iOS 10 Remote Notifications When App Not Running

Question

When I receive a remote notification I updated a counter that I save to UserDefaults and I also show a local notification. Everything works as expected when the app is in the foreground, background, and suspended states Ref. When the app is in the Not Running state my counter is not updated nor is my local notification shown.

It is my understanding that I should be able to receive and process Remote Notifications while the app is completely off. A few articles online claim that when a Remote Notification arrives while in the Not Running state that the application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: should be called followed by application: didReceiveRemoteNotification:fetchCompletionHandler: but in my case it is not.

Is it possible to receive remote notifications while in Not Running state?

Answer 1

If your app is a VoIP app and you are using VoIP pushes through PushKit then a push notification will launch your app from the terminated state in order to deliver the notification. If you are using standard push notifications then your app will not receive the notification if it is terminated. You can include an alert text with a 'silent' notification that will be displayed to the user in the event that your app is terminated in order to prompt them to launch your app.

Answer 2

First of all, it sounds like you have a silent notification set up. Once you add alert data to your push notification (information like the title, body etc.. you can find more on that here), it'll start to display on the lock screen.

Second, it's not possible for your application to launch from a push notification, silent or otherwise, if it's in the Not Running state. The documentation on this is actually incorrect, as it states that the application will only not be launched if the user has quit the app. However, this actually also applies for any circumstance under the not-running state, for example if your app has never been launched since installation/rebooting, or if it was quit due to memory (a fairly common occurrence - iOS purges apps which haven't been run recently as required).

Answer 3

did you check this mark when app is background?