Restart the phone

Before trying some technical fixes for your malfunctioning Android notifications, it's always a delightful idea to restart your phone first. Many of us enjoy using our phones for several days, or even months, without caring to restart it. Here, restarting your phone could help fix some software-related issues which include not getting notifications on android. Before diving into more fixes below, simply restart your phone to see if it fixes the notification problem. 

Check app notification settings. 

Restarting your phone could fix issues in most cases. But if that doesn't work for you, there are still a handful of other fixes to try. One of them is reviewing your app's notification settings. On newer versions of Android, users can easily change settings for specific app's notifications. 

Take WhatsApp, for instance; the app lets you modify notifications for different functions, such as group chats, personal chats, media playback, backup notifications, etc. Therefore, you may have a problem receiving notifications if some of these are turned off. Follow the steps below to check if you've disabled notifications for any app on your phone. 

Open your Apps drawer 

Locate the affected app. 

Long press on the app's icon, then select 'App info' from the menu. 

In the App Info window, tap 'Notifications'. 

You'll see a list of notification option available for the app. Scroll down to see anyone disabled and turn it on if it corresponds with what you're looking for. 

Also, if you click on any notification category, you'll be able to choose if you want the notification to be alerting or silent. 

Alternatively, if you can't launch the app's settings from your drawer, simply go to Settings >> Apps & notifications >> locate the affected app >> then tap Notifications. 

Update the app. 

If the “Android notifications not working” issue still exists on your Android, the problem might also come from the app itself and not your phone. This could happen if you're running an outdated version of an app or the current version is buggy. Here, you may need to update the affected app. 

Kindly go to the Play Store to check and download the update for the affected app. If Play Store says you're running on the latest version, kindly try other fixes below or wait for the next update to address the issue. Also, if you're running on a beta version of the app, consider leaving the beta program and install a stable version. 

Disable Do Not Disturb mode. 

We bet you probably have done this, but for the sake of being sure you did so, kindly double-check if you've disabled Do Not Disturb mode to receive notifications from your apps. DND mode is one of those nifty features built on Android to have control over when you want to get notifications. It's also built into some Google core-features like the Bedtime mode, which automatically silences your phone and changes the screen to grayscale during bedtime. 

If you have any of these turned on, perhaps accidentally, push notifications are not working on your android phone. To turn it off, simply swipe down the quick-setting panel and disable Do Not Disturb. 

Clear app cache 

If you're still yet to find luck in any of the fixes mentioned above, also try clearing the cache for the affected app. You remember that time you could view some photos when you opened Instagram without connecting to the internet? That's how app caches work - it stores some data that can be used by apps later. However, this piled-up data could also hinder your Android notifications from showing up if it's getting too much. Follow the steps below to clear cache data from an affected app. 

Open your device settings. 

Click on 'Apps & Notifications' 

Click on 'Manage apps' (or view all apps) to display all apps installed on your phone. 

Now locate the app you're not getting notifications from. 

Tap on 'Storage & cache', then 'Clear cache'. 

Uninstall and reinstall the app. 

As well as clearing the app cache to fix the notification issue, you may also try to uninstall and reinstall the affected app to fix Android notifications not working. Simply go to the Play Store and locate the app, then uninstall it. Safely install the app again and continue using it. 

Check Battery Optimization. 

Before an app can even push out any notification, it must be up-and-running, so you may not receive any notification if an app is put to sleep or shutdown in the background. This becomes more aggressive when Battery Optimization, combined with Power Saver, is turned on to reduce battery consumption. 

Therefore, if you can't get notifications from some apps, kindly check Battery Optimization in your phone settings. Perhaps the apps will sleep when you enable battery optimization. 

On most Android phones, follow the steps below to disable battery optimization for some apps. 

Open your phone Settings app. 

Click on the search bar and enter 'Battery optimization' or just 'Battery'. 

Now click 'Battery optimization' from the list. 

In the battery optimization window, select the option to view all apps. 

Now locate the affected app and disable battery optimization. 

However, be careful of apps you turn off battery optimizations for in order not to kill your battery in less time. 

Check whether notifications are blocked by an app you installed. 

On the Google Play Store, many apps claim to 'help you de-clutter your notification panel' or 'keep you less intrusive'. These apps, therefore, travel a long mile to disable notifications from your apps or keep them in a separate place, rather than the common notification panel. Here's a quick way to check if an app is obscuring your notifications. 

Open your phone Settings app. 

Click Apps & notifications. 

Now select 'Special app Access’ 

Tap 'Notification Access’ from the list. 

It will show a list of apps that have access to your notification. Kindly review them and uninstall the culprit. 

Reset app preferences. 

We've mentioned reviewing notification settings for every app on your phone to fix this issue. Meanwhile, you can also reset app preferences on your phone, which will restore default preferences for your apps.   

Open your device Settings 

Tap 'Apps & notifications' 

Select 'App info' or 'Manage apps' to show all installed applications. 

Now click the 3-dot menu at the top-right corner, then select Reset app preferences. 

Confirm to reset app preferences. 

Doing this will re-enable your notifications and reset all apps to default settings, but you'll not lose any data.