Help Not Getting Any Push Notifications

[inkdork]

After the update to Kit Kat, I started having issues with SMS freezing when I tried to access a message and battery life suddenly down to 7 or 8 hours. I did a hard reset, which solved both my problems, but as of this morning I have a new problem.

I am no longer getting push notifications from anything unless I am connected to Verizon's 4G network, and who wants to pay for all that data? My BF's phone, a Droid Mini, started doing this same thing on Sunday morning. We tried a hard reset on his yesterday, but no change.

At first we thought it was an issue with the internet, as we had changed from Verizon's DSL to Time Warner cable on Saturday afternoon, but the problems began for his phone almost a full day after making the switch. We both are connected, and have a good connection, and can use any of our online apps, but no notifications.

I tried an app that is supposed to check for push notifications more often but no change. I've tried reinstalling apps, the hard reset, checking to make sure the apps are added into the account & sync list (and even removed and re-added them), checked to ake sure sync was turned on, and even reset our router to factory and set everything up again, though I think its doubtful that the router is to blame. I spent 2 hours on the phone with Verizon last night and then have no idea what the issue, and calling Time Warner was useless- no help there and a bad attitude.

Any ideas?

 

[Rukbat]

I tried an app that is supposed to check for push notifications

That's like a flying mole. You DON'T check for push notifications, that's the whole idea. The notification is pushed TO your phone, not checked for BY your phone (which would be called a polling notification - your phone polls the server at intervals to see if there's anything there for it).

When the phone receives a push notification, Android sends a "notification" to you - with your notification tone, on your notification pulldown, however you have the phone set up. (For instance, you won't get a tone if the phone is set to be silent, or if you have notifications turned off in your email app.)

calling Time Warner was useless- no help there and a bad attitude.

Oh, so I can skip telling you about TWC, huh?

Any ideas?

Go to a Starbucks or McDonalds or any other public hotspot. One of you send an email to the other. Wait a while. You should get a notification. If you don't, do it the other way - send an email in the other direction and wait a while. If neither way works, it's the phones. If one way works, one of the phones is bad (probably the one that didn't get the push). If it works there both ways, it's TWC.

If it's the phone, bring it into Verizon (to a corporate store that does repairs, not one that only does sles - ask your local store if you don't see a repair department at the back where the nearest store that does repairs is) and tell them that you tried it on as many different networks as you did (I'd try 3 - you should be able to find Starbucks, McDonalds, AT&T and T-Mobile free hotspots in any large town) and it still doesn't work, so it's not the network, so please either fix the phones, replace them (and do the email test in front of them on their wifi, so if it doesn't work, they can see) or, if they can't get it working, can they give you two equivalent phones that do work?

If the problem is TWC ... well, you'd probably get the problem fixed faster if you waited until the devil got frostbite. But if you get a good tech sent out (IOW, someone who both knows how networks and routers work, and cares whether yours does), they might actually fix the problem (and watch out for that airborne pork chop. I'm still waiting to get the normal channels on their "you can watch TV on any device" app.)

 

[inkdork]

Wow! Fast reply!

I figured the push notification app was going to be a useless try, but at this point... Grasping at straws.

I have been researching the problem all afternoon, and I am thinking it may have something to do with the value the MTU setting is at in our router- that's the only related thing I can find online that someone else had and was able to definitely solve, and it would point at Time Warner, and not our phones. Just strikes me as odd that all our mobile devices were not effected at the same time.

Anyway, I changed the MTU value in the router from 0 (which is just the default setting) to 1500 (after much pinging and some math and lots of reading) and instantly my notifications started coming in. They started coming in on my Nook as well, which I noticed was effected after making my first post here.

Unfortunately, as soon as BF got home, he got one notification from a message I sent him then, and that was it. We were both DOA as far as notices went.

Then I knocked us both off of the WiFi and reconnected. All the "missing" notifications came through.

I feel like I've half solved the problem, but no idea where to go from here, and I have no doubts that TWC is going to be about as far from helpful as asking a dead dog to catch rabbits. :-/

Haven't run off to Starbucks yet but may do that before the night is over.

 

[inkdork]

After BF got home, he told me he still had not cancelled our previous DSL service. I set that back up and we had no issues on either phone nor my Nook.

I started comparing settings between the two routers, and aside from a few settings that one had but not the other (which I adjusted to see no change in performance), the biggest thing I noted was the TWC router has a firewall and our one for the DSL did not. What do firewalls like to do? Block 3rd party apps. I turned off the firewall on the router and we are getting all our noticiations to all devices, though a few of the apps are still painfully slow to refresh (Namely Words w/Friends, which is buggy as all get out anyway).

So, I *think* (HOPE!) we've found a solution for this. In my searching I did manage to find another person with the same issue, same router, same provider, but no answers. Maybe something as simple as turning off the that setting will help them out as well.

 

[inkdork]

*sigh* I did some more reading and found after connecting with the firewall off, I can then re-enable it and the push notifications still come through. But we have another problem I was unaware of because I rarely use the 4G.

Apparently 3rd party apps will not run on the WiFi without crashing roughly every 30 seconds. I thought they were just crappy apps, but apparently they don't do this on the 4G. I'm thinking it was something to do with the router settings still, but I think I have tried everything short of turning off security completely and working thru each option, only because I can't figure out how to disable the security on the router. The router is Ubee DDW365. I've read the manual cover to cover multiple times, and the company only offers help to providers, not individuals. Once again the internet is proving useless.

 

[albech]

I commend you for going through all of the things you did - reinstalling your apps and internet - however, I am noticing the same problem of push notifications not working while connected to WiFi only, and since I did not change my home's internet service recently, I am very convinced that the problem is with the KitKat upgrade because the push notifications stopped as soon as I installed the upgrade. In fact, I traveled to another state this past weekend and the push notifications would not work while connected to the hotel's WiFi either. I'm hoping that Android has some answers and will find a fix soon!