I very frequently get e-mails from people claiming that one or all of my iOS apps are not working because they do not make any sound. Increasingly, people are writing scathing reviews of my apps in the App Store for similar reasons.

This is frustrating to me for a couple of reasons. First, there absolutely nothing wrong with the apps. The silence is caused by users muting their device, either through the hardware mute switch or the system mute setting. Second, people are so indignant with their reviews, saying things like “don’t waste your time” and “shame”. All of them are seemingly oblivious to the irony of the situation. They muted their device and hence there is no sound, but they are upset that no sound is being produced.

If anybody were to reach out to me to complain that my apps are not producing any sound, this is what I would tell them:

• If you are having problems with this app not producing any sound, please check whether your device's mute button is engaged or not. I wrote this app to honor the mute button's setting. This gives you a quick way to silence the app while still letting your child to play with it. Many other apps were written to ignore the mute button setting, which may be why you hear sound from other apps but not from this one.
• If your iPad’s side switch has been set to lock screen auto-rotation instead of setting mute, please realize that your device can still be muted. For instructions on how to unset your system’s mute in this scenario, please read the “Enabling Mute if ‘Use Side Switch’ is set to Lock Rotation” of Apple’s knowledge document, iPad: Understanding the side switch.
• If that doesn't work, please also verify that the app volume hasn't been turned down. Similarly, my apps are programmed to maintain their own volume level.

It’s not that hard to un-mute your device. Certainly, it’s much easier than getting all flustered over an app not producing sound and putting in the effort to write a bad review of the app.