GitHub notifications not working on your Mac? 5 fixes that actually work

Updated August 2026 · 4 min read

You know the pattern: a teammate pings you on Slack asking if you saw their review request — and no, you never got a notification. GitHub's notifications are one of the most common silent failures on macOS because they don't come from an app at all. They come from a browser tab or an email digest, and both have multiple ways to quietly break.

Fix 1: Check macOS notification settings for your browser

If you rely on Chrome or Firefox web push from github.com, macOS may simply be suppressing them. Open System Settings → Notifications and find your browser in the list. Make sure Allow notifications is on, style is set to Banners or Alerts, and it isn't set to deliver quietly. While you're there, check that Do Not Disturb / Focus modes aren't swallowing them during working hours.

If github.com doesn't appear in the list at all, web push was never granted: open GitHub in the browser, click your avatar → Settings → Notifications, and enable Web notifications, then accept the browser permission prompt.

Fix 2: Audit your GitHub watching settings

The most common cause isn't technical at all — you're only notified about conversations you participate in. On GitHub go to Settings → Notifications and check:

• GitHub notification badge not showing? 6 fixes
• Watching: "Participating and @mentions" means repos you own or contribute to won't notify unless someone @-mentions you. Switch important repos to Watch individually.
• Subscriptions: you may be subscribed to dozens of long-running threads without realizing it.
• Email vs Web: each channel has its own toggles per event type.

Fix 3: Email digests are being delayed or filtered

GitHub batches email notifications, and fast-moving threads can resolve before the email lands. Worse, Gmail and Outlook sometimes classify them as Promotions or spam. Search your inbox for [email protected] and check spam/promotions tabs. If they're there, create a filter that marks them as primary — but note this fixes delivery, not latency. Digests are inherently minutes-to-hours behind real time.

Fix 4: Re-authorize or replace a stale personal access token

Third-party tools that poll the GitHub API stop silently when a fine-grained token expires or its scope changes. If you use any client (including DevNotify), regenerate the token under Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens and make sure it retains read access to Notifications. Classic tokens need the notifications scope; fine-grained tokens need "Notifications" read permission.

A quick test in Terminal:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" https://api.github.com/notifications

If that returns a JSON list, your token works and the problem is elsewhere. If it returns 401 or 403, the token is dead or missing scope.

Fix 5: Use a menu bar app that can't be suppressed by a closed browser

All of the above share one weakness: they depend on a browser tab staying open or an inbox behaving. A native menu bar app polls the GitHub API directly from your Mac and shows an unread badge next to the clock — visible even when every browser window is closed and Focus mode is on (it uses the same macOS notification center as every other app).

This is exactly what DevNotify does: unread count in the menu bar, one click to open the PR or issue, polling the official GitHub API every 60 seconds with your own token stored locally. It also supports GitLab todos via the same interface.

Still nothing?

• Check githubstatus.com — notifications have had partial outages before.
• If you use Safari, note github.com's web push support has historically been less reliable than Chrome/Firefox.
• Log out and back into github.com — stale sessions occasionally drop push registrations.