I’ve been following the iOS notifications bug thread over on Apple’s support forum for many months.
The bug is easy to summarize — iPhone users are not seeing notifications, or seeing severely delayed notifications — but tricky to fix.
The monster thread — which is now closing in on the 100 pages mark — details the trials and tribulations of iPhone owners trying to coax notifications back to life on their smartphone.
The thread reads like a modern-day tragedy. Lots of people having problems, other popping onto the thread with news that they found something that worked for them and it might be the elixir for others, and then others feeling forlorn that the fix didn’t work for them.
There are literally dozens of possible fixes to the iPhone notifications problems here, both for people who have an Apple Watch connected to their iPhone, and those that don’t.
People have spent hours in communications with Apple support and been told all sorts of conflicting things.
Some have even emailed Apple CEO Tim Cook for a resolution.
But the problem remains.
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But one thread participant, going by the name of StubbornPixie, has come up with a solution.
Buy a Samsung.
“Anyway – Just wanted to let everyone know that I finally I fixed my issue after 6 months of this nonsense. I bought a Samsung Galaxy A12 for $180. And I haven’t missed a notification since. Is it the best phone ever? Nah. Is it functional? Yeah. Have I died from using it? Nah. Good enough. Good luck yall. I’ll be following the thread on my new phone.”
StubbornPixie’s post also includes the last message sent to Apple support:
” iOS Notifications STILL not working SEVEN MONTHS later. I’m not even bothering to type how much **** I have gone through to try and fix this issue. Case: 101237160691 Opened 11/20/20. Started as just an iMessage issue. Closed after tech support told me it was a third-party bluetooth issue. ********. Reopened 03/11/21. I sent a lot of screenshots. Case was closed without any resolution by telling me they had tried to call on 03/16/21, but A: I received no calls that were not in my contacts on that day and B: The support agent said he would follow up to schedule a call, which he did not. I have now missed important work notifications that have cost me over $600 from multiple apps including Apple Messages, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. I have restored my phone so many times that I keep a list of apps I need to download after a clean install in my Notes. Which is ridiculous.”
Then comes the kicker:
“I worked for Apple for 10 years in Customer Relations out of Austin, TX. This is embarrassing and I just had to buy a Samsung.”
Here’s the post.
Over the past months, I’ve heard from dozens of iPhone users affected by this notifications bug, and several of those have also bought an Android phone (some had previously been sent replacement iPhones by Apple, and one owner had even bought a new iPhone).
Good news — some people say the iOS 14.6 beta fixes the problem for them.
Bad news — others say it doesn’t do anything.
This is the most persistent iOS bug I’ve seen.