Haptics and vibration could be one of those nifty features you really don’t care about on your phone until they stop working. That’s when you notice phone vibration not working when you receive a call, tap the navigation keys, receive new message/notifications, or even when using the keyboard. If that happens to you, phone vibration not working is not a new issue, and we’ve covered all the possible ways to fix it in this article.
Someone once asked, "The vibration on my phone stopped working on Android. What caused it?" Phone vibration not working could be caused by two factors: hardware or software problems.
In case of software problems, you could fix that by flipping on a switch in your device settings, or basically, restarting your device. But regarding a hardware problem, you might not be able to fix it on your own, as it might require replacing the vibration motor on your device.
Nonetheless, the solutions introduced in this article will help you fix phone vibration not working in no time. Let’s get started!
Just Reboot Your Phone
As usual, the first trick to fix mobile vibration not working is to restart your phone. Whether it’s a Samsung, any Android device, or an iPhone vibration not working, rebooting your phone should fix the temporary error causing the problem.
On most Android devices, you can long-press the Power button for about 10 seconds to reboot your device. Otherwise, follow the normal route to restart your phone.
If your phone’s vibration still doesn’t’ work, try the next solution below.
Run a Vibration Test
Before you continue troubleshooting, it would be helpful to pinpoint why vibrate stopped working on your device. And with that, you can tell if the phone's vibration motor is still working, or you just need to toggle on a setting on your device.
To run a vibration test, you’ll need to download the Vibrations-Test app from the Play Store or its equivalent on the iPhone App Store. The app would help you detect if a hardware or software issue caused the problem.
Follow the steps below after downloading the app:
- Open the Vibrations-Test app on your device.
- Tap the Start button below the screen to run a test.
- If your device didn’t vibrate, you might need to visit a repair centre for a check-up.
- Otherwise, follow the remaining solutions on this page to continue troubleshooting the vibration problem.
Turn on Vibration on your device manually.
If the test above shows your mobile vibration is functioning well, you need to check some settings on your device. Perhaps you've turned off the vibration for some features on your device.
For instance, if your phone doesn’t vibrate when typing on the keyboard, you might need to check the haptics settings on the Keyboard app. The same goes for ring vibration, notifications vibration, touch vibration, and others.
Follow these steps to re-enable vibrations on your Android device:
- Launch the Settings
- Locate and tap Accessibility
- Scroll down a bit and tap Vibration & haptic strength.
- From there, enable Ring vibration, Notification vibration, and Touch feedback.
Meanwhile, the vibration settings may vary on your device. If you can’t find it in the Accessibility settings, search for “Vibration” in the Settings app.
Enable Vibration for Individual Apps
If vibration works for other functions on your device but not a specific app, you should check the app’s settings. For instance, if your phone doesn’t vibrate when you receive a WhatsApp message, but vibrates when you receive a call, that means something is wrong with WhatsApp’s vibration settings and not the entire phone.
Even so, Android lets you customize notifications for various app categories. So, if your phone vibrates when you receive a WhatsApp message, but not in a WhatsApp group message, for instance, you might have disabled the latter unknowingly.
Nonetheless, follow the steps below to re-enable vibration for individual apps:
First, from the app's notifications settings:
- Open the affected app (E.g. WhatsApp)
- Tap Settings
- Click on Notifications
- Check each category and ensure vibration is turned on.
- Alternatively, you can toggle off & on vibration to ensure it’s not a bug.
Then, from Android’s notifications settings.
- Launch your device Settings app
- Next, tap Apps & notifications
- Tap See all apps (if you need to)
- Then, select the affected app.
- Tap Notificationsfrom there.
- Finally, you’ll see various notification channels, as per what the app posts regularly. Tap the affected notification channel (E.g. Message notifications, in the case of WhatsApp.
- From there, ensure Vibration is toggled on.
Turn off Silent Mode & Disable Do Not Disturb
Whether you use an iPhone or Android, your phone won’t vibrate if it is in Do Not Disturb or Silent mode. If that’s the case, you already know what to do: disable both of them.
If your phone is in Do Not Disturb or Silent mode, you should see the icons in the status bar. After that, follow the steps below to disabled DND and Silent mode on your device.
How to Turn off Do Not Disturb and Silent Mode on Android:
- Open your device
- Tap Sound & vibration.
- From there, increase the Ring volume to ensure your device is not in vibration mode.
- After that, tap Do Not Disturb
- Finally, toggle off the switch next to Do Not Disturb to disable it if it's turned on already.
How to turn off Do Not Disturb and Silent Mode on iPhone.
- Go to
- Tap Do Not Disturb, then turn it off.
- After that, the simplest way to exit Silent mode on an iPhone is to use the ring/silent switch.
- Find the switch on your iPhone and move it to the other side so it doesn't show an orange colour.
- Alternatively, you can turn off silent mode from the Control Centre
Turn off Battery Saver
On most devices, turning on Battery Saver turns off certain functions, including Haptics & Vibrations, to extend the battery life. So, if you've turned on Battery Saver on your device or your battery is low, your phone won't vibrate.
If your battery is low, we advise you to recharge it as soon as possible to continue enjoying mobile vibration. Otherwise, visit the Battery section in your device's Settings app to turn off the battery saver.
Again, various Android devices have a different approach for saving battery on their devices. Just check your device settings to ensure Battery Saver is turned off.
Reset App Preferences
While we already talked about enabling general and app-based vibration, a faster way to fix phone vibration not working is to reset app preferences. That would re-enable all app notifications on your device, including vibrations.
Not just that, resetting app preference will re-enable disabled apps, permissions, apps for actions, and background data restrictions. However, you won’t lose any app data.
Follow these steps to reset app preferences on Android:
- Open your device
- Scroll to the bottom and tap System
- Tap Reset options
- Next, handpick Reset app preferences.
- And finally, tap RESET APPS.
You may restart your device afterward to ensure full functionality.
Similarly, if you use an iPhone, you can reset all settings to fix iPhone vibration not working.
- Launch your iPhone Settings
- Tap General, followed by Reset
- From there, tap Reset All Settings, then confirm your passcode.
- Your device will reboot afterward, and hopefully fix the iPhone vibration not working.
Update your device
If you're running older software on your device, it might also cause the phone vibration not working issue. And sometimes, the build you updated to might contain some bugs that caused the problem. In that case, you need to update your device again.
To update your Android device, do the following:
- Again, open the Settings
- Scroll to the bottom and tap System
- Tap Software update.
- From there, check for updates, then download and install any available updates.
Conclusively, trying all the tricks above should fix phone vibration not working. If that’s not the case for you, we recommend you take your phone to a professional for further check-ups.
