How Notifications Work on Apple Watch
Before we jump into troubleshooting, you should understand how notifications work on the Apple Watch. By default, notifications from your iPhone will either go to the Apple Watch or iPhone, but not to both devices at the same time, depending on the locked and unlocked status of the devices. Four cases arise:
How to Fix Apple Watch Not Getting Notifications
You may not get some notifications on your watch for valid reasons. For instance, your iPhone may be unlocked. But if you have ruled out these reasons, try the methods below to restore notifications on the watch. We’ll start with three preliminary fixes then tackle more granular methods.
1. Restart Apple Watch
If you aren’t receiving notifications from the iPhone to your Apple Watch, you must first try to restart your Apple Watch. Note: On watchOS 8 and earlier, you will not see the Power icon. Simply drag the “Power off” slider.
2. Enable Bluetooth
To receive notifications on your Apple Watch, Bluetooth must be enabled on both your watch and iPhone. Once activated, make sure that both devices are in a suitable range, otherwise the watch will disconnect from the iPhone, and you won’t receive notifications on it. Follow the steps below to connect your Apple Watch and iPhone via Bluetooth.
3. Turn Off Airplane Mode
Next, make sure that Airplane Mode isn’t active on either the Apple Watch or the iPhone. If enabled on any of the devices, you will face issues receiving notifications on the watch. Tip: you can keep Bluetooth enabled on your Apple Watch when Airplane mode is active by turning on the Bluetooth toggle under “Airplane mode behavior.”
4. Turn Off Silent Mode on Apple Watch
Apple Watch comes with a Silent Mode. When enabled, you will not hear sounds for notifications that arrive on your Apple Watch. Therefore, you must disable Silent Mode to fix the notification sounds not working on your Apple Watch.
5. Increase the Alert Volume
You might have accidentally lowered or turned off the alert volume on your Apple Watch, then stopped hearing notifications. The following steps should fix this.
6. Enable Vibration on Apple Watch
If vibration isn’t working on your Apple Watch, try this:
7. Unmute Notifications on Watch
You might have accidentally muted notifications from an app on your Apple Watch, leading to notifications from that app not working.
8. Turn On Message Indicator
If you don’t see the message indicator on your Apple Watch but are receiving notifications, you might have turned the option off and may need to activate it again.
9. Enable App Notifications on iPhone
If you aren’t receiving alerts from a particular app on your Apple Watch, check whether notifications are enabled for that app. This tweak applies mainly to iOS 15 users. To achieve similar results on iOS 16, follow the instructions under “Turn Off Scheduled Summary.” Note: your Apple Watch will receive notifications only if the app on your iPhone is receiving notifications. Therefore, ensure that your iPhone is connected to the Internet.
10. Enable App Notifications on Apple Watch
Apple allows you to customize the apps that can send notifications to your Apple Watch. You might have accidentally turned off notifications for a particular app, so it is not able to notify you on the watch. Follow these steps to reverse the situation:
11. Turn Off Scheduled Summary
iOS 15 and higher has a feature known as “Scheduled Summary” that sends notifications at scheduled times. If enabled, you will not receive notifications immediately on your iPhone nor on your watch.
12. Check Third-Party App
If you aren’t receiving notifications from a particular app on your Apple Watch, you must check whether the app is working properly on your iPhone. For instance, you might have to log in again to the app. Check this by opening the app on your iPhone.
13. Turn on Show Notifications on Wrist Down
You might have turned off the feature to show notifications when your wrist is down, leading to you not receiving notifications on your Apple Watch.
14. Turn Off Wrist Detection
Make sure you are wearing the watch correctly if you want to ensure you receive notifications. Note that if you have tattoos on your arm, those could affect the wrist-detection feature, thus causing notification issues on the Apple Watch. If you would like to receive notifications on the watch even while you are not wearing it or if wrist detection isn’t working properly, you can turn off wrist detection.
15. Turn Off Focus Modes
Just like iPhone, Apple Watch supports Focus modes such as “Do not disturb,” Driving, and Reading. For the unaware, these are simply sound profiles that let you mute your Apple Watch at a specific time or for a specific duration. If any Focus profile is active on your watch or iPhone, you will not receive notifications on the watch. Turn off an active profile with the steps below.
16. Turn Off Focus Mode Sharing
If you activate a Focus mode on your iPhone, the same will be enabled on the watch as well. To stop this mirroring process:
17. Turn Off “Cover to Mute”
The “Cover to Mute” feature basically allows you to mute notifications by covering the watch screen with your palm for 3 seconds. Your watch may have muted itself by thinking that it’s covered due to a bug or glitch in this feature, leading you to think your notifications are not working on your Apple Watch.
18. Disable Low Power Mode
Apple introduced the “Low Power” mode feature on WatchOS 9. When enabled, the notifications on the watch could be delayed. Therefore, you must turn it off to fix the issue with notifications not showing up on Apple Watch. Note: On watchOS 8 and earlier, if you only see the time on your watch and are not receiving notifications, you will have to turn off the “Power reserve” feature by pressing and holding the side button on the watch.
19. Update Apps and Devices
Notifications could stop working on your Apple Watch if you are using an outdated version of WatchOS, iOS, or the problematic app. You must update the devices and apps in question to resolve the issue.
To update WatchOS, go to “Settings → General → Software update” on your wearable.To update iOS on your iPhone, go to “Settings →General → Software update.”Open App Store and find the app that you want to update. Hit the “Update” button.
20. Force Restart Your Watch
If nothing has worked so far, you should force restart your watch, an action that serves as an advanced version of the regular restart. Doing so will forcefully shut down any malfunctioning app or service on your watch, thus fixing issues like Apple Watch notifications not working. To force restart the Apple Watch, press and hold both the side button and the Digital Crown until you see the Apple logo, then release both buttons.
21. Unpair Apple Watch
Try to re-pair the watch with your iPhone by unpairing the watch first, then pairing the gadgets again.
Bring Notifications Back
Once you’ve managed to get notifications working again on your watch, you might be interested in jazzing it up with Watch Face apps. All screenshots by Mehvish Mushtaq.
