How to set up a QR code or barcode alarm in Mornio

The setup is short. The two decisions that actually determine whether this works for you are which code you choose and where you put it, so most of this page is about those.

Before you start: choose the item

Decide this first, because it is the part that matters. You need something that is:

• One room away. Bathroom or kitchen. Not the bedside table, not somewhere you can reach by leaning.
• Not going to run out. A kettle, a soap dispenser, a jar you refill. Toothpaste works but you will re-register when it is replaced.
• Not going to be moved by anyone else in the house.
• Flat and easy to scan. Curved bottles and crinkled packaging scan slowly, which is genuinely annoying at 6 a.m.

More on this in what to use as your scan item.

Setting it up

1. Create an alarm and set the time you actually intend to get up.
2. Choose Wake Check as the dismissal method.
3. Scan your code. Point the camera at the QR code or barcode. Mornio registers it and stores a one-way hash rather than the code itself.
4. Give it a label you will recognise half asleep, like “kitchen kettle”. The label is what you will see at 6 a.m., so make it a location rather than a product name.
5. Pick your stay-awake delay: 2, 3, 5 or 10 minutes, or no second check. Three minutes is the default and suits most people.
6. Optionally add backup items. Up to two more, ideally in different rooms.
7. Save. The first time you do this, iOS will ask permission to schedule alarms. Grant it, or nothing can be scheduled.

Testing it, which matters more than the setup

Never trust an alarm you have not seen fire. This takes three minutes and it is the difference between a system and a hope.

1. Set an alarm for two minutes from now.
2. Turn on Silent mode and enable a Focus.
3. Lock the phone, put it down, and do not touch it.
4. When it rings, walk to your code and scan it, exactly as you would at 6 a.m. Check that it scans quickly in the light you will actually have, which in winter may mean a dark bathroom.
5. Wait for the stay-awake check and confirm it arrives.
6. Restart your iPhone and test once more. Surviving a restart is where third-party alarms historically failed.

If you are installing Mornio for a specific important morning, do this several days beforehand, not the night before.

Choosing a stay-awake delay

• 2 or 3 minutes: if you tend to sit down on the edge of the bed. Catches the immediate relapse.
• 5 minutes: a reasonable default.
• 10 minutes: if you move around first and then go back to bed “just for a second”.
• No second check: if you reliably stay up once you are on your feet and only need the scan.

If you keep passing it without noticing, that is the system working. Lengthen the delay rather than switching it off, because a check you resent is a check you will disable on the wrong night.

Adding backup items

You can register up to two backup items alongside your primary, so three codes in total. The cap is deliberate: without it, people end up registering things within reach of the bed, which quietly defeats the purpose.

Put backups in different rooms, not next to the primary. The common failure is a product being used up or thrown away, and a backup on the same shelf does not help with that.

If something goes wrong at 6 a.m.

Emergency dismissal always works. If your code is unreachable, the camera will not focus, or you are away from home, you can always turn the alarm off. Mornio records that you used the emergency exit and never counts it as a successful morning, so your history stays honest.

For camera problems, scanning failures and alarms that do not fire, see troubleshooting.