GitHub notifications not working on your iPhone? Here's the fix

Updated August 2026 · 5 min read

You approved the notifications prompt, the GitHub app is installed, but your iPhone stays silent while review requests pile up. Work through this list — one of these five things explains almost every case of missing GitHub notifications on iOS.

1. Notifications are off per-repository, not per-app

The most common trap: GitHub's notification settings are per repository. Open each important repo on github.com → Watch and make sure it's set to All Activity (or at least Participating and @mentions). The iPhone app faithfully delivers only what GitHub decides to send — if the repo is set to "Participating only" and nobody mentioned you, there is nothing to push.

2. The conversation was marked as read elsewhere

GitHub treats notifications as one global inbox. If you (or a client or CI script using your token) mark a thread as read on the web, in another device's app, or via the API, the push to your iPhone is cancelled. If notifications "arrive sometimes", check whether they vanish exactly after you've been on github.com in a browser.

3. iOS Focus / Silent modes are filtering GitHub out

iOS Focus modes (Do Not Disturb, Work, Sleep) have per-app notification allowances. GitHub may be delivering fine but being silently silenced. Check Settings → Focus → each mode → Apps and confirm GitHub is in the allowed list. Also check Settings → Notifications → GitHub: both "Lock Screen", "Notification Centre" and "Banners" should be enabled, and "Scheduled Summary" should be OFF for GitHub — summaries delay everything by hours.

4. You're signed into the wrong account

Easy to miss if you have work and personal accounts: the iOS app pushes to whichever account is signed in on that device, not to all your accounts. In the app, tap your profile icon and verify the account shown. Notifications for your other account are only delivered while that account is active (the app does support switching, but only one account receives pushes at a time).

5. Background App Refresh killed the badge

If your complaint is a stale red badge rather than missing pushes: Settings → General → Background App Refresh must be ON, both globally and for GitHub. Without it, the count only updates when you open the app — so it looks like you have no notifications when you actually have twelve.

When phone settings aren't the problem

Even fully working, push has a real weakness: it interrupts you at the wrong moment and buries review requests under other apps' pings. Many developers flip it around — keep the phone quiet and put the unread count somewhere they already look, like the macOS menu bar. DevNotify shows your GitHub unread count next to the clock, one click opens the exact PR or issue, and your personal access token never leaves your machine.