Gmail notifications not working on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow [Solved]

Like many, I rely on my phone for email notifications. Recently, I stopped getting notifications of new emails.

While looking for a solution to this, I discovered that I was not alone in this issue. Nearly everyone with a newer Android phone had stopped receiving notifications about email.

Change your Gmail app settings.

I’m not sure if these settings were changed intentionally by Google to clean up what the designers considered to be “notification clutter” or if it was just an honest mistake. Either way, here’s how to fix your Gmail notifications.

That seems to fix the issue most of the time. However, if you leave your phone on a solid surface, like a desk or table, without charging it, your phone will eventually stop polling for new emails. This is called battery optimization.

Stop optimizing battery for Gmail.

After a while, your phone will go into a battery optimization mode which means no more notifications. You can use these steps on the Gmail app as well as any other app that are getting delayed notifications.

Be aware, any changes you make will result in higher battery usage. I can’t speak for other apps, but with optimization turned off, Gmail uses less than 1% of my total battery. This is such an insignificant amount of battery, one has to wonder why Google would optimize it by default.

If you’ve followed the steps above, your notifications will start working again. Feel free to shoot me any tech questions if you are stuck and need some help!