Iphone 13 on IOS 18 no longer notifies for any internet based messaging app but SMS works

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Iphone 13 on IOS 18 no longer notifies for any internet based messaging app but SMS works

lchiu7

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#317383 11-Oct-2024 09:04

This is my wife's iPhone and since I am an Android person I struggled to help her.

Things were going well and then one day she noticed she no longer got notifications from internet apps like Wechat, Whatsapp or our Google Home cameras but SMS and phone calls are fine.

Checked all the obvious areas like notifications turned on, turned on for each app etc. and they were fine. Interesting when I got her to restart the phone, the first inbound notification would appear on the phone,but all subsequent would not., If the phone is on but the app is not active, the alert will come in but there is no pop up but in the alert tray, the notification count will increase. If she then opens the app a top of screen alert now appears.

Tried a sledgehammer approach and got her to update to IOS18 but that didn't fix it. Then based on some post in a forum got to her unload the storage(?) for Whatsapp and load it back. That didn't delete any content but also did not fix the problem.

The only thing I can think of is to either reset the phone and restore from her iCloud backup (not idea what will be restored) or buy her a new iPhone and trade in her 13 Pro. Or even get her a Pixel :-) I am a wits end on how to fix this.

She has an Apple watch and if that is on, the alerts go to the watch. But if we turn of the watch off, I am guessing alerts should go to the phone but is IOS still thinking the watch is active and trying to send alerts to it? Should we actually disconnect the watch completely?

Any ideas really appreciated and this is a huge issue for us as we are planning a big trip and need to be reachable.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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#3295797 11-Oct-2024 09:07

What Focus mode is the phone in? You'll find it under settings.

lchiu7

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#3295864 11-Oct-2024 09:49

lxsw20:

What Focus mode is the phone in? You'll find it under settings.

I looked now but can't see what setting it needs to be. It looks like it's on.

If it's suppressing notifications would that not also impact SMS which are coming through fine.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

gehenna

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#3295870 11-Oct-2024 10:17

Unless it has allowed exceptions to get through. I use modes on my Android but I allow exceptions - e.g. if someone calls twice in a row then it gets through, but not single calls. So you can't be sure it's not the root cause of your symptom without checking how it's configured.

lxsw20

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#3295872 11-Oct-2024 10:30

lchiu7:

lxsw20:

What Focus mode is the phone in? You'll find it under settings.

I looked now but can't see what setting it needs to be. It looks like it's on.

If it's suppressing notifications would that not also impact SMS which are coming through fine.

Depeneds how its setup

alasta

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#3295877 11-Oct-2024 10:50

Go to settings, then 'focus' and it will show a list of available focus modes. Does it show 'on' against any of the focus modes?

lchiu7

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#3295950 11-Oct-2024 12:04

This is one screen

Not sure what settings I need to be looking at but fiddled around with a few and no change.

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alasta

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#3295954 11-Oct-2024 12:16

That screenshot would appear to rule out focus modes as the cause.

I don't really use notifications as I find them disruptive, but I just did a test to confirm how it works. I discovered that when my iPhone is asleep the notification will only come through to my watch, although it will show up when I wake the iPhone. If I disable the notifications on my watch then it comes through to the iPhone immediately. So, it appears to be a choice of one or the other.

Try this:

Open the Watch app on the iPhone.
Select 'notifications'.
Select an app, for example mail or messages.
Turn off the notifications.
Test again and you'll probably find that the notification comes through to the phone instead of the watch.

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lchiu7

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#3295955 11-Oct-2024 12:19

alasta:

That screenshot would appear to rule out focus modes as the cause.

I don't really use notifications as I find them disruptive, but I just did a test to confirm how it works. I discovered that when my iPhone is asleep the notification will only come through to my watch, although it will show up when I wake the iPhone. If I disable the notifications on my watch then it comes through to the iPhone immediately. So, it appears to be a choice of one or the other.

Try this:

Open the Watch app on the iPhone.
Select 'notifications'.
Select an app, for example mail or messages.
Turn off the notifications.
Test again and you'll probably find that the notification comes through to the phone instead of the watch.

We turned off the watch and the problem persists. I wonder if IOS is still thinking it has sent the notification to the watch even when it's off?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

alasta

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#3296052 11-Oct-2024 14:35

lchiu7:

We turned off the watch and the problem persists. I wonder if IOS is still thinking it has sent the notification to the watch even when it's off?

If you turned off the watch without turning off the notification setting for the watch then yes, your theory might be correct.

bagheera

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#3296107 11-Oct-2024 14:46

try this - Go to settings > notifications > tap on “count” then tap back to “list”

lchiu7

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#3296236 11-Oct-2024 17:03

alasta:

lchiu7:

We turned off the watch and the problem persists. I wonder if IOS is still thinking it has sent the notification to the watch even when it's off?

If you turned off the watch without turning off the notification setting for the watch then yes, your theory might be correct.

OK getting more data. Open Wechat - send a message and call, works fine.

Flick back to icon screen - is that it's called? Call and messages work.

Lock the screen. Make a call - it works.

Wait a few minutes and call again. Nothing. To me that sounds like IOS has put the shut the application down after a minute of inactivituy so it cannot process calls. Is there such a setting in IOS - stop apps running in the background?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

RunningMan

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#3296243 11-Oct-2024 17:40

Background App Refresh is the setting that does that.

I'd be more inclined to go back to the Focus settings you screenshotted above and change focus status to off and see if that sorts it.

lchiu7

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#3296283 11-Oct-2024 19:24

Out of interest, since I think she has an iCloud backup, I am sort of inclined to factory reset and restore from a backup. Sort of like going to a new phone I guess?

Where do I check that she has a backup as it isn't clear when we logon to the iCloud account.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

RunningMan

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#3296284 11-Oct-2024 19:29

That does sound like the nuclear option. Have you checked the focus setting and background refresh above?

Backup will be at settings->their name->iCloud->iCloud Backup

bagheera

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#3296288 11-Oct-2024 19:48

Have your you tried what i said as this is the fix from beta with this issue you are having

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