Alerts don't arrive

An alert travels from a camera, through Frigate’s review, to Apple’s push service, to this iPhone, and then through your filters. When one doesn’t show up, work through these in order: each one rules out a part of that path.

1. Was it held back on purpose?

Open Settings › Notification Filters › Held back. If the alert is listed, a filter or a snooze kept it from you, and the list says which setting. Change that setting, or switch filter.

Also check Settings › Server-Wide Notifications: a camera turned off or paused there sends nothing to anyone.

2. Did it arrive and go unnoticed?

Open Settings › Notification Activity. It lists what has actually arrived on this iPhone, newest first. If the alert is there:

• It may have arrived Silent or during quiet hours: it went straight to Notification Center. See Levels.
• A Focus held it back: see Focus and Time Sensitive alerts.
• iOS has alerts set to deliver quietly, without banners: check Settings › Notifications › Fregata Mobile in the iOS Settings app.

3. Is everything between server and iPhone still set up?

Open Settings › Server Notification Setup. It re-reads your server and reopens any step that’s no longer true: a camera’s notifications turned off, the contact address cleared, notifications turned off for the app in iOS, the server not restarted since this iPhone registered. Fix what it shows, in the order it shows. If everything is ticked, Ask Frigate for a test notification or walk past a camera.

4. Was there anything to alert about?

An alert needs Frigate to have made an alert review. Look in Review with Alerts chosen. If the moment you expected isn’t there, Frigate didn’t treat it as an alert: it may be a Detection instead, because of the zones or objects your server’s review settings require. That’s a Frigate setting, not the app’s.

5. Look at Diagnostics

Settings › Diagnostics shows the details the other screens summarise:

• Preflight: the same checks as Server Notification Setup, each marked blocking or to check, such as Frigate authentication is disabled or Notification contact address not set.
• Registrations: this iPhone’s registration with your server. Current is the one to leave alone.
• Device token: waiting for long means iOS hasn’t given the app its notification token. That happens when notifications are turned off for the app, or the network blocks Apple’s push service on port 5223.
• Notification Extension Log: what happened each time an alert arrived.

Common causes

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Nothing ever arrives, and setup says registered	Frigate hasn’t restarted since this iPhone registered	Restart Frigate. It reads registrations only when it starts.
Nothing ever arrives, and Preflight says Frigate authentication is disabled	With sign-in off, Frigate files the registration under its admin account. A Frigate that has had sign-in off since it was installed has none, so it accepts the registration and silently saves nothing	Turn Frigate’s sign-in on and restart it once, which creates the admin account, then run Server Notification Setup again. See Compatibility.
Nothing ever arrives, and Preflight says Connected without signing in	The app’s address uses port 5000, which skips sign-in. While sign-in is on, Frigate files the registration under an anonymous user that has no account, so it reports success and saves nothing	Change the address to port 8971 in Settings › Connection and sign in, then run Server Notification Setup again.
Stopped after a Frigate update or restart	Every camera chosen for alerts was off when Frigate started, so it never started sending	Turn one on, then restart Frigate.
Alerts arrive, but with no picture	This iPhone couldn’t reach the server when the alert came in	Add an Away address, or check it works with Test connection.
No picture after changing the address or password	The part of the app that fetches pictures still has the old details	Settings › Diagnostics › Refresh connection.
Alerts arrive late, or in a burst	The iPhone was offline or out of signal	Late alerts say so. Alerts missed entirely are summarised as Missed alerts.
Alerts stopped on a new iPhone restored from a backup	Alerts are registered per device, and a backup doesn’t carry it	Run Settings › Server Notification Setup on the new iPhone.
Notifications are paused in Settings	This iPhone’s registration is too old to be delivered to	Run Server Notification Setup to replace it.

If none of this finds it, see Getting help: Copy all in Diagnostics gathers everything needed into one report.