Notifications not Working on iPhone 12 Pro Max? Fix

For the past couple of years, notifications remain one of the most improved features on iOS. However, one of the most frustrating issues that can ruin this overall experience on your iOS device is iPhone 12 Pro Max notifications not working.

Whether the iPhone 12 Pro Max notifications are delayed or aren’t showing up at all, these are the best 10 fixes to fix no notifications on iPhone 12 Pro Max, in order not to miss your next alert.

Frequently missing important texts, emails, or other updates is annoying and could cause major issues if you miss critical communication. Sometimes, you might not even get notifications when your iPhone 12 Pro Max is right in your hands.

Thankfully, there are many things you can do to get your notifications back to normal. If your iPhone 12 Pro Max notifications are not working, here are some fixes to try.

1. Reboot Your iPhone

The first thing to do when you find iPhone 12 Pro Max not showing notifications is to ensure that it’s not a temporary hiccup. To do that, you’ll need to reboot your iPhone. Doing so puts an end to all background processes or services that might impede an app’s ability to push notifications.

This will also refresh your iPhone’s core components, in case any of them crashed during a task. To do this: go to settings > general > shut down.

2. Check Your Internet Connection

When notifications don’t show up on your iPhone 12 Pro Max, particularly for internet-dependent apps, you should next check that your network connection is active and stable. Try visiting a few websites in your browser to make sure webpages load.

If your browser or other apps can’t access the internet, chances are that your notification issue is network-related.

Troubleshoot Cellular Data Issues on Your iPhone

For cellular connections, turn off cellular data and turn it back on. Alternatively, enable airplane mode and disable it after a few moments. You’ll find both of these options in Control Center on your iPhone.

Doing either of these should help restore your iPhone’s cellular connection from a temporary issue.

Make sure that you still have an active data plan and haven’t run out of data. Reach out to your cellular carrier for further support with this.

Troubleshoot Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues on Your iPhone

When trying to fix an issue on a Wi-Fi connection, rebooting your router helps most of the time.

Disabling Your VPN Could Help

VPNs change both your cellular and Wi-Fi connections, so they can interfere with notification delivery. So if you have a VPN set up on your iPhone, try disabling it, then check if that fixes iPhone 12 Pro Max notification issue.

You can disable a VPN connection from the provider’s app, or go to your iPhone’s Settings and toggle off the VPN slider.

3. Disable Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb silences calls, notifications, and all types of alerts (except alarms) while enable. When notifications don’t show up on your iPhone 12 Pro Max, it’s possible that you (or someone else—your kids, maybe) enabled Do Not Disturb by accident.

To confirm, open your iPhone’s Control Center (by swiping down from the upper-right corner your screen.

Note the color of the crescent moon icon. If it’s violet (bluish-purple), that means Do Not Disturb is enabled; tap the icon to disable Do Not Disturb. That will change the crescent moon’s color to white and a Do Not Disturb: Off notification will show at the top of the Control Center.

There’s another way to toggle Do Not Disturb. Go to Settings > Do Not Disturb and toggle off Do Not Disturb and any Scheduled Do Not Disturb time frame.

4. Disable Do Not Disturb While Driving

The Do Not Disturb While Driving feature mutes notifications when your iPhone is connected to your car’s Bluetooth, or when your iPhone detects that you’re in a moving vehicle. This feature does what the name says—prevent a driver from getting distracted by notifications—but sometimes does so erroneously.

For example, if you’re a passenger in a taxi or a train, the feature assumes you’re the driver and silences all calls and notifications on your iPhone. To disable the feature, go to Settings, select Do Not Disturb, and find the Do Not Disturb While Driving section. Under this, hit Activate and set the feature to be activated Manually.

If you want notifications while using Apple CarPlay, you should also toggle off the Activate With CarPlay option. Leaving this enabled will activate Do Not Disturb when you connect your iPhone to a CarPlay-compatible vehicle.

5. Check and Modify Your Notification Settings

If your iPhone 12 Pro Max doesn’t display notifications for a particular app, check that the app’s notification settings and preferences are correctly configured.

Change App Notifications From the iPhone Settings Menu

Launch the Settings app and select Notifications. Next, choose the affected app and make sure Allow Notifications is toggled on.

In addition, make sure Lock Screen, Notification Center, and Banners are enabled per your preferences. You should also enable Sounds and Badges for the app if you want those to fire for new notifications.

Check In-App Notification Settings

Some apps, particularly social media platforms and instant messengers like WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, and similar have dedicated notification settings. These act independently of the notification configuration in your iPhone’s Settings menu that we looked at above.

Thus, if an app doesn’t show notifications despite having notifications enabled on your iPhone, check the mesenger’s in-app notification settings for any irregularities. You can often change notification options for individual conversations, such as muting them permanently.

6. Reinstall the App or Wait for Updates

If your iPhone 12 Pro Max is not getting notifications from one app in particular, it’s possible the developers have accidentally rolled out a buggy update. For those scenarios, you have two options.

You can uninstall and reinstall the app or wait for an update to fix the issue.

On your Home Screen, tap and hold the app you want to delete. And then tap Remove App (-) icon and then tap Delete to confirm.

Now, open the App Store app, find the app you just deleted and download again.

7. Update iOS

There’s a chance that a software bug has messed up your iPhone 12 Pro Max notification. When you have system issues like this, it’s always smart to download and install the latest software update for your iPhone. You can check for updates by going to Settings > General > Software Update. If an update is available, tap Download and Install and follow the on-screen instructions to update your iPhone.

8. Reset iPhone Settings

Still not receiving notifications on your iPhone 12 Pro Max after all the above fixes? At this point, you should try resetting your device’s settings. Doing this will restore your iPhone’s notification preferences to the defaults, hopefully fixing whatever is affecting notification delivery.

Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. Type in your iPhone’s passcode and select Reset All Settings on the prompt.

Keep in mind that resetting your iPhone’s settings puts all options back to the default. This means you’ll have to connect to Wi-Fi networks again, re-configure Bluetooth devices, adjust your privacy settings, and similar. However, your data isn’t affected by this.