No iMessage sound notification on iPhone when next to MacBook

[Gnik Nus]

This is an issue that has been discussed before (since iOS 14 I believe), but I haven't found a satisfying answer yet, so I'll try again here.

The thing is that my iPhone is not making the ding sound for an incoming iMessage (or sms for that matter) when I'm working on my MacBook Pro. The message does come through to both devices, but on the Mac I only have the badge notification active, so I don't know there is a new message until I look at the app icon, which I rarely do. So the thing is I'm missing iMessage notifications all the time when working on the Mac. This is terribly annoying, as I want the iPhone to make a ding sound at all moments, whether I'm working on the Mac or not.

I called Apple Support here in The Netherlands, but the woman who I got on the line didn't have a clue. She suggested I turn off Handoff on the iPhone, which of course didn't help. Besides, it would be a ridiculous trade-off to have to disable Handoff in order to get notifications on the iPhone.

I'm pretty sure my settings are correct, because they have been like that for years and it always worked as expected until about a year ago. I recently bought a new MacBook Pro M2, so I was hoping it was an issue with my Intel MacBook, but nope... the issue is still there.

Any ideas, anybody?

 

[iStorm]

There is no real or ideal solution. The way you're experiencing it now is how it's designed to work...nothing is broken. Basically, the notification will come in on whatever device you're active on at the time and all other devices will be silent. Since you're active on the Mac, it'll use the Mac's notification settings and be silent on your iPhone.

I agree that disabling handoff isn't a great solution, but it should work. It worked for me when I tried it.

Another not-so-great solution is to turn off Bluetooth on the iPhone. That'll also make it so handoff doesn't work and therefore get the notification on your iPhone too. (Be sure to turn Bluetooth off in Settings and not from the Control Panel. The toggle in the Control Panel only just disconnects Bluetooth devices while leaving it on.)

 

[AlecEdworthy]

Do you have the Repeat Alerts option turned on (Settings, Notifications, Messages, Customise Notifications, Repeat Alerts)? I have this set to once and I'm fairly sure that if I don't acknowledge the notification on my other device (iPad or Mac for instance) then when the repeat alert triggers it triggers more normally on my iPhone (I certainly get a banner on my iPhone at that stage, and I'm fairly certain but cannot guarantee that it does make a noise as I have silent turned on a lot of the time).

Kind regards, Alec

 

[Gnik Nus]

There is no real or ideal solution. The way you're experiencing it now is how it's designed to work...nothing is broken. Basically, the notification will come in on whatever device you're active on at the time and all other devices will be silent. Since you're active on the Mac, it'll use the Mac's notification settings and be silent on your iPhone.

I agree that disabling handoff isn't a great solution, but it should work. It worked for me when I tried it.

Another not-so-great solution is to turn off Bluetooth on the iPhone. That'll also make it so handoff doesn't work and therefore get the notification on your iPhone too. (Be sure to turn Bluetooth off in Settings and not from the Control Panel. The toggle in the Control Panel only just disconnects Bluetooth devices while leaving it on.)

Thank you for your reply! That is actually the answer I wasn't willing to accept, but I guess I will have to live with it.

To me, it doesn't make sense that I am not allowed to determine where I want to get my notifications. iMessage is for me a phone thing. Sure, I will occasionally use it on other devices (Mac or iPad), but I see it primarily as a phone app and I want the phone to always notify me, regardless of what device I'm using at that moment. I work on my Mac for 8 to 10 hours a day, but that doesn't mean I'm looking at the screen all that time or that I am even in the same room of the computer all that time. It would make sense that the phone remains silent if I am actively using iMessages on my Mac, but not if I'm working on a paper, for example. And I don't want sound notifications on Mac at all, so the result is that I'm missing notifications all the time. Annoying.

Now I've come across another Continuity annoyance. When I answer a FaceTime call on my iPad, the iPhone keeps ringing and ringing for that same call I already answered until I turn it manually off. Whereas in the case of FaceTime it would make a lot more sense to me that only the active device goes off for an incoming call.

So my general feeling at the moment is that notification managing is a total mess for users of multiple Apple devices. What they call ‘expected behaviour’ feels like random behaviour to me, and certainly not the behaviour I expect or want. So that's not great at all 😕

 

[AlecEdworthy]

Thank you for your reply! That is actually the answer I wasn't willing to accept, but I guess I will have to live with it.

To me, it doesn't make sense that I am not allowed to determine where I want to get my notifications. iMessage is for me a phone thing. Sure, I will occasionally use it on other devices (Mac or iPad), but I see it primarily as a phone app and I want the phone to always notify me, regardless of what device I'm using at that moment. I work on my Mac for 8 to 10 hours a day, but that doesn't mean I'm looking at the screen all that time or that I am even in the same room of the computer all that time. It would make sense that the phone remains silent if I am actively using iMessages on my Mac, but not if I'm working on a paper, for example. And I don't want sound notifications on Mac at all, so the result is that I'm missing notifications all the time. Annoying.

Now I've come across another Continuity annoyance. When I answer a FaceTime call on my iPad, the iPhone keeps ringing and ringing for that same call I already answered until I turn in manually off. Whereas in the case of FaceTime it would make a lot more sense to me that only the active device goes off for an incoming call.

So my general feeling at the moment is that notification managing is a total mess for users of multiple Apple devices. What they call ‘expected behaviour’ feels like random behaviour to me, and certainly not the behaviour I expect or want. So that's not great at all 😕

I have seen the continued ringing issue with FaceTime occasionally but it seems to work normally more often than not I think. I agree notifications across devices does seem a little temperamental or unintuitive at times, and that there should be an option to always trigger an alert for iMessages on your iPhone in this situation.

 

[Gnik Nus]

Do you have the Repeat Alerts option turned on (Settings, Notifications, Messages, Customise Notifications, Repeat Alerts)? I have this set to once and I'm fairly sure that if I don't acknowledge the notification on my other device (iPad or Mac for instance) then when the repeat alert triggers it triggers more normally on my iPhone (I certainly get a banner on my iPhone at that stage, and I'm fairly certain but cannot guarantee that it does make a noise as I have silent turned on a lot of the time).

Kind regards, Alec

Yes, I also have repeat alerts on (1x). But I don't think that has worked for me when I'm using the Mac with the phone next to me. I think my phone remains silent for the second alert as well, but I'll have to actively test that, because most of the times I will interact with the message before the second alert has a chance to go off, or I'm in another room and I'm too late to hear the second alert at all.

Whatever the case, this notifications thing remains a mess. I don't have the feeling that I control the way I get notifications. It feels so random, even if it's designed to work that way...

 

[cynics]

Thank you for your reply! That is actually the answer I wasn't willing to accept, but I guess I will have to live with it.

To me, it doesn't make sense that I am not allowed to determine where I want to get my notifications. iMessage is for me a phone thing. Sure, I will occasionally use it on other devices (Mac or iPad), but I see it primarily as a phone app and I want the phone to always notify me, regardless of what device I'm using at that moment. I work on my Mac for 8 to 10 hours a day, but that doesn't mean I'm looking at the screen all that time or that I am even in the same room of the computer all that time. It would make sense that the phone remains silent if I am actively using iMessages on my Mac, but not if I'm working on a paper, for example. And I don't want sound notifications on Mac at all, so the result is that I'm missing notifications all the time. Annoying.

Now I've come across another Continuity annoyance. When I answer a FaceTime call on my iPad, the iPhone keeps ringing and ringing for that same call I already answered until I turn it manually off. Whereas in the case of FaceTime it would make a lot more sense to me that only the active device goes off for an incoming call.

So my general feeling at the moment is that notification managing is a total mess for users of multiple Apple devices. What they call ‘expected behaviour’ feels like random behaviour to me, and certainly not the behaviour I expect or want. So that's not great at all 😕

I have an iPhone, 2 Macs, an iPad, Apple Watch, HomePods, AirPods, etc etc...

For the most part I'm happy with the way notifications work.

The way its SUPPOSED to work...You get a notifications on the device you are using. If you don't "read" it then your iPhone should notify you. If you do read it than it disappears off all your devices. If all your devices are asleep it goes to the iPhone.

I've been really happy with this setup. I don't want to get 1500 alerts around the house from a family/friend group.

Verify bluetooth and wifi are on on all your devices. Bluetooth is used by iCloud devices for quick communication (such as one device letting you know its taking care of your Hey Siri request so they all aren't talking to you at once). I would also suggest logging out and back into iCloud if you feel there is some sort of syncing issue.

Might want to check your notification settings on all your devices just to verify you are receiving them in a manner thats convenient for multiple iCloud products. You can also turn features off, for example I ONLY want to get phone calls on my iPhone, so I dont share that capability to other devices.

 

[Gnik Nus]

I've been really happy with this setup. I don't want to get 1500 alerts around the house from a family/friend group.

That's the point. I don't want all my devices giving notifications around the house either. But I do want to see the app badge with the number of unread messages on all my devices. And since that's also a notification (silent and hidden, but a notification nonetheless), the system assumes that I have gotten my notification when I'm working on the Mac, while I don't actually know there is a message until I unlock my phone or look at the app icon on the Mac (which I might only do once or twice every hour when I need to see the dock).

If that's the way it's supposed to work, fine. But my complain is that I want the iPhone (ONLY the iPhone) to ALWAYS give a sound notification (ping!) when a message comes in, regardless of my notification settings on other devices. Since that option does not exist anymore and the iPhone remains silent when I'm on the Mac, I have decided to allow silent alerts (permanent banners until dismissed) on the Mac. I don't want the Mac to give sound notifications because the volume might be too loud sometimes or I might have AirPods in with no music (just for noise cancellation) and a loud ping when I'm concentrated in my work scares the hell out of me.

Anyway, thank you for your suggestions. I'm pretty sure I have everything set up right. So I'll have to live with this situation where I can't rely on the iPhone for text notifications when I'm working on the Mac. Not ideal for me, but oh well...