iOS 14 text notification issues

I've also been fighting this notification issue for months on my iPhone 11 Pro. Apple no help. I discovered that turning off bluetooth on my phone fixed the problem (allowed text notifications to sound and appear, whether the phone was locked or not). But with bluetooth on, notifications only sounded & appeared with the phone unlocked. Obviously, I didn't want to leave bluetooth off all the time.

I also came to realize this issue started when I got a new Apple Watch 6 a few months ago. Coincidence? Taking the watch on and off didn't help. And with the watch on, it didn't sound notifications either.

But the posting from StubbornPixie got me thinking about killing the mirror function on the watch for the Messages app. So, iPhone Watch app>Messages>"Custom" "Notifications Off" seems to have SOLVED THE PROBLEM for me. My iPhone 11 Pro now notifies me of incoming text messages with bluetooth on. I realize my watch won't ping with messages until Apple fixes the root problem, but at least I won't be missing message notifications altogether.

Hope this helps others.

SOLUTION FOUND! 😀

I too had this problem. I’m sure, if you’re reading this, you also own an Apple Watch, yes?

You may have found your iPhone notifications worked fine, then it didn’t. This depended if your phone was connected to your Watch or not at the time.

It’s not a software or firmware issue — just poor placement of a button within the WatchApp menu.

I’ll assume you wish to receive notifications to your iPhone instead of to your Watch.

For ‘Messages’, go to your WatchApp on your phone.

WatchApp>>Notifications>>Messages>>hit ‘Custom’ and select ‘Notifications Off’ then, for WhatsApp, hit ‘Back’ one step and scroll down to WhatsApp and slide green button off. Ta daaa!

Why is it that Message ‘Notifications Off’ is sitting behind ‘Custom’ menu? Why not a green slide bar like the App notifications below it? 🤔

Noticed that text message notifications stopped working when we upgraded our software from iOS 13.5.x to iOS 14.2. Tried 14.4.x, and today updated to 14.5.1. Still no notifications with text messages. Receive notifications from other APPs, just not the Apple Message App. This was happening on both the iPhone 11 now running iOS 14.5.1, and iPhone SE running iOS 14.4.2.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed a particular conversation on the Message list on the iPhone 11 was muted (a little night-time icon by the contact name) for whatever reason. Verified that Do Not Disturb was indeed turned off. Once I swiped-left and unmuted that conversation, started receiving notifications again on ALL conversations/contacts.

On the iPhone SE, no conversation in the message list appeared to be muted. So I picked one, swiped-left, and toggled it from Mute->Unmute. Now notifications started working again across all my contacts/conversations.

This is a software bug in iOS. Pure and simple. And this issue has been going on for 9 months now!   Other App notifications on iPhone work. Only Apple's Messaging app doesn't. Over 300,000 reported incidents on the Apple Support Communities Forums. Calls to Support, they act like they've never heard of this issue. Reported this issue to Apple on their feedback form. I'm sure they've heard it before. And I hope it's fixed soon. Until then, try my workaround-hack. Hopefully it will work for you too...

Like many on here I had been having many of the same issues, missing all sorts of notifications, not just text since upgrading to ios 14 (first 14.1 then 14.2). Here is what fixed my issue... I went to settings->notifications->messages (for this example) and scrolled down to the options section. For the show previews section the "when unlocked (default)" was selected, meaning only notifications would only appear when the phone is unlocked when is hardly ever the case. I switched it always and the issue is now gone. I had to go into may other apps one by one and toggle this option back to always. Showing previews only when unlocked was 100% not my setting before this update.

What is interesting/****** me off is my wife just upgraded to ios14 and did not have issue. I went into her phone to settings->notifications->messages and for her show previews option was selected as "always (default)". Why on her phone she has options listed as "always (default)" and on my is "always" and "when unlocked (default)" I have no clue.

Thanks Apple!

Hi everyone,

This is the first time I've been signed in to apple communities so I hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I ended up solving this issue for myself with my new iPhone SE and ios14 just now. I went into an iMessage/text conversation with someone, clicked on "info" (where you can edit the contact's info). I scrolled down and there is an option called "hide alerts" and it was turned on! I turned it off now all of my vibrations and sounds come through like they should. I should also note that when I changed the setting for this one contact, it changed it for all of my contacts. I hope this helps some of you too!

I may have the solution.

I have had the same problem: no alert sound or banner when receiving text messages on IOS 14 when the display screen is dark and locked. I went through all of the suggestions in the settings: checking Do Not disturb, checking sound settings, restarting, and other items. None worked.

Then one day my wife and I were testing the alerts we decided to "Swipe Down," to view any notifications. It did not show any text notification, BUT, there was a notification stating that all notifications would be silenced until "Do Not Disturb is Turned Off." Then we touched that message, and a box appeared underneath that to "turn off the Do Not Disturb." We hit the box and it turned off the "Do Not Disturb." Oddly I had already checked in Settings and made sure that I did not have "Do Not Disturb" turned on. But we clicked the box anyway, and it worked. From that time on, all of my alerts are working. Very strange.

It seems that, somehow, the "Do Not Disturb" is screwed up in IOS 14 making it appear to be operating even when you turned it off.

So, test your messages by swiping down and this may work.

I had an epiphany and it worked for me. I went to Notifications in Settings; located Messages on the list of apps that you have notifications set for. Upon locating Messages I saw that the Allow Notifications setting was switched off (I never turned this off manually). After turning it on I was able to hear and see my text messages. Hope this works for you.

What solved the problem for me is that somehow I muted a text conversation between me and a family member. Honestly I don’t remember doing it. I did notice the half moon symbol next to the text thread. I slid the convo from right to left and unmuted the convo between she and I and my notifications worked again. Why it mutes all notifications from anyone even though it was selected for one contact only can only be explained by it being a bug iOS 14.1. Muting one should mute all. Please fix.

Not sure about everyone else, but I had this same exact issue. This is what I finally figured out. Even though my car was not on, this setting was causing my issue.

• Settings/Notifications/Messages --- I tuned off 'Show in CarPlay'. Once I turned that setting off, my notifications started working again.

Hope this helps and glad to share --- for all the times I have learned from others that have shared.

So this fix might not last, but for now it's working. I just got off the phone with Apple Support. I was telling her that I'd tested with Bluetooth on and connected to a device and also Bluetooth on but not connected to any devices. The only non-Apple bluetooth device I connect to is a Soundcore Wakey wired speaker. While she was researching, she said the speaker might be the issue. I removed all bluetooth devices from my phone. Issue persisted. I finally pulled the plug for the Soundcore speaker out of the wall. My device works as expected now. I receive notifications through both Apple Watch and AirPods pro. I receive notifications even when Bluetooth is on but not connected to any devices. This seems like voodoo to me, but for now... it's working. Here is a link to the types of bluetooth device profiles are compatible with iOS:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204387

Try removing all bluetooth devices and then connecting them one by one. If you have any wired devices, unplug them. Let me know if this helps anyone else.

UsCoops wrote:

I don't know if you've fixed your issue yet, but I had been having the same problem and have FINALLY found a way to fix it! Turns out it was a setting on my Apple Watch 6, which was new to me also. In the Watch app select Passcode, then scroll all the way to the bottom and turn OFF Wrist Detection. Reading the description there I wasn't sure I wanted to, but I did, and am now getting notification on both the watch, and on the lock screen. Hallelujah!

I have the same combination with Apple Watch and iPhone and this also worked for me. Thank you for sharing your solution!

for those that updated to 14.2.1 or do not have a 12 model, this is for you lol

I have an X on 14.2 and i’ve gotten no message notifications at all, both text and imessage. No vibrate, no banners, no badges, nothing. i tried a million different suggestions, including a hard reset and restore of my device. the only thing that actually has been working perfectly is after i went into Settings > Notifications > Messages > change Banner Style to persistent. everything is working for me now message-wise, including vibrations and badges. no idea why lol but I will take it. Hope this can help for anybody still having the issue!

I found that if the VoLTE is turned on, I no longer get my sound notification. I turned this off and it seemed to fix the problem. Settings/cellular/cellular data options/voice & data/VoLTE, turn this off.

I believe I found the fix. In the text message conversation, go to the very top and tap on on the i/info at the top right. In the menue that pops up, there is an option called "hide alerts". Disable that -- I now get alerts for this conversation again.

Needless to say, I never activated this feature -- I suspect that for old contacts that were carried over into the new version, somehow this might sometimes be checked by default without us knowing?

It's also possible that not everyone posting in this thread is actually having the same problem, with the same solution. But I hope this helps somebody out there!

if you check the conversations where this happens (by going to the conversation, tap on the person at the top and go to "info", is the "hide alerts" option checked?

Because that's what I discovered did this to me. Yes, it disables the sound, the lockscreen thing, every aspect of getting notified of new texts.

It seems that they added this new feature, to hide alerts for specific people -- that's fine by me -- but the problem is that it randomly activates after the update, for certain conversations. I believe if you uncheck the option though it should fix it permanently for that conversation thread at least.