iOS11 notifications disappearing from lock screen

I have only experienced this once I updated to iOS 11. Turning off “show in history” seemed to make it stop for me. Only problem I’m still having, outside of messaging, is when I go to call someone, my screen freezes and I have to use Siri until I can restart my phone. I’ve had this issue since sometime in iOS 10.

Edited to add: my phone is 6S.

I am pretty sure the problem is that if something crashes on the lock screen the IOS will not recycle the lock screen unless it reboots, restarts, or goes through a few of the things like Settings>General>Accesabilities>BoldText which will just recycle the lock screen with the display.

You need to find what is crashing the screen and get rid of it. From what people are reporting here is it is typically, widgets, notifications, keyboards, wallpaper, etc...

Apps may be sending bad notifications. You may not even see those get to the screen so you should go through and shut notifications off for the lock screen. You should do this for all of the games and anything but the most important items. This is a pain because you go through every app but most apps do not need notifications anyway. Then recycle the screen and see what that did.

If not move onto the widgets. On the bottom of that you can remove all but the news calendar and Siri’. Try again.

If not change the wallpaper to a satandard non active wallpaper. Remove custom keyboard apps including the ones that show graphics.

If nothing else works start deleting apps. If after that still nothing then you need to reset and only sync back the recent emails and recent messages. Something has leaked onto the lock screen and is crashing it.

If you know an iOS developer they may be able to look into it and find the app but usually as soon as you start looking things like this go away so maybe just look up the battery usage at the bottom of Setting>Battery for the last week and see what is there.

Note: I do not do software developement or support for iPhones so this is all a guess from what I have seen in my phone and gathered from others.

I have been in touch with apple support about this over the phone - I have been told this is a known issue to the engineers and they’re working on a fix.

I was on with a senior advisor who I had to provide screen shots to and to answer questions. I HIGHLY recommend any and all of you contact apple support and relay the problem - if you get a good analyst they will find the note that says anyone with the problem is to be passed off to a senior advisor who will assist.

I was also given a link to upload screenshots to as I see the problem happen - which I have done.

Incredibly frustrating that this is a known issue and they’re not just taking back all phones that have it after paying this much - but I recommend all contact and report the problem and get as much info the the engineers as possible. And make them aware this is a big problem.

Hi Ron,

If you go to Settings> Display & Brightness. Scroll down to the Display Zoom section then tap view. If you switch it from Standard to Zoomed then back to Standard this somehow makes the notifications return to the lock screen. If you had apps arranged a certain way, it will mess that up. Also, it solves the problem for awhile. The items on the lock screen such as the time, date, and any notifications seem to disappear again.

Interesting thought! Originally I thought this problem was related to the fact that my messages were going to my Apple Watch - so I disabled the Apple Watch (and eventually sold it, I don't have it any more) and the problems continued.

I never thought that it could be the Mac or iPad, because they have never interfered before...

However, you say that the notification disappeared after you read the message on your Mac - that is actually the intended behaviour. Once you've read the message in one place, the notification is supposed to disappear elsewhere. The problem I (am others here) are experiencing is that the notification disappears even though it hasn't been read anywhere.

Did you noticed that it just disappeared even though you didn't do anything (ie even when you didn't touch the messages app anywhere)? 'Cause that's the problem I'm experiencing. (I have not had the problem since keeping bluetooth and show in history off, but I would love to be able to use those features again...)

Then I guess the last thing to try (if you haven't done so already) is to backup and restore the phone and then set it up as a new device and see if the problem persists (can always restore from the backup if that doesn't help). I know it's a bit of a hassle, but just to isolate if it's something with Apple's service side of things or if it's something on your device.

Or maybe people here have tried it already?

1 worked for me. I deleted the original conversations and am now getting notification alerts waking my lock screen. Good call on this @Vixyswillie.

The (very un-Apple-like) workaround turning off "Show in history" worked for me, too. But it's not really a solution having to deactivate one feature to be able to use another...

Quick guide to create a ”sysdiagnose” file for those of you who are having the problem discussed in this thread. It's best if it can be done somewhat in conjunction with a messages disappearing, i.e. at most a few minutes after a messages has disappeared.

Do the following:

On the iPhone, press ”volume up”, ”volume down” and ”power button” simultaneously. This should trigger a short vibration on the iPhone. Wait a few minutes or so for the data to get collected (a sound can be heard when it's done), then go to ”Settings -> Privacy -> Analytics -> Analytics Data” and look for ”sysdiagnose” in the list and tap it (items should be sorted alphabetically).

In the upper right corner a share icon (square with an arrow pointing upwards) should be seen. Tap it and chose to send it as an email to me on staraffinity@gmail.com

I will attach the "sysdiagnose" file to a problem report I have done with Apple – hopefully this can help the engineers find the problem.

It seems that what kills the lock screen are apps that don’t wish their data to be displayed on the lock screen even if they are switched on to do so. So this seems to be a lot of the financial apps but may be others. Find those apps, pull their widgets and shut down ALL of its notifications. And all means more than just the lock screen. It means giving it no right to notify. Just lock them all up until you find the culprit. This includes email apps, games, chat apps, vr apps, keyboard apps, etc.. (start with financial though)

I guess the just released iOS 11.4 update is something to try first before going any further. It includes support for iMessages in iCloud, so I take it there should be some changes how messaging is handled.

Anyway, I was going to ask you what it is that isn't working when you try to crate that ”sysdiagnose” file? Maybe we can try to work something out. If the problem still remains after an update to iOS 11.4, that is.

On iOS 11 when notifications are at a large number they are put into the notification tab which can be accessed from the lockscreen by simply swiping from the lower middle screen up and there you’ll find all your recent notifications.

Mine gets working for a day but will blow out. It may be a notification from a program is bad. I am going to stop all notifications and see if that helps then add a program at a time to see which one it is that’s crapping on the this. Also may be a widget so was going through them already as I have a bunch of junk there.

Yeah number 2 is my main problem for sure. It happens every day. I've noticed if I keep show in history AND bluetooth turned off, I have more success. Still, after a few weeks it will start to happen, and I'll need to reboot my phone before it starts working again.

I am also in Canada with Bell so I wouldn't think it's our providers causing the issue. I did discover something quite by accident though. I turned off wifi and then shut my phone off after arranging for someone to message me within a few minutes. I turned the phone back on 5 minutes later and without activating wifi there were 3 new message notifications so I waited about a minute, after which normally the notification red dot would have vanished along with the messages, and was very pleasantly surprised to find that all three messages were still there! I have no idea why but I'm going to try it for a longer period of time and see how it works in the future. I shall post a message about the results. In the meantime if someone else wants to try this please do and let us know if you have any luck. Cheers.