What to do if WhatsApp notifications are not working

Fixes for WhatsApp notifications not working

While it is quite calming not to be disturbed, let’s face it you’d be expecting a number of WhatsApp notifications to ping up during the average day. They could be person to person messages only sent to you. Or update messages from any groups you’re in. Either way, you’d probably want to know if your notifications were not working properly and why.

There can be a number of reasons, including battery saving mode being turned on, WhatsApp not using data in the background or even broken WhatsApp builds. We’ll walk you through some clear methods to help you solve the issue.

Turn on mobile data

Maybe you restricted your WhatsApp settings somewhat by changing one of the main settings on your device. iOS allows you to put a stopper on mobile data for certain apps from the settings menu. If you’ve done that for WhatsApp, you might not be able to receive notifications on the iPhone if you stray outside a WiFi area. There’s an easy fix. Open Settings on your iPhone and scroll down to WhatsApp, toggling to enable mobile data for the messaging app.

Turn off battery saver

As the name suggests, if you use battery saver mode, on either your Android or Apple phone, it is designed to save battery life but the trade-off is reduced functionality on certain apps. In low power mode, you might not end up receiving notifications on either type of smartphone. Your solution is to switch it up for full power mode. On your iPhone: open Settings, then Battery and then toggle off Low Power Mode. Android users, open Settings, then Battery and then switch off battery saver mode.

Locking WhatsApp for multi-tasking menu

For Android phone users, sometimes an issue with your phone means your WhatsApp is locked out. What happens is certain third-party skins (wrappers for your phone’s operating system), such as Realme UI or FunTouch OS, limit app usage behind the scenes to save battery life. To get round this, these Android skins give you the ability to lock WhatsApp in the background, so that it keeps running without any issues. To do this:

• Open the multi-tasking menu and tap on the three-dot menu at the top.
• Select Lock and it will lock the app in said background.
• You can close all other background apps but WhatsApp will be kept open for business.

Check Do Not Disturb mode

If you find yourself consistently not getting messages, there is small chance you have opted out from little parcels of notification joy by using Do Not Disturb (DND) mode. When you take this route, it silences all notifications, including SMS messages, calls and other interruptions like your WhatsApps coming in. If this is happening on an Android phone, double check if you have turned on DND mode by swiping down on the quick-setting panel.

If you have - toggle this option off. On iOS devices, you will see a little crescent moon by the battery life indicator when you’re in the quiet mode. A quick swipe down gives you a panel of icons; the half-moon box, when filled with colour, indicates DND mode is ‘On’. Simply tap the icon to turn off DND mode.

Install the latest operating system updates

More often than not, the problems you experience using a particular app will happen if you haven’t updated your operating system: do an OS update whether you are using an iOS device or an Android phone. Connect to WiFi, update your device and then try again.

Restart your phone

Restarting your phone helps refresh its memory, releases all processes that have been running and can help smooth over some glitches. So, if WhatsApp notifications are not working, simply start it up again; by holding the power button for roughly 10 seconds and off you go.

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