Text Notifications Not Showing on Watch

[Pitbull Dad]

Well I am having a day.

I will try and keep this short. The watch gets the messages fine (shows them un-read in my inbox), but does not alert me when they come in.
-my notifications are on (both in the app, on my phone and on the watch)
-notification privacy is OFF
- tried unsyncing the phone and watch and resyncing it twice now
- tried shutting down both the watch and the phone, countless times.
- Software is up to date (OS6 or whatever)
- tried turning the notifications to custom (everything on) and at ‘mirror iphone’ , both do not solve issue.
- obviously I am talking about ONLY when my phone is dark/in my pocket or locked or where ever else within Bluetooth range, yes, I know that they won’t show on the watch when the phone is active.
- the messages beep and notify on my phone, NOT on my watch, even when the phone is dark.
- I-message is active and good to go (but I tried it both ways, no difference)

Something to note, RANDOMLY, the watch will get a text notification EXACTLY AS IT IS SUPPOSED TO, and I will get so so excited like the issue has resolved itself, but it always go back to just how it is soon after. Naturally, this happened while I was at the Apple store this morning with the Genius Bar guy, who of course looked at me like I was crazy. I thought I may have been.

I literally feel defeated lol, I am not a tech person and the Apple store can’t help me.

Can anyone help me?????

 

[Banglazed]

How often do you take off your watch? Do you experience this after or before taking it off? Are you sure silent mode is not on? Is it only text notification or does it applies to apps too?

ttps://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204791

 

[Pitbull Dad]

How often do you take off your watch? Do you experience this after or before taking it off? Are you sure silent mode is not on? Is it only text notification or does it applies to apps too?

ttps://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204791

thanks for the reply.

I take the watch off only to charge it for about an hour after I wake up in the morning and where it the rest of the time. I experience it at all times.

the issue seems to be with all apps, not just the texts, although when someone calls my phone the watch rings and vibrates. I also get the ‘activity’ notifications the same way.

I am positive that it is not on silent mode.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Banglazed]

Did you update your iPhone? Do you rest your palm on your watch when you get notification? Can you test this, Watch app>Passcode>Wrist Detection>OFF and test either somehow to text yourself from a different device or wait for some notification

 

[Pitbull Dad]

Did you update your iPhone? Do you rest your palm on your watch when you get notification? Can you test this, Watch app>Passcode>Wrist Detection>OFF and test either somehow to text yourself from a different device or wait for some notification

Yes my phone has the latest software as of yesterday, and no I do not accidentally utilize the ‘mute’ with the palm over the watch.. I have tried the above steps before as well and it makes no difference.

the most curious thing about this situation is the fact that it just seems to randomly work fine from time to time, and then just goes right back to NOT notifying me, right after. I literally just do not get it

 

[Pitbull Dad]

Nobody else ? No ideas or suggestions or any advice on what I should do...?

 

[mattkat]

I un-paired and then re-paired with my phone and that seemed to fix my notification issues.

 

[PeterRollback]

Well I am having a day.

I will try and keep this short. The watch gets the messages fine (shows them un-read in my inbox), but does not alert me when they come in.
-my notifications are on (both in the app, on my phone and on the watch)
-notification privacy is OFF
- tried unsyncing the phone and watch and resyncing it twice now
- tried shutting down both the watch and the phone, countless times.
- Software is up to date (OS6 or whatever)
- tried turning the notifications to custom (everything on) and at ‘mirror iphone’ , both do not solve issue.
- obviously I am talking about ONLY when my phone is dark/in my pocket or locked or where ever else within Bluetooth range, yes, I know that they won’t show on the watch when the phone is active.
- the messages beep and notify on my phone, NOT on my watch, even when the phone is dark.
- I-message is active and good to go (but I tried it both ways, no difference)

Something to note, RANDOMLY, the watch will get a text notification EXACTLY AS IT IS SUPPOSED TO, and I will get so so excited like the issue has resolved itself, but it always go back to just how it is soon after. Naturally, this happened while I was at the Apple store this morning with the Genius Bar guy, who of course looked at me like I was crazy. I thought I may have been.

I literally feel defeated lol, I am not a tech person and the Apple store can’t help me.

Can anyone help me?????

Why can’t the Apple store help you? I would say unpair the watch but set up as new (you didn’t specify). Don’t restore from a back up.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

So you definitely turned off wrist detection and tested it. That should tell you if there is an issue with the infrared sensor. I take it that yiu don’t have theatre mode switch on or do not disturb.
Can you send messages from your watch. Do you use WhatsApp. Are notifications coming through fir that?
The only other thing I can suggest is to remove any third party apps, re-pair and try that

 

[Pitbull Dad]

Well, we figured it out.

Tattoos. I am covered in black/dark tattoos, including my wrists and hands and I never even THOUGHT about that being anything to do with it, but after 3 hours in the AppleStore today (and yes, turning the wrist detection off, trying the watch on somebody else and vice versa....), we conclusively determined that the tattoos on my wrists were stopping the sensor from registering that the watch was actually on my wrist at all. That is why it were intermittently receiving texts, because as the watch would be moving around (and touching lighter shades of ink, etc), it would register , just for a minute, and then go right back to not at all.

Anyway thank you guys for the help, I thought you all would appreciate the conclusion, it was driving me ****ing CRAZY.

 

[Fireproof!]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting the conclusion - i had no new advice to offer but was curious of the conclusion.