Is your iPhone suddenly not ringing or making any sound when you receive an inbound message? Have you recently missed an important text because your phone didn’t notify you? Wondering why you didn’t get an alert when someone recently texted you? No text or message notification coming in even from your favorites or in emergencies?
If so, you are not alone! Several of our readers report their iPhone and iPads suddenly stop alerting them when new texts or messages arrive. Naturally, this issue causes a lot of trouble for folks, especially when missing those critical messages from family, friends, and workplaces.
It’s really frustrating when you never hear your texts! 
Here’s how it’s supposed to work: you receive any new message, your iPhone or iPad alerts you with a sound, an on-screen alert, and a vibration.
This process should work for all new incoming messages, whether it’s an iMessage or an SMS text. But if you find it’s not working as it should, and your iPhone’s not alerting you to new texts, we’ve got some tips to fix it quickly!
Contents
- 1 No Time? Check Out Our Video On Message Notifications & Alerts
- 2 Quick tips
- 3 Repeat alerts not working for iPhone, Apple Watch, or iPad with iOS 13 and iPadOS?
- 4 Not Seeing Your Message Notifications on Lock Screen or in Notification Center With iPadOS or iOS 12+?
- 5 How-To Fix Not Receiving Sound With Incoming Text Messages
- 6 Look at Date & Time
- 7 Text Message Notifications Not Working in iOS and iPadOS?
- 7.1 Check your Message app settings for Filtering Unknown Senders and Blocked Contacts
- 7.2 Take a look at your Blocked Contacts list
- 7.3 Update Notification Banners
- 7.4 No Text or Message Notification? Check Do Not Disturb (DND)
- 7.5 While you’re at it, also check Do Not Disturb While Driving
- 7.6 Contact Specific Do Not Disturb
- 7.7 Check if you accidentally turned on Hide Alerts
- 7.8 Look at Bluetooth
- 7.9 Paired with an Apple Watch?
- 7.10 iMessage Enabled on Your Mac?
- 7.11 Check Your Side or Ring/Volume (Mute) Switch
- 7.12 Saved by the Bell!
- 7.13 Change What Sends & Receives
- 7.14 Turn Notifications ON
- 7.15 Toggle Message Notifications Off and then Back On
- 7.16 No notifications or alerts when the phone is locked?
- 7.17 Check Your Lock Screen Allow Settings
- 7.18 Reset Network Settings
- 7.19 Update Your DNS Servers
- 7.20 Switch it Up!
- 8 Ask Someone to Call
- 9 Try A Settings Reset
- 10 When in Doubt, Restart!
- 11 Reader Tips
No Time? Check Out Our Video On Message Notifications & Alerts
Quick tips 
Try These Steps to Fix Missing Text Message Notifications or Sounds
- Check if you enabled Do Not Disturb. Make sure Do Not Disturb is off
- See if the Message thread has Hide Alerts enabled
- Change Notification Banners to Persistent
- Take a look if you are filtering unknown senders
- Check if your notifications are stacked together
- Make sure Deliver Quietly is not turned on for the app
- Select a Text Tone or Change your selected text tone
- Look through your contacts and ensure that you have not set their text or ringtone to None–if so, update it to a sound you like
- Check that your mute switch isn’t on
- If you pair with an Apple Watch, notifications often bypassing the phone and go directly to your watch
- Look at your Date & Time and choose Set Automatically
- Turn off Bluetooth or check your BT connections
- Reset your network
- Update to the latest version of iOS or iPadOS. New iOS/iPadOS versions fix a bug that prevented missed calls from appearing in the notification center
Related Articles
- How to stop receiving notifications from group email threads on iPhone or iPad
- How to Use iOS Persistent Notifications to Never Miss an Alert Again
- Group Notifications Not Working?
- How To Read Prior or Missed Notifications on Your Apple Watch
- All About iOS 12+ Notifications–more convenient and feature-rich
- How To Manage Notification on Apple Watch
Repeat alerts not working for iPhone, Apple Watch, or iPad with iOS 13 and iPadOS?
Unfortunately, when users updated to iOS 13, they encountered an unexpected bug–repeat alerts do not work at all, no matter what you set them to repeat for! Since updating, even when users set their repeat alerts to once or up to 10 times, iOS only sends one notification and never repeats at all.
This is an issue that Apple fixed with iPadOS and iOS 13.2 updates. And if you have an Apple Watch, update to 6.1+ as well as 13.2+ on your paired iPhone. That seems to do the trick!
If you cannot update at this moment, the only workaround is to change your notification banner settings from temporary to persistent.
Not Seeing Your Message Notifications on Lock Screen or in Notification Center With iPadOS or iOS 12+?
If you updated to iOS 12 or greater, there’s a Notification Grouping feature that bundles notifications together. So if you don’t see a notification, it’s quite possible that it’s hidden in a stack.
iOS and iPadOS (for 12+) introduces this notification grouping to cut down on the clutter and chaos of individual notifications filling up your Lock Screen or Notification Center.
Luckily opening your notification stacks is really easy!
- Open Notification Center or go to your Lock Screen
- Look for any notification groups–these look like a stack of papers and tell you in the bottom left how many more messages or notifications are in the group
- Tap the stack to expand it, then tap the individual notifications to see the details
- Press the large X icon to clear the stack OR press the Show Less button to re-stack the notifications together
Check If Your Notifications Are Set To Deliver Quietly
With iOS 12+ and iPadOS, when you swipe to the left on a notification or notification stack, you can choose a new feature called Manage. 
With Manage, there’s an option to Deliver Quietly, which turns off all of those specific app’s notifications. 
Notifications from that app still appear in your Notification Center but they do not appear on your Lock Screen or as badge app icons, banners, and there is no chime when a new notification arrives.
Deliver Quietly Feature is App Universal!
Be mindful that when you silence an app’s notification via Deliver Quietly, it quiets all notifications from that specific app.
Turn Off Deliver Quietly
- Go to Settings > Notifications
- Select the App you wish to turn Deliver Quietly off
- Just below the app’s name, look for “Deliver Quietly”
- Just below the app’s name, look for “Deliver Quietly”
- Tap and checkmark Lock Screen and/or Banners to turn these back on
- Select a Banner Style
- Toggle on Badges if it’s off
- Select a Sound from Sounds if you want to hear your notification
- Choose any other notification options you want (show previews, notification grouping, and repeat alerts)
How-To Fix Not Receiving Sound With Incoming Text Messages
Check Your iPhone Text Message Sound Effect & Select a Text Tone
Yup, sometimes it’s the easy things that fall through the cracks. So let’s make sure that you selected a tone for your incoming text messages!
Go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > and scroll down to the section Sounds and Vibration Patterns. In this section, look for Text Tone.
If this says None or Vibrate Only, tap it and change the alert to something you like. 
Use Your Text Tone Default!
A couple of our readers found a quick solution, just change your text sound to the default and simple Ding or Note. Readers noticed problems with texts not consistently sounding alerts when using longer alert tones. So stick with the defaults!
To update, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Text Tone and change to the default, listed in parathesis such as Note (Default.) 
Alerts Not Sounding For Just A Few Contacts?
Look at your custom settings for each contact
- Pull up one of the contacts that’s not alerting you (open either the Phone or Contacts app)
- Tap Edit in the top right corner
- Scroll down to Text Tone and look at the selected sound
- If none is listed, tap and select a new Alert Tone from the list and tap Done
Look at Date & Time
It’s always good to check that our date and time are correct and ideally toggle on “Set Automatically.” If our phone’s or iPad’s time is incorrect, this may explain why you aren’t getting notifications and alerts promptly.
A mismatch with your Date&Time can cause a whole host of problems. So let’s check it out. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and toggle on Set Automatically. If this is already on, toggle it off, wait 20 seconds, and turn it back on again.
Text Message Notifications Not Working in iOS and iPadOS?
Check your Message app settings for Filtering Unknown Senders and Blocked Contacts
If you are not receiving texts from folks and businesses that aren’t in your Contacts app, you likely enabled the settings for Filter Unknown Senders. This feature automatically turns off notifications for messages from people and others who aren’t saved in your Contacts.
To change this setting, go to Settings > Messages and turn off Filter Unknown Senders. 
Take a look at your Blocked Contacts list
You may have inadvertently added someone to your blocked list. 
If you blocked someone in FaceTime, iMessage, the Phone app, or in the Mail app, that block is active on all those apps. So when you block a phone number or contact, messages that are sent or received by that contact won’t be delivered. Blocked contacts can still leave a voicemail, but you won’t get a notification for that voicemail. And when you block an email address from Mail, it goes to the trash folder.
To look at your blocked contacts list, go to Settings > Messages. Under SMS/MMS, tap Blocked Contacts. Swipe to remove them from the blocked list.
You can also find this blocked contact list in the these apps:
- The Phone App. Go to Settings > Phone. Under Call Silencing and Blocked Contacts, tap Blocked Contacts to see the list
- FaceTime. Go to Settings > FaceTime. Under Calls, tap Blocked Contacts
- The Mail App. Go to Settings > Mail. Under Threading, tap Blocked
Update Notification Banners
Often, your new text notifications appear but disappear so quickly that you may just miss seeing them. Fortunately, there’s a way to change your text banners from temporary to persistent.
Persistent banners require you to take action before they disappear, while temporary banners go away after a short time on-screen. Both types appear at the top of your screen.
So if you’re missing notifications, try changing to persistent banners and see if this makes a difference. Go to Settings > Notifications > Messages and just below Show as Banners, tap on the icon for Persistent.
Confirm your selection by checking that the word Persistent is circled. 
No Text or Message Notification? Check Do Not Disturb (DND)
First, check and see if you’ve accidentally (or purposefully) turned on Do Not Disturb. Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb and make sure it’s toggled OFF. Or swipe up control center and look for the crescent moon icon. If it’s highlighted, it’s on. Tap it to turn off.
While you’re at it, also check Do Not Disturb While Driving
For those using iOS 11 and above, Apple added a great feature to silence notifications for folks while driving. While handy, if DND while driving stays on, you won’t get any notifications and your screen remains dark–no alerts appear on the screen.
So if you’re experiencing problems with message alerts, check that this setting isn’t inadvertently ON.
Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb > and scroll down to the area marked Do Not Disturb While Driving. Your options are Automatically, While Connected to Car Bluetooth, or Manually. If set to Automatically, DND is active when it detects motion similar to driving, even if you’re a passenger!
For that reason, we recommend setting it to Manually and toggling on and off via Control Center. 
To quickly access DND while driving, swipe on Control Center and locate the car icon. If it’s highlighted, it’s on. Tap to turn off.
If you don’t see this setting in the Control Center, open your Control Center Settings and add it to Customize Controls.
Contact Specific Do Not Disturb
If you notice that only specific contacts don’t show or play alerts, then make sure Do Not Disturb isn’t on for that particular contact. 
To check, scroll through your messages and look to the left of each conversation’s name. If you see a crescent moon icon next to the contact, you’ve somehow activated Do Not Disturb Mode for that person/contact.
Check if you accidentally turned on Hide Alerts
Sometimes the crescent moon icon doesn’t even show up when DND is activated for a single contact, so it’s a good idea to check that contact, even if you don’t see the crescent moon.
Tap the Message thread and then tap on the name at the top. Edit the contact’s details by pressing the “i” and turn OFF Hide Alerts (or Do Not Disturb.)
Alternatively, if you already know which contacts’ texts are not alerting, tap on a message from the contact and press the “i” and toggle OFF Hide Alerts (or for previous iOS versions, Do Not Disturb.)
Look at Bluetooth
If you’ve recently connected to a Bluetooth device, sometimes that connection remains and iOS sends alerts to it rather than your iPhone or iDevice.
To check, go to Settings > Bluetooth and check if any of your Bluetooth devices are connected and routing sound. If so, disconnect or unpair that Bluetooth device.
Alternatively, if you’re not currently using any Bluetooth device, disconnect devices by swiping up Control Center or turn Bluetooth off by going to Settings > Bluetooth > Off.
Paired with an Apple Watch?
If your iPhone pairs to an Apple Watch, by design your paired iPhone does not chime when a new text arrives. Instead, Apple routes your alerts to your Apple Watch, especially when the iPhone is locked.
As of now, there is no option to play a sound alert on BOTH your Apple Watch and your iPhone at the same time. It’s one or the other, based on the locked status of your phone.
The rule of thumb is if your phone is unlocked, notifications go to the iPhone. If your phone is locked, notifications go to your watch. 
If you’re experiencing a problem with notifications not routing to your Apple Watch correctly, it’s best to unpair and then repair your Apple Watch to your iPhone.
iMessage Enabled on Your Mac?
For some folks enabling their Messages app on their Macs was somehow blocking notifications going to their iPhones! Open Messages on your Mac, then navigate to Messages > Preferences and uncheck the box marked Enable this account.
This doesn’t remove your Apple ID from messages but rather deactivates Messages from sending or receiving.
Check Your Side or Ring/Volume (Mute) Switch
Most of our iDevices come with a side switch that mutes audio. So take a look at your device’s Ring/Volume (iPhone) or Side Switch (some iPad models) and toggle it OFF.
Ring/Silent (iPhone only)
- Toggle this button to mute sounds and alerts on your iPhone
- If your switch shows orange, it’s on. For most devices, that means it’s in silent mode and vibrates for all alerts and incoming calls
- When in silent mode, the alarms you set in the Clock app still sound and calls from Favorite contacts still ring
Side switch (certain iPad models)
- Use to mute sounds and alerts from your iPad or turn Rotation Lock on or off
- On some iPad models, you can set the side switch to either mute or screen rotation.
- With these models, go to Settings > General > Use Side Switch To and check which feature you selected (mute or lock rotation)
- With these models, go to Settings > General > Use Side Switch To and check which feature you selected (mute or lock rotation)
In certain situations, your iDevice still alerts you EVEN WHEN muted (like alarms and calls from Favorites), so even if your iDevice appears to have mute off, it’s a good idea to verify that.
Can’t Move the Switch?
Check for debris, grease, lint, or dirt around the inside or outside of the switch and clean with a soft microfiber cloth to remove anything.
Saved by the Bell!
Control Center offers an easy way to check that Silent Mode isn’t activated. Swipe Up Control Center and look for the Bell icon. If it’s highlighted and shows a line through it, silent mode is ON. Tap it to disable, and your notification sounds should return.
Change What Sends & Receives
Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Look under the section: iMessage At Can reach you. If checked, deselect your email address. Select only your phone number and see if that solves the problem.
Turn Notifications ON
It’s common to turn notifications off inadvertently. So best to make sure they are indeed on. Check Settings > Notifications > Messages > Toggle ON Allow Notifications.
Next, make sure you choose an excellent alert sound. Go to Settings > Sounds > Text Tones. And pick an alert sound that you like and that you’ll definitely hear.
For older iOS versions, visit Settings > Notifications > Messages > and Turn OFF Show in Notification Center. Restart your iDevice and then turn Show in Notification Center back ON.
Toggle Message Notifications Off and then Back On
Return to Notifications > Messages and toggle OFF. Then turn off your iDevice and turn it back on. Then turn notifications back on for messages, and it often fixes the problem.
No notifications or alerts when the phone is locked?
Not getting notified of messages coming in when iPhone or another iDevice is locked? If you don’t see or hear any alerts when your iPhone or iDevice locks (display sleep mode,) enable the Show on Lock Screen setting.
Go to Settings > Notifications > Messages and verify that Show on Lock Screen is toggled on.
For sound alerts, also check that Settings > Notifications > Messages > Sounds has an alert type selected and does not display None or Vibrate Only unless that’s the setting you want.
Check Your Lock Screen Allow Settings 
- Go to Settings > Face ID/Touch ID & Passcode
- Enter your passcode to validate access
- Scroll down to Allow Access hen Locked
- Toggle On Notification Center
- And toggle on anything else you want to appear on your device’s Lock Screen
Reset Network Settings
Sometimes your network needs a refresh which in turn refreshes your connections to Apple’s Messages server. So let’s reset your network settings by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
Don’t worry; this action DOES NOT impact your data, including apps, photos, documents, files, and so forth. It does wipe out any WiFi passwords, so write those down before you reset your network settings.
Update Your DNS Servers
Another option is to change your DNS settings from your local ISP to Google’s Public DNS. Go to Settings > WIFI > Tap on Your Network Name > Configure DNS > Manual > Add Server. Then type in 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and press Save.
If deleting your current DNS Servers, write those numbers down, so you have them if needed. For more information on changing DNS Servers, see this article.
Switch it Up!
Another option is to change the way your device connects if that’s available on your iDevice. If you’re using WiFi, try turning it off and connecting via Cellular Data. Or vice-versa—connect to WiFi instead of Cellular Data.
Changing the way we connect often jump-starts our devices and gets notifications and alerts back in business!
Ask Someone to Call
Admittedly, we aren’t sure why this works, but it often does! Ask someone to call you using the Phone App. When the call shows up on-screen, toggle the side switch or mute button back and forth a couple of times, landing in the OFF position (no orange.)
Try A Settings Reset
If none of the tips work for you, let’s try and reset all your iPhone or iDevice settings. Don’t worry; this action DOES NOT impact your data.
But it does return all your personalized settings to defaults, meaning you need to re-enter things like passwords, Touch ID fingerprints, WiFi passcodes and so forth. So, yup, it’s very time-consuming, but many of our readers report it works.
Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings
When in Doubt, Restart!
If nothing helped thus far, restart your iDevice by pressing the power button and sliding it off. Then turn on as usual.
If that doesn’t help, try a forced restart
- On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads with home button & iPod Touch 6th generation and below, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
- For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus or iPod touch 7th generation: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPad with no home button or an iPhone 8 and above: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side/Top button until you see the Apple logo
A forced restart is a hardware level restart of your device. It immediately cuts power and interrupts all processes. That means it clears what’s in the RAM, which in turn often fixes minor issues. And don’t worry, there’s no data loss–all your apps, games, photos, documents and login settings remain as is!
After performing a forced restart, make sure you check your Notification Settings to ensure everything is set-up as you want. Sometimes a forced reboot changes specific settings back to defaults. So the best insurance is to double or even triple check!
We love to hear from our readers and viewers! And many of them discover additional tips and tricks that helped them overcome these issues. Check out all our great reader advice below.
Reader Tips 
- If you use a Dual SIM iPhone or iPhone with eSIM and only use an eSIM or one SIM on a dual-SIM iPhone, check your Mobile settings (in Settings app >Cellular) and turn off the second phone line
- Make sure you toggle on badges in your Message app notification settings.Go to settings > notifications > messages > and toggle on sounds and badges
- Disable Attention Aware (for Face ID iPhones and iPads) by going to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Attention Aware Features
- Don’t update via WiFi! Instead, update your device using iTunes or the Finder app. Or try backing up and then restoring your iPhone or iPad with iTunes (Windows and macOS Mojave and below) or Finder app for Macs running macOS Catalina+. Once I did that, I have all my notifications again
- Matt suggests checking the individual contact and see what’s listed under “Text Tone”. Even though standard notifications may be set to one parameter, I had, for some reason, turned off sound notifications through a contact. You can make adjustments in the contact itself.
- Delete the entire message thread. Everything else failed. I was getting messages from one contact with no notifications even though I checked everything else on this list. Then just deleted the entire message thread from that ONE contact via the iMessage main screen. It was the only thing that worked beyond a complete wipe to a factory reset.
- I was deleting a message, but besides the “delete” message is a “ show alerts or hide alerts.” I accidentally had changed this to “hide alerts.” By tapping on it, you can change the setting. I didn’t see any “moon” as mentioned in other comments in “hide alerts” but this may solve someone’s problem.
- You don’t get a message tone if the conversation is open. Close the conversation so that you only see the headers and the text tones sound off. On the iPad, that means having a New Message open so that existing conversations aren’t visible
- There’s a “hide alerts” feature in Messages that appear if you swipe right on the conversation. I was wondering why texts from my wife didn’t have a tone play! When I toggle ON HIDE ALERTS, I see a crescent moon appears to next to the conversation. So toggle Hide Alerts off and problem solved!
- Look for a setting called SILENCE under Do Not Disturb. You see two options: Always and While iPhone is locked. Switch it to the unchecked setting (for me While iPhone is locked was checked, so I changed it to Always.) Once I switched that setting, my audio notifications returned for both messages and emails! It doesn’t make sense, but it worked, go figure!
- When all else fails, delete ALL of your message conversations. I mean everything, so it’s entirely blank. Then force restart your device and presto, notifications work!
- I fixed my problems by going to the Contacts App and editing their Text Tone to Ding. After saving that, I returned to the Contacts App and changed their Text Tone back to what I originally wanted. I find that reassigning the text tones fixed the overall notification problem
- It seems that with iOS 11, that notifications don’t show up if you have Show on Lock Screen toggled off. This doesn’t make any sense. iOS 10 and earlier showed all my notification as soon as I unlocked my phone. It doesn’t seem to matter If I set them to “Temporary” or “Persistent” Banner Notifications, either way, they don’t appear unless I allow them to show up on the lock screen. I’d rather they didn’t show on my lock screen—for privacy’s sake! IN CONCLUSION, Apple needs to fix this bug asap!
For most of her professional life, Amanda Elizabeth (Liz for short) trained all sorts of folks on how to use media as a tool to tell their own unique stories. She knows a thing or two about teaching others and creating how-to guides!
Her clients include Edutopia, Scribe Video Center, Third Path Institute, Bracket, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Big Picture Alliance.
Elizabeth received her Master of Fine Arts degree in media making from Temple University, where she also taught undergrads as an adjunct faculty member in their department of Film and Media Arts.
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As I last resort I powered the phone off and then back on again and wouldn’t you know it, it’s fixed. Sometimes the good old ‘reboot’ is all you need !!
Hi. I had a iPhone 5s for 3years and i found out that keypad clicks stopped working and text alerts tones were lost. I found by messing about that by turning blue tooth off and on they returned. I have just bought an iPhone 7 and found that this problem still exists. After all this time why have apple not sorted this problem. It’s most annoying , after paying all this money.
Apple 5 watch for Christmas present. Very disappointed incoming texts messages default to watch and do not ping my I phone XR. Am I correct?
Hi George,
You are correct. Notifications go to either your Apple Watch or iPhone, but not both.
When your iPhone is unlocked, you get notifications on your iPhone. If your iPhone is locked or asleep, notifications route to your Apple Watch (unless your Apple Watch is locked with your passcode)
You could try turning off Wrist Detection in your watch’s settings (on the watch or via iPhone’s Watch app, go to Passcode and toggle off wrist detection)
If Wrist Detection is off, you won’t get quick access to Apple Pay on your watch nor any Stand notifications or track your Stand progress. Background heart rate readings are also not registered if Wrist Detection is off.
Additionally, for Apple Watch Series 4 and later, the watch wonʼt automatically make an emergency call even after it has detected a hard impact fall.
I am having a problem with message sound, typing sound, Whats app sound, etc.
Suddenly, the sound for all these become very low or no sound at all.
This issue came from my Iphone six and now, it is in my Iphone XR!
I have tried to change sound, ring tones, etc.
the problem only stpos whenever I restart the phone.
But, starts again teo or 3 days after…
Ever since updating to iOS 13. I have not heard my email sound. I have tried what it says to do and it did not help. Hopefully you can help?
Thank you
Hi Stacy,
Give this a try: go to Settings > Notifications > Mail > Favorite Mailboxes and make sure the notifications are turned on and that you assign a sound there as well.
Repeat this process of allowing notifications and choosing a sound for VIP and Threaded Notifications (if desired)
My IPhone 6s has stopped notifying me when my daughter sends a text to me. It also stopped using the custom text sound I chose for her and her sister. Other senders still have notifications working. I tried turning my phone off and then back on. I checked in settings for any sounds being turned off. I shut off my Bluetooth and then turned it back on. I am very frustrated because that is our main way of communicating.
After my Iphone6s plus updated to ios 13.2, i didn’t receive any notification from my social account . (Facebook,messenger,line ) app. They did not appear on my banner. I checked my notification but it all turn on. I reset all my settings too. What should I do ?
Did you figure out how to fix your issue? I am having the same problem. I receive text/imessage notifications, but that is it. I have tried everything suggested, nothing has worked.
I have an XS Max and I am no longer receiving text notification sounds but only when a text is from another iPhone. I still get alerts from Android phones. This is very frustrating and annoying as I have missed several important messages. How can this be fixed?
Hi Leanne,
Try signing out of iMessage, restart, and then sign back in.
Go to Settings > Messages > and toggle iMessage off.
Restart by powering off, waiting a few minutes, then powering back on
Go back to Settings > Messages and toggle on iMessage
Once back on, check your Notification settings (Settings > Notifications > Messages) and then run a few tests with friends or family.
If that doesn’t work, try resetting all your settings via Settings > General > reset > reset all settings.
* This is usually the last resort since it resets all your personalized features back to factory defaults
* Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All
* This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms
* Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
* Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files
* You need to reconfigure these settings once your iPhone or iDevice restarts
MISSING VOICE ALERT ON NEW MESSAGES.
.. When iPhone is connected to a CarPlay via Bluetooth, the msg notification only vibrate but no sound alert, even the vehicle radio volume is loud. This should be fixed in the next update.
in the latest ios, there is no sound when an email or text goes out. i have selected a sound and nothing. i selected another and still nothing. all my other alerts seem to work and I’m not in silent mode.
HI Leon,
Check your notification settings for these apps. Go to Settings > Notifications. Then verify that allow notifications is toggled on, that you select where you want alerts (like lock screen, notification center, banners) and so forth.
Great blog thanks. This is not a new problem for me or my wife.
Both of use have IOS 13.1.2 – me on 11pro max, her on 8.
Both are not getting alert tones. We have checked all the settings and had changed NOTHING. This loss of message alerts is a recurrent (bad) theme with Apple for the last few years.
After 3 trips to the Apple store with no ring or vibrate with incoming calls, Apple replaced my phone. Still had the problem. The next trip Apple admitted it was a software problem and they are “working” on it.
My iPhone 8 Plus is running iOS 13. My repeat alerts is not working for my messages. I set it at 3 and it still only alert once. I’ve tried all the internet suggestions and instructions and still have the same problem.
Can anyone help? Thanks.
Hi Jay,
Do you pair with an Apple Watch?
If so, temporarily unpair your watch from your iPhone and then run these steps and tests. When you unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone, your iPhone automatically creates a backup of your Apple Watch. Unpairing erases all data from your Apple Watch–but when you re-pair you connect to your backup when you set the Apple Watch up from that backup.
If you don’t pair with a Watch, follow the steps and see if they help.
1) Force closing the Messages App by double-pressing the home button and swiping up off the Messages app to the top of the screen
2) Open Settings > Notifications > Messages and turn repeat alerts to Never
3) Restart
4) When the iPhone is back on, go back into Settings > Notifications > Messages and turn repeat alerts back on–set to 5 times
5) Ask someone to text you to test it out
If this works, re-pair your Apple Watch back to your iPhone.
Hi Elizabeth,
I don’t have an Apple Watch.
I followed your instructions and tried what you recommended.
My repeat alerts for my text messages still don’t work. If you know of any other possible fixes please let me know.
Thanks for your help.
Go to Settings, then Sound. Toggle “Change with Buttons” off.
Position volume slider to full volume. Adjust to normal volume.
Toggle “Change with Buttons” on
Immediately restart.
Starting about a week ago, I am no longer hearing notification sound on my iPhone for alarms, messages , texts, emails, etc.
Why is this happening?
How can I start getting notification sound?
Please help!
Hi Marie,
Sorry to hear about your notification problems.
First, check that do not disturb is off–Settings > Do Not Disturb. Even if you use this for certain times or while driving, temporarily turn it all off and set your DND while driving to Manually. Then restart your device and see if you get notifications.
Also, check your side switch to ensure it’s not set to mute–the switch is near your volume buttons.
Then, take a look at how you set-up your notification settings–go to Settings > Notifications and review the settings for each app.
I have iPhone xs Max.
I went through and one by one, I checked & did EVERYTHING on this list and still – the sounds do not play when I have an incoming text message.
I guess I’ll have to make an appt at Apple store – my text notifications are more important to me than my phone calls because text messages are the main way my family gets in touch with me.
When I receive a text on 5s the phone vibrates but there’s no sound, I’ve gone to settings & still it won’t allow me to listen to any sounds just vibration patterns. Can anyone help?
Hi Katie,
It sounds like your side switch is set to mute all sounds.
It’s a physical button located just above your volume buttons.
Inspect the button–if you see a thin sliver of orange, then it’s set to mute your ringer. Flip the button in the opposite direction–so you no longer see any orange. That should do the trick!
If the problem persists, let us know
Liz
When I’m using my iPad, my text message alerts don’t work on my iPhone. I can’t seem to find any solution to this. Am I missing something?
Hi Maurice,
One thing to check is if you use Messages in the Cloud. Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > and toggle on Messages. Do this for both the iPad and the iPhone.
Also, on both your iPhone and iPad check Settings > Notifications > Messages to make sure that you select all styles under the alerts section, including the lock screen, notification center, and banners. Change banner style to Persistent.
Then, under Show Previews select Always
Do you want your text messages only on your iPhone and NOT your iPad?
Try turning off, Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone. Go to Settings > Messages > and toggle off Text Message Forwarding.
Another thing to check is that under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive that both your phone number and email address are checked under You can receive iMessages to and reply from.
Hopefully, one of these things works for you.
Liz
My issue was the sound was so low even the volume all the way up it could barely be heard with the phone next to my ear. After trying everything, the system reset worked.
Messages are not ringing
I have deleted text msgs on my phone, but they are still on CarPlay. How do I delete them?
Hi Lynn,
You are not the first person to have this issue with CarPlay and iMessage!
Here are some things to try”
1. restart both your car and your iPhone
2. toggle AirPlane mode on and off via the Settings App not Control Center
3. Ask Siri to read those messages and see if that marks them for deletion on CarPlay
If these three tips don’t help, try forgetting your car Settings > General > CarPlay, and tap Forget This Car. Then add it back by going to Settings > General > CarPlay, tap Available cars, then select your car.
If nothing helps, consider submitting your feedback to Apple.
Thanks, Sam, for your prompt response. I did contact Apple with my problem. Thanks for providing their contact information. Now I’ll cross my fingers and hope a new iOS update will soon resolve everyone’s issues with this problem.
Maureen
This article was extremely well written. It was an enormous help in getting a solution to my iMessage and text alert to sound when the phone was locked.
I recently purchased an iPhone XS Max and installed the latest iOS updates. Never had any difficulties wth any of my previous iPhones, so I’m blaming the iOS version for my current problem.
I used your solution of turning off the Bluetooth and the alert sound works. As soon as I turn the Bluetooth back on, the alert sound for iMessages and texts doesn’t function.
Any suggestions on how to forward this information to Apple’s iOS developers? And any information on when the fix for this will be released?
Thanks!
Hi Maureen,
Thank you for the feedback on the article.
A lot of readers using the latest iOS report this problem, especially on the new iPhone XS/XR models. There doesn’t appear to be one universal solutions; however, some folks tell us that resetting all settings did the trick for them. So if you haven’t tried this one, you might want to.
Always back up first with iCloud or iTunes before resetting all settings. Then go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings.
It is a bit of a drastic action. This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms.
Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files.
Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
So you need to reconfigure these settings once your iPhone or iDevice restarts.
To get information to Apple Product Developers, use this feedback site.
If you have an Apple Developer account, you can also use this Apple Bug Reporting Site.
Thanks again for the feedback and we hope your iMessage alerts return!
Sam
Ok. Send a test message to the person your having trouble not receiving text notifications from. Tap on the persons or contacts icon in the top Middle, then tap on info on top right, look down on you will see a button to stop notifications from that contact. Turn the button off to begin receiving text notifications from that person once again. Your welcome.
Text message sound notifications are not working while the screen is locked on my iPhone 8 plus.
I’ve tried just about everything.
I also have another iPhone 8 plus for work and text-sound notification is working.
I verified that they both have the same options checked and still isn’t working on my personal phone… also not getting a sound notification on apple watch 3 or thru AirPods.
Hi Nicole,
Sorry to hear about your problems with your iPhone 8 Plus and notifications not sounding off.
Here are some additional tips, which you may or may not have already tried. Sorry for the randomness of these suggestions–unfortunately, there is no ONE reason for this problem so we are covering the bases and providing you additional reader tips.
Try unpairing your Apple Watch (temporarily) and then restart your iPhone. See if you hear notifications when you are not paired with your watch.
Other options are to completely turn off DND–Do Not Disturb (Settings > DND > Off.) Also, make sure Scheduled and Bedtime are off as well. And set DND While Driving to Manually
Make sure your Message App notifications are set to Always under Show Previews
Check that Settings > Notifications > Messages has Allow toggled on, checkmark all alert styles, change the banner style to persistent, Change your Sounds setting to something new and make sure you add a vibration as well. Set Repeat Alerts to something other than Never.
Turn off Bluetooth–see if that makes a difference (Settings > Bluetooth > Off)
Reset your network’s settings. Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
Some readers found that deleting all current text message threads worked–it’s a bit drastic. But they did find that after deleting all their current messages and then restarting that notifications work again!
Another option some folks found useful was completely signing out of iMessage (Settings > Messages > iMessage), restarting, and then signing back–it’s best to use the same Apple ID as your device (the Apple ID listed for iCloud and iTunes & App Stores).
We hope something here helps.
Sam
At the top left of the iPhone (above) where you can turn the sound up and down is a small port inside is a slide, not knowing I had turned it off, my daughter pushed it forward and all sounds came back, I tried all the things suggested here.
Just read your post and that fixed my problem as I was not getting the alert when charger plugged in, or messenger notifications.
i went to General-Reset-Reset All Settings
This is the only thing that worked for me. I’m so happy it works now 🙂 It hasnt been working in monthes
Wondering why I payed 1k for an iPhone XS & I have to fix all these issues . Most annoyed.
Here’s what I do know: every time there is an update, something(s) get so screwed up, that many of us don’t update for quite a while.
I did wait, but it seems that is no longer safe.
You can count on many problems with every update. Apple should be able to do better.
swipe left (as if you are deleting a message) and hit show alerts
The issue on my phone was that I had ‘Hide alerts’ turned ON for a particular person. To find this I had to open the Message from them and @ the top click their Name>Info and turn OFF the Hide Alerts…voila!
I don’t know why all these things worked, but they did. I started by restarting the iphone, then went through about a third of this list toggling things on and off again and now I have alert sounds back! None of my settings were off, the side switch was not on mute, I didn’t have the volume turned too far down, Do Not Disturb was not on, all my notification settings were set up correctly…..so I didn’t really change anything, but now things work that didn’t before???
I really hope Apple figures this out; I need to be able to trust my phone to remind me of things!
Really, Apple needs to do more than fix this,”BUG”. “BUG” can be swatted, or sprayed with insecticide, but this is a system error, a persistent system error that started for me and my wife with the introduction of IOS 11 and iPhone 8. Lucky we still have landline phones, otherwise we’d be up the creek without a paddle(s). We do all messaging when we travel, and we travel alot. We stay in touch with family the same way….we’ve done “ALL” the things possible, as-well-as contacting Apple Support, not much help there. I knew more than they did, working as a tech specialist for close to 35 years, go figure.
Hello: I’ve done all that has been suggested and still, the imessage notifications are not appearing; the “red” number. This is on my IPod Touch. It’s been happening for about 2 months now. The only fix has been to “restore” the phone to a previous back-up which seems over the top, every time this happens. Advice?
I have tried everything to correct my iPhone 6. But when I am in my car even as a passenger, I don’t get sound when I get a text message. I get a screen notification but no sound. I have to turn Bluetooth off to get sound. DNDWD is turned off. Nothing else has worked. This is annoying. Apple needs to fix this.
iPhone allows Text Tone notification to be set for individual contacts. This allows you to know (by the tone or vibration sequence) who’s texting without even looking at your phone.
Check the individual contact and see what’s listed under “Text Tone”. Even though standard notifications may be set to one parameter, I had, for some reason, turned off sound notifications through a contact. You can make adjustments in the contact itself.
It took me 2 days to figure this out…
Hi Matt,
Wow, thanks for sharing this awesome tip! We’ll add it to the article, it’s sure to help others. Again, we really appreciate your insight and sharing with us what worked for you.
SK
So many different ways it can be broken! The one that was vexing me seems so obvious now, but I simply could not find it without your help. Reading your article I learned at least one other setting that I will use. Thanks and thanks again.
This also annoyed me for days, to find out the case I was using pushed the “do not disturb”/ silence button (over volume buttons to the left)
Causing no text message alerts, no call ringing No texting key pad sounds… I
Checked every setting over & over, I was on verge of tossing phone.. never knew about the side silence button since prior phone was an Samsung. Hope this helps others, yes I have watch that sounded but phone itself would not.
This one worked for me:
” Look for a setting called SILENCE under Do Not Disturb. You see two options: Always and While iPhone is locked. Switch it to the unchecked setting (for me While iPhone is locked was checked, so I changed it to Always.) Once I switched that setting, my audio notifications returned for both messages and emails! It doesn’t make sense, but it worked, go figure! ”
Thanks for the help – Have a great day !!!!
The text says nothing about not getting a notification sound on the phone when having a bluetooth headset connected. iPhone’s seems to be the only smartphone with this “feature”. I have a Beats X WITH the “amazing” W1 chip by the way.
Thank you! This was driving me batty! I was using the doorbell chime under classic tones. It looks like it doesn’t like that it all any more. First, I changed default as suggested. When that worked, I changed to another tone that I prefer. It seems to be working now.
We are glad it worked for you!! Thank You for stopping by at AppleToolbox.
Great checklist! After checking my sound and notification settings I couldn’t figure this out. Found that DND was misconfigured (silent when locked). Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback! Glad it worked out. We appreciate you taking the time to visit us.
I was deleteing a message, but beside the “delete” message is a “ show alerts or hide alerts”. I accidently had changed this to “hide alerts”. By tapping on it you can change setting. I didn’t see any “moon” as mentioned in other comments in “hide alerts” but this may solve someone’s problem.
HI RM,
Thank you for sharing what worked for you! We’ll add it to our reader tips section. And yes, that crescent moon seems to have a mind of its own, showing up on some devices and not on others!
SK
I tried everything to fix my tone alerts for texting. I tried shutting down and forced hard reset and it still isn’t working ?
I get this intermittently, where my phone will sometimes make a sound and sometimes not for the same contact. I mess with a bunch of stuff (thanks for adding to my list of stuff to mess with) and it works. Or maybe it would have sounded next time anyway since it’s an intermittent issue.
But the thing is that if Apple is going to charge $800 to $1149 for a phone, and crow about how much profit they are making, how about they make the thing consistently tell me when I have a message from work.
Maybe they could take someone off the team that is focused on perfecting the talking animated poo.
Thanks I changed message notification to default and problem is resolved.
This is not a resolved problem when I just spent 1149 on a phone.
This was driving me absolutely nuts. I ran through the whole list and checked everything, including shutting my Apple Watch completely off.
It turns out that for some reason, having my Messages app on my Mac enabled with my iCloud account, it was blocking the notifications from going to my phone. If you’ve run through this whole list and it’s still not working, go to Messages on your Mac, File->Preferences and disable the account.
HI Nick,
Thanks for sharing the tip that worked for you! There’s a lot of things that cause problems so it’s hard to isolate just one. We’ll add yours into the list.
Cheers,
Liz
Thank you! Do not disturb was a new one for me. That fixed it!
Brian,
Great! Thanks for letting us know. Really appreciate the feedback so we know we’re on the right track.
Liz
I got it working.
I don’t know what did the trick but I deleted that persons contact added it again and then deleted the conversation and now I’m recieving notifications
Hi Sha
Exactly the same issue for only one contact. Very frustrating- haven’t reset but everything else tried my many of iPhone users to no avail. I think it only happened after a recent update-everything was fine until then.
Thanks
Lisa
This problem plagued me for months! Turned out I had somehow enabled DND (Hide Alerts) for my wife! I don’t recall doing this but whatever. It seems to have happened when I updated to iOS 11 a few weeks ago. Anyway, she was getting really upset with me not answering her texts (which I never saw.) So together we figured it out after reading this article. Thanks for the tip! Saved my butt with my wife.
Shane
I am having his issue with only one contact. I won’t know I have a message until I click in my messages and it looks as if it has already been read. No sound nor message indication somhleing i have one unread text. I don’t want to delete the whole text thread. None of these steps helped me.
Hi Sha,
Are you sure you do not have DND on for this particular contact? Check that contact in the Message app using the “I” in the upper right and look for the a Do Not Disturb or Alerts toggle–if it’s enabled, disable it.
When one contact has this issue, it’s almost always DND or Hide Alerts was somehow enabled.
Keep us posted.
Liz
Not sure if this was mentioned or not, but if you want to get notifications on both your iPhone and your Apple Watch, just turn off wrist detection on the Watch.
Sure, this disables some abilities, like Apple Pay and wrist detection, amongst others, but it does allow you to get a notification on both devices.
Hi James,
Yes, that is an awesome tip! Thanks for sharing it.
Liz
I finally got mine to work again. I followed everything in the post save a soft or hard system reset. Then I tried a forced restart. This still didn’t fix the problem.
After I forced restart I checked my notifications in the message app again. (for like the 15th time) and low and behold now the notifications were turned completely off. I turned them back on and now it works again. Trust me I checked the app notifications in message plenty of times and even tried cycling them several times. I have an older 5s so this might not help anyone else. I never had this problem until update 11.
Just happy to have my piiiiiiiing back.(I never thought I would miss that annoying sound)
BTW great article I would have never got it working again without it. Very clear and all encompassing.
Awesome Shawn!
And hey you are not alone with the 5S (we have one that we love) AND not alone in this problem. Yup, it happened to us too–a lot of patience required and always checking and rechecking the settings to make sure that iOS hasn’t reset them to something else.
Whew! Glad it’s working again.
Liz
I just updated to IOS 11.1 and changed my banner to persistent. On the sleep and lock screen texts are still not showing up. I have to unlock my phone and go to messages before I know if there is a text. I checked all my settings and they are correct based on every article I’ve read and apple support. Please advise in what to do now. Thank you.
Hi Lisa,
Sorry to hear that! Totally stinks. Have you check that in Settings > Notifications > Show Previews is set to Always? Also, folks report that toggling off Show in History helps, Settings > Notifications > Messages > Toggle Show in History off.
And, if you have a lot of notifications iOS 11 put them into a sort of waiting room, that is accessed from the lock screen by swiping from the middle of your screen to the top of the screen.
If you’re still not seeing anything, it might be some setting getting in the way. So rather than go through each and every settings, try a Reset All Settings (Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings.) This does not erase any data or documents (photos, videos, books, and so forth) but it does remove any special settings, like WiFi passwords, accessibility settings, and other setting customizations.
Keep us posted if any of these help,
Liz
My text messages will appear in lock mode for a little bit; but after about a half hour or so they disappear.
I’m not with my phone 24/7 and while I’m at work I sometimes only have time to read what’s on the locked screen and reply as needed.
How do I get these to come back until I unlock my phone like I used to do. I have IOS 11.0.3 version.
Hu Jeanette,
Let’s update your Messages Notification settings. Go to Settings > Notifications > Messages and underneath Alerts change the device setting from temporary (the default) to Persistent. Just tap on the screen icon above the work persistent–it should get circled.
That should do the trick!
SK
No they do not fix the problem. I have updated to the latest 11.0.3. And still have issue. Date and time “automatic” fixes the problem. I don’t want date and time on automatic, I like my phone fast. As soon as I put it back to what time I want it changes the order I receive messages again. The responding messages are coming in above my messages, therefore not making sound.
In the new ios11 I have stopped receiving message notifications because I have my phone running fast. I get the first notification but not for responses because apparently they were delivered in the past. This is not an issue I want fixed by running my phone at the correct time. I Like it to be fast. It was a non issue in all previous iOS versions
Hi Sally,
Please go to Settings > Notifications and toggle everything ON. Change Repeat Alerts to Once. And update your Banners from Temporary to Persistent. Just tap on the Persistent Banner picture. The go to Settings > General > Date & Time and toggle ON Set Automatically. If it’s already ON, toggle it Off and set it manually to your current location and time zone.
Once all these settings are changed, perform a restart by pressing power and swiping off. Then power up again.
See if these setting changes make a difference.
I had recently started using the iMessage app on OSX again. For some reason it had turned off the notifications in the iMessage’s app on OSX was turned off some how. An incoming message is first directed to you OSX, assuming you are logged into iMessages, if you are not, the second route the message will take is to your Apple watch, unless your phone is unlocked – in which case the message will be delivered to the latter. Order of operations apparently.