No notifications mainly for Whatsapp and Signal

Question

Level 1

4 points

No notifications mainly for Whatsapp and Signal

Guys,

suddenly my iPhone XS Max stopped raising notifications, mainly for Whatsapp and Signal. I was on iOS 14.8 when this happened and since then I've upgrades to 14.8.1 and to 15, but there was no improvement.

Another symptom is that when I open Whatsapp desktop, it synchronizes only when my Whatsapp is open on the phone. Initially I thought it had something to do with background executions or low battery mode, but the settings seem fine and it's something different that I can't identify.

I've tried everything in settings: background running, low batery settings, notification (both iOS and app settings), reboot iPhone, disable and enable cel data, wifi, airplane mode and non-disturb mode. Nothing happens.

I'm not considering reinstall apps or refresh the cel phone completely, because it would be a last try. If I have to refresh my whole phone every time something minor happens, I'll switch to Samsung without a second thought.

I noticed the tread (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252803737) without an answer. I wonder if this has been solved elsewhere.

Thank you.

iPhone XS Max

Posted on Jan 3, 2022 12:31 PM

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Answer 1

ruy102 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 14, 2022 5:20 AM in response to mario49

I believe I fixed the problem following the solution in the link below. Apparently, it's an iOS bug.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/notifications-suddenly-not-working-on-whatsapp.2265080/?post=29403256#post-29403256

Fix:

"So I finally got mines to work after much trial and error. I believe anyone who had Background App Refresh disabled and did the ios 14 upgrade may have hit an iOS bug.

I did the following.

With background app disabled fully close the WhatsApp app
Go to settings and enable Background App Refresh
Start WhatsApp and lock your phone. Have someone call you on WhatsApp or message you
Once your receive the notification, close the WhatsApp app completely
Go back to settings and disable background refresh
Start WhatsApp again.

After doing the about I am getting notifications again. What still does not work is the icon badge of waiting messeges.

Hope this helps!"

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Answer 2

mario49

Community Specialist

Jan 4, 2022 1:06 PM in response to ruy102

Hello ruy102,

After reviewing your post, it seems like you are not receiving notifications from specific apps. It looks like you have already done some troubleshooting to solve this issue. Even though there is a chance that you've tried these steps already, we would recommend you follow every step and let us know if the issue persists.

Do you have Focus enabled?

Are you using a VPN?

Use notifications on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Turn Location Services and GPS on or off on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Please don't hesitate to let us know if you need additional assistance.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Have a nice day.

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Answer 3

mario49

Community Specialist

Jan 5, 2022 2:22 PM in response to ruy102

Hey ruy102,

Thanks for the update. Let's get a little more information to try and narrow this down.

Does the iPhone have a managed profile installed on it?

Are you seeing the notifications in Notification Center?

Is this isolated to those two apps, or is it all apps?

Is screentime being used on the iPhone?

Install a configuration profile on your iPhone or iPad

Use Screen Time on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Keep us posted.

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Answer 4

ruy102 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 12, 2022 9:20 PM in response to mario49

Sorry for the delay, it took a while because I wanted to try a full reset.

I don’t have managed profile and I see plenty of notifications. MS-Outlook and Teams, Google Gmail and other apps keep sending notifications.

Whatsapp, signal and telegram don’t.

This weekend I backed up the phone, reset it and restored the backup. The problem persists.

There is one interesting point that I haven’t mentioned. I disabled notifications for social networks, such as Facebook and Instagram, and games, but I kept all other notifications. LinkedIn still has notifications on and is sending them normally.

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Answer 5

ruy102 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 5, 2022 5:16 AM in response to mario49

Hello Mario, thank you for your answer.

I'm not using VPN and focus was not enabled.

I turned Location Services off and on again after 30 seconds, but it didn't work.

Any other thoughts?

Ruy.

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