All Devices Messages notifications a mess after iOS 13...

[spencecb]

Hi all,

I wanted to ask if others are experiencing Messages notifications not working properly across your devices after upgrading to iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and watchOS 6? For example, in iOS 12, if I had the messages app open on my iPhone, then I would not hear the alert chime from any of my other devices, and it would also not put a badge notification on the icon on all my devices, because it knew I had already read it on my iPhone. Now, with the upgraded OS's, I can have the Messages app open on my iPhone, and still receive separate notifications on my other devices, and they are at very different times. An exmple of this: as I was typing this on my MacBook Pro, I received a message and read it on my iPhone, a few seconds later my Watch notified me, and lastly my MacBook Pro notified me after that, and it still shows I have not read it on my MacBook Pro even though I did five minutes ago.

I know with upgrades comes inevitable software bugs and issues, but what I don't understand is why these fundamental issues seem to always crop up. Frustrating, and I hope they fix it soon.

Anyone else having this issue?

 

[SaxPlayer]

I'm having the opposite problem. We're not getting notifications show up AT ALL which is probably worse as when someone sends either myself or my wife an iMessage we simply don't know about it. All of the settings are correct and if I disable iMessage and revert to SMS then the alerts start working.

Oh, unless you want to talk about repeat alerts, which don't work at all, however many times you've set it to repeat (it just sounds the once).

This reminds me of the days of Windows Mobile, arguably the worst operating system of all time. I could set an alarm on there and then it would go off and I'd switch the alarm off completely but it would then go off every day after that at the same time. The only way to stop it was to take the battery out of the phone!

I thought these kinds of problems were exclusive to the old Microsoft and although it pains me to say it, Apple are really going down hill in software reliability these days.

 

[papbot]

Hi all,

I wanted to ask if others are experiencing Messages notifications not working properly across your devices after upgrading to iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and watchOS 6? For example, in iOS 12, if I had the messages app open on my iPhone, then I would not hear the alert chime from any of my other devices, and it would also not put a badge notification on the icon on all my devices, because it knew I had already read it on my iPhone. Now, with the upgraded OS's, I can have the Messages app open on my iPhone, and still receive separate notifications on my other devices, and they are at very different times. An exmple of this: as I was typing this on my MacBook Pro, I received a message and read it on my iPhone, a few seconds later my Watch notified me, and lastly my MacBook Pro notified me after that, and it still shows I have not read it on my MacBook Pro even though I did five minutes ago.

I know with upgrades comes inevitable software bugs and issues, but what I don't understand is why these fundamental issues seem to always crop up. Frustrating, and I hope they fix it soon.

Anyone else having this issue?

The behavior is inconsistent. Several years ago Messages was designed to go off on your active device and not the others. Now you can get them on the active and all the others, or on the active device and only one or none of the others. Also in iOS 12 if I cleared a Messages notification from the lock screen on my phone or Apple Watch it was regarded as a read message on the other devices, no unread circle on the message, and a read receipt was sent to the sender. That’s the way I wanted it to work, saved me from having to go into the app and manually open it for its status to change to read. Now that does not happen. So whether it’s been changed by design or is just a bug I don’t know.

 

[spencecb]

I had brief hope that this had been fixed with iOS 13.1.3 and the supplemental updates that came to macOS. Everything did seem to be working after I updated my iPhone, iPad, iMac, and MacBook Pro. I was looking at messages on my iPad and none of my other devices were alerting me of new messages, nor did they show a new message when I went to any one device.

Until, just now, when I was reading and responding to messages on my iPhone only to hear my AppleWatch (which I am/was wearing at the time) started alerting me to messages several seconds after I looked at them on my iPhone with Messages still open. A couple messages I even responded to before the alert went off on my AppleWatch. To my dismay, I came to look at my other devices and my iPad was showing new messages but my iMac and MacBook Pro show that I have read and responded to them.

Coincidentally, watchOS is the only thing that did not get updates, so I wonder if it is the culprit and causing other devices to behave inconsistently?

 

[newellj]

I started getting the expected notifications, including sound/vibe, with 13.1.2. Still working for me in 13.1.3. Sadly, like a lot of bugs in 13, there is a lot of variation in whether the expected iOS behaviors actually work as expected for individual users. Bah.

 

[7thson]

I’m not getting any Messages notifications on any devices. No sounds, lock screen alerts or badges. Not even on the home screen. Nothing to indicate I’ve received a text. I have to launch the app to see a new message. It’s just broken. Signing out of iCloud on all devices and restoring to factory settings didn’t help. Reminders and Calender alerts work fine though. The David Shayer article on Tidbits isn’t giving me hope Apple will address this in a timely manner, if ever. Shame how Apple lets this kind of stuff slide.

 

[newellj]

I’m not getting any Messages notifications on any devices. No sounds, lock screen alerts or badges. Not even on the home screen. Nothing to indicate I’ve received a text. I have to launch the app to see a new message. It’s just broken. Signing out of iCloud on all devices and restoring to factory settings didn’t help. Reminders and Calender alerts work fine though. The David Shayer article on Tidbits isn’t giving me hope Apple will address this in a timely manner, if ever. Shame how Apple lets this kind of stuff slide.

Which version/which iPhone?

And I share your pessimism. I'm quite bitchy on the topic at this point.

 

[Berthacrowley]

I’m also having issues with Messages notifications. I’m on 13.1.3 on an 8+ and the notifications & sounds are totally inconsistent. When my ringer is on I’ll only get the notification sound every 3rd or 4th text instead of every time and often I will have the red badge icon indicating an unread message on the app icon but I never got the banner on my lock screen. It doesn’t happen all the time with every message or certain people, it seems totally random.

I’m also experiencing unexpected chimes at other times, like when I open certain apps sometimes it will randomly play the “plugging the phone into the lightning cable” sound?? I’ve never had that happen before, super weird.

 

[newellj]

I’m also having issues with Messages notifications. I’m on 13.1.3 on an 8+ and the notifications & sounds are totally inconsistent. When my ringer is on I’ll only get the notification sound every 3rd or 4th text instead of every time and often I will have the red badge icon indicating an unread message on the app icon but I never got the banner on my lock screen. It doesn’t happen all the time with every message or certain people, it seems totally random.

This has been my experience since 13.0, unfixed in every revision.

 

[7thson]

Which version/which iPhone?

And I share your pessimism. I'm quite bitchy on the topic at this point.

XS and iPad mini 5, both running iOS/iPad OS 13.1.3. I filed a bug report with Apple via their feedback page around the time I posted my experience above. Probably just a coincidence that notifications just started working again, but I don’t know how long this “fix” will last as I don’t know what changed.
Update: didn’t last long. Acting erratically now.

 

[TonyC28]

I’ve noticed my phone vibrating in my pocket with no alert received on my Apple Watch. About once a day I get an alert to my phone for an iMessage that skips the Apple Watch. Not a major concern, just yet another notification issue with iOS 13.

 

[spencecb]

Are people still experiencing issues with this? It seems to have almost gotten worse since I posted this thread. It can be minutes between my devices alerting me for a notification that I already took care of, all to do with Messages. So annoying!

 

[7thson]

Are people still experiencing issues with this? It seems to have almost gotten worse since I posted this thread. It can be minutes between my devices alerting me for a notification that I already took care of, all to do with Messages. So annoying!

Still an issue for me and likely many others. If my xs isn’t unlocked I am lucky to receive a notification 1 time in 10 when locked. Hopeful 13.2 fixes this.