[iMore Question]

Was in the car and my iPhone 7 (had it about a month) just started beeping loudly just like how a smoke alarm would sound. Had no apps open. Had to completely shut the the phone down to get it to stop. Anyone know what this is or why it would do that?

[Rob Phillips]

Welcome to iMore! The only thing that comes to mind is that there was an amber alert. Did anything flash on your screen?

Either way, I wouldn't be too concerned unless it keeps happening. If you have any further questions please join the forum and reply back in this thread. How to Sign Up at iMore

[SwitchBeach]

Amber Alert?

[MountandJew]

Amber Alert?

It's a local alert that gets pushed to your iPhone in the case of imminent weather or other alert types. You may need to turn the setting off to avoid having it go off again.

[MizWylie]

Agree that it could have possibly been a local alert. If you don't require them I'd go to Settings>Notifications and scroll to the bottom and unmark one or both

[SwitchBeach]

It's a local alert that gets pushed to your iPhone in the case of imminent weather or other alert types. You may need to turn the setting off to avoid having it go off again.

I know what an Amber Alert is.

I was suggesting that this might be what the OP is experiencing.

[Andrew_yates86]

I've had amber alerts come up so I'm pretty sure it wasn't any kind of alert. Was also a sound I've never heard before. Exactly what a smoke alarm would sound like. Nothing popped up on screen and there was no way to turn it off besides shutting the phone down.

[bigbrompton]

Thats crazy it happened to my phone too, it sounded like a fire alarm not an amber alert i know what amber alerts sound like, all my apps were closed it freaked me out. Its not bothering me right now because it stopped after like 6 seconds. But im sooo curious on why would that even happen

[lawdood]

This just happened to me this morning too. I thought my smoke alarm was going off and it was just my iPhone 7 making a loud alarm noise, no apps open, no Amber or emergency alert notifications. WTF?

[Dan LeRette]

iPhone 7 user here. My phone did this as well. Few days ago. So I ripped the fire alarm off wall. Then today again. But realized it was the phone. Powered off and back on to stop. Notifications off. Wtf lol

[brennenfletchall]

This has happened to me 3 times now. It's very strange. All three at different times of the day. It's incredibly loud and shrill. I actually think it's playing through iTunes. When I hit the lock button it shows a screen that looks like a song playing in iTunes but there is a website where the song title would be. I can make it stop if I open iTunes and play another song. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[robbyberardi]

This JUST happened to me.
No Amber alert. No weather alert. Long piercing tones like a smoke alarm.

[SparklyPickle]

Did you smoke in the car?

[Annie_M]

If you haven't already, you might want to report this on Apple's Feedback page: click here

[SwitchBeach]

I'm curious as to whether this is only occurring on iPhone 7 devices?

[robbyberardi]

This just happened again. Loud noise like smoke alarm then song screen appears with [redacted] scrolling.
I searched [redacted] (without clicking) and it's listed as a suspicious site.
Virus?

This has happened twice in the last week.

[Rob Phillips]

This just happened again. Loud noise like smoke alarm then song screen appears with [redacted] scrolling.
I searched [redacted] (without clicking) and it's listed as a suspicious site.
Virus?

This has happened twice in the last week.

Something isn't right there. At this point I recommend putting your iPhone into recovery mode and connecting to iTunes on a Mac or PC. You'll be prompted to install the latest version of iOS. Once iOS is done installing DON'T restore from a back up, rather set it up as a new device and manually install all of your apps. This will ensure that anything that could be causing your issue is overwritten, including anything that could have possibly gotten into iOS itself.

It's a lot of work but it should hopefully clear things up for you.

[usmc8408]

Something isn't right there. At this point I recommend putting your iPhone into recovery mode and connecting to iTunes on a Mac or PC. You'll be prompted to install the latest version of iOS. Once iOS is done installing DON'T restore from a back up, rather set it up as a new device and manually install all of your apps. This will ensure that anything that could be causing your issue is overwritten, including anything that could have possibly gotten into iOS itself.

It's a lot of work but it should hopefully clear things up for you.

I love Apple "experts!" Their advice always turns into a "erase everything on your phone and start over." That's some quality advice!

[Rob Phillips]

I love Apple "experts!" Their advice always turns into a "erase everything on your phone and start over." That's some quality advice!

Please feel free to offer up some helpful advice! I've been using computers and other devices for about 30 years now. How about you? My advice seems pretty darn solid to eliminate a possible virus or malware on an iOS device. You probably already knew that though...

[kbean]

iPhone 7 Plus just did this to me - sounds exactly like a smoke detector - wonder if the new update I just installed a few days ago has a problem. Never happened before the iOS update.

[DavidMalcolm]

I just had this happen. It was an audio file playing but it wasn't through the music app. I had it happen the other day when using Grindr. I'd used the app the. Locked my phone and put it in my pocket. My guess is that an advert that has audio embedded stated to play. Only instead of playing actual audio, it just did that beeping even though the screen was off.

[evanking527]

You sure it wasn’t the “coil wine” the iPhone 7’s have lol
For one, check if there’s any updates. A new version might have already corrected this. Also, cheeky third party apps will have things running in the background to keep them in memory. Try toggling Background App Refresh off with some nefarious looking apps you might have.

[DavidMalcolm]

Okay the ad is for Jigsaw Puzzle (I did a screen cap just now when it went off) and this certainly isn't a whine or something like that. This is an actual audio file playing.