gmail is possibly the most popular web-based mail application in the world. what’s not to like? lots of space, a smart mailbox, and great integration with the rest of google’s suite of tools.
It’s a great service, until you stop receiving notifications! If you’re not getting gmail notifications like you used to, chances are one of the following tips will help you get back in the loop quickly.
update your desktop browser
Since gmail notifications on desktop systems are handled by your browser, it could be the culprit when it comes to not receiving gmail notifications. so the first thing you can try is to check for an update or hotfix.
Browser (or web application) updates sometimes break support for some features. this is usually fixed fairly quickly on browser updates.
use another browser to remove chrome as suspicious
sometimes the reason notifications don’t work is because there is something wrong with chrome. notifications should work with other chrome based browsers including opera, brave browser and microsoft edge.
Regardless of which browser you’re not getting gmail notifications in, try one of these other browsers for a while. If you start seeing notifications from gmail, you know that the problem is only with the browser you were originally using. try reinstalling or updating the browser.
update or reinstall the gmail app
sometimes things can go wrong with your gmail app or your data. The quickest way to fix strange behavior in the gmail app is to check for an update or uninstall the app and then re-install a fresh copy from the play store or app store.
update your phone or computer
If an update or reinstallation of the gmail app doesn’t work, check to see if there are any pending updates for your phone, tablet, or computer. You need to keep your devices up to date anyway, so think of this as a good excuse for overdue maintenance.
This can fix issues where your browser or app has been updated, but requires a new feature in the operating system that you haven’t updated yet.
double check desktop notifications in chrome
On desktop systems, the basic first step to ensure you receive notifications from gmail is to check your browser’s desktop notification settings. This applies to all later versions of Windows, including 7, 8.1, and 10. If your issue is specifically with native Windows 10 desktop notifications, continue to the next section.
for gmail notifications specifically, here’s what you need to do to make sure they’re turned on:
- open gmail
- select settings
- select view all settings
- scroll to the desktop notification
section
In this section you have a few options. By default, these notifications are turned off, but you can turn them on in two different ways.
The first option is to turn on notifications for new messages. that seems pretty straightforward, but gmail uses an inbox category system. therefore, this option will only notify you about messages that arrive in the “main” mailbox.
Another option is to enable notifications for mail marked as “important”. this way you will only receive notifications when gmail decides a certain message is important, or if you set it as important with a gmail filter.
I don’t get gmail notifications for chrome desktop on windows
windows 10 offers a unified action center where applications can send notifications. Normally gmail notifications will appear there so you can get an overview of the messages you have received. If for some reason you no longer receive gmail notifications in the windows 10 action center, here’s what to do:
- Open chrome and type chrome://flags/#enable-native-notifications. then press enter.
- next to enable native notifications enable the option in the dropdown menu.
- restart chrome, you can use the restart button that appears.
- then select the start button then settings.
- select system then notifications & actions.
- In the section labeled get notifications from these senders, toggle the google chrome switch to the on position.
- now, select google chrome input itself.
- On this page, you can customize the way chrome notifications work. the most important setting here is “show notifications in action center”. make sure it is set to “on”.
if all goes well, you should now get gmail notifications in your action center. just make sure you haven’t enabled focus assist. This windows feature turns off almost all alerts to let you work or play without interruption.
check global notification settings on android and ios
On both android and ios, you can change the global setting for how notifications should be handled. it may be that it’s not the gmail notifications in particular that are missing, but rather that the notification settings at the system level are not correct. For example, you may have all notifications disabled, or you may have accidentally turned on your device’s “do not disturb” mode on iOS or Android.
make sure gmail has push notification permissions
Push notifications are a feature of most mobile devices and operating systems. both android and ios manage push notifications per app.
regardless of the operating system you use, check in settings > notifications. then find the gmail app section and make sure it has permission to send push notifications.
set gmail as your default mail app
Whether you’re using ios or android, you can assign specific apps to be the default app for specific types of tasks, like handling emails.
on ios, go to settings and then look for gmail in the left panel. in the gmail options, choose default mail app and make sure the blue checkmark is next to gmail.
the process in android 10 is similar. go to settings > applications. then choose gmail > set as default. here you can check if gmail is set as the default app to perform certain actions.
make sure the gmail app is syncing
Another reason you might not be getting gmail notifications is that you’re not getting any new mail on your device in the first place! Sometimes for one reason or another, gmail sync gets interrupted. The good news is that it’s quite easy to check the sync status and restart it if necessary.
on ios, open the gmail app and select the menu. then select settings, choose your account, then sync settings. now all you have to do is select how many days you want to sync.
on android, open the gmail app and select the menu. then select settings, choose your account, and then make sure sync gmail is selected.
get the message across
If all goes as planned, you should now have gmail notifications again. If you are still not receiving notifications from Gmail, there may be a more obscure cause. it might be time to contact google support.
That said, narrowing down the source of the problem shouldn’t be too difficult. if it’s device-specific, it will almost always be an application or operating system notification setting.