Notifications can be annoying, and sometimes we silence them. But I didn’t realize how isolated you can feel if they abruptly vanish.

Starting sometime in the morning, all notifications from non-Apple apps on my iPhone ceased to work, including badges (those indicators showing new items in the app icons).I’m using iOS 18.1.1 on my iPhone 13 Plus.

The notifications stop included Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, LINE (the most popular messaging app in Japan), Words with Friends, BlueSky, Mastodon, TextNow (the VoIP app I use for a U.S. phone number), etc.

I didn’t notice that someone sent me LINE messages around noon that day until I happen to go into the app at 9 pm and saw new messages from various people. It was then I noticed that I wasn’t getting notifications from all my 3rd party apps.

The apps themselves worked, and new messages were all there. I just didn’t get any signals that there was new content waiting for me.

Apple apps like Messages, iCloud email with push notifications, and Photos notifications continued to work as usual. Apple app notifications also arrived on my Watch.

I tried a forced restart of the iPhone. And I double-checked the notifications settings and nothing appeared to have changed. I also tried toggling the notification settings off and on and that didn’t help. Neither did logging out of the apps and logging back in.

Chat With Apple Support

Using the Support app, I chatted with Apple support and the person on the other end didn’t seem to understand me very well. He suggested a forced restart even after I told him twice that I already did that. He gave up after an hour and scheduled an “escalated” Apple support call for me at 9 am the next morning.

Horrible Apple Support Call

Apple Support’s call was beyond useless. I’m was so upset with Apple afterwards I felt like taking all my Apple devices into the street and pouring gasoline over them and setting them ablaze. I do realize that would only hurt me though.

As for the call, after screen sharing and checking various settings and doing tests for over 90 minutes the Apple guy said I should try “reset all settings.” I told him every time I do that it takes forever to get things back to where they were. He insisted it would only take 2-3 minutes. So I gave in and did it and ended up in reconstruction hell.

At first I couldn’t even connect to my wi-fi because my iPad couldn’t share the password with my iPhone for some reason. I tried to copy/paste it from my Mac and that didn’t work. I asked him why that didn’t work and he said copy/paste between Mac and iPhone is not a supported feature! What kind of idiot (seriously) did I get stuck with?

Finally for some reason wi-fi connected but I had to reconstruct endless things. Like my credit cards in my wallet. And I couldn’t connect to my local bank with their app without going through lots of reconfirmation checks. And I had to redo all sorts of settings including keyboards, calendar settings, and reconfirmations of stuff when I logged into all my apps.

(Followup 2 days later on “reset all settings.” Even today I’m finding things needing reset, including Siri voice activation and speaking, location services, and unlocking my Watch with my iPhone. And just before FaceTime needed to be set up again. I’m sure I’ll find more. I would avoid the reset all settings if at all possible. And another followup days later: Still finding settings which need to be fixed days later! The one I just noticed is the Safari default search engine.)

Despite all that, it did not fit the notifications problem. The Apple Support guy actually had the gall to then say it must be an apps problem and I need to contact the app developers. I mean, seriously? Simultaneously notifications, including badges, from all 3rd party apps stop coming in and it’s not Apple’s fault? Some conspiracy between the developers of LINE, WhatsApp, Words with Friends, FaceBook Messenger, BlueSky and more?

I gave up then and as politely as possible said goodbye. 

Found a Solution!

I did find a solution though: deleting each app and reinstalling. When you open the app again one of the things you are prompted with is “allow this app to send notifications.” If you accept that it seems to fix whatever system setting got lost.

I tested the fix successfully so far with FaceBook Messenger WhatsApp, LINE, BlueSky, Words with Friends, and my VoIP app, TextNow. TextNow lost some old chat messages on my iPhone, but they are still there on my iPad version.

Fortunately the number of 3rd party apps I expect notifications from is not a tremendously huge number.

I wish I had tried this before “resetting all settings.” My settings are nearly completely back to where they were before, but was a huge waste of time.

This is obviously an Apple bug, despite Apple Support being in denial.

Anyway, if it happens to you, just delete the app and download it again from the App Store. It almost always is a very quick login and you’re back to where you were with notifications working again.