It seems that the iOS 15 rendezvous with miscellaneous issues won’t be over anytime soon. In addition to a host of annoying iOS 15 issues such as rapid battery drain, malfunctioning personal hotspot, and random app crash, many iOS users have now complained that they can’t hear the Notification sounds from the app on their iPhones. Although the problem is frequent with the Mail app, I can independently confirm that other apps like Slack and Gmail, and even the Messages app, are also handling the problem. But don’t worry as we have found some tricks that can help you fix iPhone app notification sounds in case they don’t work on iOS 15 or iPadOS 15.
Tips to fix iPhone app notification sound not working on iOS 15, iPadOS 15
But what could be the reason behind the app notification sounds issue? Like other iOS 15 issues that have cropped up recently, it also appears to be due to a software bug. We are confident that Apple will find a solution soon. Until then, these tips can help. Before we begin, it is good to check if the alert slider on the iPhone has not enabled silent mode. If you slide it to the right, the mode will be deactivated and you can easily receive notifications. If it is already disabled, you can check out these tricks that can help you solve the problem.
1. Adjust your notification settings
The first thing you need to do to fix the iPhone app notification sound not working issue is to adjust the notification settings. Both iOS and iPadOS allow you to perfectly customize an app’s notification settings so that you can choose your desired alert sound and also choose a preferred badge style.
- Head to the Settings app on your iOS / iPadOS device and choose Notifications.
- After that, select the application for which you want to customize the notification settings. You can choose the style of the badge, enable / disable sounds and badges, hide the lock screen notification previews, and even adjust the grouping of notifications.
Since a lot of iOS users have complained about not hearing the notification sounds from the Mail app, it would be wise to talk about ways to adjust the notification settings of the standard email app. You can also change the notification settings for ‘Messages’, among others.
- Just navigate to the Settings app and then select Mail.
- Choose the Notifications option and then tap on the Customize notifications option.
- Select the desired email account and enable / disable Alerts and Badges settings.
It’s worth noting that if you enable the Alerts option, a new Sounds section will appear. Tap it and then choose from a large collection of alert tones and ringtones.
2. Update applications
If you haven’t updated your apps in a while, the “app notification doesn’t work” issue is most likely due to the outdated version. So, try to update the apps on your device. For this,
- Go to the App Store and then click on Your Profile in the upper left corner of the screen.
- Scroll down and then update one app at a time or update all apps in one go.
3. Deactivate Do Not Disturb or Focus mode
If you don’t get notifications for phone calls or other app notifications, be sure to check if Do Not Disturb or Focus modes are off as they are meant to block notifications. To do it
- Visit the Settings app and then select Focus.
- Once there, turn off the switch next to the DND and Focus options.
- You can also disable the options through the Control Center. Just slide it down and tap on the Focus option to disable a Focus or the Do not disturb option.
4. Disable the summary of notifications
Another reason why you can’t hear app notifications on iPhone could be the Notification Summary option. If enabled, this will end up showing all notifications at a set time in iOS 15. Make sure you have it disabled. For this,
- Go to Settings and select Notifications.
- Now, select the Scheduled Summary option and turn it off.
5. Disable attention alerts.
This is another trick you can try to get notification alerts. The Attention Aware Alerts feature checks users’ attention before dimming the screen, expanding a notification while the phone is locked, or decreasing the volume of certain notifications. This is what to do:
- Select the Face ID & Passcode option through Settings.
- Enter your access code.
- Now, scroll down to get to the Attention Aware Alerts option. Tap it to disable it.
6. Reset all settings
Besides forcing a reboot, factory reset is my troubleshooter. Whenever a rare or common problem arises, you can try this option. For the notification problem, this can also work.
- Just launch the Settings app on your device and go to the General option.
- Select Transfer or Reset iPhone / iPad and then Reset all settings.
- Now, you will be asked to enter your device password. After that, hit Reset all settings again to finish.
- Once your device has rebooted, open the problematic apps and allow them to send you notifications.
7. Remove and reinstall the applications.
If you still can’t hear the notification sound of any app on your iOS device, I would recommend that you remove the apps and reinstall them. While there is no doubt that it is a solution that very few would like to happily go for, it is quite effective for troubleshooting application related problems. Keep in mind that it will delete all related data, so make sure to backup apps before opting for this option.
- Just touch and hold an app and choose Remove app from the menu.
- After that, tap on the Remove app option in the menu and confirm.
- Head over to the App Store after a while and download it again.
8. Update software
Still not able to fix the app notification issue? There is no need to panic, as we still have an efficient solution at our disposal. For better or for worse, the software update has turned out to be a reliable troubleshooter for fixing random iOS / iPadOS problems these days.
So, if none of the tricks mentioned above have worked to fix the problem, update the software on your iPhone or iPad. Most likely it will fix the problem.
- To do so, open the Settings app on your device and choose General.
- After that, tap on Software Update and then download and install the latest version of the software.
9. Enable Announce Notifications
There is also an option for Siri to announce notifications to you when wearing headphones or driving with CarPlay. If you’re not getting app notifications while your iPhone is connected to CarPlay or compatible headsets, enabling Announce Notifications can help. To enable it:
- Head to Settings and select Notifications.
- There, enable the Announce Notifications option. You can also enable the Headphones option in the “Announce when connected to” section.
- After this, you can go to any app (we chose Facebook) through Settings and enable the Announce Notifications option so that Siri will send you notifications without the need to say “Hi Siri.”
Note : Aside from all the options we’ve provided, there is one simple thing you can do, specifically for message notifications. Whenever you open a chat window in any application and reply to a message, close it before exiting the application. If not left, you can end up missing notifications.
Fix app notification sounds issue on iPhone, iPad
Hopefully the problem is behind you now. In most cases, customizing your notification settings and updating problem apps can help you fix the problem. If they don’t work, removing and reinstalling the apps will fix the problem.
