Muted bell trapped inside a soundproof box illustration
Notifications can be “enabled” on your Mac and still not show up—no banner, no sound, nothing in Notification Center. That usually means something is quietly intercepting them (Focus modes, per-app delivery rules, or background limits), not that notifications are broken.

Let’s cover why this happens, then walk through fixes in a safe order.

1. Why this happens (the quick mental model)

On macOS, notifications don’t come from one switch. They flow through a chain: the app has to be allowed to send them, macOS has to allow the chosen delivery style (banners/alerts), Focus can silence them, and the app must be allowed to run enough in the background to deliver them on time.

  • Focus (Do Not Disturb) can silence everything, or allow only certain people/apps.
  • Per-app notification style can be set to “None,” or to “Alerts” that don’t auto-dismiss (and feel like they never appeared).
  • Notification grouping and summaries can hide things until later.
  • Background limits (battery/energy, login items, network/VPN/firewall) can prevent timely delivery.

Moon icon blocking notification tiles in a clean diagram
If notifications feel random, it’s often because one of these layers is changing by time, location, or device state.

2. Check Focus mode and allowed apps (most common “it’s on but silent” cause)

Focus is designed to make notifications disappear without looking “off.” It can also be scheduled, triggered by location, or mirrored from your iPhone/iPad.

  • Open Control Center (menu bar) → Focus and confirm it’s truly off.
  • Go to System Settings → Focus and check:
  • Allowed Notifications: make sure the apps you care about are allowed (or set to allow all).
  • Schedules / Automation: disable any that might be turning Focus on unexpectedly.
  • Share across devices: if enabled, your iPhone’s Focus can silently affect your Mac.

After changing Focus settings, trigger a test notification (send yourself an email/message, or use an app’s “test notification” option if it has one).

3. Verify per-app notification delivery style (banners vs alerts vs none)

Even with notifications allowed, an app can be set to deliver in a way that’s easy to miss.

  • Go to System Settings → Notifications.
  • Select the problem app and confirm:
  • Allow Notifications is on.
  • Notification style is set to Banners or Alerts (not “None”).
  • Sounds is on if you expect audio.
  • Show in Notification Center is on (so you can at least find them later).
  • Badges is on if you rely on icon counts instead of banners.

One subtle gotcha: Alerts stick around until dismissed. If you have a full screen app or you’re on another Space, they can pile up without ever feeling like they “popped.”

4. Turn off Notification Summary (or exclude time-sensitive apps)

Notification Summary can make messages arrive “later,” which feels like they never arrived.

  • Go to System Settings → Notifications.
  • If Scheduled summary is enabled, either disable it or remove key apps from the summary list.
  • For urgent apps, enable options like Time Sensitive Notifications (if shown) so they can break through summaries and some Focus setups.

If your “missing” notifications suddenly appear in a batch at specific times, this is the likely cause.

5. Make sure Notification Center isn’t clogged (and check grouping)

Sometimes the notifications are arriving, but they’re grouped or buried.

  • Click the date/time in the menu bar to open Notification Center.
  • Clear old notifications and see if new ones start appearing normally.
  • In System Settings → Notifications → app → check Notification grouping. Try changing grouping to see if it makes new items easier to notice.

A quick clear-out can also reveal whether the issue is “no delivery” vs “delivered but hard to spot.”

6. Check background permission blockers (Login Items, battery settings, and network filters)

For many apps, timely notifications depend on background activity and stable network access.

  • Go to System Settings → General → Login Items and look under Allow in the Background. If the app (or its helper) is off, turn it on.
  • Go to System Settings → Battery and temporarily disable any aggressive power saving that could pause background tasks (then test again).
  • If you use a VPN, firewall, or network filter (security tools, ad blockers, “privacy” network extensions), try pausing it briefly to test whether notifications resume.

Gear and toggle next to a network shield icon
If turning off a network tool “fixes” notifications, don’t leave it off permanently—look for an allowlist setting for Apple push services or the affected app.

7. Reset the basics (restart, update, and re-toggle permissions)

If settings look correct but behavior is stuck, you’re likely dealing with a stalled process or a settings state that needs a clean re-apply.

  • Restart your Mac (simple, but it clears a lot of notification weirdness).
  • Update macOS: System Settings → General → Software Update.
  • For the affected app: quit it completely and reopen. If it has its own notification settings, toggle them off/on too.
  • Back in System Settings → Notifications: toggle Allow Notifications off, wait 10 seconds, then back on.

If the issue is across many apps after an update or migration, a restart plus re-toggling notifications often “unsticks” delivery.

Final thoughts

When notifications are enabled but silent on Mac, it’s usually not an app bug—it’s a policy layer (Focus, per-app delivery style, summaries) or a background/network constraint.

Work top-down: Focus first, then per-app settings, then background and network tools. You’ll usually find the exact layer that’s intercepting alerts.