How To Fix Notifications Not Working On iPhone In iOS 15
Last updated on October 5th, 2021 at 05:15 pm
Posted in How To by Patricia on September 23, 2021
Notifications not working in iOS 15
Are notifications not working on iPhone since updating to iOS 15? Apps are not triggering alerts unless you open them? New features like Focus or Scheduled Summary could block them if you accidentally enabled them. Or, you might be actually dealing with a notifications bug!
No Notfications In iOS 15 – Report
Reader Abheet was the first to signal this problem to us:
Not getting any notifications post the update to iOS 15. No notifications until the apps are individually opened!
How To Fix Notifications Not Working
iOS 15 revamps the way notifications work on iPhone. Let’s make sure that your device is properly set up:
1. Disable Focus Mode
Focus is an extension of the old Do Not Disturb mode. It provides many other setups that allow you to filter notifications by app and contacts.
If you accidentally enabled a focus mode, notifications might not show up on your iPhone. To check if a Focus is turned ON, open the Control Center and see if a mode is enabled. Turn it Off to start allowing notifications.
Tip: You can also browse for Settings -> Focus -> [Focus name] and tweak the People and Apps in the Allowed Notifications panel.
Trick: You can also easily tell when a Focus is enabled by spotting its icon in the iPhone’s status bar!
2. Turn Off Notification Summary
Another new iOS 15 feature that can lead to no notifications on iPhone is called Scheduled Summary:
- Open Settings and browse for Notifications -> Scheduled Summary.
- Disable the Notifications Summary or remove from the summary apps that you want to get notifications from in real time!
Tip: Use the daily notification average to see which apps are the most active when it comes to alerts!
3. Turn On Announce Notifications
Some users reported that enabling the Announce option can fix notifications not working on iPhone in iOS 15:
- In the same Notifications menu in Settings, tap on Announce Notifications.
- Turn On Announce Notifications.
- Scroll for the app that’s having notification problems.
- Enable Announce Notifications and if there is an Announce option, go for All Notifications. Does this help?
4. Restart iPhone
If you reached this step and notifications are still not working in iOS 15, you should reboot your iPhone. A fresh start could eliminate minor glitches that might cause this issue.
How to: Use the force restart trick available here!
5. Reinstall Apps
Next, you can also offload and reinstall apps that are facing the iOS 15 no notifications bug:
- Browse for Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage.
- Tap on the app that you want to remove.
- Use the Offload App option. This will allow you to save documents and data of that app and have them automatically restored when you reinstall it.
- Tap on Reinstall and be patient.
6. Reset All Settings
It seems that the resetting iPhone settings is the way to fix notifications not working in iOS 15:
- Open Settings and browse for General -> Transfer or Reset iPhone.
- Tap on Reset.
- Go for Reset All Settings.
- Provide your iPhone’s Passcode and confirm your intentions.
Fact: This action will reset Network Settings, Keyboard Dictionary, Home Screen Layout and Location & Privacy settings on your iPhone. This means that you will need to reconfigure Wi-Fi connectivity.
Notifications Silenced When iPhone Is Unlocked!
iOS 15 comes with another important behavior change when it comes to notifications. If you’re a fan of Do Not Disturb, you should know that notifications are now silenced even if the device is unlocked.
The ‘While iPhone is Locked’ option isn’t available for Do Not Disturb anymore, which means that you can either get notifications all the time or have them silenced for both Home and Lock screen.
Do you have problems with notifications in iOS 15? Are you hit by the no notifications bug? What’s your feedback about the new Focus feature? Use the comments section and let us know!
Related: Other common iOS 15 bugs are:
– Live Text not working on iPhone.
– Facebook Messenger videos flickering during playback!
– Storage bug triggers iPhone Storage Almost Full notification, when there’s obviously enough free space available!
– Safari video playback not working. Here is how to fix the black screen bug!
Thanks Patricia for putting this issue out to the public.
I found a solution that worked for me. Just resetting all the settings solves the issue. Reset the settings and not the phone itself. All your data is retained when you do this.
Hope this helps! 😁
Thanks for the follow up, Abheet! Will update your fix into the main content of this thread.
the ios 15 do not disturb until I leave this location does not turn off automatically when you leave location. I had to manually shut off after 3 mile trip from location where I set do not disturb until i leave this location.
the other do not disturb functions seem to work ok.
Thanks for reporting. Does this happen every time? Could you replicate it?
Yes
It doesn’t work on my phone or my wife’s phone. Go try it set do not disturb until I leave this location and drive away a mile or so – do not disturb will not go off. It’s not complicated – it doesn’ t work.
Are you using Smart Activation, of you’ve scheduled the Location Automation for Do Not Disturb Focus mode?
I did all of the above except the reset, not wanting to have to start over. And none of it worked. :( Really hating IOS 15 right now.
Sorry to hear this Helen. Let’s hope that an official fix will become available soon.
Me too!
Went through whole process, incl. reset all settings –> did NOT work (but lost wallpaper and several settings :-( Very irritating!!!!
Sorry to hear this Etienne. It’s frustrating indeed. Which apps are you encountering notification problems with?
Same here – very frustrating and
It’s not a bug. You need to control Reminder now on Siri settings.
Goto Settings/Notifications/Announce Notifications and then find Reminders app and switch on Announce Notifications setting.
Nice. Except there is no “Announce Notifications” option under Settings/Notifications. Any other bright ideas?
There is an Announce Notifications option in the Siri section:
Settings -> Notifications -> Announce Notifications -> Reminders (On), Time Sensitive Notifications.
No announce notifications here too (iPhone 12 mini, iOS 15.0)
Notification from surveillance system only comes when app is opened, albeit setting is “always”.
Also automatic in/out of home mode (e.g. automatic engaging when I leave home) only works when app is opened.
Terrible!!!!
How did they test it???
Last is based on iPhone position, whose acess is always granted….
Thanks for reporting Paolo. I know how frustrating this is. Let’s hope that they’ll fix this in iOS 15.1 which might be released as early as next week alongside watchOS 8.1 and the Apple Watch Series 7.
iOS 15.1 Beta 3 was rolled out today and it includes some bug fixes.
On the iphone xs max there is no announce notifications option at all!
Thanks for mentioning. What iOS 15 version is it running?
I was not receiving my mail notifications. I went to Settings, Notifications, Customize Notifications, selected the mail account I want to receive notifications for, turned on Alerts and it worked immediately.
Thanks for your feedback and contribution! Are there any other bugs that you’re encountering in iOS 15?
This finally worked for me. Setting, Notifications, Mail, scroll to the bottom Customise Notifications. Under “Accounts” my iCLoud was only set to Badges. Turn on Alerts and Sound if you want and then it worked for me.
This does the job indeed. Thanks for confirming.
Hallelujah. You are a genius. 40 minutes later I finally found you!
Thanks for the confirmation.
Sorry not worked for me😢
Have you tried this: https://www.iphonetricks.org/fix-mail-notifications-not-working-ios-15/ ?
All my notifications became silent, invisible even if Do Not Disturb is disabled. I tried everything includinf reset but not fixed the problem. The only notifications that works are Messages, Calls and Mail.
I have a slightly different problem with notifications since iOS 15 on my iPhone. I receive notifications. But they no longer show the 1st line of content.
For instance, I receive notifications from NY Times. It used to show a line of text to show the content of the notification but now it does not. Nor the 1st line of email notifications, etc.
Does this happen for notifications on Lock Screen? Can you check the Previews setting in:
Settings -> Notifications -> Show Previews. Set to Always if you want the content to be shown when your iPhone is locked!
I tried alot of these suggestions and they didnt resolve all my issues. Some apps are not listed in Notifications list when they should be and there no longer is a “show apps not in notification center” option. I was not able to get apps to show up in notification center until I uninstalled and reinstalled the apps.
Thanks for sharing your feedback. Yes, the way notifications work has changed a lot in iOS 15 and sometimes you’re not sure if a missing setting is caused by a bug or by Apple’s new notification concept.
I too have this issue. All notifications silenced on my phone.
I have an Apple Watch 6. If I unpair the watch notifications return to normal, i.e., as expected with a ding when a notification comes in. I then paired the watch back to my phone running 15.0.1 and notifications are silent.
Note:
no Focus settings are enabled.
Specific apps that I’m interested in have notifications set up properly, that is to have an audible alert, etc.
Silent mode switch is not on
iOS 15.0.1
watchOS 8.0
Thanks for your feedback. That’s interesting. Just to make sure that everything is clear, with the Apple Watch paired notifications are silenced on your wrist, although the watchOS device isn’t in Silent mode, correct?
It’s normal for notifications to be silenced on the iPhone once an Apple Watch is paired an in range, because the alerts are redirected and played on the watch instead.
Silenced notifications on the IPhone once your Apple Watch is paired is new (past year or two). When I first got my watch I would receive both. Is there an option to have both?
In the Watch app if you browse the My Watch tab and tap on Notifications you can configure them for each native app like Messages, Mail, Weather, Reminders etc. You can select to Mirror your iPhone or have them custom.
Lower on the same page you have the ‘Mirror iPhone alerts from:’ In this list you have third-party apps. If you toggle the mirroring off, you will force the notification to sound on the iPhone, but it won’t go through to the watch.
This does not work for me. My reminders pop up on my watch but when I go to the reminders on my watch it is blank. I got to my reminders on my ipad it shows all of my reminders. When I go on my phone I have no reminders and it is blank. PLEASE HELP ME
Thanks for reporting. This looks like an iCloud sync issue. iOS 15.1 should be released as early as next week, alongside with watchOS 8.1 and iPadOS 15.1. It might fix this issue.
My watch says it is up to date with watchOS 6.3! How is there an update 8.1 coming out. What am I missing?
What Apple Watch model are you owning? watchOS 7 and watchOS 8 are available for Apple Watch 3 and later. If you have an older model you are stuck on the latest watchOS 6 version.
I’m now on IOS 15.0.2 and my notifications are not working. I’ve done the above but still nothing is appearing, my alarm isn’t even going off! It’s so frustrating. Any other ideas or any idea when this will be fixed?
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, these issues are still present in iOS 15.0.2. Not sure what else to suggest. Let’s hope that they will be addressed in the upcoming iOS 15.1.
This is really very annoying and nothing of the above helped. It doesn’t occur with all apps but the most common are Telegram and Whatsapp.
I hope there will be a fix soon Thanks for all the post and I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I know how annoying this is. Are Telegram and WhatsApp notifications not triggered every time, or they to go through randomly?
Hi Patrica, it now seems whatsapp is working but messages from Telegram only come through if you open the app. But not all app have this issue and that’s what worries me. Maybe those app need an update to work with the new IOS version.
Thanks for the follow up. Yes, always check out the Updates section in App Store and go for the latest versions. Some apps are still due with a new version to become fully compatible with iOS 15.
You sure it’s a good idea to always go to the latest version? The problem was caused by update in the first place – we should stop updating system until they are properly tested and validated!
That would have been a good idea while still on iOS 14.8. New iOS versions are always buggy and if you’re willing to skip the new features you can wait it out on the old version until the big bugs are fixed in the new one.
Now, if you’re already on iOS 15, you should go for recent updates, because they mostly focus on bug fixes. But then again, no one guarantess that new bugs aren’t generated by these minor updates. We’re here to report them asap.
How did you get WhatsApp to work?
Tried all the suggestions and none of them worked so far. Notifications only get through when the specific app is open – not even working when running in background. This is absolutely terrible and how come there is still no official fix? Apple and its iPhone is not what it used to be.
Thanks for the feedback. Sorry to hear about this. Can you mention the apps that are affected with this issue at your end?
Sometimes my phone will ping when I receive a text message other times it will not. my iPad and my watch will indicate a message but my phone will not. It is very random. I want to be able to receive notification on my phone, watch and iPad no matter what their proximity is to one another. That is why I have them synched. This happened before I upgraded to iOS 15, I have the latest one prior to 15. I am so very frustrated and this started all of a sudden, I had not changed any settings prior.
What about unread status for Messages is that also a problem. For example, if you read a message on your Apple Watch does it still show up as unread on your iPhone? We exposed this issue over here: https://www.iphonetricks.org/messages-read-status-not-syncing-between-devices/
Is it somewhat related?
Anyone has other ideas? None of these tricks worked and my iPhone is basically useless as notifications don’t work and I would not receive anything when people call or when messages arrive. Expect much more from apple – shameful!
Lee, if it helps, iOS 15.1 will be released next week. We hope that it will also address these notification issues.
The locked screen banner notifications from WhatsApp are not showing up since updating to iOS15. I’ve gone through all the suggestions other than resetting my iPhone. It’s quite frustrating.
You mean those that show up on the Lock Screen and in the Notification Center when you unlock the device?
Is Lock Screen enabled in Settings -> Notifications -> WhatsApp -> Lock Screen (under Alerts)?
Yes, it’s enabled
Tried all the suggestions and none of them worked for me.
I hope next week when will release new update.
Greetings
We too. Fingers crossed!
Lot of apps are not appearing in notification list and their notifications are also not working . IOS 15 is worst experience
Sorry to hear this. What iPhone model are you owning?
Mail notifications not working. I only find out about new messages if I open the app. Can you help?
Thanks for the feedback. Myriam has provided a fix for this and Geoff confirmed that it works. Can you please apply it too?
My 6s plus updated to 15.1 all notification is working fine, but after reset all settings in iphone settings, my whatsapp not showing in notification settings list, no prompt allow access notification after open whastapp in fisrt time
Try to reinstall WhatsApp in Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage -> WhatsApp -> Offload App -> Reinstall.
I can’t get Snapchat notifications to work–no banners and no sound–I have to open the app.
Thanks for reporting. Can you please detail how this started? Did it start out of the blue, you recently updated to iOS 15? Did the notifications work for a while after updating?
Hi there–it started right away after updating to iOS 15 and it has never worked since updating. There are neither sounds nor banners despite them being turned on in each case.
Thanks for the followup. Have you tried reinstalling the app? Use the offload option in Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage -> Snapchat -> Offload App -> Reinstall.
P.S.: Also make sure that Snapchat is not added to the Scheduled Summary in Settings -> Notifications -> Scheduled Summary.
Thanks—that didn’t do the trick either.
Sorry to hear this. Not sure what else to suggest. Have you tried to contact Apple support about it?
No but thanks for that suggestion and I will.
You’re welcome. Keep us posted as we are curious to find out what they have to say about it.
It seems to be working now! I think it is because I logged out of my account and then back in.
Thanks for the follow up. Glad it works.
Hi there, I always turn off the power of my phone and turn it back on. When I turn it back on the notifications will work for 1 or 2 days maximum. I constantly have to keep on turning off my phone and turning it back on
Thanks for your feedback Mohamed. What notifications are not working after 1 or 2 days? All of them or just certain apps?
I replied to you on the comment below
All apps notifications don’t work. It works for like 2 days and then they randomly stop notifying me, and when I enter snapchat for example it is full of messages which I never got notified about. Then I have to turn off my phone and when I turn it back on it suddenly starts notifying me like a normal phone would. It is not great that I have to turn off/on my phone every 2 days, I hate doing that.
Thanks for the followup. That’s a strange behavior indeed. What iPhone model are you owning. iOS 15.1.1 has been released but it’s only available for iPhone 12 and 13 Series. If your device is compatible try to update and let us know if notifications work better with this release.
Nah, I have an iPhone X with ios 15.1 up to date
Thanks for the followup. Still struggling with notifications?
i also had the same issues..not getting the sound notifications and also lost WhatsApp in the notification section..fixed the WhatsApp issues by deleting it and downloading it again…but other notifications still not working…as i also done all the reset settings stuffs and didn’t work… so all i had left to do is do a factory reset which really didn’t want to do, as it takes ages and having to set everything again…. so long story short…factory reset works…all notifications are working again…so do backup before doing a restore to have your data back…good luck everyone… oh this was on my iPhone 11Pro on iOS 15.1
Thanks for the feedback Jeaneth. Indeed factory reset is a hassle indeed, but if it works, it’s worth to go for it!
Notifications for WhatsApp stopped working after updating to ios14 – I have tried everyone and waited and have now updated to ios15.1 and still no solution. Tried all these tricks and nothing worked. Shame on apple – will change phone this Christmas and probably not another iPhone.
Apple is not what it used to be – this is a disgrace !
Sarah, sorry to hear this. Have you tried to backup iPhone, erase it and restore it from backup? This is kinda the last resort solution when something can’t be fixed. Let us know if it changes anything.
Hi, so very frustrated! Have iPhone 11 Pro updated as prompted to iOS 15.1 thats when problems started! “Mail” in settings disappeared and sound for email notification doesn’t work at all! All that i get is a screen notification….very frustrated!
Thanks for reporting Sam. It should be in Settings between Password and Contacts. I check it on three devices iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone XS and it’s there. iOS 15.2 should be released today. Please update when available and let us know if it fixes the Mail notifications not working on your device.
This is garbage. I have notifications ABOVE the ‘center’ that won’t go away. Why are they outside of the ‘center’? Why do I have to manually clear each one? Apple. Is. Garbage.
Same-ish issues. If my screen is lit (even locked) I see notifications, but when the phone is sleeping the only notifications that seem to poke through are YouTube and Instagram. Messages and Slack notifications do not come through during sleep. I spoke with an escalated Apple support engineer and he admitted Do Not Disturb get “stuck on” was a bug. Went all the way through and Reset All Settings. No good. This IS one of the more promising threads I’ve seen though.
iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 15.5.
Thanks for reporting Jason. Not sure if this will be fixed in iOS 15, but iOS 16 beta is out and we hope that it will tackle this bug.