Facebook notifications not working on Android? Top 6 solutions

Although it’s on the decline in the past few years, Meta is still the champion of the social media market with Facebook, Instagram and revamped WhatsApp.  And one of the most important things about social media apps is push notifications and, it seems that Facebook notifications not working is a common issue for many Android users. We made sure to explain how to tackle this problem head-on.

Not getting Facebook notifications on Android

There are multiple reasons why you don’t get Facebook notifications but the first thing to do is to check in-app and system notification settings. Check Facebook permissions and make sure that Facebook is allowed to work in the background.

If the issue persists, you can either reinstall the app or use an APK to roll back to an older version of the app. Finally, you can just, for the time being, switch to an alternative Facebook wrapper as Facebook Lite.

1. Check in-app notification settings

The first thing you need to do is to check the in-app settings. There are many applicable tweaks for a variety of push notifications. These include Comments, Tags, Friend Requests, etc. Moreover, there are options to include SMS and Email notifications along with Push notifications, but that doesn’t have much to do with the problem we are trying to address here.

So, here’s how to access the in-app notifications settings and enable Facebook to push notifications on your device:

1. Open Facebook.
2. Tap on the Hamburger menu.
3. Open Settings.
4. Scroll down and open Notification Settings.
5. Make sure to enable Push notifications for all sections you want to see.
6. Also, scroll to the bottom and, under the Where You Receive Notifications section, enable Push notifications.

After that, you should see all incoming notifications on your device. If that, for some reason, doesn’t seem to be the case, you should continue to the next step.

2. Check Facebook system notification settings

In a similar manner, we’ll need to check system notification settings. There’s a chance that Facebook notifications are not working because you disable them. Once you get to Notification settings for the Facebook app, ensure that sound is enabled. At least, if you want to get notified by sound when the push notification comes through.

Here’s how to check system notification settings for Facebook:

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Apps & notifications (Apps on many Android skins).
3. Select All apps (Application manager or Manage apps).
4. Open Facebook.
5. Tap Notifications.
6. Enable All notifications.
7. In addition, you can choose in what way notifications are presented (sound, silent, pop on the screen, notification dots, etc.).

If Facebook notifications not working persists, make sure to check the next step.

3. Clear Facebook data

The next applicable solution is to get rid of that chunky local data stored by Facebook. When it comes to third-party apps, Facebook is second to none in cache and data size. Idea is that you can access many features of this social media app while offline. Also, to speed up the loading.

However, locally stored data can also get corrupt and lead to issues. That’s why we recommend clearing everything. After you sign in again, notification settings should stay the same. Albeit it won’t take too much of your time to check everything again.

Follow these instructions to clear cache and data from the Facebook app on Android:

1. As in the previous solution, navigate to Settings > Apps > All apps > Facebook.
2. Tap Storage.
3. Tap Clear storage.
4. Once prompted, tap OK.
5. Restart your device, open Facebook, and sign in again.

4. Allow Facebook to work in the background

Some Android skins are really strict when it comes to apps working in the background. It’s not about RAM management, but rather about battery usage and data consumption. Of course, if an app is not working in the background, push notifications might not come through. I mean, there’s a difference in the way stock Android deals with this and the way, for example, MIUI does.

With that in mind, you can try by allowing Facebook to work in the background. On many OEMs, this permission is found in Apps > Facebook > Battery. Alternatively, you can find it in the Special access apps menu.

Here’s what you need to do to allow Facebook to work in the background on Android:

1.  Once again, navigate to Settings > Apps > All apps > Facebook.
2. Open Battery.
3. Ensure that, under Background restriction, Facebook can use the battery in the background.
4. On the other hand, you can also tap Battery optimization, locate Facebook and add it to the list of apps that are not optimized.

5. Reinstall the app

Of course, if none of the previous steps got you anywhere in regard to the issue at hand, this step shouldn’t be of much use. Nonetheless, it’s worth a try. Especially if you recently upgraded to a newer Android version or restored your device from a backup. That’s where a clean slate can be helpful.

Follow these steps to reinstall Facebook on your Android:

1. Open Play Store.
2. Locate Facebook.
3. Tap Uninstall.
4. Restart your device.
5. Again, open the Play Store and install Facebook.
6. Sign in and look for improvements.

6. Rollback the Facebook to an older version via APK

Finally, what we can suggest is to roll back the app to an older version. Facebook has so many recent iterations, which include both Alpha and Beta releases. So, you can even pick a newer test version and hope for the best. But, how to do this? We provided everything you need to know about the rollback procedure and APK sideloading.

Here’s how to rollback (or upgrade) Facebook via an APK:

1. Navigate to APKMirror and download an older APK version of Facebook. Alternatively, you can try any other version except the one currently installed on your device. Beta and Alpha versions are also an option but we suggest avoiding them due to stability issues.
2. Uninstall the app as explained in solution 5.
3. Allow app installation from external sources.
4. Install APK, sign in, and look for improvements.

That’s it. You can also use one of many Facebook wrappers, like Facebook’s own Facebook Lite. Even if they lack features, the overall usability/performance is usually better than on the official Android app. If Facebook notifications are not working on the official one, they should be on the alternatives.

All of these solutions are applicable to Facebook Messenger. However, we also have a dedicated article that addresses Facebook Messenger notifications not showing.

Thank you for reading and do tell us about alternative solutions or post questions in the comments section below.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in January 2021. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.