What does “Notifications Silenced” mean on iPhone

I tried everything that has been posted on this board. Nothing worked. The other day, I updated to 15.2.1, they made no mention of a fix by the way. Anyway, it was still there then I checked Focus and the update had turned it back on. I turned it off, went in and deleted the schedule and voila, problem gone. It even backtracked and took those earlier notifications off any message thread. I know, it’s all voodoo, I did all of that stuff before the update, cycled phone power once or twice a week, kept up with updates, nothing worked. Now this. Some of you will try this to no avail, it may work for some. Check Focus, it seems to sneak stuff in. It’s all voodoo. Good luck.

Thanks for figuring that out... a big thumbs up to you Doc!

I'm still not sure if they are under the influence of excessive adult beverages in the middle of the night can force the message through if I'm sleeping and DO NOT WANT TO BE DISTURBED because I've already got that set for certain contacts through my Favorites.

I'll text that next with someone NOT on my favorites list.

Cheers!

This has been a problem for me since I upgraded to iOS15. Yesterday I spent hours trying to find a solution online. THIS seems counterintuitive like you said, but THIS FIXED IT. Thank you Braindead Mac!

Braindead Mac figured it out and I was able to get mine fixed up. Here’s what you do.

You have to go to Settings>Focus and then click Share Across devices.

Then go to Settings>Privacy>Focus (right at the bottom) and click to turn on for Messages which on my phone is the only app that looks at my focus status.

Thank you!! I have been struggling with this super frustrating problem for weeks. Thanks for taking the time to share the solution. I for one, appreciate your kindness. This is in response to the doctor who figured it out.

For everyone one struggling with this, remember that you can mark certain important contacts with emergency bypass. EB contacts’ notifications will play at full volume no matter what. Even if the silence switch on the side of the phone is enabled, or if any focus state is selected. Marking a contact with EB will make their notifications play at full volume no matter what else you do on your phone, short of turning it off. So even if someone’s phone tells them that your notifications are silenced (as described in this thread), you will still hear the notifications.

To enable EB, edit any contact and go to their ringtone and/or text tone settings. At the top, enable the switch for Emergency Bypass. Note that ringtone and text tone bypass are set separately.

I’ve tried all the steps and wound up talking to 1st level support for 2 hours last night. Every step they recommended I have already done. This morning I spoke with the next level up support who verified everything we did previously was correct. We then installed software on my phone so they could diagnose it, we took dozens of screen shots. All this will be sent to the engineers for a permanent solution supposedly. After all this I fixed the problem myself. Focus needs to be turned off on every Apple device you own, phone, iPad, watch, laptop and iMac (this is where I actually fixed the problem) When you are on the Focus screen in settings (iPhone or iPad) tap the do not disturb and delete any people you have, if you have to the right of that any apps listed delete them too. Under option on the same page it should say Focus disabled. When you click Home Screen the buttons should be greyed out the same thing with the Lock Screen. I actually had two things listed below that but I don’t remember what they were I deleted them both.

Go back to where it says Focus in the top left hand corner tap then down at the bottom it says Share Across Devices, turn this off. He is where I think the problem is. If you notice is says Turning on Focus for this device will also turn it on for your other devices. I don’t think this is true. Do these steps for your iPhone and iPad if you have one. If you have the watch make sure in the Focus setting it says mirror my watch. After doing all these things to my three devices and finishing up with support I still had the problem. I got to thinking maybe my iMac has a problem with Focus which I didn’t even realize it used. THIS IS WHERE THE PROBLEM WAS ACTUALLY FIXED.

On iMac go to:

System preferences (the Apple in the top left had corner of your screen)

Look for the Bell icon, Notifications & Focus

There should be two tabs, notifications and Focus. Tap Focus

Do not disturb should be off

Allowed notifications from-delete any people and and apps you have listed

In Turn On Automatically deleted anything you may have set up yourself

Uncheck share focus status

Now the biggie that finally fixed this issue at least for me.

Uncheck Share across devices (which as I said earlier if this was really working once you unchecked this either on your iPhone or iPad it should have also fixed it here unless I’m missing something.

So that worked for me. I have since forwarded this to my Apple case worker but he has not gotten back with me yet. Let me know if this did or didn’t work for you.

Focus may have been a good ideal but it obviously has some bugs in it. I liked the old Do Not Disturb better it was much easier to use.

Yes you are exactly right it seem if you shut it off on one it should turn all your devices off but it doesn’t. I had to do my watch, iPhone, iPad and iMac all individually, after 4 hours of Apple support they never had me do this. Focus should not be this complicated, just curious how did you discover this I found it by trial and error

Mine DEFINITELY works as expected. There are times when I want focus enabled on computer (zoom calls) but disabled on phone (text get text notifications on phone during zoom calls on computer). I disable this switch on computer and change my focus settings. Then I can switch this button off and back on on my phone to get all devices synced again after zoom.

follow?

are all your OSes current?

This issue is driving me CRAZY.

I have turned every possible setting off, and yet, it’s still on!

I’ve received urgent messages from friends that I’ll immediately reply to, only to be greeted by the same ‘notifications silenced’ message.

Please FIX this.

Worst feature in years.

I was struggling with this too and following all instructions to no avail. Then finally found someone that has the magic.

Go to Settings > Privacy > Focus and make sure "Shared With" Messages is toggled on.

One might think that not sharing focus would then not show you as silenced, so counterintuitive to turn this on. With all my focus deleted and turning this on, now my wife says messages to me are not showing the silenced status.

Thank you SO much for the info. We have medical emergencies in our house on a regular basis and this glitch was causing some major concerns. I am now fixed and I know I would NEVER have figured this out on my own.

Go to Settings > Privacy > Focus and make sure "Shared With" Messages is toggled on.

One might think that not sharing focus would then not show you as silenced, so counterintuitive to turn this on. With all my focus deleted and turning this on, now my wife says messages to me are not showing the silenced status.

[Link Edited by Moderator]

Lagspike,

You are a Godsend!! Even the “Community Expert” didn’t know, but YOU did. Thank you so much for solving this really irritating problem. You’re a real gem. Maybe YOU should be a Community Expert?

Thank you so much!

I'm also shocked Apple could have such a buggy release of Focus. Here's what FINALLY fixed this for me:

Uncheck that checkbox "Share across devices" on ALL devices! I had unchecked it on my iPhone, assuming that would do it. But I turn DND on and off frequently on my laptop, to hide reminders, and it turns out that pushes to my phone and then notifies people I have notifications silenced! So all devices do not have to agree to share that state 🤬