We operate a social network application, SportsYou with over 3 million monthly active users and are experiencing significant issues with push notification delivery through APNs.
We have a large number of users reporting they are not receiving push notifications. Our infrastructure uses AWS SNS integrated with APNs to deliver notifications. However, AWS CloudWatch consistently reports successful delivery (Success response), even though users confirm they never received the notifications.
Because we receive success responses from AWS SNS, our system does not attempt to recreate or refresh the device endpoints. This leaves us unable to detect or recover from these delivery failures automatically.
This issue is widespread and inconsistent. It affects users across multiple variables including different iOS versions, different device models, and different versions of our application. We cannot identify a clear pattern that would help us isolate the root cause.
With millions of active users, even a small percentage of delivery failures represents thousands of users experiencing a degraded service. This is significantly impacting user engagement and satisfaction.
We need guidance on how to properly diagnose this issue and ensure reliable notification delivery to our users. Specifically, we'd like to understand why we're receiving success responses when notifications aren't being delivered, and what steps we can take to detect and prevent these failures.
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We are facing an issue where VoIP notifications are not delivered to a user's device.
If we login with the user credentials on another device the VoIP notifications are being received, if he logs in on his device VoIP notifications are not being received anymore on all devices.
So When the user logs in on the affected device, all devices on that account stop receiving VoIP pushes (including the affected one). Logging out on the affected device restores delivery to other devices.
What could cause this issue?
It's only happening for this user so the configuration and mobile app PushKit code is working as intended.
We operate a social network application, SportsYou with over 3 million monthly active users and are experiencing significant issues with push notification delivery through APNs.
We have a large number of users reporting they are not receiving push notifications. Our infrastructure uses AWS SNS integrated with APNs to deliver notifications. However, AWS CloudWatch consistently reports successful delivery (Success response), even though users confirm they never received the notifications.
Because we receive success responses from AWS SNS, our system does not attempt to recreate or refresh the device endpoints. This leaves us unable to detect or recover from these delivery failures automatically.
This issue is widespread and inconsistent. It affects users across multiple variables including different iOS versions, different device models, and different versions of our application. We cannot identify a clear pattern that would help us isolate the root cause.
With millions of active users, even a small percentage of delivery failures represents thousands of users experiencing a degraded service. This is significantly impacting user engagement and satisfaction.
We need guidance on how to properly diagnose this issue and ensure reliable notification delivery to our users. Specifically, we'd like to understand why we're receiving success responses when notifications aren't being delivered, and what steps we can take to detect and prevent these failures.
I am an iOS development engineer. Recently, I updated the Xcode version to 16.1 (16B40) and updated my debugging device (iPhone 15) to iOS 18.1.1. However, I found that I could not respond to the delegate method.
I confirmed that my code, certificate, Xcode settings, and network environment had not changed. Simply executing
application.registerForRemoteNotifications()
in
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool
did not receive a response(didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken or didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError ).
In the same environment, when I switched to another device for debugging (iOS 17.0.3), the delegate method would respond.
I really don't know what to do, I hope someone can help me, I would be very grateful.
Please note: Everything is normal when using devices before iOS 18.1.1 version
I have a working AlarmKit app, but I've noticed that after any iOS update (e.g. the 26.0.1 update from a few days ago), my scheduled alarms seem to lose their UI strings, so instead of the Stop button saying "Stop", it says "alarm_ui_stop_button" (which is my localization key for the button text). If I delete the alarm and re-add it, then it works again... until the next software update.
It seems like OS updates are interfering with the link between scheduled alarms and app localization strings, which I believe are dynamically looked up at alarm time (not at configuration time).
I am settings the strings in the standard way like this:
AlarmManager.AlarmConfiguration(
schedule: .fixed(date),
attributes: AlarmAttributes<SDAlarmMetadata>(
presentation: AlarmPresentation(
alert: AlarmPresentation.Alert(
title: "alarm_ui_title",
stopButton: .init(text: "alarm_ui_stop_button", textColor: .yellow, systemImageName: "xmark")
)
),
metadata: SDAlarmMetadata(title: title, subtitle: subtitle),
tintColor: .yellow
),
sound: .default
)
Has anyone else noticed this or found a workaround? I guess I could use localization keys that are identical to the desired text, but this would only work for one language.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
In the new AlarmKit API, how do you localize NSAlarmKitUsageDescription?
In the case of other usage descriptions, such as NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription, you can use an InfoPlist.xcstrings file, but this does not appear to work for NSAlarmKitUsageDescription.
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
When subscription renewing , can do purchase_date faster than notification_date quickly?
I received my app user purchase notification
this purchase date is 2025-08-31 06:42:54(UTC)
but notification date is 2025-08-30 22:45:01(UTC)
how can you do this?
I can't understand it please let me explain
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Hello Team,
We are currently experiencing an issue where some of our devices are not receiving push notifications. We are sending notifications via the Apple Push Notification portal (https://developer.apple.com/notifications/push-notifications-console/) using the following two requests. However, in both cases, the notifications are not being delivered to the devices.
Scenario 1 :
When we send a request with apns-push-type set to alert, we receive the following error.
Request :
curl -v
--header "authorization: bearer ${AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN}"
--header "apns-topic: com.testcompany.sampletest"
--header "apns-push-type: alert"
--header "apns-priority: 10"
--header "apns-expiration: 0"
--data '{"aps":{"alert":{"title":"Test Notification Title","subtitle":"Test Notification Sub Title","body":"Test Notification Body"}}}'
--http2 https://api.push.apple.com:443/3/device/*devicetoken*
Response:
{
"code": 400,
"message": "bad-request",
"reason": "The device token is inactive for the specified topic. There is no need to send further pushes to the same device token, unless your application retrieves the same device token.",
"requestUuid": "c4ae39b4-87e1-4269-a1e9-163f60ec0385"
}
Scenario 2 :
However, if we send the request with apns-push-type set to background, the request is processed successfully by APNs, but no notification is received on the device.
Request :
curl -v
--header "authorization: bearer ${AUTHENTICATION_TOKEN}"
--header "apns-topic: com.testcompany.sampletest"
--header "apns-push-type: background"
--header "apns-priority: 10"
--header "apns-expiration: 0"
--data '{"aps":{"alert":{"title":"Test Notification Title","subtitle":"Test Notification Sub Title","body":"Test Notification Body"}}}'
--http2 https://api.push.apple.com:443/3/device/*devicetoken*
Response:
Getting a message that The notification sent successfully but no notification is received on the device.
In both cases (with alert and background push types), the push notification does not reach the device.
Additionally, when we validated the device token using the APNs Device Token Validator, it appears to be valid and returns the following message.
"Device Token is valid for sending Alert & Background push-type notifications in the Production environment"
Affected Device:
macOS version : MacOS 15.3.1
Processor : Apple M1
Could you please assist me in resolving this issue?
Thanks
We have an app in Swift that uses push notifications. It has a deployment target of iOS 15.0
I originally audited our app for iOS 26 by building it with Xcode 26 beta 3. At that point, all was well. Our implementation of application:didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken was called.
But when rebuilding the app with beta 4, 5 and now 6, that function is no longer being called.
I created a simple test case by creating a default iOS app project, then performing these additional steps:
Set bundle ID to our app's ID
Add the Push Notifications capability
Add in application:didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken: with a print("HERE") just to set a breakpoint.
Added the following code inside application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: along with setting a breakpoint on the registerForRemoteNotifications line:
UNUserNotificationCenter.current().requestAuthorization(options: [.badge, .alert, .sound]) { granted, _ in
DispatchQueue.main.async {
UIApplication.shared.registerForRemoteNotifications()
}
}
Building and running with Xcode 26 beta 6 (17A5305f) generates these two different outcomes based upon the OS running in the Simulator:
iPhone 16 Pro simulator running iOS 18.4 - both breakpoints are reached
iPhone 16 Pro simulator running iOS 26 - only the breakpoint on UIApplication.shared.registerForRemoteNotifications is reached.
Assuming this is a bug in iOS 26. Or, is there something additional we now need to do to get push notifications working?
AlarmKit custom sounds are universally broken in iOS 26.0 stable - instead of playing your custom sound, it plays a system error/timeout beep.
I've spent days investigating why custom sounds result in what sounds like an error beep (like when you cancel an operation or hit a timeout) instead of the actual audio file. I can now prove this is an Apple bug, not implementation error.
Evidence:
Test 1: My Implementation
Followed Apple's documentation exactly
Tried both bundle and Library/Sounds (as documented)
Result: System error beep (not my audio)
Test 2: Professional Apps
Tested ADHDAlarms (popular AlarmKit example by jacobsapps) https://github.com/jacobsapps/ADHDAlarms
Their airhorn.mp3 custom sound: same error beep (not an airhorn)
Their default sound: works perfectly
Test 3: Device Testing
Physical iPhone (iOS 26.0 - 23A341): broken
iOS Simulator: broken
Not device-specific
Files are found correctly, but the actual audio file is never played. Instead, you hear what sounds like a system error/cancellation tone.
What I've Eliminated
Not a Library/Sounds vs Bundle issue (both broken)
Not a file format issue (.mp3, .caf, .m4a all broken)
Not an implementation issue (professional apps broken too)
Not a device issue (simulator and device both broken)
Not a file size issue (5KB to 2MB all broken)
The Documentation Lie:
Apple's docs for AlertConfiguration.AlertSound.named(_:) state:
"Choose a file that's in your app's main bundle or the Library/Sounds folder"
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/activitykit/alertconfiguration/alertsound/named(_:)
Both locations are broken.
Tested on: iOS 26.0 (23A341), Xcode 26.0.1, Swift 6.2
Impact:
This affects any app trying to:
Provide personalized wake-up sounds
Use custom alarm tones
Create meditation/sleep apps
Differentiate from default iOS alarms
Current Status:
Multiple bug reports filed: FB19900024, FB18237648, FB19779004
Apple engineer claimed "fixed in latest beta" in August
Still broken in iOS 26.0 stable (September)
Workaround:
None that I know of. You must use .default sound.
For apps needing custom audio, play it with AVAudioPlayer after the alarm fires and user opens the app.
Question:
Has ANYONE gotten custom AlarmKit sounds working in iOS 26.0 stable? If so, plzzz help I'd be so grateful.
Hi,
We have a use case where our app needs to send repeated push notifications (both normal and critical alerts) to inform the user about a critical device state and grab their attention.
Since iOS doesn’t allow us to schedule local notifications beyond 30 seconds, I need to send multiple pushes from the server side.
My questions are:
Is there any documented limit on how many push notifications can be sent back-to-back before Apple starts throttling or restricting them?
Are critical alerts treated differently from normal notifications in terms of delivery restrictions or frequency limits?
Is there a recommended approach for handling scenarios where repeated urgent notifications are necessary to keep the user informed?
I want to make sure I’m following Apple’s guidelines and not risking rejection during review.
When the app kills the process. Received APNs push message. Push messages carry voice related information. At the same time as receiving the push, obtain the voice playback of this voice message. How to achieve it?
Hi Apple team,
We’re shipping a Live Caller ID Lookup extension on iOS 18 and have a question about the automatic refresh of configuration/PIR parameters.
Questions
1. Is there any documented interval/TTL (min/max) for the system’s automatic refresh of /config and PIR parameters, or is it entirely opportunistic (battery/network/usage)? I can’t find a cadence in the IdentityLookup docs.
2. Does iOS honor server cache headers (e.g., Cache-Control/Expires) to influence when it re-fetches?
3. Which events also trigger a refresh (enable/disable in Settings, OS/app update, device reboot, token/epoch change)?
4. Are there rate limits or best-practice limits for calling refreshExtensionContext and refreshPIRParameters?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Tags:
Extensions
SMS and Call Reporting
CallKit
There's a list of bug reports:
FB19778882
FB19813796
FB19852724
FB19767262
FB20378888
FB20379383
FB20394663
Me and many other users have issue with push notifications. To reproduce this you should do this steps:
Lock iPhone and make it idle for 10+ minutes;
Send any message from other device via third-party app that uses push notifications (WhatsApp, Telegram and etc.);
After few attempts you can see, that messages don't deliver. They delivers immediately when I unlock iPhone or go to the app.
This bug reproduces on iOS 18.7 and 27.
As I think iPhone goes to deep sleep after 10+ minutes after it locked and don't get push notifications. I've tried everything: many of settings, DFU without backup, but nothing helps to resolve this issue. Pay attention, please, cause this bug is very annoying and present on iOS 18.7 (that is the last for many devices) and latest iOS 26. Thanks!
I created my app. One of its functionality is receive remote notification in the background (it receives it from Firebase Cloud Messaging via APNS) and replies with device location data. This is "boat tracking and alarm" type of app.
It worked well both on my iPhone (where I use the same Apple ID as on developer's account) and on my son's iPad (different Apple ID). After the first review, when app was rejected with some remarks, background remote notifications completely stopped working on my iPhone. It looks like my iPhone put the app in permanent sleep. It never receives the background notifications. It receives them though in 2 case:
when I open the app (it is no longer in background)
when location is changed (it wakes app in the background). But the app should also respond when the device is stable at the position (I use both: precise and Significant Location Change. In the latter case changes are very rare). Btw, I scheduled a background task, not location, and it also never gets executed, so this workaround does not work.
I describe it, so any Apple engineer does not get confused, verifying that these remote notifications reach the device. NO, they never get through when app is in the background (THIS IS THE PROBLEM), not that they are never delivered (the are, in the foreground). And the proof that it is not a problem with the app or remote notification construction is:
they work on another drives (iPad) with no issues. Sometimes they are very delayed, sometimes almost instant. But usually they work.
they worked the same way on my iPhone (with my developer's Apple ID) before the first rejection, and I haven't messed with messaging functionality since then.
Now I am over with the last hope I had. I finally got my app release in App Store. I hoped official version would release some blockade my iOS put on my app. But unfortunately not. Official version works the same way as the test one. It works fine (receiving notifications in the background) on my son's iPad and it does not receive any background notification on my iPhone (100% block rate).
Can anyone help me how can I reset my apps limits, the iOS created for my app? It seems that the rejection was a sparkle here - this is just a hint. I can provide any system logs for Apple engineers from both devices (iPhone and iPad) if you would like to check this case.
I’m using the shielding API, my code:
let store = ManagedSettingsStore()
let whitelist = SharedDefaults.whitelistApplications
store.shield.applicationCategories = .all(except: whitelist)
And to clear the shield, my code is:
store.shield.applications = nil
store.shield.applicationCategories = nil
The issue:
Some users report that after uninstalling my app, the shield is still active, and the UI changes to the default iOS system interface. Even after restarting the device, the apps on the phone remains locked, so the user has no way to remove the shield.
Recently I’ve received several complaints on social media and App Store comments, accusing my app of being malicious software.
This is not a 100% reproducible bug, but it happens frequently enough. I was also able to reproduce it myself by uninstalling the app during an active lock session.
Could Apple engineers please look into this issue and advise how to ensure that once the user uninstalls the app, the device is no longer locked?
ISSUE:
CloudKit subscriptions are not triggering push notifications despite correct configuration. CloudKit logs show RecordSave events but NO NotificationSend events, indicating CloudKit is not attempting to send to APNS.
CONTAINER:
iCloud.Wunderkind.StrikeForceApp
ENVIRONMENT:
Tested in both Development and Production
iOS 18.6.x
Xcode 15.x (update with your version)
Device: iPhone (not simulator)
EVIDENCE:
Subscriptions exist and are visible in CloudKit Dashboard
Records are being created successfully (verified in logs)
Device token is registered: 60eb962ff189dc5c2c0ef3e9d6643d72b4442a831bae224d2a553588b2e29139
Local notifications work correctly
CloudKit logs show RecordSave but NO NotificationSend events
STEPS TAKEN:
Regenerated push certificates
Disabled and re-enabled Push Notifications capability
Deleted and recreated subscriptions
Tested in both Development and Production environments
Verified aps-environment entitlement matches environment
Confirmed notification permissions granted
SPECIFIC TEST:
Creating a Challenge record with recipientRef matching my user triggers:
✅ RecordSave event in CloudKit logs
❌ No NotificationSend event
❌ No push notification received
EXPECTED:
CloudKit should send NotificationSend events and deliver push notifications when subscriptions match.
ACTUAL:
No NotificationSend events appear in CloudKit logs, no notifications delivered.
Since upgrading to Xcode 26 beta 4 and using the iOS 26 simulator for testing our app, we've stopped being able to receive device tokens for the simulator from the development APNS environment.
The APNS environment is able to return meta device information (e.g. model, type, manufacturer) but there are no device tokens present. When running the same app using the iOS 18.5 simulator, we are able to register the device with the same APNS environment and receive a valid device token.
Could anyone play a sound from the Library/Sounds directory using alarmkit? Same file can play in app bundle, but not available in Library/Sounds directory. Is this by design?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Notifications
Notification coordination between iOS and watchOS is not working properly
watchOS and iOS try to coordinate between phone and watch notifications.
The concept here is that if there is a main app and a companion app, they could both be sending a notification, then the notification would alert on both, which is a deviation from how notification mirroring is handled if there is an iOS app but no watch app.
The watch waits for the iOS notification to fire so they can determine if this is the same notification that needs to be deduped, displayed on one device but not the other, or separate notifications to be displayed both.
If there is no notification on the phone, the watch will timeout after 13 seconds and alert anyway.
If you have an iOS companion app, the best solution to this is to send the same notification on both devices simultaneously, and ensuring the UNNotificationRequest.identifier matches on both notifications. This will let the systems determine how to handle the notification correctly and quickly, and the notification will alert right away.
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/765669
According to the above article, "when a notification arrives on watchOS alone first, it coordinates with iOS," but in reality, it doesn't work properly.
Detailed process of this phenomenon
watchOS receives a notification.
On watchOS, the notification is not immediately shown to the user.
iOS receives a notification with the same UNNotificationRequest.identifier as in (1).
The notification in (3) does not appear on either iOS or watchOS. However, the notification from (3) does appear in iOS Notification Center.
Thirteen seconds after watchOS received the notification, the notification from (1) is shown to the user on watchOS.
In the end, the iOS and watchOS notifications are not consolidated and each remains in its respective notification center.
Up to (3) there are no issues. Starting with (4), both iOS and watchOS exhibit a lot of odd behavior.
This phenomenon occurs with both local notifications and push notifications.
When iOS receives the notification first, there is no problem. The notification for watch received later is processed appropriately, and the watchOS notification is not additionally displayed to the user.
Expected proper process
Same as above.
Same as above.
Same as above.
The notification in (1) is integrated into the notification in (3).
The notification in (3) is alerted to the user immediately.
2 sample projects to reproduce
Only the main code is attached.
Sample project1: local notifications
Swift code for local notification app (iOS, watchOS) - App.swift.txt
Sample project2: push notifications
This sample project is implemented using Firebase Functions and Firebase Cloud Messaging.
Swift code push notification app (iOS, watchOS) - App.swift.txt
Server side JavaScript code for FirebaseFunction - index.js.txt
Tested devices and OS
This phenomenon occurred in both of the following patterns.
Pattern 1
Xcode 26.0
iPhone 16 (iOS 26.0)
Apple Watch series 10 (watchOS 26.0)
Pattern 2
Xcode 16.4
iPhone 11 (iOS 18.6)
Apple Watch SE 2nd gen (watchOS 11.6)
Question
Is this phenomenon a bug?
Or is my understanding or implementation incorrect?
Feedback Assistant number
FB20339772