After working through a problem on Twitter yesterday, I've happened on a fix for missing notifications. Some of you may be experiencing this already, and some of you may not even realize that it's happening. In yesterday's instance a Windows 10 user was not receiving notifications (both toasts and Action Center alerts) for the built-in Mail app. Notifications were turned on in the Mail app itself…
…but after further investigation, the Mail app didn't even exist in the list of apps in Settings – System – Notifications & Actions. So, even though the Windows 10 user had configured the Mail app correctly, the Windows 10 notification system still had no idea that a Mail app existed. The Mail app hadn't registered correctly with Windows 10 when it installed, or the registry key had become corrupted.
The fix comes in the form of a Windows registry import. The import simply resets the registry key values in the following registry path:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications]
To do it:
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Download the AppDB Registry Import from our sister site, myITforum: AppDB Registry Import for Fixing Missing Notifications (49.9k)
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The download is delivered in a compressed file. Extract the appdb.reg file from the compressed download.
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Locate appdb.reg where you saved it and double-click on it.
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You'll be prompted with a warning:
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If you choose to do so, answer 'Yes' and allow the registry fix to import.
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Reboot the PC.
After the registry import and restarting the PC, missing apps should now show up in the list at Settings – System – Notifications & Actions.
This also serves to show that even if you configure notifications for an app correctly, Settings – System – Notifications & Actions still matters. It's the location where you can globally manage notifications and override specific app notification settings.