iOS11 notifications disappearing from lock screen

I agree. I had intended to upgrade to an iPhone 8 Plus or even an iPhone X but I’m very reluctant to put any more money into a company that places so little value in its clients that this type of problem continue to negatively impact so many. The customer service and support from Apple has been non existent. After the first few attempts by their technicians to “walk me through” various time wasting fixes which I had already tried on my own, they just gave up and kept feeding me the party line that the permanent “fix” was in the next iOS update, then the next and the next ad nauseum. It never happened. I thought I’d found a fix by turning off Wifi before shutting down my phone and it seemed to work on two occasions then it was back to normal and has never worked again. I’m so discouraged. I love my iPhone 6 and my iPad Pro but if Apple doesn’t fix this issue, come uograde time, I will be shopping elsewhere. If anyone comes up with a fix for this please, please share. Cheers everyone.

I feel you. A friend and I were just discussing this at coffee this week. We both feel like something has fundamentally changed in the past few years with Apple. Poor product decisions that don’t feel well thought out, fewer compelling reasons for iterative upgrades, scary security “discoveries” after OS/iOS updates, strange issues that suddenly crop up immediately after new product releases, poor attention to needed fixes, support that doesn’t feel genuine - the list goes on. For the first time ever, my friend and I are both seriously weighing our options in this next upgrade cycle. There used to be so much to love about Apple, their products and their support. We agreed that instead, we’re sadly just feeling more and more “meh.”

A friend just mentioned he's having this problem and we did some quick tests sending some messages to me and they don't seem to disappear from the lock screen for me on a Iphone 6 with iOS 11.2.6. They did however disappear from the lock-screen on my Iphone after I went to the Messages app on my Mac and read the messages there. So, I was thinking is something similar is happening to you guys? Do you have iMessage set up somewhere else that might "interfere" with them being displayed as notifications on the lock-screen? Not that they should just because of that, but it might be a starting point for further troubleshooting…

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...)

Yes, I guess I could have been more clear (busy times…) – of course that's expected behavior that when I read the messages on my computer (i.e. clicked the conversation in the Messages app on my Mac) they would dissapear from the lock-screen on my iPhone.

But they sure did stay on the lock-screen for about 10 minutes before I went to my Mac and read the messages there. I do have have everything checked in Settings > Notifications > Messages so for me it doesn't seem to matter that "Show in History” is off. May I ask how your ”Options” (at the bottom of the Messages Notification settings) are set? I have ”Show Previews: Always (Default)” and ”Repeat Alerts: Once”.

How long does it take for the messages on the lock-screen on your phone to disappear?

I have the same options - show previews always, and repeat alerts once.

I don't know how long it takes for them to disappear - during the day it's not so much of a problem, because I tend to check my phone as alerts come in. It's only at night, or when I've been away from my phone for a while, that I notice the problem. My lock screen will show nothing, and then later I will unlock my phone for some other reason and notice all of these missed notifications.

So unfortunately I've never "caught it in the act".

Interesting how this issue manifests itself in different ways. My messages all come through fine and remain in phone waiting to be read as long as I never turn my phone off. After it’s been shut off at night and I turn it on in the morning I might have several notifications showing and I can even read parts of them on the lock screen but as soon as I unlock the screen I can watch the red notification dot vanish before my eyes and of course the messages vanish too. I have to hope that whoever sent them will either send them again or at least ask why I didn’t acknowledge or reply to them. But before I realized the problem I had missed some pretty important messages which created some difficulties. I’m eligible for an upgrade with my service provider and keep hoping this will get fixed before I decide to take the plunge and try another type of phone.

Isn't that expected behavior – that the notification goes away from the lock-screen if you shut down and turn on the phone? I mean one has to enter the pass code (i.e. log in) to the phone after starting it up after a shut down and unlocking takes away items on the lock-screen. Or am I wrong?

I just tried and that's what happened to me. What I didn't expect was that the message (after the restarting the phone) would also be gone from the history (”Earlier Today”) seen when swiping from the middle of the screen and up when the phone is awake, but locked. It should be there until it has been read somewhere since I have ”Show in History” checked in Message Notification settings, right?

Normally after my phone has been shut off and then switched on the red notification dot is there indicating the number of messages I’ve received and sometimes I can even see part of the message on the lock screen. When I unlock the screen the red dot goes away before I touch it and before I see any messages and then when I do touch the message icon the new messages are completely gone. It is extremely frustrating to know that people may have sent me messages during the night or while my phone was shut off for whatever reason and I’ll never know what they said or who they were from even.

Apple; this iOS notification software "problem" is pathetic, not too mention, annoying / frustrating !

I realize this is a first world problem, but, I would like the device / software to function as expected, especially since missing important messages adversely affects the user.

Is it happening for all conversations or is it just some?

I can’t reproduce this problem, but I’m really curious what’s causing it. So I think we have to try and narrow things down if possible.

Is it happening for all conversations or does it behave differently depending on the conversation in the Messages app?

For me, it’s not consistent - definitely intermittent. Some message notifications appear fine, others don’t. I’ve not been able to identify any particular situation or set of conditions that triggers the behavior.

For me it happens only when text messages are received while my phone is shut off. When I turn my phone back on the red notification dot shows how many messages were received while it was shut off. Before I even have a chance to touch the message icon the red dot vanishes and any new messages go with it. I’ve experimented with both iPhone users and android users and it’s always the same. I have to leave my phone on 24/7 if I don’t want to miss messages. I’d like to shut it off and be device free sometimes.

@Vixyswillie

Can you try to see if it only happens for some conversations? We're talking about the Messages app now, and nothing else?

@Anniefrombrighton

You're problem seems to be different, because if I understand correctly you don't even receive the messages when turning it on after it has been off, i.e. it's not just the notifications that disappear? Can it be that you're phone is running out of space? Settings > General > About and look how much is ”Avaliable”.

Sure - I’ll keep an eye out for it. I haven’t noticed any pattern in the past, in terms of it happening with certain conversations vs. others. And yes - I’m referring to routine notifications from the Messages app.

Here are 3 thoughts I’ve had.

1.) Just out of curiosity (I have NOT tried this yet), has anyone tried deleting the conversation history to see if that solves the problem? In other words, let’s say I fail to get a notification from Susie - one of my existing Messages conversations. If I delete the conversation for Susie, does the problem recur at some point with another message from her?

2.) Another idea. I have a scheduled Do Not Disturb period each day (7A to 10P). While this issue happens outside of that time window, is anyone experiencing this problem who does NOT have a daily scheduled DND period? Given the number of people who’ve joined this thread, I’m assuming this isn’t related but just wanted to throw that out there.

3.) And one last idea - a setting I just changed last week. In Settings / Messages / Audio Messages, I changed Expire After 2 Minutes to Expire Never. Yes - I’m clearly grasping at straws. :) It’s probably way too early to tell with any degree of confidence if this is somehow related, but I haven’t noticed the issue recur since I made that change.