Have you ever gotten a “Notifications Silenced” message when sending a message to someone in your Messages app?
You might have thought your friends or family members were ignoring you or avoiding you, but it turns out that this issue is being caused by Apple’s iOS 15.1 update from last year.
This update broke how alerts function for your iPhone by adding a Focus Mode that lets you mute notifications from particular apps or contacts.
According to Apple, this new feature was designed to help its users focus on what they are doing on their phones, which can be great if you want peace and quiet, especially when working on something important.
iOS 15’s Focus Mode lets you silence notifications from select or all apps or contacts and eliminate potential distractions while you work, study, sleep, and the like. But let me tell you this: it’s a two-way street. You can pause the notifications, but so can a person you are trying to reach. Because of this, people are often met with the “_____ has notifications silenced” message. It often brings in confusion, as people may think someone is ignoring them when in reality, they have not even seen the message.
It can also be frustrating if you do not know how to switch this off and want to see what your friends are sending you, and vice versa.
Fortunately, there are steps you can follow to fix this issue, and we will walk you through these steps right here. But first, let us uncover the reasons why this happens.
Why Are Your iPhone’s Notifications Getting Silenced?
What exactly is causing this problem?
There are a few reasons why this is happening, and here are the most common ones:
- You have the phone’s Focus Mode enabled. When Focus Mode is turned on (and you do not even realize it), it silences all alerts from your phone, including notifications from applications like Messages, WhatsApp, Facebook, or Twitter.
- Second, you have shared your Focus Mode settings with another person who has turned this feature off on their own device. What does this mean? It means that when you share the same settings with someone else, they will also receive no notifications while they have their device in Focus Mode – even if yours has not been turned on yet!
- Third, a bug in iOS 15 causes notifications to stop functioning when certain apps are updated while in Focus Mode.
Suppose you are experiencing the “Notifications Silenced” problems or any other types of notifications. In that case, it is recommended that you tackle and combat this issue because there is no way to see dismissed notifications on your iPhone, and you could miss some important alerts.
Now, let us head over to the ways how you can fix this issue.
Ways To Fix This Issue
Check Your Focus Settings
Let us start with the most obvious. First off, you should check if the Focus Mode is enabled. Depending on select settings, the Focus mode tends to block notifications from some apps or even altogether.
Proceed to the Control Center, and make sure the Focus Mode (half-moon icon) is disabled. With the Focus Mode disabled, head over to Messages to check if you can receive notifications again. If not, you will have to put in more work in order to make it work again.
Check All Your Devices
This is perhaps the main reason why you are facing the problem in the first place. Many forum posts about this issue state that users have the Focus Mode off, but they can still not receive notifications. This is probably caused by a feature within Focus Mode that is both very useful and confusing. That feature lets you sync your Focus Mode settings across all your iOS devices. So, if, for instance, you set up Focus Mode on your iPhone, it will automatically turn on your iPad, even if it is not set up.
Should you want to avoid this, here are the steps on how to disable the option that syncs the Focus Mode across all your devices:
- Head over to Settings.
- Then, proceed to Focus.
- Then, toggle the Share Across Devices option OFF.
Now, your Focus settings will only apply locally to a device you have set it with.
Share Your Focus Status
When the “Share your Focus status” option is enabled, applications will notify people that your Focus Mode is turned on and that you are unable to receive messages. Yet, some reports on forums say this option can actually cause some sort of interference that will disable you from receiving notifications, even if the Focus Mode is off.
If, indeed, this is the case, you can only turn off this option and wait for Apple to release an update that will eventually fix the issue and problem. Here are the steps:
- Head over to Settings.
- Then, go to Focus, and tap the Focus Mode you usually use (for example, Do Not Disturb).
- Tap Focus Status.
- Finally, toggle the Focus Status option off.
That’s about it. We hope this article has helped you resolve the “Notifications Silenced” issue and understand what the “Notifications Silenced” message means. Keep browsing this PVP Live website for more insights and discussions about technology.
