Posting this after a tiny amount of testing: when BGM while inactive is enabled the alarm definitely rang, but when I disabled it, there was no sound when the time came around.

So for the first time, I set an alarm to track Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil spawns while I'm tabbed out. I mute all sounds except system sounds (instance pops, tells) for when the client is not active. Now for some sad reason, alarms do not count under system sounds, but rather BGM. Now FF14 music is great, but while I'm watching someone's video or studying, the constant loops are a tad intrusive. I'm AFKing at the sanctuary closest to Hammerlea where it's not silent.

Would like to request that Alarms either be moved to System Sounds, or chat sounds include an option to set a notification for Alarms. Or heck, just make them their own thing for people who don't want anything else but alarms tabbing them back into the game.

(I was able to dig up an old thread regarding this from 2018 but 1. didn't want to necro it, 2. it was in Insufficient Information which is likely a subforum for moderators to move threads into, not for conversation. https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/375241 )