IMessage notifications not ringing? This may happen to you.

Apple Watch home

I've never used iMessage much, really. It is, like most Apple services and apps, something that I know is there and that, from time to time, it solves. But in no case is it the main app or service I use.

When I took off WhatsApp, years ago, I did have a spike in the use of iMessage. But I stopped using it, in favor of Telegram and Facebook Messenger (which, now, I don't use either) for a problem that I remembered having always had, but that had not been so annoying because I did not use iMessage with that intensity.

The problem is that iMessage notifications are not notified to me. They neither sound, nor vibrate, nor illuminate the screen. As Apple's technical support told me today: "It is something very strange", because the notification itself, if it reaches the iPhone. It appears on the locked screen, but it does not light up or warn in any way. I see the notification when I pick up the iPhone for any other reason.

I checked everything that a more or less clever user would check. Notifications on, sound on (and with a sound on for Messages), Do Not Disturb off, etc. What's more, the rest of the notifications work perfectly. Even Apple's from other services like Phone, FaceTime, Reminders, Alarms, etc.

After all these checks, nothing. I still couldn't get iMessage notifications to be notified to me. And I spoke to Apple, years ago (I estimate two years and two months ago), for the first time. Of course, after rechecking what I had already done, they sent me to the aid: "Update your iPhone", "Restore", "Now, restore from iTunes", and so on.

You will know that restoring an iPhone, even if you do not lose anything (which seems to be what the Technical Service is most concerned about), is not pleasant, nor comfortable, nor fast. Much less if you have an Apple Watch. Y I decided not to restore the iPhone for the umpteenth time. "It will be resolved" I said to myself.

But today, after the nighttime Telegram crash, iMessages have been hitting my iPhone nonstop. And they didn't ring! And I decided to call, once again, after years of ignoring the problem, Apple Support.

The questions and solutions they gave me were the same as years ago. And I refused to give them the whim to restore my iPhone. It was clear that this is not the problem.

Apple, in an unexpected turn of events, has put me on the phone with SUPERIOR Technical Support. A very nice man (maybe a "boy") has started to ask the right questions.

Y we have come to the conclusion that the only factor common to all the facts is my Apple Watch. I have changed iPhone, but not Apple Watch. Of course, even if it is "superior", his great proposal to solve the matter once and for all was to restore the iPhone and NOT pair the Apple Watch.

Said and not done. Directly I went to the Apple Watch settings in the Watch app. Where it says "Notifications", in "Messages", I changed "Duplicate iPhone" to "Custom". Clever. Solved. Almost three years to receive an iMessage notification.

Apple Watch settings

This bug is interesting for several reasons. The first is that not fixed with different iOS and watchOS updates. But, it is also interesting because Apple is completely unaware (I have already explained what I have done), even though I am not the first to consult for the same reason as we see on the Apple Support website.

It is also curious that, as "Duplicate iPhone" is the default option, It is not a bug that is solved when restoring. Moreover, if at some point we restore and we had changed it, it will happen to us again (now, we already know).

I only experience my first generation Apple Watch, but I think It is not a very frequent bug because after 4 versions of watchOS they would have solved it.

Let me know if it happens to you too! And let's hope they solve it, although the work for watchOS 5 accumulates, since they still do not solve the Apple Watch frozen with the apple.


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  1.   Bill said

    The frozen Apple Watch happens to me. You just have to try not to turn off when the battery runs out and not turn it off on purpose. If it turns off, it is random that it turns on or not. If it does not turn on, there is nothing more than to force the restart by pressing both buttons until it turns off and the apple appears as many times as necessary (at the most so far twice). It is very rare that Apple is not working on a patch to the watch software to fix this as it is very annoying. Regarding iMessage, the truth is that the problem raised never happened to me and I have activated the default option on the clock, that is, “duplicate iPhone”.

  2.   Nacho Aragonese said

    Hi Guillermo! About the apple I think that until Apple clarifies what happens (and fixes it) we will not know very well how or why it happens. It doesn't happen to me when I turn it off, for example. In fact, when I skipped the apple, it was usually charging.

    Regarding iMessage, of course, it does not happen to everyone, for better or for worse. But it is an error and a while ago I received a response from Apple that, indeed, it is a bug that they will try to solve and that, in the meantime, the solution that I have found is not bad.

  3.   Ricardo said

    My problem is that the iPhone 8 does not notify me of text messages or when it is an iMessage and I have already turned YouTube backwards but there is no solution, I see that a message has arrived but because of the number that appears above the Messages application, but it does not make any alerts or anything similar to a notification due from the application, I did the Apple Watch but nothing remains the same

  4.   Alberto said

    IPhone 12 Pro, iWatch SE and the same problem. But the duplicate solution doesn't work.