A number of iPhone users may be questioning their popularity this year thanks to a New Year's-induced bug in iOS 6. As the year-o-meter rolled over into 2013, some iPhones simply refused – and may yet still refuse (update: a fix is expected early next week) – to ring while receiving an incoming call. This behavior is due to an iOS scheduling bug which has enabled its Do Not Disturb feature in perpetuity.

Apple's DND feature allows users to automatically send all incoming calls directly to voicemail, including an option to whitelist contacts on their Favorites list. There's probably a "ringing in the new year" pun to be made here, but I digress...

The coding snafu was apparently triggered by the new year and, for some users, cannot be fixed by simply toggling the DND feature off and on. However, some iPhone owners have reported that restarting their device fixed the issue while others claim their DND woes persist. 

Ironically, Apple chose Wednesday to launch a new advertisement featuring the William sisters (Venus and Serna Williams of tennis fame) to show off its Do Not Disturb feature, adding insult to injury.

Interestingly, a new support document on Apple's website claims its broken DND feature will begin working normally on January 7. Until then though, Apple suggests users turn the feature off by tapping Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb. The support page also indicates iPads and iPods could be affected as well.

It's worth noting that iOS has suffered at least two other calendar-related bugs.

If you've experienced this issue yourself and managed to discover a fix, please kindly share your solution here – some of our readers may be interested in resolving this problem before Monday.