Chirp Alarm — Support

Questions, bug reports, and feedback

The alarm didn't fire

This is the most common issue and almost always has one of three causes:

• Focus / Do Not Disturb is on and Chirp Alarm is not in the allow list. Go to Settings → Focus → whichever Focus mode is active → Apps, and add Chirp Alarm. Without this, iOS can suppress the alarm notification fallback.
• The app was force-quit. Swiping the app away from the app switcher while an alarm is pending will prevent it from firing. Leave the app running in the background instead.
• The alarm was set for less than one minute in the future. Set alarms at least a few minutes ahead to give the system time to schedule reliably.

The alarm sound is too quiet or silent

Chirp Alarm sets system media volume to your chosen level at alarm time. If you hear nothing, check that your iPhone is not in Silent mode (the physical switch on the left side of the device). Silent mode suppresses media audio regardless of app settings.

I can't find a bird species in the search

Species search uses the xeno-canto database. Try searching by scientific name if the common name returns no results. Not all species have recordings available; if a search returns nothing, that species may not be represented in the xeno-canto library yet.

A recording won't download or play

Recording downloads require an internet connection. If a download fails, check your connection and try again from the Species tab. Already-downloaded recordings are cached locally and will play without internet.

How do I manage multiple bird lists?

The Species tab shows all your lists. Tap the + button to create a new list, tap a list to view and edit its species, and swipe left on a list to delete it. Only lists marked as Active will be used when the alarm fires. You can toggle a list active or inactive from inside the list detail view.

The quiz keeps restarting

This is by design. Once you reach the wrong-attempt limit configured for that alarm, the app picks a new recording and restarts. The wrong-attempt limit is set per alarm: go to the Alarm tab, tap an alarm, and adjust the "Wrong attempts" setting under the Quiz section. The limit can be set from 1 to 5. Set it to 0 to skip the quiz entirely.

How do I turn off the quiz?

In the Alarm tab, tap an alarm to edit it. Under the Quiz section, set "Wrong attempts" to 0. When the alarm fires it will show the bird info and a dismiss button immediately, with no quiz required.

Bird photo or description is not showing

Bird photos and descriptions are fetched from iNaturalist and cached locally. If they are missing, the app will retry automatically after a few days. You can force a refresh by going to Settings → Clear Bird Info Cache, which removes all cached data and re-fetches it the next time an alarm fires or a species is viewed. A working internet connection is required for the initial fetch.

I want to change which recordings play

Go to the Species tab, tap a list, then tap a species. You can preview and select specific recordings from xeno-canto. Only recordings you have selected and downloaded will play at alarm time.

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