Push Notification Issues

Overview

We know push notifications are a crucial feature for your apps, and sometimes things go wrong. If you receive an error message when sending your push notification, refer to the Common Error Messages section below. If you do not receive an error message, but the push notification fails to deliver to your device, see the Troubleshooting Delivery Failure section below.

If none of the circumstances below apply to your situation, or you are still encountering issues after troubleshooting, do not hesitate to email us directly. Our support team has a great deal of experience diagnosing push notifications problems, and is more than happy to help you get your notifications back up and running!

Resolution

Rebuilding Push Notification Certificates

iOS push notification troubles can often be resolved with a certificate rebuild, this is done through our Admin Dashboard. Please feel free to reach out to us and ask for a APNS Regeneration and we will happily assist.

Note: Keep in mind, this doesn't resolve all issues, so if you continue to encounter issues, it's important to review the possible causes below.

Android apps don't have the same type of certificate, and thus Android push notification issues won't be remedied with a cert rebuild. However, Android push notification problems are often resolved by updating your Android app. Again, be sure to check out the potential causes & fixes below before taking any serious action.

Common Error Messages

Your message will be added to the list but not sent as a push notification to iPhone App Users. Please publish your app for the iPhone/iPad to start the setup process.

Translation: Your app isn't live on iOS. Push notifications can't be sent out to users until the app is live and available for download in the App Store because, until that point, it hasn't actually been installed on devices, which is crucial to push notification delivery.
Fix: Publish your app! Once it's been uploaded to the App Store and is Ready for Sale, you can begin utilizing the push notification feature.

NOTE: If you receive this error but your app is already live for iOS, please let us know. We may simply need to activate a setting in the back-end.

Whoops! Connection to APNS server has failed. Please try again.

Translation: The push notification certificate for this app, which was created in Apple Developer during the upload process, is either faulty or has expired, as it does after one year. This certificate is the primary connection between our platform and Apple, so when it fails, so do the push notifications.
Fix: We'll need to rebuild your push notifications. Please submit an APNS regeneration.

We could not send push notifications to your Android users because you do not have the correct Android Market URL input. Please email support so we can help fix the issue!

Translation: The Android Market URL in the Info section of this app is incorrect. This URL is key to Android push notification delivery, so it's crucial you verify it when your Android app goes live.
Fix: Copy & paste the Android Market URL (found on Google Play) into the Info section of your app and save your changes. Test out the push notifications once more, and they should successfully deliver to Android devices.

Troubleshooting Delivery Failure

iOS Devices

If you sent a push notification to all iOS devices but didn't receive it on your iPhone/iPad. Verify that both push notifications and location services are enabled for this app under your device's settings.

Go to Settings > Notifications and scroll through the list to locate the app.
Once located, you'll see the types of notifications that are currently enabled listed below the name.
Click on the app to view its notification settings.
Make sure Allow Notifications and Show on Lock Screen are enabled, as well as any other notification types you'd like. (Badge App Icon is the red notifier that appears on the app icon when a push notification is received. Banners appear briefly at the top of your screen when your device is in use. Alerts pop up on the home screen and require you to click View or Dismiss.)
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and scroll through the list to locate the app.
Make sure it says Always next to the app. If it says Never, click on the app and change it to Always.
Return to your home screen.
Lock your home screen, and attempt to send your push notification once more.
Refresh the app with a force-close, so the server can re-register your device's location.
Launch the app on your device.
Leave it open until the location arrow at the top right of the screen disappears.
The app has to be running in the background for push notifications to work.
Lock your home screen, and attempt to send your push notification once more.
If it still fails to come through, see the next step below.

If the above processes are complete and you're still not receiving the push notification, try testing on another iOS device. Sometimes specific devices will present temporary issues. We're happy to test out push notifications on our end as well, so if you've hit a wall, always feel free to email us so we can do some troubleshooting.

Android Devices

If you send a push notification to an Android device but didn't receive it on your Android. Go to the Info section of your app and make sure the Android Market URL is properly filled out. If your URL's prefix is "https://" then try removing the 's' and saving. This 's' can sometimes interfere with push notification delivery.

NOTE: We recommend making this change for the App Store URL as well.

If there is no clear reason why the push notifications are failing, try republishing for Android and updating your app. More often than not, a simple update will resolve your issues.