General Troubleshooting Steps

If the app isn’t working for you, we understand it can be very frustrating. Some troubleshooting steps are covered below in the hope you’ll be set up and working in no time.

Permissions #

Please check the application has the correct permissions allowed. Upon the first time starting the application, you will be prompted to enable Emergency Alert’s access to your notifications. If you reject this permission, the app will not work.

If you accidentally leave this disabled, you can check for permissions again in the app by going in to Emergency Alert, clicking the “Settings” tab in the bottom centre of the screen, and then tap the “Check Permissions” option.

In addition, you can check these permissions in your device settings.

There are two places to check permissions (note, the exact steps may vary depending on your device model and Android version):

• Device Settings > Apps > Emergency Alert > Permissions
  • Check any disabled permissions are allowed – note, you may need to tap the 3 vertical buttons on the top right of the screen to see “All Permissions”
• Device Settings > Sound & Notification > Notification access
  • Find “Emergency Alert” in the list and ensure the switch is set to the “On” position
• Device Settings > Special app access > Display over other apps
  • Find “Emergency Alert” in the list and ensure the switch is set to the “On” position

Background Process #

Sometimes, the background process that scans notifications can be terminated. This can be due to a range of things, such as the device going in to power saving mode, being low on resources, or being killed by another app.

In the event that the app stops functioning, the easiest way to restore the app is to re-launch it. If this fails, please try rebooting the device.

Battery Saving Utilities #

Some devices come with battery saving utilities. Unfortunately, these apps sometimes identify Emergency Alert as not being used, and can terminated it – meaning you’ll no longer get alerts.

Please refer to dontkillmyapp.com for instructions on how to do this for your device.

Startup #

Some devices have features which stop apps from launching at startup.

If you notice Emergency Alert not starting up when your device reboots, this could be the cause.

Please refer to dontkillmyapp.com for instructions on how to ensure your device is not stopping Emergency Alert from starting when your device restarts.

Rules #

If your alerts still aren’t coming through when expected, please check the following:

• Rule is disabled – you may have accidentally disabled the rule
• Typos – you may have a typo in the criteria field
• Specified application is incorrect – If you have an app specified for a rule, try setting it to “All Applications” instead and see if it gets triggered. If it does, check you are selecting the correct application from the list and retry.
• “Play Audio” is disabled – If you expect audio to sound, double check you have “Play Audio” enabled for that rule
• “Vibrate” is disabled – If you expect the device to vibrate, double check you have “Vibrate” enabled for that rule
• Incorrect rule field selected – If you are alerting on the body of a notification, ensure “Notification Body” is selected. If you are alerting on the title of a notification, ensure “Notification Title” is selected
• Incorrect rule criteria type selected – If you are alerting with the “Starts with” criteria type, ensure that either the notification body or title actually starts with that text