Start in the app: it can tell you the answer
QuakeMate has a check-up screen that reads every setting an alert depends on and shows you which ones are off, with a direct link to the right page in iOS Settings. It is faster than working through the list below, and it checks the one thing this page cannot: whether your device is actually registered to receive alerts.
Open QuakeMate, go to the Alerts tab, and tap the check-up button in the toolbar.
What has to be on
These are the same seven checks the app runs, in the same order. The first one matters most: if notifications are blocked outright, nothing below it can help.
- 1
Notifications allowed
iOS has to let QuakeMate send notifications at all. If this was declined when you first opened the app, no alert of any kind will arrive.
iOS Settings → Notifications → QuakeMate → Allow Notifications.
- 2
Sound
Notifications can be allowed but silent. The alert still appears, it just never makes a noise, which is usually what people mean when they say an alert did not arrive.
iOS Settings → Notifications → QuakeMate → Sounds.
- 3
Critical alerts
A separate iOS permission that lets a major earthquake or tsunami sound even when your phone is on silent or in Do Not Disturb. iOS asks for it once; if it was declined, it never asks again.
iOS Settings → Notifications → QuakeMate → Critical Alerts. Not available on every device.
- 4
Time Sensitive
Without this, a Focus such as Sleep or Work holds alerts back until you next pick up your phone. The alert is not lost, but it can arrive hours late, which defeats the point.
iOS Settings → Notifications → QuakeMate → Time Sensitive Notifications.
- 5
Scheduled Summary
If QuakeMate is included in your notification summary, alerts are collected and delivered at a set time of day instead of the moment they arrive.
iOS Settings → Notifications → Scheduled Summary - remove QuakeMate from the list.
- 6
Lock Screen
An alert that is allowed, audible and immediate can still be set not to appear on the Lock Screen, so you hear it and then cannot see what it was.
iOS Settings → Notifications → QuakeMate → Lock Screen.
- 7
Registered for push
Your device has to be registered with our servers before we can send it anything. This normally happens the first time you open the app, but it can fail if the app was offline at the time.
Reopening the app usually fixes it. The in-app check-up is the only place you can see this one.
Critical alerts and normal alerts
QuakeMate sends two kinds of notification, and the difference decides whether your phone makes a noise when it is silenced.
Critical alerts
These sound even on silent and through Do Not Disturb. An earthquake only qualifies when all of the following are true:
- It is above magnitude 5.0, or it is flagged for tsunami at any magnitude.
- It is a real tectonic earthquake - a quarry blast, mining explosion or other non-tectonic event never qualifies.
- It is not preliminary - either a human analyst has reviewed it, or a second independent agency has reported the same event.
That last condition is deliberate. Agencies routinely publish an automatic first solution that is later corrected or withdrawn, and we will not override your Do Not Disturb for a number that might not survive review. It means a very large preliminary reading can arrive as a normal alert first and escalate later, which we think is the right trade for an alert that is allowed to wake you at 3am.
Normal alerts
Everything else, including every alert you create yourself. They follow your ringer and Focus settings, so they arrive silently while your phone is silenced. Corrections and magnitude revisions are always sent this way, never as critical alerts.
Critical alerts need their own iOS permission, which the system asks for only once. If it was declined, iOS will not ask again - you have to turn it back on yourself in Settings → Notifications → QuakeMate → Critical Alerts.
Common questions
- Why did I not get an alert for an earthquake I felt?
- Most often the event was below the magnitude threshold on your alert, or outside its radius. Open the Alerts tab and check the rules you have: an alert set to M4.0 within 100 km will stay silent for an M3.2 twenty kilometres away. Felt shaking and recorded magnitude are different things, and a shallow small quake nearby is felt far more strongly than its magnitude suggests.
- Why was the alert silent when my phone was not on silent?
- Check Sounds for QuakeMate in iOS Settings, and whether a Focus was active. A Focus holds back anything that is not marked Time Sensitive, so the alert may have been delivered quietly and shown to you later.
- Why did a big earthquake arrive as a normal alert instead of a critical one?
- Because it had not been confirmed yet. A critical alert needs the event to be reviewed by an analyst or corroborated by a second agency, so an automatic single-source solution is sent as a normal alert even when the magnitude is large. This stops a reading that is later withdrawn from breaking through Do Not Disturb.
- Do my own custom alerts ever sound on silent?
- No. Custom alerts are always normal alerts and follow your ringer and Focus settings. Critical alerts are reserved for major confirmed earthquakes and tsunami warnings.
- I turned everything on and still get nothing.
- Open the in-app check-up, which also verifies that your device is registered with our servers - the one thing you cannot see from iOS Settings. If it says the device is not registered, reopening the app usually fixes it. If it still does not, contact us from the help page and tell us roughly when you expected an alert.
QuakeMate relays what the seismic agencies publish, and no earthquake app can warn you before shaking that has already been recorded reaches you. Treat alerts as information, not as a warning system, and always follow instructions from your local authorities.
For everything else, see the full help guide.