Why it happened, and how to fix it.
Most recording problems trace back to a few causes: another app grabbing the microphone, the battery running down, or storage running out. This page pairs each common symptom with the reason behind it and the fix, so you know what to change before the next night.
The most common reason is another app taking over audio. Snore Timeline pauses when something else plays sound or grabs the microphone: music, a podcast, a phone call, or a system alarm. When that happens you see Recording paused, and the app tries to resume on its own. It retries up to five times with increasing waits of 1, 3, 7, 12, and 20 seconds. If it can't get the microphone back after all five tries, it shows Can't resume recording and stops.
Other causes:
To reduce mid-night stops:
A brief interruption usually recovers through the five resume attempts. The habits above matter most for interruptions that last longer than the app can wait out.
A blank timeline usually means recording never captured audio, or it stopped early in the night. Work through these checks:
Placement also matters: keep the phone one to two feet from your head so it picks up your sounds clearly. Look back at any status messages the app showed, then verify permissions and free space before the next session. You may also have had a quiet night with little to detect, which is a normal outcome rather than a failure.
Snore Timeline pauses recording whenever another app or the system plays audio, and that includes phone calls and some alerts. To keep the night clear:
If an interruption does happen, the app shows Recording paused and tries to resume up to five times, so a brief one usually recovers. The optional bedtime reminder is marked time-sensitive, so it can still reach your lock screen during Sleep Focus. That reminder only prompts you to begin a session and does not interrupt one already running. The Getting Started page covers the same setup for a fresh install.
Snore Timeline shows short status messages so you know what's happening:
One question this raises: if a recording is interrupted and resumes, does the Recording Delay start over? No. The delay is a one-time fall-asleep timer that applies only at the start of a session. After an interruption, the app starts capturing audio again right away instead of going silent for another delay period.
If a Bluetooth microphone such as AirPods is connected when you start, Snore Timeline detects it and uses it automatically. If your input changes during the night, between the built-in mic, wired headphones, or a Bluetooth mic, the app shows Switched to [device name] and recording continues without stopping.
Two things to keep in mind for overnight use:
For the most consistent all-night results, place the phone face-down one to two feet away and let the built-in microphone handle the recording. That's the placement the detection is tuned around, and it gives the steadiest breathing capture.
Recording through the night does use battery, since the microphone stays active while you sleep. On many iPhones the screen is the biggest factor:
Use a cable that reaches your nightstand so you can keep the phone one to two feet away while it charges. If you saw no recording at all rather than an early stop, check microphone permission and free space too, since either can block recording from starting.
Snore Timeline needs free space to save audio. At the start of a session, too little space shows Cannot record - only [X]MB free and the session won't begin. If space runs out mid-session, you see Storage full - recording stopped. The app needs roughly 100 MB free to begin a session.
To prevent it:
Storage & Quality walks through each of these settings in detail.
Snore Timeline detects coughs as their own category, alongside snoring and gasps, so a cough is normally labeled a cough rather than a snore. Detection runs on acoustic patterns and confidence scores, so an occasional sound can land in the wrong category, especially when two sounds overlap or bedding muffles one. Misclassifications are a normal limit of automated sound detection and don't mean anything is wrong with your recording.
If an event looks off, play back the audio for that moment to hear what happened. Raising the sensitivity catches more faint sounds but lets in more false detections; lowering it keeps only clearer, louder events. How Detection Works explains the confidence thresholds behind each label.
A couple of things can make playback sound quieter or more muffled:
One more note on starting a session: Siri or a widget can't begin recording if a session is already running (you'll see Recording is already in progress), if storage is too low, or if microphone access is off. Siri, Shortcuts & Widgets covers those launch conditions.
When the app behaves oddly, force-quit it and reopen:
If a problem persists, reach out from the support hub. Include your phone model and iOS version, what you were doing when it happened, and any error messages you saw. Those three details let the developer reproduce the issue quickly.
