---
audience: everyone
summary: You expected a desktop ping or a badge, didn't get one.
title: Notifications aren't firing
path: troubleshooting/notifications-not-firing
status: published
---

# Notifications aren't firing

Work through these in order.

## 1. Are you in the room?

You only get notified for rooms you're a member of in `join` state.
Check **Sidebar → rooms**; if the room isn't there, you're not in it.

## 2. Are you focused?

If the ScaiWave window is focused, you don't get desktop
notifications for it — the app assumes you can see new messages
already. Test from another window or with the app minimised.

## 3. What's the room's notification mode?

Bell icon in chat header. If it's set to `mentions`, you only get
pinged on `@you` and keyword alerts. Switch to `all` for testing.

If it's set to `none`, no notifications regardless of mention.

## 4. Is the room muted?

Bell icon shows 🔕 if so. Click **Unmute**.

## 5. Are you in quiet hours?

**Settings → Notifications → Quiet hours**. Notifications are
silently suppressed during the configured window. Disable
temporarily to test.

## 6. Did the browser grant permission?

Web client only:

- Chrome / Edge: site settings → notifications must be "Allow".
- Firefox: Permissions tab on the URL.
- Safari: System Settings → Notifications → ScaiWave.

If you previously clicked "Block", you have to clear it explicitly
— there's no in-app way back.

## 7. Multi-window arbitration

If you have ScaiWave open in two windows, only one (the most-
recently-focused) fires desktop notifications. This is by design
— prevents duplicate pings. Close the other window or focus this
one.

## 8. Cross-device

If the message was already marked read on another device (phone,
desktop), the desktop notification doesn't fire here. Mark unread
manually to test.

## 9. Is your presence `appear_offline`?

Your **own** presence doesn't affect *receiving* notifications,
but it does affect *what others send you* — people may have
decided not to ping you. Switch back to online.

## 10. Server-side: are events flowing?

Open browser devtools → Network → WS. You should see frames
arriving on the `/v1/stream` connection when messages happen in
rooms you can see. If you don't:

- WebSocket is closed → page reload usually fixes.
- Frames arriving but client not reacting → check console for JS
  errors.

If WS is fine but desktop notifications still don't fire, the issue
is the OS notification surface (browser permission, OS
notification settings).

## Sounds

A separate setting from desktop pop-ups. **Settings →
Notifications → Sounds**. Some browsers throttle audio playback
when the tab is backgrounded — that's expected.