Knowledge Base: Common Problems

  • Not receiving notifications for Pushover messages or device marked "offline"

    For iPhone/iPad and Android devices, Pushover sends push notifications through Apple's and Google's servers and we rely on their systems and frameworks to deliver messages to your device. If the connection between your device and Apple's or Google's servers is not working properly, you will not receive push notifications, but once you open the Pushover device client, it will synchronize directly with our servers and download all pending messages.

    To get push notifications working, you can try each of these steps until your device is receiving push notifications:

    Check Common Settings

    Verify the Device Is Enabled

    Visit your Pushover dashboard

  • Not receiving Pushover notifications from 3rd party software/services

    An ever-increasing number of applications, websites, libraries, and packages have integrated Pushover support to make your Pushover service more useful. As almost all of these are created and maintained by individuals and companies not associated with our company, we are unable to provide support for them when they do not work as intended, such as when you do not receive Pushover notifications from them.

    Testing if the problem is with Pushover or the 3rd party app

    From your dashboard (requires that you are logged into our website), enter a test message into the "Push Notification" area and click "Send Notification".

  • Notifications are received, but after significant delay

    During normal operation, your devices will receive Pushover notifications within a second or so, often within a few hundred milliseconds.  If your notifications take a long time to receive (more than 10 seconds), here are some things to check:

    Pushover Network Issues

    Pushover has a network status page where we list any issues with our service.  If we are having delays sending out notifications, or if Apple's or Google's notification servers are having problems, we will update our network status page.

    E-Mail Gateway Delays

    Our E-Mail Gateway receives e-mails and turns them into Pushover notifications, but we can only do

  • Not hearing sound/vibration when receiving notifications

    No sounds when application is open

    If you're testing out Pushover for the first time, you may have the Pushover app open while you wait for the message to arrive. In this scenario, you will not hear a notification alert sound and/or feel vibration and you might think something is wrong. By default, the Pushover apps do not play sounds or vibration when the screen is on and the Pushover application is visible, because no notification is generated with the system; the message is received and displayed directly by the running Pushover application which you can see at the top

  • Notifcations play a different sound than the one chosen in Settings

    Our API that websites and applications use to send you messages allows for each message to have a particular sound, in the case of applications sending multiple types of messages.  For example, a network monitoring system sending a "host down" message could choose a longer, more severe sound, but on a "host up" message, choose a softer, more subtle sound. When an application specifies a message sound, it will override the default sound that you have chosen in your app settings. For this reason, we encourage most applications that don't need this special functionality to leave the sound setting to

  • Receiving the same notification multiple times

    This situation often occurs from misconfigured 3rd party software that sends messages through our API.

    Emergency-priority Messages

    Each message sent to Pushover's API can include a user-specified priority which alters how the message is handled. (Contrary to the documentation of some 3rd party software, this priority has no affect on how quickly your message is processed or delivered through Pushover.) The highest priority, emergency (2), will repeat the alert multiple times until you acknowledge it by tapping on the notification and then tapping on the "Acknowledge" button in the app. These emergency-priority messages are indicated by a bright red background

  • Signup confirmation or password reset e-mails not received

    We require all users to confirm their e-mail addresses in order to register for Applications/API tokens so that we can ensure we have a way of contacting users if problems arise with their applications.

    If you do not receive a welcome e-mail when you initially create your Pushover account, please check your e-mail Spam folder.  If the message arrived there, please click "Not Spam" or a similar button to continue receiving e-mails from Pushover in the future.

    In order for users of Hotmail/Outlook.com/Live.com to receive e-mails from Pushover, you will need to first add support@pushover.net as a "Safe Sender" on

  • Enabling two-factor authentication (2FA or MFA) and lost 2FA recovery

    Pushover currently supports TOTP-based two-factor authenticaiton (2FA) for all accounts.

    When logged in, visit your Settings page. Enter your current account password, check the box for "Setup Two-Factor Auth", and then click "Save Account Settings".

    You'll be given instructions for the setup of two-factor authentication for your account, which includes scanning a QR code in your 2FA application (or manually entering the secret).  You will be given a list of recovery codes which you must write down and securely store somewhere.

    Important Account Recovery Information

    Enabling two-factor authentication on your account requires a current code from your 2FA application/device every