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Not always getting lock screen notifications in Messages

J

jay968

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 2, 2019
455
268
California
I've got an iphone 12, using ios 14.2.1. I seem to always be getting notifications on the lock screen from some people but I seem NOT to be getting them from some other sources (though on occasion I will).

In Settings > Notifications, I have lock screen, notifications center, and banners all checked, banner style is temporary.

I seem to always get the messages but from some, I only know I have gotten one if the screen is unlocked. For instance, I have 2 factor authentication set up with some sites and I never seem to get them on the lock screen. On the other hand, several friends of mine always show up there.

Is this the bug that is currently being discussed in the forums, or is there something I can look for to set correctly?
 
mjschabow said:
Yes it is here:

forums.macrumors.com

iPhone 12 and 12 Pro Users Complain of Missing SMS Text Messages and Message Notifications

Could be. It hasn’t happened in a few days but at first I was getting weird pop ups telling me it just recorded the location of my parked car at odd times when I was sitting on the couch at home. It is supposed to do that when it disconnects from car Bluetooth.
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
Click to expand...
Much appreciated.
You'd think that after making cell phones for so many years, things like messaging would be second nature and easy to implement on a new phone. Guess not!

Do you know if the problem is only when using the iphone's default messaging app? Might it work with a third party app from the app store? (Guess I should just try one, but since I was here, I thought I'd ask).

Update: Never mind that last question. I did a search and all I see are social networking type messaging apps like hangouts, skype etc.
 
Last edited:
jay968 said:
I've got an iphone 12, using ios 14.2.1. I seem to always be getting notifications on the lock screen from some people but I seem NOT to be getting them from some other sources (though on occasion I will).

In Settings > Notifications, I have lock screen, notifications center, and banners all checked, banner style is temporary.

I seem to always get the messages but from some, I only know I have gotten one if the screen is unlocked. For instance, I have 2 factor authentication set up with some sites and I never seem to get them on the lock screen. On the other hand, several friends of mine always show up there.

Is this the bug that is currently being discussed in the forums, or is there something I can look for to set correctly?
Click to expand...
Additional discussion about it all also in another ongoing thread in this section:
forums.macrumors.com

Quirky Message Notifications

I am running 14.2 and have been experiencing problems with getting Messages Notifications. Sometimes I get notifications of new messages, sometimes I don’t. I have tried turning on/off notifications and also powering down/on my phone and doing a reboot to no avail. Has anyone else experienced...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
 
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Strange..it seems some numbers rarely if ever show notifications on the lock screen while others almost always do.
 
I've discovered that if I turn bluetooth off, I no longer have the problem. It notifies me on the lock screen 100% of the time.

This can be verified by using opentextingonline.com where you can send yourself a test txt message. Up until now, I have never gotten a message sent from that site to notify me on the lock screen. When I turn bluetooth off, it does, notify me on the lock screen, 100% of the time.
 
jay968 said:
I've discovered that if I turn bluetooth off, I no longer have the problem. It notifies me on the lock screen 100% of the time.

This can be verified by using opentextingonline.com where you can send yourself a test txt message. Up until now, I have never gotten a message sent from that site to notify me on the lock screen. When I turn bluetooth off, it does, notify me on the lock screen, 100% of the time.
Click to expand...
Wild guess, but does this relate to if you have iMessage on another device, or on an Apple Watch? Perhaps Handoff or receiving messages on other devices is inadvertently marking them as read, which is why the phone never sends a notification or marks them as unread?
 
- The website opentextingonline.com sends SMS and MMS, not imessage. - Bluetooth on and I do not get the lock screen notification. Bluetooth off and I get it 100% of the time
- Banks using 2 factor authentication - Bluetooth on and I do not get the lock screen notification. Bluetooth off and I get it 100% of the time.

- Send myself a message from an Android phone - Bluetooth on OR off, I get the notification 100% of the time.
- Messages from friends in a group message, Bluetooth on OR off, I get the notification 100% of the time. Some use iphones with imessage, some use Androids.
- Messages to me from my wife's iphone 11 pro max - Bluetooth on or off, I get the notification 100% of the time.
- Interestingly she will not get a lock screen notification from opentextingonline.com on her 11 pro max either. She is using ios 14.2, I am using 14.2.1

I always seem to get notifications if the phone is unlocked regardless of where they are coming from.
 
jay968 said:
- The website opentextingonline.com sends SMS and MMS, not imessage. - Bluetooth on and I do not get the lock screen notification. Bluetooth off and I get it 100% of the time
- Banks using 2 factor authentication - Bluetooth on and I do not get the lock screen notification. Bluetooth off and I get it 100% of the time.

- Send myself a message from an Android phone - Bluetooth on OR off, I get the notification 100% of the time.
- Messages from friends in a group message, Bluetooth on OR off, I get the notification 100% of the time. Some use iphones with imessage, some use Androids.
- Messages to me from my wife's iphone 11 pro max - Bluetooth on or off, I get the notification 100% of the time.
- Interestingly she will not get a lock screen notification from opentextingonline.com on her 11 pro max either. She is using ios 14.2, I am using 14.2.1

I always seem to get notifications if the phone is unlocked regardless of where they are coming from.
Click to expand...

Have you by any chance filed a bug report?
 
Well today I found something out...if I turn OFF imessage on my phone AND on my 2 Macs, I am able to get lock screen notifications 100% of the time. I can have bluetooth on OR off, it makes no difference. Everything as far as messaging with imessage turned off seems to be working as it should.

The ONLY thing I wonder about now though is whether or not I may be missing some messages having imessage turned off. Will have to play around with things this way over the next few days, but so far it may look promising. I really don't care about imessage, not one bit. But I don't want to lose messages.
 
I've been doing some more testing. It seems as though imessage can be left on in the phone as long as it's turned off in the computer. When I do have it turned off in the computer(s), I am experiencing normal messaging, the way it has worked for years. Seems to work without fail now.

I wonder if what's going on is if imessage is turned on in the computer, the computer then oftentimes gets the message before the phone does and thus marks it as read. So the lock screen notification never happens on the phone. And then, maybe sometimes the phone gets the message before the computer does and thus we do see the lock screen notification on the phone. If on the other hand, imessage is off in the computer, the computer never gets it before the phone and the phone always notifies properly.

If this is so, it might explain the inconsistent nature of receiving a lock screen notification.

To add to this, according to what some others are saying, it looks like the issue may have been resolved in 14.3 RC2 anyway.

** Since this is a repeat of what I have said in the other thread on the messaging issues, I will stop posting in this one and stick to the other **
 
Last edited:
jay968 said:
Well today I found something out...if I turn OFF imessage on my phone AND on my 2 Macs, I am able to get lock screen notifications 100% of the time. I can have bluetooth on OR off, it makes no difference. Everything as far as messaging with imessage turned off seems to be working as it should.

The ONLY thing I wonder about now though is whether or not I may be missing some messages having imessage turned off. Will have to play around with things this way over the next few days, but so far it may look promising. I really don't care about imessage, not one bit. But I don't want to lose messages.
Click to expand...

jay968 said:
I've been doing some more testing. It seems as though imessage can be left on in the phone as long as it's turned off in the computer. When I do have it turned off in the computer(s), I am experiencing normal messaging, the way it has worked for years. Seems to work without fail now.

I wonder if what's going on is if imessage is turned on in the computer, the computer then oftentimes gets the message before the phone does and thus marks it as read. So the lock screen notification never happens on the phone. And then, maybe sometimes the phone gets the message before the computer does and thus we do see the lock screen notification on the phone. If on the other hand, imessage is off in the computer, the computer never gets it before the phone and the phone always notifies properly.

If this is so, it might explain the inconsistent nature of receiving a lock screen notification.

To add to this, according to what some others are saying, it looks like the issue may have been resolved in 14.3 RC2 anyway.

** Since this is a repeat of what I have said in the other thread on the messaging issues, I will stop posting in this one and stick to the other **
Click to expand...
This is just a hunch (so perhaps someone NOT in this scenario can help confirm), but I think the issue has to do with notification syncing across devices in iOS 14 and/or WatchOS 7 and/or Mac OS 11. Obviously if you read a message on a device other than your iPhone, it will mark as read on your iPhone. I have both a Mac and Watch too, and perhaps something was bugging out with this notification sync feature updating correctly across devices as a result of the latest software updates.

Do you have just a Mac and iPhone? Or an iPhone, Mac and Watch? Also, anyone else out there with just an iPhone that had this issue? I suppose that would invalidate my entire theory.

FWIW, I am running iOS 14.3 RC2 and haven't noticed the issue yet, but also haven't had it installed long. I'd expect this to be in the public release notes on Monday if it was actually fixed.
 
Dwalls90 said:
This is just a hunch (so perhaps someone NOT in this scenario can help confirm), but I think the issue has to do with notification syncing across devices in iOS 14 and/or WatchOS 7 and/or Mac OS 11. Obviously if you read a message on a device other than your iPhone, it will mark as read on your iPhone. I have both a Mac and Watch too, and perhaps something was bugging out with this notification sync feature updating correctly across devices as a result of the latest software updates.

Do you have just a Mac and iPhone? Or an iPhone, Mac and Watch? Also, anyone else out there with just an iPhone that had this issue? I suppose that would invalidate my entire theory.

FWIW, I am running iOS 14.3 RC2 and haven't noticed the issue yet, but also haven't had it installed long. I'd expect this to be in the public release notes on Monday if it was actually fixed.
Click to expand...
I use an iPhone, Apple Watch, and MacBook. I tried signing out of iMessage on the Mac and that didn’t help. I’ll have to try taking the watch out of the equation next. I first started noticing problems a month or so ago when I wasn’t getting the notifications on my watch but they did show on my phone Lock Screen. Now I just don’t get a notification at all on any device. Maybe the watch is the issue
 
Dwalls90 said:
This is just a hunch (so perhaps someone NOT in this scenario can help confirm), but I think the issue has to do with notification syncing across devices in iOS 14 and/or WatchOS 7 and/or Mac OS 11. Obviously if you read a message on a device other than your iPhone, it will mark as read on your iPhone. I have both a Mac and Watch too, and perhaps something was bugging out with this notification sync feature updating correctly across devices as a result of the latest software updates.

Do you have just a Mac and iPhone? Or an iPhone, Mac and Watch? Also, anyone else out there with just an iPhone that had this issue? I suppose that would invalidate my entire theory.

FWIW, I am running iOS 14.3 RC2 and haven't noticed the issue yet, but also haven't had it installed long. I'd expect this to be in the public release notes on Monday if it was actually fixed.
Click to expand...
I have the iphone 12 on 14.2.1, an imac and a macbook pro. With imessage turned off on both computers and imessage on in the iphone everything is perfect. I get lock screen notifications. If I turn on imessage in either computer and it is running, I do not get the notifications on the phone's lock screen but I do see the notification on the computer.

My wife has an 11 pro max. I believe she is on 14.0. I sent her a couple of messages from my phone and her lock screen notification did not notify her either. If she sends me a message though, it shows on my lock screen. If I send myself a message from my Android, it shows on the lock screen as well.

Your hunch is correct. And yes, you're not the only one who says RC2 may have fixed the issue.
 
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