Push Notification Payload not saved on some device

Question

I'm having an issue handling the notification payload on some device. I'm sending push notifications to my users through Parse Cloud functions.

I'm using the below method to capture the notification and storing its payload so that the user can view all the received notifications in a dedicated view. On my personal device I always get the notification and it is saved correctly, on my friend's device though the notification arrive but if the App is in background the payload is not saved, while if the App is in foreground the payload is saved.

Can this be an issue of the device itself? Or maybe something related to the phone provider (I have h3g and he have Vodafone)?

-(void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult))completionHandler{
// Parse push handler will show a UIAlertView
[PFPush handlePush:userInfo];

if (application.applicationState == UIApplicationStateInactive) {

    // tha app is inactive, transitioning to or from the background        
    completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNoData);

} else if (application.applicationState == UIApplicationStateBackground) {

    // tha app is running in background
    // add the notification to the notificationsArrayRecord
    NSDate *now = [[NSDate alloc]init];
    NSDictionary *aps = userInfo[@"aps"];
    NSString *alertMessage = aps[@"alert"];
    NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];

    NSMutableArray *notificationsArrayRecord = [[defaults arrayForKey:@"notificationsArrayRecord"] mutableCopy];
    [notificationsArrayRecord addObject:@[now,alertMessage]];
    [defaults setValue: notificationsArrayRecord forKey:@"notificationsArrayRecord"];

    // update the notifications counter
    NSInteger pushCount = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] integerForKey: @"pushCount"];
    pushCount ++;
    [defaults setInteger: pushCount forKey:@"pushCount"];
    [defaults synchronize];

    completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNewData);
} else {        
    // the app is running in foreground

    // add the notification to the notificationsArrayRecord
    NSDate *now = [[NSDate alloc]init];
    NSDictionary *aps = userInfo[@"aps"];
    NSString *alertMessage = aps[@"alert"];
    NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];

    NSMutableArray *notificationsArrayRecord = [[defaults arrayForKey:@"notificationsArrayRecord"] mutableCopy];
    [notificationsArrayRecord addObject:@[now,alertMessage]];
    [defaults setValue: notificationsArrayRecord forKey:@"notificationsArrayRecord"];

    // update the notifications counter
    NSInteger pushCount = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] integerForKey: @"pushCount"];
    pushCount ++;
    [defaults setInteger: pushCount forKey:@"pushCount"];
    [defaults synchronize];

    completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNewData);

    // refresh the menu buttons and the notification counter
    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"appDidReceiveNotificationWhileActive" object:nil];
   }
  }

Answer 1

I guess the problem is how you handle the application state UIApplicationStateInactive. In this case, you are not storing the information. You should also store it in this case, because the app can apparently be in this state, when you receive notifications. This also explains, why it fails sometimes. Also see this question, that states the app is in state UIApplicationStateInactive sometimes, when the device receives a notification.

You should refactor your code to store the data in all cases:

-(void)application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo fetchCompletionHandler:(void (^)(UIBackgroundFetchResult))completionHandler{
    // Parse push handler will show a UIAlertView
    [PFPush handlePush:userInfo];

    // add the notification to the notificationsArrayRecord     
    NSDate *now = [[NSDate alloc]init];
    NSDictionary *aps = userInfo[@"aps"];
    NSString *alertMessage = aps[@"alert"];
    NSUserDefaults *defaults = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];

    NSMutableArray *notificationsArrayRecord = [[defaults arrayForKey:@"notificationsArrayRecord"] mutableCopy];
    [notificationsArrayRecord addObject:@[now,alertMessage]];
    [defaults setValue: notificationsArrayRecord forKey:@"notificationsArrayRecord"];

    // update the notifications counter
    NSInteger pushCount = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] integerForKey: @"pushCount"];
    pushCount ++;
    [defaults setInteger: pushCount forKey:@"pushCount"];
    [defaults synchronize];

    if (application.applicationState == UIApplicationStateInactive) {
        // the app is inactive, transitioning to or from the background        
        completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNoData);
    } else if (application.applicationState == UIApplicationStateBackground) {
        // the app is running in background
        completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNewData);
    } else {        
        // the app is running in foreground
        completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNewData);

        // refresh the menu buttons and the notification counter
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"appDidReceiveNotificationWhileActive" object:nil];
    }
}

Update: I am not sure about calling completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNoData) in applicationState (no idea what this is good for), but maybe you need to call completionHandler(UIBackgroundFetchResultNewData) instead, also in this case, to get the data stored.

Also make sure you configured everything properly to receive notifications in background, [see this] answer(https://stackoverflow.com/a/31450953/594074).