How To: Fix Missing Notifications in Windows 10

After working through a problem on Twitter yesterday, I've happened on a fix for missing notifications. Some of you may be experiencing this already, and some of you may not even realize that it's happening. In yesterday's instance a Windows 10 user was not receiving notifications (both toasts and Action Center alerts) for the built-in Mail app. Notifications were turned on in the Mail app itself…

…but after further investigation, the Mail app didn't even exist in the list of apps in Settings – System – Notifications & Actions. So, even though the Windows 10 user had configured the Mail app correctly, the Windows 10 notification system still had no idea that a Mail app existed. The Mail app hadn't registered correctly with Windows 10 when it installed, or the registry key had become corrupted.

The fix comes in the form of a Windows registry import. The import simply resets the registry key values in the following registry path:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPushNotifications]

To do it:

After the registry import and restarting the PC, missing apps should now show up in the list at Settings – System – Notifications & Actions.

This also serves to show that even if you configure notifications for an app correctly, Settings – System – Notifications & Actions still matters. It's the location where you can globally manage notifications and override specific app notification settings.