iOS 14 text notification issues

I recently turned off the text message notification on my watch to see if I would then get notifications on my phone. And it worked. At least it’s a temporary solution until Apple gets the bugs worked out.

In my infinite wisdom it never occurred to me that Bluetooth might be turned on on my MBP. Which, incidentally, is always within range of my phone when the text message problem occurs. The Bluetooth icon isn't in the menu bar so I never thought to check. Turns out, it's on! I just turned it off and will report back if it solves the issue on my phone. *facepalm*

If all your settings are set properly (notifications and sound) then turn your i watch off and test the messaging. If it works then unpair your watch and re-pair it. That is what I had to do after Apple did their upgrades.

I had the same issue with my iPhone 8. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with the first Apple technician who checked all the settings but was unable to fix the problem. She passed me on to a second technician. He tried a couple things that failed. He then walked me through a complete reset that worked. Go to settings-General-reset-reset all settings.

Yes, several of us have posted that previously. It seems to be related to bluetooth connections. When you take off the watch (ergo no bluetooth connection to watch) or some say if you turn off bluetooth it also fixes the problem. I think it is related to the watch. Because if you take that off and bluetooth on the phone is on, the problem still goes away for me. I've kind of solved my problem by setting my wife and a couple of other key contacts with emergency bypass turned on for text tone. I do that in contacts. You can do that for ring tone as well. This gets me sound alerts on my watch for texts even if I have silent mode set on my watch. Now she doesn't get mad at me for ignoring her texts :)

That is the correct behavior for notifications if you use an Apple Watch, you will be alerted on your Watch not your iPhone. If you want to hear a sound check to make sure the sound is turned on on your Watch.

From Get Support:

after running diagnostics

• Well, reviewing the results, the entire system is in good condition, in this case it may be something that we cannot identify from here, and it would be best for the technician to review it.
• you do know that this is not an isolated case and there is a whole forum about this
• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251815788?answerId=255129116022&page=93
• 3:31 PM
• Thanks for sharing that to me
• 3:33 PM
• And yes, it has been a recurring case, as I was telling you, many times this failure is solved by making the corresponding update that corrects these glitches, many other times it is due to the general notification settings, but as you mentioned to me that you already did all this procedure, and the problem is still not solved, even after the reset to factory settings and the diagnosis, the best option is to have it reviewed by one of our authorized technicians, so we can rule out any problem related to the hardware or software of the device that may be causing the lack of these notifications.
• 3:35 PM
• are you passing this up line; it's obviously in the firmware
• 3:37 PM
• Yes, as you mentioned, it is most likely the firmware, so we are discarding all possible steps to consider the service options, the last thing I can ask is also, if you have tried to do the restore remotely or did you do it using a device like mac or PC, or from iTunes?
• 3:38 PM
• back up on the mac itunes
• Or you only did it from the device, I must corroborate this because many times, if the update is only done with the home network remotely, sometimes it does not load all the features, this can be corrected by doing the update from a computer. That would be our next tool to use in case you haven't already.
• usb cable to the mac
• You did the backup, then the update and finally the restore from iTunes, and then you put the backup information back on the device and still the problem continued?
• correct
• oh, thank you very much for commenting, and in this case, I think we already used all the possible tools, and even the device still does not respond to notifications.
• it's random

I turned off my iwatch 6 3 weeks ago. All the alerts returned to my 11 pro max Lock Screen . When I had a iwatch 3 I received alerts when the phone was off. It all changed when I upgraded the watch. Unfortunately until the issue is resolved I am not using the watch.

Hey, guys — a tech fixed this for me today!!! I let him screen-share on my iPhone, and this is what he did:

1) Go to Settings.

2) Go to Sounds & Haptics

3) Toggle "Change with Buttons" to OFF.

4) Exit Sounds & Haptics, exit Settings.

And now my text notification sound works again, and so does my phone ringer, which had not been working either. A miracle!!

P.S. Given the mysterious ways of Apple, I have no idea if this will work for the rest of you, but it's worth a try, especially since it's so easy to do.

I recently purchased the iPhone 12 and within a week it happened to me. No sound on iMessages. What I saw was all my text messages suddenly had the grayed out crescent type moon icon on the left of each message. Somehow Apple turned on DND on my messages. I didn't. If you see the icon, tap and hold, a window will pop up. If one of the selections has "Show Alert" tap it. That fixed it for me but I had to do each text message that way.

I agree, somehow some messages were Muted by virtue of the iOS update. I swiped-left on only one conversation with that icon, unmuted it, and all conversations got Unmuted apparently. Started working.

I have solved the problem of not receiving message notifications/alerts while my iPhone is locked and asleep, for myself at least. 

Apologies in advance for the length of this post. 

This issue has been affecting me for well over 6 months now and I just could not work it out. 

I had tried all the suggestions in this thread, trawled through the interweb for hours trying various fixes, resetting all settings, complete wipes and restores from MacBook backups, fresh installs of iOS while in Recovery Mode etc, all to no avail. 

I even spent a few hours talking with Apple Support staff on a few occasions. 

It was during one of those calls that the problem suddenly seemed to right itself without explanation, as we hadn’t done anything drastic. 

Coincidentally, my wife had just gone out to pick our son up from his Auntie’s, from whom I then received a text message with audible alert and banner appearing on a locked iPhone screen. Amazing! It’s working again, I thought. 

Alas, the problem came back later that evening and continued during the following days. 

This got me to thinking and realising that this only happens when my wife is in close proximity. 

Last year she bought an  Watch. Last year I started leaving my Bluetooth on, due to running the UK COVID-19 exposure app which relies on Bluetooth handshakes between devices that come within range. 

We were sharing the same Apple ID as this suited our needs with Photo Stream, Notes and Calendar automatically going to each other’s devices without the need to manually share. 

I realise that this is not the way that Apple want us to have our devices configured. 

I did several tests with Bluetooth on and off. Bluetooth off on my iPhone resulted in message alerts functioning as should. 

I then did message tests with my phone signed out of Apple ID and wife’s phone signed in and then vice versa. Results were that message alerts and notifications functioned correctly while my phone was locked and asleep. 

The watch has never been linked to my phone and my belief was that it was linked to a specific device, but now I am wondering if it is per Apple ID. 

Could it be possible that alerts were trying to be sent to my wife’s  Watch somehow but just couldn’t make it?

We all know by now how the notifications appear only on Watch and not on iPhone if you are wearing it. Maybe it has to have a passcode and be unlocked. I am no watch expert as I do not own one. 

So, to conclude, my wife’s iPhone and mine have since got divorced. She has her own Apple ID and running her watch alongside and I am now receiving message alerts/notifications normally and as expected while my phone is locked. 

I did have to go into Settings on the watch and then the Apple ID seemed to sync to her new one. 

My iPhone: 11 Pro Max running iOS 14.6

Wife’s iPhone: XS Max running iOS 14.6

Wife’s watch: Series 5 running watchOS 7.5

I hope this post gives you all some ideas or maybe solves the issue for some of you. Good luck. 

This iMessages Notifications issue is "AS DESIGNED" by Apple on iOS 14 if you also have an Apple Watch... For details, search for Official Apple Support Article HT204791 (for example: support[dot]apple[dot]com/en-us/HT204791).

That Official Apple article clearly states, "Notifications go to either your Apple Watch or iPhone, but not both." and that, "If your iPhone is unlocked, you'll get notifications on your iPhone instead of your Apple Watch." - and furthermore, "If your iPhone is locked or asleep, you'll get notifications on your Apple Watch, unless your Apple Watch is locked with your passcode."

- I have reproduced this behavior with iPhone 12 Pro running iOS 14.6 and Apple Watch 6 running watchOS 7.5..

IMHO, this means it is a HORRIBLE design change decision in iOS 14 by Apple, but it is NOT any kind of "bug" and more like an Intentional Design Flaw...

I urge you to file a complaint or at least submit feedback with Apple to allow DUAL-NOTIFICATIONS on both the Watch AND the iPhone for iMessages simultaneously, and hopefully with enough complaints they will add this obviously highly desired behavior.

Hello everybody,

I want to share how I solved the problem with notifications.

Before I go to the solution, I want to mention that "Reset all settings" helped me but temporary. So I tried different things like disabling Bluetooth and repairing/unpairing my watches, but that didn't help.

Then one day, during the app update, I faced the "storm" of notifications (100+ notifications appeared) that reached my phone at the same time. So I assumed that there's an app or several apps triggering the problem are being kicked from RAM/" push" listening during the update.

But after the "storm" the normal behavior hadn't returned, so I've started removing apps that were recently updated one by one, and voila, after removing one of these apps, I faced the notification "storm" again, but this time normal behavior persisted.

To make the proof, I tried to install/remove the app several times, and the result was positive all the time:

Installing -> enabling notifications for the app -> no pushes

Removing the app -> notification storm -> pushes are back

In my case, the problematic app was immobilienscout24.

I believe the easiest way to find the problematic app is to reset settings and then enable notifications for a bunch of apps, check if notifications are working fine, and enable notifications for another bunch.

Good luck!

I was having this problem. Driving me nuts. But I worked out if I turned my I watch off the notifications started again on my phone. With my watch turned on I only get the notifications on my watch. Not sure if it only happens at night but will do some more experimenting.