@peggybrady,
See this thread I just started: Messages App: New and old conversations a… - Apple Community
That link is my post describing much the same behavior as you describe above. I think you and I (and likely others) may be talking about the same bug. (There is a typo in my post at the word "helpful," as the edit I was performing didn't take. I was trying to say "helpful prompts and popups," sarcastically.) If you like, you can mess around with the following steps and confirm that we are seeing the same behavior. And please don't take any of the following as being patronizing/condescending. I have been an Apple fanboi since '92, but I didn't even know you could mute conversations. It's hard enough getting my daughters to stay in touch, why would I mute their favorite mode of communication?
Check in your Messages conversations (slide left and look to see if the alarm bell has a slash through it, if so that conversation is muted, so no notifications or sounds.) Now, open the conversation and click on the contact's name at the top. Check to see if Hide Alerts if toggled on. If so, turn it off. Have the person from that conversation text you and you will get a notification sound and a notification popup in whatever style (banner, whatever) that you have set in Settings. Yay fixed, right? Nope. After a bit (I don't know exactly how long but I have replicated this behavior a dozen times) check both the muted setting and Hide Alerts. They will both be toggled back on, so the conversation is muted and alerts are hidden. Again. If you look down your list of older conversations, you will probably see that they all appear muted: there is a tiny grey version of the alarm bell with a slash through it. If the above conditions are met, don't bother with a Reset All Settings, as it is ineffectual and reallllly time-consuming to get things back the way you like them. Same thing with Force Restart and all the other advice available on the interwebs...they don't work.
Good luck, and fingers crossed that Apple patches this soon. And thank you for letting me know that Apple's gaslighting doesn't work on at least a couple of people (i.e. you and I.)
Thanks again,
Stephen
