User profile for user: yagoloco
yagoloco Author
User level: Level 1
26 points

iPhone notifications not working on iOS 14.4

Hello,


This has been a recurring issue since I've had this phone (iPhone XS Max) two years ago, and present in every single iOS version available. Push notifications work fine for months, but then every single app stops having notifications at the same time. It's not just Messages, but also Gmail, Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, etc. I've contacted support a couple of times and so far the only two solutions that temporarily solve the issue are re-installing every affected app, or reseting the entire phone to a factory state (restoring from a back-up won't work) and then re-downloading everything. None of the other tricks out there appear to work (bluetooth, airplane mode, watch notifications, do not disturb, etc.). I've seen a few threads trying to address the issue by mentioning that it might be related to some notification settings, but I can assure that this isn't the case.


The issue happens almost randomly and it affects all of the applications at the same time. Out of the numerous times that it has happened, in one instance it started occurring when the iPhone's memory was almost full; and in the latest case the moment I activated "Do not disturb".


Applications only receive notifications badges for a very brief period of time after you exit them (not close), about 1-2 seconds. After that, they "freeze", and neither push notifications nor badges appear.


I was wondering if anyone has had this kind of issue and if there are any better workarounds rather than having to re-install every application.


Thank you.



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Feb 16, 2021 4:59 PM

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66 replies
User profile for user: FoxMiq
FoxMiq
User level: Level 1
21 points

Mar 31, 2021 12:59 AM in response to nny1001

Thanks, I thought so.


So the solution to the problem can't be "uninstall and reinstall the apps in question" since most of the notifications I usually receive are iMessages.

That might be different for other users but I assume most apple customers will use iMessage quite a lot as well.


However, I found a solution to the "no notifications problem" which worked just fine for me and was really simple:

I had to turn off my AppleWatch AND my MacBook (which was "sleeping" with the lid closed. That's why I didn't consider it as a problem), reboot my iPhone and that's it.

Notifications were back.

After that I brought the watch and the computer back and everything is working as desired again.

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User profile for user: dodominik
dodominik
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jun 6, 2021 5:45 AM in response to DeerfromTN

Hi all,


I came across this thread as I was having the same issue. I ended up deinstalling an app that I did not receive any notifications for. Just a second after I deinstalled the app, all the notifications from other apps I was missing came in. So, it seems like this one app was somehow blocking all the notifications for whatever reason. I am from Germany and this was a German app, so I don't think that you have installed this one app, but maybe it will be of any help.


Cheers,

Dominik

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User profile for user: loyson129
loyson129
User level: Level 1
8 points

Nov 5, 2021 6:04 PM in response to yagoloco

I have noticed that this is mostly due to app updates waiting in app store. When i start updating the apps all the notifications start flowing in. So basically the app update blocks the notifications from popping up even though they are created. Once app is updated, the block is cleared and all notifications show up (including the older blocked ones)

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User profile for user: mkhonda
mkhonda
User level: Level 1
4 points

Aug 28, 2021 3:13 PM in response to yagoloco

Hi all,


I have an iPhone X for almost 3 years now and in the last iOS update (14.7.1) I started to have this same annoying problem. Some apps (WhatsApp, Gmail) stopped delivering notifications randomly. I tried most of the things suggested here and in other forums, but none of them seemed to work. A simple solution that I came up was to manually close all the apps that were open in the background and restart the phone. I don't know if the problem is going to come back, but it seem to be gone for now.

Hope you can try the same and give any feedbacks on it.


Thanks.

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User profile for user: yagoloco
yagoloco Author
User level: Level 1
26 points

Feb 21, 2021 1:50 PM in response to yagoloco

Small Update:


I went into a Genius Bar specialist as per request of an Apple Support employee. The person attending me ran a diagnostics tests and observed the issue in person. The hardware and the settings of the phone were in good condition, so a report was made. He concluded that it’s likely a bug in iOS.


We couldn’t isolate the cause of it, but we speculated two posible triggers from past experiences. The first one being a large volume of notifications through time causing the problem. The second one being related to the process in which the iPhone frees up memory from cached files. Since every time the issue occurred the memory was almost full, and it affected several apps at the same time; the cleanup process from iOS might be removing or corrupting an important file. However all of the above has no evidence to back it up, it’s only a supposition.


The only solution we found was to re-install the applications for the time being, or resetting the phone to factory settings.

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User profile for user: yagoloco
yagoloco Author
User level: Level 1
26 points

Feb 22, 2021 3:44 PM in response to absolutelystunning

Yes, I’ve had to do it 4-5 times already. Since you have to re-download everything, the apps then request the notifications again (the pop-up “would you like x to send you notifications”). From there, yes, notifications start working again. But the issue may appear with further use, just as it has happened to me. Restoring from a backup won’t work, unless it is from before the issue started happening.

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User profile for user: StephaneWeber
StephaneWeber
User level: Level 1
4 points

Apr 2, 2021 12:45 PM in response to FoxMiq

I have the same problem since I installed iOS 14.4.2. Every morning I noticed I missed a lot of notifications from different applications (WharsApp, Facebook, mail, newspaper app, ...).


Restarting the iPhone in the morning made it worked again until 22.00.


and be broken again waking up.


why 22.00 ? Well my guess is the Do not disturb is the culprit somehow as it’s when it starts and the notifications are not gathered anymore. And I’m not talking about the Lock Screen, i know how DND works. If I unlock the phone nothing in the Notification Center. Even if I send myself a WhatsApp from another device: no badge, no banner.


until I restart the iPhone and then all works well.


Please fix this bug !

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User profile for user: MoonJ.
MoonJ.
User level: Community Specialist

Feb 19, 2021 8:39 AM in response to yagoloco

Hi yagoloco,


We understand you're having recurring issues with notifications, even after restoring your iPhone and setting it up as new. This does seem unusual, have you checked Settings > Notifications to ensure the type of notifications you're expecting are enabled from the apps you expect them from?


If everything looks good there, the following page offers additional helpful information: Use notifications on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch


In the Manage Notifications section, you'll find steps to set an apps notifications to Deliver Quietly, is it possible this was unintentionally enabled? If so, when you check the setting, you'll see the option to Deliver Prominently. Tap tap option to re-enable normal notifications.


We hope that helps!

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User profile for user: yagoloco
yagoloco Author
User level: Level 1
26 points

Feb 20, 2021 7:57 AM in response to MoonJ.

Hello MoonJ,


Thank you for the reply, unfortunately it didn't solve the issue. I've checked the settings for general notifications as well as the settings per-app. All of them were turned on and none were set to deliver quietly. I took the opportunity to tick off and then on all of the options hoping that it might re-enable the notifications, but there was no success.


It's worth mentioning that it's not just one application that's affected, but several at once. Most stopped having notifications suddenly and at the same time. So far the only way I've managed to get the applications to work as expected was to re-install them, which is a hassle considering how many apps there are installed.


I hope that this information proves helpfull. Thank you.

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iPhone notifications not working on iOS 14.4

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