
Are you having difficulty getting FaceBook notifications? Are Facebook push notifications not working, or are your Facebook alerts delayed? This guide will show you how to fix Facebook notification issues on Android or iOS. Read on!
Understanding Facebook Notifications and Common Issues

First, it’s important to understand the different types of Facebook notifications you may receive.
There are two aspects here. One is the notifications you get on your phone. These are push notifications that appear on your mobile device. They will pop up on the top of the screen, and if you pull down the notifications bar, you will see them until you clear them from the notifications bar. Your phone’s settings can control how you receive these notifications.
There are also in-app notifications. Even if you have cleared your notifications from the notification bar, or if your phone’s settings blocked push notifications from Facebook, you can open the Facebook app and click on the bell icon at the top of the page to see the notification tab, which will show you notifications from within the Facebook app.
Note that you can also adjust your notifications settings from within your Facebook settings. If you turn off a certain kind of notification entirely, you won’t get it in your Facebook notifications tab (it also won’t be sent to your phone as a push notification).
Finally, there are also SMS and email notifications available. These can be changed from your Facebook settings.
Common problems you may experience include delayed notifications, no notifications appearing at all, or notifications appearing for certain things. We’ll address the causes of all of those in this guide.
Checking and Adjusting Facebook Notification Settings
If you are not getting notifications at all, the issue is probably with your mobile device. You may have Do Not Disturb mode turned on, you may have blocked Facebook from sending push notifications, or you may have a Focus mode turned on (on iOS).
If you have an Android, go to Settings > Apps and find Facebook. In the Notifications section, make sure notifications are enabled. On many Android devices, notifications can be set to silent, in which case you will get the notification, but your phone will not vibrate and you may not see the push notification until you pull down the notifications bar. So, make sure notifications from Facebook are set to the standard setting and not to “silent.” Also, make sure Do Not Disturb or Sleep mode is not on.
If you have an iPhone, go to the Apps section in your settings, find Facebook, and make sure notifications are turned on. Make sure you are not using a Focus mode; if you are, make sure it doesn’t block Facebook specifically.
It’s also worth noting that if you have no data connection, you won’t get notifications. Make sure Wi-Fi or cellular data is available.
That covers phone settings that may be preventing you from getting notifications from Facebook.
Now, let’s move on to settings on Facebook itself that can be affecting your notifications. Remember, on Facebook itself, you can control how you get notifications through push notifications, SMS, and email. You can also control whether you get notifications in the notifications tab on Facebook itself (which you can access by clicking on the bell icon).
Open the Facebook app and tap on your profile picture in the corner. Navigate to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Notifications.
There, you can control notifications for:
- Comments on your posts
- Tags (when someone tags you)
- Reminders of updates you missed
- Other Activity About You
- Updates From Friends
- Friend Requests
- “People You May Know” Friend Suggestions
- Birthdays of Friends
- Notifications from groups
- Video notifications
- Events
- Notifications from other profiles and pages you manage
- Notifications from pages you follow
- Marketplace notifications
- Fundraiser notifications
- Voting reminders
- Facebook Messenger notifications
- Memories
- Other notifications
You can get very granular here. For each of those options, you can toggle notifications on or off for the following options:
- In-app notifications (Allow notifications on Facebook)
- Push notifications
- Email notifications
- SMS notifications

If you turn off “Allow notifications on Facebook” for “Updates From Friends,” for example, you will not get notified about updates from friends on Facebook at all, even when clicking on the bell icon in the Facebook app. This will also automatically disable the push, email, and SMS notification options. It’s a great way to clean up your notifications tab on Facebook and ensure you don’t get too many notifications about everything.
If you keep “Allow notifications on Facebook” on, you can granularly control whether you should get push, email, and/or SMS notifications.

Note that some types of notifications may not have all the options – for example, you can’t disable “Allow Notifications on Facebook” for comments, but you can still disable push, email, and SMS notifications. In addition, some types of notifications have more options – for example, for tags, you can control whether you get notified about tags in groups.

Troubleshooting Delayed Facebook Notifications
If Facebook notifications are delayed, several things may be happening.
First, you may be having connectivity issues. If your data connection is slow or poor, notifications may be delayed. Make sure you have a solid and strong internet connection.
Turn battery optimization off on your phone. If battery optimization (or Low Power Mode) is turned on, your phone may temporarily block notifications from Facebook to conserve battery.
If Data Saver mode is turned on, it may also block notifications. Go to Settings > Apps > Facebook > Mobile Data & Wi-Fi and turn on Unrestricted Data Usage.
Clear your Facebook app’s cache on Android. Go to Apps in your settings, find Facebook, and clear the cache. If that doesn’t work, restart your device. Those steps often fix such issues and glitches.
Resolving Facebook Messenger Notification Issues

To resolve notification issues from Facebook Messenger, open the Messenger app, click on the hamburger menu at the top, and click on the settings gear icon. Scroll down and click on Notifications & Sounds.
There, you can turn notifications on and off. You can also turn on notifications for specific things, such as invites to channels, message reminders about unread messages, and new chats when you add a Facebook friend.
You can also click on “Customize Notifications” to be taken to your phone’s notification settings for the Messenger app, where you can control how the notifications show up, whether your phone vibrates when you get the notification, and more. Make sure notifications are enabled here, in your phone settings, as well.
Fixing Facebook Notifications That Only Appear When Opening the App
If Facebook notifications only appear when you open the app, the most likely reason is that your phone is blocking notifications from the app.
Go to Apps in your phone’s settings, find Facebook, and make sure notifications for Facebook are enabled and not set to silent. Check that you don’t have Sleep mode or a Focus mode on iOS enabled. Make sure Low Power Mode or battery optimization is not turned on.
On iOS, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and make sure it’s enabled. On Android, go to Facebook in Apps in your settings. Go to Mobile Data & Wi-Fi and make sure Background Data is on.
Make sure Data Saver is not turned on on Android. If it is, go to Settings > Apps > Facebook > Mobile Data & Wi-Fi and make sure Unrestricted Data Usage is turned on.
Restarting your device can also help.
Conclusion
We hope this guide helped you fix any Facebook notification settings that were incorrect and prevent delayed Facebook messages. Remember, notification settings can be controlled both from within the Facebook app settings and from your phone’s settings, so make sure to check both if you can’t figure out where the issue is.