BuzzKill isn't working. What should I do?

Here is what to do in case BuzzKill isn’t working as you expect.

1. Are notifications appearing in the history section?

If they are not, then it’s likely that the system has stopped BuzzKill from running in the background. This is more likely to happen on devices from Xiaomi or Huawei that have very aggressive battery management, but can also happen on other devices too. If recent notifications are not appearing, then you should disable any battery optimization settings for BuzzKill, lock it in the recent apps section if possible and then restart your device.

If it’s still not working try going into the system settings app, into Accessibility settings and then enable BuzzKill in there.

2. Is the rule being activated?

Look for the notification that should have triggered the rule in the history section. It’s important you look directly in the “History” tab and not in the “Recently matching notifications” section. Once you’ve found the notification, check if it says the name of the rule on it and if it has a colored border, which indicates that it triggered one of your rules. You can also tap “Edit rule” to see which rule was activated. If the rule was not activated then it’s likely that your rule isn’t setup correctly. There may also be other settings that weren’t met so you should check out the “Settings” tab too.

3. Are you trying to change the notification behaviour on a watch?

Unfortunately BuzzKill has limited functionality for watches such as Garmin or WearOS smartwatches due to limitations in Android. There is a companion WearOS app, but this will only affect “Alarm” rules, other rules will not be affected. If you find that notifications are muted when they shouldn’t be or not-muted when they should be, you can try going into “Settings” and changing your “Mute mode”.

4. It’s still not working

Please press the “Contact support” button at the top of the settings screen and include as much detail as possible about the issue you’re facing. Ideally press the button just after you have received a notification that didn’t work correctly and include in the email the time of the notification and what app sent the notification. This will help me work out the cause of the issue.