[BUG] iOS push notifications only show "New Message – please tap here to see the message" without preview

[th3cube]

[BUG] iOS push notifications only show generic "New Message" fallback instead of message preview

🐛 Bug Description

iGotify push notifications arrive on iOS, but the notification preview does not show the actual Gotify title/message anymore.

Instead, every push notification only shows the generic fallback text:

New Message – please tap here to see the message

The actual Gotify message is visible correctly inside the iGotify app after opening it.

This happens in both tested setup modes:

• Local Instance mode
• External Instance mode

Both modes were tested with the latest available versions.

Language: English

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✅ Expected Behavior

The iOS push notification should show the real Gotify notification title and message preview.

Example:

Uptime-Kuma
[gotify.example.com] [✅ Up] 200 - OK, keyword is found

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❌ Actual Behavior

The push notification arrives on iOS, but the notification preview only shows:

New Message – please tap here to see the message

No real title or message preview is shown in the iOS notification.

The actual Gotify message is only visible after opening the iGotify app.

Push delivery itself works.

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🔁 Steps to Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Set up iGotify with the latest Assistant container version.
2. Configure iGotify in Local Instance mode.
3. Set the required environment variables:

GOTIFY_URLS=<gotify-url>
GOTIFY_CLIENT_TOKENS=<gotify-client-token>
SECNTFY_TOKENS=NTFY-DEVICE-12345678************

4. Create a dedicated Gotify client token for iGotify.
5. Recreate the iGotify users.db.
6. Restart the iGotify Assistant container.
7. Delete and reinstall the iGotify iOS app.
8. Reconfigure the iOS app.
9. Send a Gotify test notification.
10. Observe that the iOS push notification arrives, but only shows the generic fallback text.
11. Repeat the same test with External Instance mode.
12. Observe the same behavior.

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📸 Screenshots / Screen Recordings

A screenshot can be provided if needed.

The iOS notification only shows:

New Message – please tap here to see the message

instead of the actual Gotify title/message preview.

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📄 Logs

Docker container logs of iGotify Assistant:

Database is created: True
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[14]
      Now listening on: http://[::]:8080
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Hosting environment: Production
info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Content root path: /app

Gotify - Url: http://gotify
Is Gotify - Url available: yes
SecNtfy Server - Url: https://api.secntfy.app
Is SecNtfy Server - Url available: yes
Client - Token: <redacted>
Client connecting...
Done!

warn: Microsoft.AspNetCore.HttpsPolicy.HttpsRedirectionMiddleware[3]
      Failed to determine the https port for redirect.

Message converted: {"id":87854,"appid":25,"message":"[gotify.example.com] [✅ Up] 200 - OK, keyword is found","title":"Uptime-Kuma","priority":3,"date":"2026-07-08T14:11:55.735460022+02:00"}

WS Instance from: <redacted>
<encrypted payload redacted>

{"Message":"Message is sent!","Error":"","Status":200}

The logs indicate that:

• Gotify is reachable
• SecNtfy is reachable
• The client connects successfully
• The real Gotify message is received
• The message is converted
• An encrypted payload is generated
• SecNtfy returns HTTP 200
• The iOS push notification arrives

However, iOS only displays the generic fallback text instead of the real notification preview.

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📱 Environment

Please complete the following information:

• Device: iphone 15 pro max
• OS & Version: iOS, 26.5.2
• Container Version: latest available iGotify Assistant, v1.5.1.3
• iGotify Version: latest available iOS App Store version, v1.5.5
• Setup mode tested: Local Instance mode and External Instance mode
• Gotify behind reverse proxy: yes
• Local Instance tested with internal Gotify URL: yes
• External Instance tested with public Gotify URL: yes
• Fresh users.db recreated: yes
• Dedicated Gotify client token created for iGotify: yes
• iGotify iOS app deleted and reinstalled: yes
• iPhone rebooted: yes
• iOS notification preview setting checked: yes

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✔️ Checklist

Please confirm the following before submitting:

• I searched existing issues to avoid duplicates
• I provided logs or explained why they are not available
• All sensitive data has been redacted

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ℹ️ Additional Context

This looks related to the same general area as encrypted notification handling / iOS notification service extension behavior, but it does not look exactly the same as older reports where encrypted or encoded content was shown directly.

In this case, the notification does not show an encrypted/base64 payload.

It only shows the generic fallback text:

New Message – please tap here to see the message

The real message is visible correctly inside the iGotify app.

This was tested with both Local Instance mode and External Instance mode, and both show the same behavior.

The Assistant logs suggest that the server side is working correctly and that the message is successfully sent to SecNtfy/APNs. The issue seems to happen on the iOS notification preview side, possibly in the notification service extension or decryption/preview handling.

[androidseb25]

I currently working on an update to make it look better.

[th3cube]

Thanks a lot for looking into this and for assigning it to v1.6.0.0.

Just as additional context: the notification preview with the actual title/message did work for me before, so I initially reported it as a bug...

If this area is already being reworked or improved for v1.6, that sounds great.

I’m happy to help with testing if needed. I can test both Local Instance mode and External Instance mode and provide logs or feedback.