How to silent (vibrate only) alarms?

ios

When I use silent mode, I expect no sound and hence I expect alarms to be silent as well but they are not; ring/silent switch has no effect on alarms!
On iOS 5 this used to work and in silent mode alarms did just vibrate.
How can i put alarms in silent mode without reconfiguring each of them one by one when I need silent mode?
Thanks

Solution 1:

Use a silent MP3

Here's the solution that worked for me:

Get silent audio clip. Search online (e.g. using Google) or create (using GarageBand, Audacity, etc.) a 20-25 second clip of silence.
Get clip into iTunes. Save it in your iTunes as a "song" (I just called it Silent Ringtone).
Get clip onto iPhone. Then sync your phone so it's now on your phone. (Make sure you check the Sync Music checkbox in iTunes.)
Use clip on iPhone. Now, when you create an alarm, use Pick a Song from your library, and select your "Ringtone" song. If you have your settings elsewhere set to vibrate on silent or whatever, then you should now have a song that "plays" while your phone happily buzzes.

Hope that helps!

P.S. As someone who only recently switched to iPhone from a phone that could do the vibrate-only alarm thing easily, I would use these alarms to set myself private reminders for lots of things. Such as when I was in a lecture or meeting and needed to remember to leave 5 minutes early but didn't want to be watching the clock constantly. Or if I had to remember when to go back and put more money in the parking meter. Or basically a multitude of things to alert myself that I didn't need to whole world to know about! Just a simple buzz in the pocket was enough.

Further reading: HowToGeek has screenshots

Solution 2:

When you make the alarm, go to the option where it says "sound" and go all the way to the bottom where it says "none" and click on it. I just tested it with my iPhone on silent and the alarm does not go off. Hope this helps.

Solution 3:

Set "Sound" to "None"

Don't know if this will do but for me (iOS6), setting to silent and then turning the ringer down as far as it will go makes the alarm vibrate only. Just remember to turn your volume back up later.

Further reading: Apple Support: How to set and manage alarms on your iPhone

Solution 4:

In your situation where you would like the vibration, but just not the sound the solution may require a bit of an investment. If you go into iTunes and search for "Silent iPhone" they have ringtones that you can set as the default for your alarms. I think that would give you your desired result of vibration with no sound. The only downside being if you are expecting more than just a vibration if you are out of silent mode.