That's an interesting difference. My bug was that the iPhone apps didn't fully populate on the Mac, but when they did show up they produced notifications.
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Notifications from iPhone not working anymore 15.1
- Thread starter Sptzz
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Thank you for this. I really needed my iPhone's Duo notifications to show up on my Mac, and it all broke in MacOS 15.2 for me. I waited (for weeks), and while some apps were added, Duo never showed up on the Mac. I tried offloading Duo from my phone, restarting, then reinstalling as mentioned earlier in this thread, and that didn't work.
Finally, I bit the bullet and did an "erase all content and settings" as you did, followed by a restore of everything from iCloud backup. And now Duo shows up in the list on my Mac and notifications from iPhone are working as expected for me. Thank you!!
Well, I bit the bullet and spent yesterday morning going through that wipe and restore process...all for naught (plus the usual headaches that come with starting over when certain things don't truly restore). Duo etc. are still a no-go for me. I still see all the apps and can toggle them in the Mac notifications settings, but absolutely nothing comes through to my Mac despite being on same Wifi, iCloud account, iPhone Mirroring, etc. Just crazy... 
Yep, went that route for the backup/wipe/restore. They are connected in seemingly every other way.
Make sure you've opened iPhone Mirroring on your Mac to set it up after the iPhone restore. Once I did that the notifications starting working. (Before doing that, I could see all the apps and could toggle them in the Mac notification settings like you, but it didn't do anything.) Keeping my fingers crossed for you!Well, I bit the bullet and spent yesterday morning going through that wipe and restore process...all for naught (plus the usual headaches that come with starting over when certain things don't truly restore). Duo etc. are still a no-go for me. I still see all the apps and can toggle them in the Mac notifications settings, but absolutely nothing comes through to my Mac despite being on same Wifi, iCloud account, iPhone Mirroring, etc. Just crazy...
Thanks but yes, I remembered Mirroring being one of the tips someone posted about possibly getting it to work again, so I made sure they were linked in that fashion as well.
And, yes, thanks for the moral support...I need all I can get! This is extremely frustrating.
iOS 18.2.1 didn't seem to fix this, just so everyone knows.
I've only seen the Allow notifications from iPhone subsection of Notifications settings if I search for it, and then no apps are listed. I can toggle Allow notifications from iPhone on, but that doesn't persist and no apps ever populate there. Upon relaunching the subsection is missing again. So my issue may be slightly different than some of yours.
I've only seen the Allow notifications from iPhone subsection of Notifications settings if I search for it, and then no apps are listed. I can toggle Allow notifications from iPhone on, but that doesn't persist and no apps ever populate there. Upon relaunching the subsection is missing again. So my issue may be slightly different than some of yours.
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Well I'm happy to report, in a weird way, 18.2.1 didn't break it. My iPhone to Mac notifications still work.
Thanks to this article I found, it gave me a clue of where to look, and I managed to get all my apps to pull back in.
/Users/[username]/Library/Daemon Containers/[UUID]/Data/Library/Caches/There are several UUID folders, but one of them should have a 'Placeholders-v2.noindex' folder inside the Caches folder. This folder contains the app stubs. You can use this terminal command to find which UUID/folder path it is if you don't want to look through them manually:
find ~ -name 'Placeholders-v2.noindex'.Here's what mine looks like:
I was feeling dangerous and ended up deleting the whole UUID folder itself and rebooting the Mac to let it regenerate. (It'll generate a new UUID folder name.) Afterwards, all my apps were showing up in the notifications list. It still remembered which apps I've had turned on/off previously, so that must be stored somewhere else, but at least all my apps show up now.
I'm no expert, so do this at your own risk and YMMV. I have not noticed any issues though. I figured it was probably "safe" since it was under my user folder, and I plan on doing a clean install in the near future anyway (or could always create a new Mac user account if it came to that).
- On the Mac, go to System Settings -> Notifications -> Allow notifications from iPhone -> Off.
- Quit System Settings.
- Revoke iPhone Mirroring access (choose either method below).
- From the Mac: Open iPhone Mirroring -> Settings -> Revoke Access
- From the iPhone: Settings -> General -> AirPlay & Continuity -> iPhone Mirroring -> Delete the Mac listed
- Turn off the iPhone.
- Locate the appropriate UUID folder described above and delete it. Be sure to delete it from Trash as well.
- Shut down the Mac.
- Turn the iPhone back on, and unlock it.
- Turn the Mac back on, and log back in.
- Set up iPhone Mirroring again, and allow notifications.
BTW, I'm not sure if that linked article actually has anything to do with iPhone Mirroring. In my testing, I found that my app stubs still get created even when iPhone Mirroring access is revoked and not set up yet (after step 8). It seems to be more about the Mac and iPhone using the same Apple Account rather than using iPhone Mirroring itself.
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You probably won't be surprised to hear that I dove right into this potential solution. Not an instant win but in some twisted way I'm happy to feel like I may have left my own subset to join everyone else's haha.
Now I just have a very limited list of available apps (Books, Maps, News, and Spotify, which is odd since a third party app), all of which are stuck in the off position. I've tried offloading and some other things thus far but don't have time to fully dig into it at the moment. And when I close settings and come back, "Allow Notifications from iPhone" is always turned off.
But again, oddly, I feel like this could be progress...??
I'll mess with it more later.
Oh no! Hopefully it's a step in the right direction. I'll try to tinker with this some more later this afternoon/evening to see if I can find something that'll give better results.
Yeah I'm stumped (again). It's just stuck at this (with no ability to toggle anything either), no matter what I do, like unpairing and reenabling iPhone mirorring in that app, or offloading and redownloading an app.
It's interesting that it shows News as "Mirroring disabled from your iPhone". I looked at News and, indeed, I had all notificcations turned off (not just the "show on Mac" option) for that app. But changing that has no effect on this. Plus, every time I close and reopen settings on my mac, it's back to showing iPhone notifications as disabled. Bizarre but nothing surprises me anymore.
It's interesting that it shows News as "Mirroring disabled from your iPhone". I looked at News and, indeed, I had all notificcations turned off (not just the "show on Mac" option) for that app. But changing that has no effect on this. Plus, every time I close and reopen settings on my mac, it's back to showing iPhone notifications as disabled. Bizarre but nothing surprises me anymore.
I updated my post above with a spoiler tag of the steps I just ran through a few times. It's a bit more thorough and methodical than what I tried earlier, and it pulled in all my apps each time I tested it out. Hopefully you have better luck with it now. But again, YMMV. Maybe we're dealing with multiple different bugs related to this feature.
Thanks for that update. Your original post was so well done, but the step-by-step was also immensely helpful. Interestingly, when I looked in my Placeholders-v2.noindex subdirectory before deleting that UUID folder, it wasn't just a few items. It looked like it should include just about every app, but who knows.
Anyway, things are definitely looking different this time around (with buttons that mostly toggle!). The list is far from complete and it's a seemingly random (small) sampling of my apps. Also, for some reason there's a stuck spinner next to iTunes store.
Update: It stopped spinning when I toggled it off and on, and when I quit and restarted Settings the apps list was much longer, and likely complete.
Oh, and based on your comment in the step-by-step, I did do one more reboot of both devices right after re-enabling iPhone Mirroring.
Getting more interesting. Thanks!
All that said, I may have really just come full circle. Still not seeing any notifications on the Mac, and when I close and reopen Settings, iPhone notifications are turned off. Something seems to be stuck on OFF in the background.
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I think I'm making progress on my own issues with iPhone Mirroring and notifications on Mac.
So, first to explain where I started. I have had an issue for weeks with iPhone Mirroring not working. I couldn't revoke access either, just got an error on the Mac and no mirroring settings were showing up on the phone. Reset Network Settings did not help.
This advice fixed iPhone Mirroring:
But then I noticed that app notifications were not working correctly. I bunch of apps were just missing from the notifications mirroring section of the Mac Settings app.
So I tried iStorm's advice above, which caused all of the notification mirroring settings to disappear from Mac Settings and the Placeholders-v2.noindex did not repopulate, even after rebooting Mac and iPhone.
I tried switching the iPhone used for mirroring to a different iPhone on my Apple Account in Desktop & Dock settings. This caused the Placeholders-v2.noindex to start repopulating with apps. Then I waited a few minutes, and then switched it back to the iPhone I want it to be set to. The Placeholders folder is now still populating with additional apps, I'm assuming apps that were not on the other phone I temporarily set it to use.
I don't have the settings for notification mirroring showing up in Mac yet, but I'm hoping a reboot may finally fix that.
Edit: After quitting the Mac Settings app and waiting a few more minutes, went back into Settings and the notification mirroring settings are back and appear to be working!
So, first to explain where I started. I have had an issue for weeks with iPhone Mirroring not working. I couldn't revoke access either, just got an error on the Mac and no mirroring settings were showing up on the phone. Reset Network Settings did not help.
This advice fixed iPhone Mirroring:
But then I noticed that app notifications were not working correctly. I bunch of apps were just missing from the notifications mirroring section of the Mac Settings app.
So I tried iStorm's advice above, which caused all of the notification mirroring settings to disappear from Mac Settings and the Placeholders-v2.noindex did not repopulate, even after rebooting Mac and iPhone.
I tried switching the iPhone used for mirroring to a different iPhone on my Apple Account in Desktop & Dock settings. This caused the Placeholders-v2.noindex to start repopulating with apps. Then I waited a few minutes, and then switched it back to the iPhone I want it to be set to. The Placeholders folder is now still populating with additional apps, I'm assuming apps that were not on the other phone I temporarily set it to use.
I don't have the settings for notification mirroring showing up in Mac yet, but I'm hoping a reboot may finally fix that.
Edit: After quitting the Mac Settings app and waiting a few more minutes, went back into Settings and the notification mirroring settings are back and appear to be working!
Okay, how weird is this? If I go to Notifications in Settings on my Mac, I don't even see iPhone Notifications as an option!
I have to search for it, turn it back on (of course), and then when I back out it's there! Friggin' bizarre...
Restart Settings, and rinse and repeat. And this has nothing to do with the UUID folder deletion process. I just always search to get to the settings and happened to go to notifications instead this time. Thinking back, there were other times in prior days when I went to notifications and didn't see it there but just didn't stop and think about it. I was thinking the option was somewhere else.
I have to search for it, turn it back on (of course), and then when I back out it's there! Friggin' bizarre...
Restart Settings, and rinse and repeat. And this has nothing to do with the UUID folder deletion process. I just always search to get to the settings and happened to go to notifications instead this time. Thinking back, there were other times in prior days when I went to notifications and didn't see it there but just didn't stop and think about it. I was thinking the option was somewhere else.
Yeah, that is odd! It should be showing up all the time as long as iPhone Mirroring is enabled. I suspect that might be the root cause of your issue. FWIW, I'm able to replicate this behavior if I revoke iPhone Mirroring access, so it seems as if your Mac somehow thinks you haven't set that up yet. I assume iPhone Mirroring has been working fine otherwise?
Just a wild guess, but could try running
find ~ -name '*ScreenContinuity*' to see if there's any files or folders you're comfortable messing with or deleting to reset iPhone Mirroring.Another thought (based on someone in this thread), sign out of your iCloud account on your Mac, restart, and sign back in. It's also Apple's very last tip on this page. I wouldn't think you'd have to do this on your phone again since you already did it from the restore you did earlier.
Yes, iPhone mirroring always works just fine in that app.
Went ahead and tried the iCloud sign-out on my Mac (and my iPhone again for the heck of it) and, aside from some serious headaches getting my Mac back to normal, including the mirroring app acting up, actually, I'm back to the same point as right before trying it.
Here's what I'm seeing (not sure why the "operation not permitted" errors since Terminal has full disk access):
Maybe I'll try deleting some or all tomorrow night when I have time to tinker with things again. Thanks for the ideas!
Okay, so I had the idea to just go nuclear on this thing and delete the app and try to reinstall it (saved the app elsewhere but if that doesn't work does it matter since useless to me anyway?), but wow is it locked down.
I've gotten as far as figuring out that the appropriate terminal command (because it treats it as a directory) is sudo rm -rf /System/Applications/iPhone\ Mirroring.app.
I had to give Terminal full disk access and also go into Utilities in Recovery Mode and do a "csrutil disable" command just to get past "operation not permitted" (and if anyone tries anything like this, always remember to go BACK to Utilities in Recovery Mode when done and use "csrutil enable" to turn System Integrity Protection back ON). But now I'm getting a "Read-Only file system" error instead. UGH! Can't figure out how to get past that one if iStorm or anyone else happens to know. Sharing & File Permissions on the file info for the app already shows read/write access for System (can't change it from read only on the everyone or wheel levels).
And for the record, here's all the crap tied to the mirroring app! (Took 3 screenshots to get it all, plus, whoops some icons got in there)
I've gotten as far as figuring out that the appropriate terminal command (because it treats it as a directory) is sudo rm -rf /System/Applications/iPhone\ Mirroring.app.
I had to give Terminal full disk access and also go into Utilities in Recovery Mode and do a "csrutil disable" command just to get past "operation not permitted" (and if anyone tries anything like this, always remember to go BACK to Utilities in Recovery Mode when done and use "csrutil enable" to turn System Integrity Protection back ON). But now I'm getting a "Read-Only file system" error instead. UGH! Can't figure out how to get past that one if iStorm or anyone else happens to know. Sharing & File Permissions on the file info for the app already shows read/write access for System (can't change it from read only on the everyone or wheel levels).
And for the record, here's all the crap tied to the mirroring app! (Took 3 screenshots to get it all, plus, whoops some icons got in there)
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I think this might be going a bit too far. iPhone Mirroring is a system app and cannot be uninstalled, and it's not in the App Store so you wouldn't be able to reinstall it anyway. macOS keeps its system data in a signed/sealed/read-only volume, and I believe it checks the integrity of it to make sure things are correct. I don't think any of those files would be the problem.
I just saw this thread, which gave me another clue for the final mystery I had.
~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.UserNotifications/I deleted that folder and rebooted. That made it forget which apps I had turned notifications off for, so this is where those particular settings are stored. Could try deleting that to see if it helps anything for you.
If it still doesn't, my thoughts would be to try the following (in no particular order):
- If you're wanting to go nuclear and deleting stuff, I would stay within your home folder.
- Sign out of iCloud, reboot, and sign back in (if you haven't already).
- Create a new Mac user account and see if it works there. If it does, I think that further shows that something's wrong within your original home folder. Either keep digging, or switch to using a new user account.