How to fix macOS Notifications not appearing or showing banners for Mail, Messages, and Calendar

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: How to fix macOS Notifications not appearing or showing banners for Mail, Messages, and Calendar. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

Common Causes

If your Mac has stopped showing notification banners for Mail, Messages, Calendar, or other apps, the cause is usually a setting rather than a fault. macOS has several layered controls — Focus modes, system Notification permissions, and per-app settings — and any one of them can quietly silence alerts. This guide walks you through each layer in order so you can restore banners and sounds without missing anything important.

Quick Fix Steps

Try these checks first. Most notification problems are resolved within the first few steps.

1. Click the date and time in the top-right corner of the menu bar and confirm no Focus mode (including Do Not Disturb, Work, or Personal) is switched on.
2. Open System Settings > Notifications and verify the affected app is listed, allowed to send notifications, and set to Banners rather than Alerts or None.
3. Confirm the app is open or running in the background, and that you are signed in to the correct account within the app.
4. Restart the Mac to clear any stuck notification processes.

Detailed Instructions

Check Focus and Do Not Disturb Settings

Focus modes suppress banners across the entire system. If a Focus is active, you will either see no notifications at all or only silent ones delivered to Notification Centre.

1. Click the Control Centre icon (two switch shapes) in the menu bar, or click the date and time.
2. Look for Focus. If it shows a coloured moon or label such as Do Not Disturb, Work, or Sleep, click it.
3. Select Off to disable the active Focus.
4. Open System Settings > Focus and review each Focus profile. For the ones you want notifications to bypass, click Allowed Notifications > Apps and add Mail, Messages, or Calendar as allowed.
5. Check System Settings > Focus and confirm Focus Status is set to Off or that your contacts are not silencing your notifications.

Review System Notification Permissions

macOS requires each app to be granted permission to display notifications. If permission was revoked or never granted, banners will not appear.

1. Open System Settings > Notifications.
2. Scroll the left-hand list and select Mail, Messages, or Calendar.
3. Confirm Allow notifications is toggled on.
4. Set Alert style to Banners. Alerts stay on screen until dismissed and behave differently from banners.
5. Tick Show notifications on lock screen and Show in Notification Centre as required.
6. Repeat for any third-party apps that are missing banners.

Check In-App Notification Settings

Some apps have their own notification toggles that override system settings.

1. For Mail: Open Mail > Settings > General > Notifications. Enable New message notifications and choose the mailboxes you want alerts for.
2. For Messages: Open Messages > Settings > General. Confirm Enable notifications is ticked and that you are signed in to iMessage with the correct Apple ID.
3. For Calendar: Open Calendar > Settings > General. Enable Show notifications and review the default alert time under Advanced.
4. For third-party apps such as Outlook or Spark, check the app's own Settings or Preferences menu for a Notifications section.

Verify Sound and Output Settings

Even when banners appear, you may not hear a sound if alerts are muted.

1. Open System Settings > Sound.
2. Confirm the output volume is not at zero and that Mute is not enabled.
3. Return to System Settings > Notifications, select the app, and tick Play sound for notifications.

Check Display and Sleep Settings

Banners can appear briefly and then disappear. If your display is set to sleep quickly, you may miss them entirely.

1. Open System Settings > Lock Screen.
2. Increase Turn display off on battery when inactive and Turn display off on power adapter when inactive to a longer interval.
3. Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock and confirm Notification Centre settings at the bottom of the page are configured to show banners as expected.

Reset Notification Settings if Needed

If banners still will not appear after the steps above, you can reset the notification database. This forces macOS to re-prompt for permissions on next launch.

1. Quit the affected app.
2. Open Terminal (found in Applications > Utilities).
3. Type rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist and press Return.
4. Type killall usernoted and press Return. The process will restart automatically.
5. Sign out and back in, or restart the Mac.
6. Reopen the affected app and grant notification permission when prompted.

Troubleshooting

Banners Appear but No Sound

• Confirm the Mac is not muted via the Sound menu bar icon or the F10 / Mute key.
• Check that the app's Play sound for notifications option is enabled in System Settings > Notifications.
• Plug in headphones or external speakers and test again — the output device may have changed.

Banners Appear Briefly then Disappear

• Switch the alert style from Banners to Alerts temporarily. Alerts remain on screen until you dismiss them.
• Open Notification Centre by clicking the date and time, then swiping or scrolling down. Past banners are stored here.

Notifications Work in One App but Not Another

• Compare the working app's settings against the broken one in System Settings > Notifications.
• For Mail, verify the correct account is set as the default under Mail > Settings > Accounts.
• For Messages, confirm the Apple ID at the top of the Messages window matches the one you expect to receive notifications for.
• For Calendar, check that the calendars you want alerts from are not hidden and that Show notifications is enabled for each account.

Notifications Stop After macOS Update

• Some macOS updates reset notification permissions. Re-enable them under System Settings > Notifications.
• Restart the Mac to allow the notification service to reload.
• If the issue persists, sign out of your Apple ID and sign back in to refresh the notification pipeline.

Still Having Issues?