Notifications from this category are blocked

[debwill54]

I have several select people set up as conversations in Google Messages. All of them except one work  with the settings I have chosen. When I click on that person in the list, I get the message "Notifications from this category are blocked." I have done significant research on how to unblock, but in all honesty, I have no clue what the categories are and where they are to be found. Moreover, I have no idea why this one would be blocked when no one else is. Please help me figure this out; I'm about to go on a trip with this person and need to get notifications from her through Google Messages!

Thanks in advance for the help!

[realaud · Accepted solution]

You must have notification categories turned on if you have other conversations listed with customized settings.  You can only customize individual chats if the categories are turned on.  That being said, you should get notifications for all messages when using the app.

To check/turn on notification categories, open your phone settings, navigate to notifications/advanced settings/manage notification categories for all apps.  Then return to the messaging app and tap on your initial and select "messages settings".  Select "notifications" and then tap on the notification categories.  Make sure you have notifications for incoming messages on and then set your message tone.  If you want to have individual notification tones for individual chats, each chat becomes a category.  You can select the chat in Google messages and select "details" and change the notification tone.  Understand that these notification tones remain only as long as the chat remains open - in other words, if you delete the chat, the notification sound does not remain with the user in the same way setting a ringtone for a contact does. As far as your current issue, make sure the number is not blocked in your blocked number list.  If the chat has been disallowed from notifications, allow it. If it is not blocked, delete the conversation and reinitiate it.  If there is anything important that you need to retain in the conversation, download SMS backup and restore from the play store, and back up that conversation before you delete it.  If it's just everyday chitchat, does it matter if you delete it?

[debwill54]

Thank you for your very detailed response. I had tried pretty much everything you mentioned already, with no luck. I finally gave in and deleted the conversation. Unfortunately, I could not find a way to restore the Google backup without doing a complete reset, and I'm not willing to do that. It seems that the Google back up is primarily (only?) for adding all your information to a new phone.

 

And sadly, it was photos and other information I would have preferred to keep; too late now. But the issue is, for the time being, resolved. The problem is that without knowing what caused the "category" to be "blocked", I'll have to repeat this if it happens again. What are CATEGORIES anyway? And do we really need them to be on our phones if we can't do anything with them? I never intentionally created any categories; I simply added the people I chat/message with the most as conversations. And I don't really know why that's a thing either!!

 

Anyway, I do appreciate your quick response and careful instructions. Have a great rest of the week!

Deborah

[realaud]

The categories are created by the individual apps.  They are necessary, because sometimes one does not want every notification an app decides to spit out.  I don't want advertisements from the Samsung store, so I turn those notifications off. I don't want certain notifications from the health app, so I turn those notifications off.  In some apps you can not turn off notifications unless you allow the categories, as there are certain required notification categories, but you cannot turn off the optional ones unless categories are enabled.  Moste people also like to customize notification sounds for different apps and different categories within the apps.  There are myriad reasons why categories exist. 

Why would you need to restore a Google backup?  Your photos would still exist in your gallery and in Google Photos.  If you are referring to images contained in the chat, you should have downloaded them when they arrived if you wanted to keep them.  Photos from your camera and other downloads should still be intact.  If you had taken my advice about downloading SMS backup and restore, you could have backed up and saved that particular chat.

You can still get it back by doing a factory reset and restoring your backup, but I am not sure you wouldn't get the same error back, but at least this time you would be able to save the important stuff before deleting the conversation.