Delayed notificarions and sometimes no notifications at all

DennyD

I just installed GrapheneOS to my Pixel 9A and I'm having difficulty with delayed whatsapp and proton mail notifications, sometimes notifications doesn't even pop up at all. This problem usually arises when the phone is turned off for more than 5+ minutes or it has just been restarted and the app has not been opened yet since restart.

Google play services is the FIRST thing I installed in my phone and the battery usage is already set to unrestricted. I have tried everything: changing both whatsapp and proton mail app battery usage to unrestricted, turning off adaptive connectivity, turning off battery saver, turning off battery manager, turning on google play services and play store notifications, and also turning on always on display so that my phone does not turn off. Sadly, none of this works.

Does anyone have any information on how to fix this? Any help would be helpful. Thanks!

de0u

DennyD Does this happen both on cellular data and Wi-Fi? Is a VPN or ad blocker in use?

Probably9857

DennyD

FWIW, I have noticed similar behavior with Proton Mail, but I noticed it when the app is updated by Play Store.

Combining our experiences, I suspect the problem is that the app doesn't restart when it should after being stopped. Seems like an app issue to me. Probably should pursue it on their issue tracker or support.

pingu-the-penguin

DennyD

Probably9857

Do either of you have a VPN installed? Do any of you use something like Proton's Stealth feature or any VPN protocol with any form of obfuscation?

DennyD

de0u I don't have a sim plugged in my phone and only use wifi. I am also using proton VPN. Can a VPN cause this issue?

Probably9857

pingu-the-penguin Do either of you have a VPN installed? Do you guys use something like Proton's Stealth feature or any VPN protocol with any form of obfuscation?

I use Mullvad. Pretty much default settings - not sure if that includes any kind of obfuscation.

DennyD

pingu-the-penguin I use proton's fastest country option with smart protocol and netshield on.

pingu-the-penguin

Probably9857

You should be able to check on the page that opens directly after you open the Mullvad app. It lists features that are enabled with your connection such as Quantaum Resistance. Can you tell me what features are shown on that screen?

DennyD Are any of you in a country with internet censorship where a VPN would be blocked? This would help decide if obfuscation is being used by the default settings or not.

gristle-cause

DennyD I had a similar issue just last week. Make sure your Netshield=1, blocking malware only. If Netshield=2, also blocking ads & trackers, it can flag the calls to Google upon which FCM push notifications depend. This was blocking some of my push notifications from Sandboxed Play apps

Probably9857

pingu-the-penguin what features are shown on that screen?

Quantum Resistance, nothing else

pingu-the-penguin Are any of you in a country with internet censorship where a VPN would be blocked?

pingu-the-penguin

Probably9857 I would try without a VPN and see if that fixes anything. Please refer to this issue which has other troubleshooting steps that I have previously tried: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/6034

Further questions if you would like to answer as I am investigating these issues as well:
@DennyD please answer as well if you can.

Do you have WiFi Control disabled for any apps?
Do you have notifications for your apps that aren't properly notifying you set to silent?
Do you have the Mullvad VPN/Proton VPN connection status notification disabled?
Do you have notifications on the lock screen set to off?
Do you have wake screen for notifications set to off?

Note for future readers: These aren't necessarily the causes of the issue but I am trying to identify what factors might affect the problem.

pingu-the-penguin

gristle-cause Could be worth a shot. I was experiencing the issue without Netshield enabled though.

Probably9857

pingu-the-penguin would try without a VPN and see if that fixes anything.

No, thanks. This isn't a major problem for me. I was just providing another data point in case it would help the OP.

But I'm happy to answer your other questions:

Do you have WiFi Control disabled for any apps?

Do you have notifications for your apps that aren't properly notifying you set to silent?

Yes

Do you have the Mullvad VPN connection status persistent notification disabled?

Yes

Do you have notifications on the lock screen set to off?

Do you have wake screen for notifications set to off?

DennyD

pingu-the-penguin All my apps have network permission allowed, my whatsapp and proton mail's notification is on and not silent, my proton vpn notification is enabled, my lock screen notification is on, and my wake screen for notification is also on.

Right now I have my proton vpn's netshield turned off and I'll monitor my notications.

pingu-the-penguin

Probably9857 I would try enabling the persistent Mullvad notification and setting the notifications to non-silent. You can try the persistent Mullvad notification first before changing the app notifications and report back to see if that fixes things. I had the same setup as you so it's good to know that these data points were common between us.

pingu-the-penguin

@DennyD @Probably9857 You probably already know this but battery saver can also delay notifications as Play Services is not a system app. Similarly if you are using mobile data, Data saver can do the same so you should give Play Services an exception to Data Saver. Could be something to look into.

pingu-the-penguin

DennyD WiFi control is seperate from the network permission but it is unlikely to cause any issues. I believe your issue might be different than ours due to the Netshield. It would be good to know how disabling netshield affected your problem.

DennyD

pingu-the-penguin I just checked and my apps do have access to wifi control. I'll update on my findings.

DennyD

Update: turning off netshield did not fix my notifications.