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Notifications not arriving

A message can get “lost” in one of three places: it never reached Notifly, it reached Notifly but there was no device to deliver it to, or it reached the device but was shown silently. Go through the steps from top to bottom — the cause is usually found in the first two.

ReceiverWhen it shows a notification
Android appAlways, as long as its background service with a persistent connection is alive — including when the app is closed. Notifly must be excluded from battery optimization
A web dashboard tabOnly while the tab is open and the browser is allowed to show notifications. There is no background Web Push: close the tab and notifications stop; messages stay in the feed
iOS appOnly while the app is open (no APNs yet). Anything missed is fetched and shown when you return to the app
Escalation: email, Telegram…Only if the message is not read within the method’s timeout and passes its minimum priority
  • Look at the server response to your send. 200 with an id means the message was accepted — go to step 2. Otherwise:

    CodeWhat it means
    401The token is missing, invalid, revoked or expired — copy the channel’s app token again in Channels
    403The token has no write access (for example, view delegated access) or the channel is a system channel
    429The daily event quota is exhausted or a rate limit was hit — see Quotas and plans
  • Check the dashboard feed. The message should appear in its channel’s feed and in All messages. If it is not there, it never reached the server.

  • The quota. When the daily quota runs out, a “Daily quota exhausted” notification arrives in the System service channel (once a day). Until the reset at 00:00 Moscow time messages and heartbeat pings are rejected with 429, and monitors postpone their checks — so you will not hear about their failures either. Usage per source is on the Quotas and plans page.

  • Waiting for a monitor alert? During a maintenance window a failure alert is postponed until the window ends, and if a monitor goes down and comes back up inside the window, there are no messages at all.

  • The device is listed and active. Open the Devices section in the dashboard. The device you expect must be listed with the active status:
    • suspended — the device is disabled and receives no notifications. A common cause is the plan’s device limit: when you sign in on a new device over the limit, Notifly itself moves the oldest active device to suspended (this can happen, for example, after signing in to the dashboard from a new browser). Remove the devices you do not need and re-enable the right one with the button in its row;
    • revoked — access was revoked; sign in to the app again.
  • The channel is not muted on this device. In the Devices section each device has a Channel notifications button: an unchecked box means that channel does not notify this device. In the Android app the same is done with the channel menu item Mute channel / Unmute channel.

3. Did the notification arrive “silently”

Section titled “3. Did the notification arrive “silently””

Sometimes the notification is there, but without sound — easy to miss.

  • Quiet hours. While a quiet window is active, messages with a priority below the threshold (8 by default) arrive without sound, vibration or heads-up. They are still in the feed and the shade.
  • Maintenance window. Channel messages inside a window arrive silently, and there is no escalation for them.
  • Priority. On Android, priority 0 messages are collapsed in the shade without sound, 1–3 arrive without sound, and sound starts at 4. Raise the priority when sending or the channel’s defaultPriority. Per-platform tables are on the Android and iOS pages.
  • Notification permission. On Android 13 and newer the app asks for it on first launch. If you declined, turn it on in the system settings: Apps → Notifly → Notifications.
  • Notification categories. In the same place the app has separate categories per priority (“Normal priority messages (4–7)” and so on), plus “Silent (quiet hours, maintenance)” and “Alarm”. Make sure the category you need is not turned off or set to silent.
  • Battery optimization is cause #1. If Android unloads the service, the connection drops and notifications stop. Turn optimization off for Notifly (more in Keeping notifications reliable).
  • Connection logs. The app’s Logs screen shows the connection state and reconnect attempts.
  • The dashboard tab is open. Closed the tab or the browser — no notifications.
  • Notifications are allowed. Click Allow notifications in the dashboard’s side menu and confirm the prompt. If you blocked notifications for the site earlier, the button is not shown — allow them in the browser’s site settings.
  • Do Not Disturb in your operating system hides browser notifications too.
  • The app must be open: there is no connection while it is in the background.
  • Notifications are allowed: Settings → Notifly → Notifications.

Forwarding to email, Telegram and other services fires only if the message is not read within the method’s timeout and its priority is not below the minimum. Quiet hours and maintenance windows suppress it, and SMS and phone calls work only if those integrations are enabled on the server side. You can check a method’s settings without waiting for the timeout with a delivery test — it shows the error right away, for example 403 bot was blocked by the user for Telegram.