iPhone not notifying messages and email, and call volume fluctuates

[snerkler]

My mother-in-law has a 2 year old iPhone 13 mini and recently text message and email notificataions and sounds have stopped working, although if you unlock the phone a badge is showing on the messages app. Also, when someone calls the sound is loud for about 1 second and then decreases to about half the volume.

I've checked notification settings and they're all showing as set for banners on lock screen and notification centre etc. I've turned focus off and that makes no difference. I've turned the apple watch off and that makes no difference. I've tried turning imessage on/off, restarting the phone, soft resetting the phone and nothing fixes it.

Notifications show up 'properly' on her iPad, turning the iPad off doesn't make any difference to the phone. Whatsapp messages work as expected, ie show banners on the lock screen and makes a sound.

Does anyone have any idea what the issue is and how to fix it please? I don't know what iOS it's running but she normally keeps it up to date.

 

[tensixturtle]

Hi,
I have a few things you could try but no definitive solutions so I apologise in advance.

For the issue with Messages notifications, it seems like you already checked a lot of the things that I would think to of checking, especially the Apple Watch. Is it all messages, or just ones from certain people? Because it is possible individual conversations could have gotten inadvertently silenced. Another thing that can cause an issue like that is a quirk with messages being forwarded to other devices, particularly my Mac. I might have to quit the Messages app on my Mac to start getting notifications on my phone again.

For email, is your mother-in-law using the default Mail app? If so, there is sometimes an issue with getting notifications due to Background App Refresh being turned off, or perhaps the Fetch options in Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and selecting the 15 or 30 minute option. (or if it is iCloud or Outlook account, "Push" is disabled) Sometimes, I can also get the Mail app to be working if I log out and log back into my email account.

The phone call volume issue sounds more like a bug to me. (but I may be wrong)

I hope some of this is helpful; good luck!

 

[snerkler]

Hi,
I have a few things you could try but no definitive solutions so I apologise in advance.

For the issue with Messages notifications, it seems like you already checked a lot of the things that I would think to of checking, especially the Apple Watch. Is it all messages, or just ones from certain people? Because it is possible individual conversations could have gotten inadvertently silenced. Another thing that can cause an issue like that is a quirk with messages being forwarded to other devices, particularly my Mac. I might have to quit the Messages app on my Mac to start getting notifications on my phone again.

For email, is your mother-in-law using the default Mail app? If so, there is sometimes an issue with getting notifications due to Background App Refresh being turned off, or perhaps the Fetch options in Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and selecting the 15 or 30 minute option. (or if it is iCloud or Outlook account, "Push" is disabled) Sometimes, I can also get the Mail app to be working if I log out and log back into my email account.

The phone call volume issue sounds more like a bug to me. (but I may be wrong)

I hope some of this is helpful; good luck!

Thanks very much for your help. It's all people, and I've checked call forwarding already. I'll look into the background app refresh when they get back from holiday.