3 Fixes for Gmail Notification Sound Not Working on Android and iPhone

Quick Tips

• Make sure you haven’t accidentally muted Gmail notification sounds on your Android or iPhone.
• If Gmail is not playing the notification sound when you receive emails from a specific sender, check if you’ve muted notifications for that sender.

Try Basic Fixes

• Check your phone’s notification volume: Make sure you haven’t lowered the notification volume level on your phone unintentionally. For that, head to Settings > Sounds and vibration > Notification sound on Android or Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Ringtone and Alert Volume if you have an iPhone.
• Disconnect Bluetooth devices: If your Android or iPhone is connected to a Bluetooth device, incoming notifications, and phone calls may ring on that paired device instead of your phone. To avoid any confusion, it’s best to disconnect Bluetooth devices when not in use.
• Update the Gmail app: The Gmail app may be failing to play a sound for notifications due to a bug. If that’s the case, updating the app from the Play Store (Android) or App Store (iPhone) should fix the problem.

Fix 1: Check Notification Preferences for Gmail

Another thing you should do is check the notification preferences for the Gmail app on your Android or iPhone. Here’s how to do it.

Android

Step 1: Long-press on the Gmail app icon and tap the info icon from the menu that appears.

Step 2: Tap on Notifications and select Allow sound and vibration.

Step 3: Tap on Notification categories.

Step 4: Go through each notification type and make sure none of them are set to Silent.

iPhone

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone and navigate to Notifications.

Step 2: Scroll down to tap on Gmail and enable the toggle next to Sounds from the following menu.

Fix 2: Check In-App Notification Settings

Gmail’s in-app settings menu allows you to change the notification alert sound on your phone. If you’ve accidentally set the notification sound to None or Silent, your Gmail alerts will fail to announce themselves with a sound.

Android

Step 1: Open the Gmail app on your phone. Tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) at the top-left corner and select Settings.

Step 2: Select your email account and tap Notification sounds from the following menu.

Step 3: Under Email, tap on Notification sound.

Step 4: Tap on Sound and select your preferred tone. Then, use the slider at the top to increase the notification sound volume to your liking.

iPhone

Step 1: In the Gmail app on your iPhone, tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) at the top-left corner and scroll down to select Settings.

Step 2: Tap on Email notifications.

Step 3: Tap on Notification sounds and select your preferred tone.

Fix 3: Unmute Conversations

Is Gmail not playing notification sounds for a specific conversation? If so, it’s likely that you’ve previously muted that conversation. Here’s how to unmute it.

Step 1: In the Gmail app, type is:muted in the search bar at the top and select the first result that appears.

Step 2: Select the conversation you want to unmute.

Step 3: Tap the three horizontal dots icon at the top right corner and select Unmute from the pop-up.