iOS 15 Messages Notifications Not Working

Update. I went into the apple watch settings on the phone. Notifications/Messages. I had selected Custom Notifications in the past which had worked. Changed it back to "Mirror my iPhone." The notifications are now working correctly (for the time being anyway... we'll see)

Update - I couldn't figure out why the problem was intermittent for me. Then I realized it didn't happen if my watch was on the charger. I went to Notifications/Messages on the phone where I had selected Custom Notifications in the past, which had been working. Changed it back to "Mirror my iPhone," and a week later the notifications are still working correctly. As an experiment, I set up a new custom notification today and the problem resumed. Has anyone else tried this?

I’ve got it working to where I can live with it until I get a new Mac.

• On my Mac, I have Messages set to Allow Notifications.
• Alerts selected for Messages alert style.
• Show notifications on lock screen, Show in Notification Center, Badge app icon, and Play sound for notifications checked.
• Show previews set to always (default) and Notification grouping to automatic.
• On my iPhone Messages is set to Allow Notifications.
• Alerts turned on for Lock Screen, Notification Center, and Banners.
• - [ ] Banner Style is set to Persistent,
• - [ ] Sounds is set to Note,
• - [ ] Badges is turned on,
• - [ ] Show in Car Play is turned off
• - [ ] LOCK SCREEN APPEARANCE is set to Show Previews When Unlocked and Notification Grouping is set to Automatic
• - [ ] Customize Notifications is set to Repeat Alerts Once
• - [ ] I left the Messages Sound on the iPhone on Note (the Default) and went through my contacts and set a different alert sound for each of them.
• - [ ] I get alert sounds from Messages now and also get the little alert box at the top right of my Mac
• - [ ] I still can’t get the alert box any more for notifications that ask for a code, like Amazon or PayPal
• - [ ] I deleted every Focus except Do Not Disturb and Driving
• - [ ] In Do Not Disturb I added my family members to People in ALLOWED NOTIFICATIONS and I added the Calendar and Time Sensitive Notifications to the Allowed Apps.
• - [ ] Focus Status is Disabled, nothing turned on for Home Screen or Lock Screen, Smart Activation is Off
• - [ ] I have an automatic turn on and off time for Do Not Disturb

The problem with audio notification of incoming text messages when the iPhone screen is locked appears to be fixed for my iPhone 13 Pro running iOS 15.3.1. I spent a total of about 7 hours on the phone with 6 different Apple advisors yesterday and today. What worked for me was going to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset. I had to make a lot of setting changes afterward, but I tested for incoming text ping after each small group of changes, and the ping is still working. I haven't touched the Focus settings at all and am afraid to.

I hope my experience is helpful to others.

I've installed 15.4 on my XR.

The notification defect seems to be fixed. I've done a little testing with a few iMessages (blue) and SMS texts (green). Early results are promising. Message notifications (audible, (ding), visual, and haptic) now appear on iPhone even if the screen is locked (dark), as long as:

(a) my Apple watch is turned off (or locked) and

(b) my MacBook is not nearby and/or is sleeping.

However, if Apple watch is on my wrist (powered up & unlocked) and is 'close' to the phone, notifications do not appear on the locked phone screen. The phone remains silent and dark. Instead they get delivered to the watch, assuming that notifications for Messages are enabled there.

If MacBook is (a) not sleeping and (b) is 'close' to the phone, it appears that notifications get delivered to the Mac instead, and not to the phone. My few tests of this scenario were inconclusive. I suspect that Apple is using Bluetooth LE technology to determine if multiple Apple devices are nearby, and then trying to avoid multiple dings being generated from Macs, iphones, ipads, and/or watches.

The quick testing above was performed with the watch still on 8.4.2. I have not allowed it to update to 8.5 (which was delivered along with iOS 15.4). One step at a time. Perhaps I'll update the watch later this week after getting more experience with iOS 15.4 to see if it has robustly fixed the notification issue on the iPhone.

@fprintf,

My (limited) experiments indicate that if the watch is unlocked and 'close' to a locked phone, the watch will receive priority and deliver the notifications. Apple assumes that users don't want to be bothered/annoyed by multiple beeps with each incoming message. So assuming the watch is 'in-service' (i.e., on your wrist), you should be getting notifications only on the watch. But only if the phone is locked (sleeping). If the phone is unlocked and user is doing something with it, notifications seem to then go to the phone. The phone takes priority if it's in use.

To get notifications only on the phone (even while wearing watch), it's possible to disable them on the watch. That's configured through the phone's Watch app, under Notifications/Messages/Custom/Notifications off.

But I haven't found a way to get them on both watch & phone. A lame workaround is to configure a watch face with the Messages app as a complication. New messages will then be 'announced' silently by a tiny text legend ("N Unread") as part of the complication.

It's all become awfully complicated, especially when adding in the recent Focus feature.

I had the same problem for several weeks. One bright Apple Support agent figured out that the problem was with one of my "Focus" settings. I had "Available" focus turned "ON" and "Allowed Notifications" set to "People"> "none" and only a few Apps allowed, Messages was NOT one of them. I turned "Available" to the "off" position and, bingo!, I started getting notifications (banner and audible) again. I need to research how to properly use Focus settings.

pandu192: I had the same problem and figured out, with the help of Apple Support, that the problem was my "Focus" settings. Try turning OFF all Focuses and have someone send you a WA. In my case, I had a Focus named Available but in the settings for it I did not have Messages and WA "allowed". As soon as I turned Available off, I got notifications. After about a week, and researching more on how to use Focus, I reprogrammed the Available focus and notifications continued to work as desired. If you have problems, I suggest you CALL Apple Support. They should be able to help. If not, hang up and call back right away. You'll get a different person. Hope this helps.

@D.R.C. Yes, I do have an Apple Watch but that was not the reason I was not receiving message notifications. Last night I found that all my contacts have been muted in the last iOS update. I have unmuted them and I am receiving the notifications in both my iPhone and my Apple Watch.

Thanks for replying to my post!

I fixed this issue (at least for me) by changing the message-alert tone to something else, waiting for an SMS to arrive, then changing the alert back to my original preferred tone. Hey presto! No more problems.

Finally got mine working again. I don’t know if it will work for others or not, but what finally fixed mine was going into Settings -> Notifications -> Siri, then turning Announce Notifications on. Exited out, then went back in and turned it off. Suddenly my notifications are working properly again. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I found something... when my new iPhone 13 is locked and "attached" to my iWatch 7 I only get notifications on my watch. I tested by having someone text me with different scenarios.

1. iPhone locked --> no notification on phone
2. iPhone unlocked --> I get notification on phone
3. iPhone locked & bluetooth off (no iWatch connection --> I get notification on phone

Looks like they need to bring some separation to the notifications. I want my iPhone to send give me notifications. What happens when my iWatch is charging in another room?

I had this problem in about November, but it went away after the next IOS update. Then it came back with the most recent update. Today I finally figured out that if I'm not wearing my watch, notifications work just as they should. Add the watch back to the equation and it fails again. I'm going to try to unpair and repair my watch and see if that helps.

This has been going on for way too long. Not very happy with Apple support at this point.

I had the same problem. The first support person had me wipe the phone and reinstall everything. It seemed to work for a bit but I stopped hearing notifications again. This support person asked if my sound was on my iwatch. It was set to silent. She explained that if you have an Apple watch, the message notification sound AUTOMATICALLY goes to the watch. So if your watch is set to silent, you won't hear anything. And there's NO way to change that!!! Frustrating because I like my watch on silent, but I want to hear my text notifications...anyway. If you have a watch, that's good to know.

AlexDaMan wrote:

I had this issue also. I believe it was fixed with iOS 14.3.

It might have been fixed in iOS 14.3, but it broke again in iOS 15. As of 15.3.1, the notification defect remains.

In my case, it seems to be inter-related to my Apple Watch. If I disable Bluetooth on my Xr, notifications on the phone return. Even if locked, an incoming message will trigger audible notification and a banner on the lock screen (which is the expected/desired behavior).