Live Activities Not Working in iPhone? Here is How to Fix

Live Activities is a feature in iPhone that helps to track real time activities. This is super useful to get the live information about your food delivery, game score, flight or taxi schedule, etc. However, you should enable and configure it for this to work properly. If you are facing problems, here is how to fix Live Activities not working issues in iPhone.

Live Activities in iPhone

This feature was introduced as part of iOS 16 and is widely available with many apps. However, the app also needs to support Live Activities to show the notifications in real time. You can follow the below steps to check Live Activities feature is enabled on your iPhone as well as for the app along with other suggestions to fix the issue if it is not working.

In this article, I will explain with McDonald’s app which will send food delivery notifications as per the real time status.

1. Enable Live Activities in iPhone

• Open Settings app and navigate to “Face ID & Passcode” section.

• Unlock the screen with your passcode.

• Scroll down to bottom of the page and turn on “Live Activities” option.

Now check whether you can receive Live Activities notification from apps.

2. Check App Supports Live Activities

Even you enable Live Activities, there are possibilities the feature is turned off for individual app. Each app will have its own settings page in iPhone where you can turn this feature on.

• Open Settings app, scroll down to the app list and tap on the app name (McDonald’s in my case).

• Find and turn on “Live Activities” option.

If you do not find the option, the app does not support Live Activities feature.

3. Turn On Cellular Data

You should enable Cellular Data for the Live Activities to work when you are moving outside home or office without Wi-Fi connection. Otherwise, you will only receive notifications when connected to wireless network.

• Go to “Settings” and open the app settings page.
• Tap on “Wireless Data” option.
• Turn on “WLAN & Cellular” option.

4. Enable Notifications and Time Sensitive Notifications for App

Live Activities are nothing but notifications triggered from the app. So, you should enable notifications to receive them on your iPhone.

• Tap on Settings app and open “Notifications” settings.

• Find and open the app that you want to enable notifications.

• Turn on the switch against “Allow Notifications” option. Some apps may also send time sensitive notifications and enable if you see “Time Sensitive Notifications”. Make sure to select “Lock Screen” alert so that you can receive notifications when iPhone screen is locked or in StandBy mode.

5. Enable Location Services for App

Most delivery apps work based on your current location. Therefore, you should allow location tracking for the app to work.

• Open Settings app and go to “Privacy & Security” section.

• Tap on “Location Services” option showing on top of the settings page.

• On the next page, first turn on “Location Services” option. After that, scroll down on the app list and tap on the app from which you want to enable Live Activities.

• Select “Always” or “While Using the App” and turn on “Precise Location” to enable the app to track your location.

6. Check Background App Refresh is On

Live Activities need to check the status always for triggering the notification. So, the app needs to refresh in background for getting the latest status.

• Go to Settings app and navigate to “General” section.

• Tap on “Background App Refresh” option.

• Tap on “Background App Refresh” option and select “WLAN” or “WLAN & Cellular Data” option depending on whether you want to use Live Activities with cellular data or not.
• Check the app list in bottom section and turn on the switch against the app name.

7. Turn Off Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode in iPhone will disable multiple activities like background app refresh to save battery power. However, this may stop the Live Activities to send the latest information as a notification.

• Open Settings app and navigate to “Battery” section.
• Turn off “Low Power Mode” option.

8. Update iOS

Rarely problems in iOS can affect certain features of specific iPhone models. In addition, Apple may also update iOS version to enhance the existing functionalities. For example, Live Activities will get full screen mode notifications in iOS 17 with StandBy mode. So, updating iOS can help to get new functions as well as fix existing problems.

• Go to Settings app and then to “General” section.
• Tap on “Software Update” section to check the available iOS update.
• If update is available, download and install it on your iPhone.

Note: Make sure you are not using Public or Developer Beta versions. These are unstable iOS versions and cause problems for apps and other default features.

9. Shut Down and Restart Your iPhone

If none of the above options are working then simply restart your iPhone and check if that helps.

• Go to “Settings” app and navigate to General” section.
• Scroll down to bottom of the page and tap on “Shut Down” option.
• Swipe right on the “Slide to power off” button to switch off your phone.
• After that, press and hold the right-side power button till the time you see the Apple logo to restart your iPhone.

10. Reset iPhone

Resetting is the last option you should go for as it will delete all your custom settings from iPhone. Though no data will be deleted during this process make sure to have a backup in iCloud or Mac before trying to reset the phone (you can restore the settings from backup if needed).

• Go to “Settings > General” and tap on “Transfer or Reset iPhone” option showing at the bottom (just above “Shut Down” option).
• Select “Reset” option and then select “Reset All Settings” option.
• Confirm the action with your passcode to reset the phone.

This is reset wireless networks, location and other options in Settings app. After resetting, check if that helped to solve Live Activities not working problem.

Final Words

In most case, you might have disabled Live Activities, cellular data, Location Services or background app refresh. So, enabling these settings will make Live Activities feature to start working on in your iPhone. If it does not, then you may need to go for iOS update, restart or reset options.