irritating radar default!
We did some testing to see what’s working and what’s not. What we discovered is that any song that’s downloaded to your device seems to work when set as pick a song for an alarm.
However, if you choose a song that’s not downloaded to your device, the alarm defaults to the Radar sound.
Sadly, picking a song that is not downloaded onto your device appears not to work in iOS 12 (and 12.1.)
We tested on three different devices, with one running iOS 12, another iOS 12.1, and finally, an iPad running iOS 11.4–and the only one that worked was iOS 11.4. So we think it’s a bug new to iOS 12.
We did some testing to see what’s working and what’s not. What we discovered is that any song that’s downloaded to your device seems to work when set as pick a song for an alarm.
However, if you choose a song that’s not downloaded to your device, the alarm defaults to the Radar sound.
Unfortunately, picking a song not already downloaded appears not to work in iOS 12 (and 12.1.)
We tested on devices running iOS 12, iOS 12.1, and iOS 11.4–and the only one that worked was iOS 11.4. So we think it’s a bug new to iOS 12.
I can’t get my alarm to work with music. It only plays the default alarm. I just bought an iPhone 13.
My alarm no longer works with downloaded music. I have tried every fix that I can find.
Would greatly appreciate this getting fixed as I noticed it broke after one of the latest IOS updates.
When I try to use one of my download songs to my alarm it does not work anymore. I never had this problem before. Is there a reason why this is no longer working on my iPhone 10.
My iPhone 11 won’t play any songs that I have downloaded and instead plays the std radar ring. My last iPhone 8 worked just fine. I could choose different songs for different alarms. Have a solution for this?
Wow..this was the missing piece (downloading the song first). Thanks so much, and now I can wake to Ok Go’s “Let it Go” every time I set an alarm!
Is there any way that you can pick a certain spot for the song to begin? I’ve tried a ton of ringtone maker apps but none of them worked. I also suck with tech.
Hey there!
I have a problem with choosing a song, I’m not sure if I saw this problem w somebody else.
I added an mp3 file to my iPhone with another app (bc I have an old mac and it won’t let me use iTunes w my iPhone) and it is showing in the Music app on my phone, but when I am trying to choose a music for my alarm, this song is not showing up, while the others do.
Is there anything I can do to be able to set as my alarm, or is it because the app I added it to my iPhone with? Thank you in advance!
I was able to use an iTunes song for my iPhone XR’s alarm tone iOS 13.3. However, I was sad and frustrated to find out that my song was cut off straight up after only seconds. I want my alarm song to play in its entirety, which is roughly 3.5 minutes. Is this possible and how do I do it?
the alarm woke me up to the song but stopped playing after 15 minutes the song should have played for 23 minutes is there another setting I am missing? Or is there a default amount of time the alarm runs for?
How do I turn off ring tone as it plays along with music?
Thaks
Hi Rick,
Slide on your mute button on the side of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to mute any ringtones–just remember to slide it back on if you want to hear your calls and notifications after your wake up.
Liz
How do I clear the list of songs I set as an alarm? I don’t see an option to remove or delete. Thanks!
Hi Billy,
We don’t know why, but Apple does not provide a way to delete these songs from your list of alarm songs!
It should only show between 5-6 of your most frequently used songs so the list should not continue to grow and grow.
The only other thing that might work (we haven’t tested it though) is to reset all settings–but this is likely not worth it.
Reset all settings
* This is usually the last resort since it resets all your personalized features back to factory defaults
* Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All
* This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms
* Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
* Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files
* You need to reconfigure these settings once your iPhone or iDevice restarts
Songs are not showing up and I have over 600 downloads on my iTunes app. Why is that?
Hi Alisa,
There is a major outage with iTunes and Music today, so it’s likely your problems with iTunes are related to server issues.
Wait for a few hours and check again.
Do you have to use iTunes or can u use spotify
It works with Apple music Derek. As long as the song is downloaded and on your device, it should be available in the alarm settings.
It would be great to be able to change the options in the “Wake Up Alarm” and choose the ‘wake-up-sound’ from the playlist via downloaded music in Itunes or purchased.
The only way to do this on Apple 5 is to select the ‘alarm’ and have both go off at intervals?
I just became a new user of the iPhone.
I have purchased 2 iPhone’s one for my wife and myself.
Now I am trying to use the alarm on my iPhone and selecting music to wake up to instead of that annoying default radar.
It does not work!
It keeps playing that default.
I thought with my iCloud acct. always logged in the music should play regardless if coming from the cloud or my device.
My must I download my paid music to my device in order for the music to play.
This just takes up my storage on my device and eventually will begin to slow down the operation of my new devices!
Has Apple come up with corrective action to this issue?
If so, what is that corrective action so that I can have music stored in my cloud, and not on my device.
Thank you,
Hi Robert,
Currently, alarm music must be on your device to show up and play. If the song you selected has a cloud next to it in your music library it won’t work.
If using Apple Music (subscription), choose “Make Available Offline” to download the song to your device and then set it as your alarm.
Allowing any music as an alarm would be nice, whether on the device or via iCloud. Please consider providing Apple your experience and feedback–so maybe they’ll consider it for the next iOS update.
My alarm keeps going back to the default ringer it won’t let me set my Apple Music and I didn’t have this trouble with my other apple phone, can you please help me with this issue?
My iPhone still goes to the default Radar alarm despite following all the instructions on previous posts. Disappointing and the Radar sound is too harsh for waking up!
This is exactly what happens in my experience. Can someone comment on why this might be and what can be done to remedy? My old iPhone operated better than this one, waking me with Pachabel Canon every morning, not that irritating radar default!
Hi MCollier,
We did some testing to see what’s working and what’s not. What we discovered is that any song that’s downloaded to your device seems to work when set as pick a song for an alarm.
However, if you choose a song that’s not downloaded to your device, the alarm defaults to the Radar sound.
Sadly, picking a song that is not downloaded onto your device appears not to work in iOS 12 (and 12.1.)
We tested on three different devices, with one running iOS 12, another iOS 12.1, and finally, an iPad running iOS 11.4–and the only one that worked was iOS 11.4. So we think it’s a bug new to iOS 12.
Please consider submitting Apple your user feedback to let them know your user experience.
Sam
Hi S Cunningham,
We did some testing to see what’s working and what’s not. What we discovered is that any song that’s downloaded to your device seems to work when set as pick a song for an alarm.
However, if you choose a song that’s not downloaded to your device, the alarm defaults to the Radar sound.
Unfortunately, picking a song not already downloaded appears not to work in iOS 12 (and 12.1.)
We tested on devices running iOS 12, iOS 12.1, and iOS 11.4–and the only one that worked was iOS 11.4. So we think it’s a bug new to iOS 12.
Please consider submitting Apple your user feedback to let them know your user experience.
Sam
The songs are downloaded and it still defaults to the darn default ringtone no matter what I do. And it’s 12.1.
Try again.
Exactly. Same. What a piece of s** and what brutal support.
Any chance that Apple will let us use a Playlist instead of one song?
Hi Wendy,
Not yet, but that’s a great idea! Consider giving that feedback to Apple for the next round of iOS updates.
SK
Here we are a year and a half later, and Apple STILL hasn’t implemented what should be a pretty simple thing.