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My Phone Will Not Vibrate For Calls, Can Your Vibration Test Check The Motor?

Asked by Sophia T.0 views

My iPhone stopped vibrating for calls, even on silent. Texts sometimes buzz, calls never. I tried your vibration test to see if the motor is dead but nothing happens at all on the page. Does that mean the vibration motor is broken? I really don't want to pay for a repair if it's a setting.

Brand
Apple
Model
iPhone (model not stated)
Connection
Built-in
System
iOS 26
Browser
Safari 26
Vibration And Rumble FaultsiPhone And iPad
Test used in this questionVibration TestTest both rumble motors and the haptic feedback patterns
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Short Answer

The test doing nothing on an iPhone is expected: no iPhone browser can trigger vibration, because Apple's WebKit engine does not support the web Vibration API. Texts buzzing shows the motor works, so check the ringtone haptics, Haptics, Vibration and Focus settings.

Verified By Gamepad TesterVerified By Gamepad Tester
Chris Evans Jr.
Chris Evans Jr.Verified Gamepad Tester team memberGamepad Tester Team
Mobile Browser Compatibility Engineer · Answered Aug 18, 2026

Two pieces of good news. The test doing nothing does not mean your motor is broken, and texts sometimes buzzing means the motor almost certainly works.

Why the test does nothing: websites ask a phone to vibrate through the Vibration API, and Apple's WebKit engine has never supported it. Every browser on an iPhone, Chrome and Firefox included, runs on WebKit, so no website can vibrate an iPhone. Our vibration test is built for controllers and Android phones; on an iPhone there is nothing for it to talk to.

So this is very likely settings, and texts working while calls do not points to a few specific ones. Calls have their own haptic pattern, which can be set to None. The Haptics option decides whether the phone vibrates in silent mode at all. And a Focus mode can silence calls entirely, which looks exactly like no vibration.

There is also a master switch in Accessibility called Vibration. With it off, nothing vibrates, including emergency alerts, so check it even though texts working makes it unlikely in your case.

If every setting below is right and nothing vibrates even when you test it, that is the time to book a hardware check.

Step By Step Fix
  1. Open Settings, Sounds and Haptics, Ringtone, then Haptics at the top, and make sure a pattern is selected rather than None.
  2. In Sounds and Haptics, check the Haptics option and choose Always Play or Play in Silent Mode.
  3. Open Settings, Accessibility, Touch, and make sure Vibration is switched on.
  4. Check Control Centre for an active Focus mode, and in that Focus's settings confirm calls are allowed from the people you expect.
  5. Ask someone to call you with the phone on silent and face up. If it vibrates, you are done.
  6. If nothing vibrates anywhere, including keyboard haptics, contact Apple support for a hardware check.

Tested on: Applies to iPhone on iOS 26 with Safari or any other iOS browser. Browser support status per the W3C Vibration API implementation report.

Sources
  1. Vibration API implementation report
  2. Feature request for Safari iOS Vibration API

Checked by Camila Ferreira on . How we verify answers

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Community Replies 4

  • Accepted Solution
    Madison ReedCommunity Member

    Ringtone haptics had been set to None on mine after an update. Calls buzz again.

  • Sophia TurnerCommunity Member

    It was the Focus mode! Sleep focus was on all day and calls were silenced. Feel dumb but happy.

  • Aditi BhattCommunity Member

    Good to know the website test can't work on iPhone. I thought my motor was dead too.

  • Ahmed HassanCommunity Member

    On Android the vibration test does work in Chrome. I used it to check my phone's motor after a drop.

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Chris Evans Jr.
Written and tested by

Chris Evans Jr.Verified Gamepad Tester team member

Mobile Browser Compatibility Engineer at Gamepad Tester

Chris works on mobile web input. Phone browsers are the hardest place to test a controller: a Bluetooth clip-on pad may connect to the phone but stay invisible to the page, iOS and Android expose the Gamepad API at different moments, and a backgrounded tab stops polling entirely. He works through those cases so a mobile player gets the same test result a desktop player would. On Gamepad Tester he answers the mobile questions, including controllers that pair with a phone but send no input to the browser.

Mobile browser inputiOS and Android Gamepad APIclip-on controllersbackground tab behaviour
  • 3 answers on Gamepad Tester
  • Tests the Gamepad API across Android and iOS browsers with Bluetooth clip-on controllers.
  • Reviewed by Camila Ferreira
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