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Overview

This guide walks you through troubleshooting your OneSignal Web SDK setup. Before continuing, review the Web SDK Setup to ensure you’ve completed all steps. The most common reasons web push appears to not be working are actually related to your browser and device’s notification settings:

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Browser compatibility

Users may see web permission prompts but cannot subscribe to push notifications in incognito, private, or guest browser modes.
BrowserWindowsmacOSAndroidiOS
Chrome✅✅✅✅ ¹
Firefox✅✅✅✅ ¹
Safari 10+❌✅❌✅ ¹
Microsoft Edge✅✅✅✅ ¹
Opera ²✅✅✅✅ ¹
Samsung Internet ²❌❌✅✅ ¹
Yandex ²✅✅✅✅ ¹
UC Browser ²✅❌✅✅ ¹
Internet Explorer❌❌❌❌
DuckDuckGo❌❌❌❌
¹ iOS requires web app installation (see iOS web push setup)² Chromium-based browsers appear as “Chrome” in OneSignal analytics

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Device notification settings

Your device’s Notification Settings and Focus modes (Do Not Disturb, Low battery, etc.) may be blocking notifications from appearing. You may also have notifications turned off for specific apps like your browsers. Check the following to make sure your device is configured to receive notifications.
  1. Select Start > Settings > Notifications & Actions > Get notifications from apps and other senders
  2. Make sure your site and browser are also enabled.
Windows 11 Notification Settings:
  1. Select Start > Settings > System > Notifications
  1. Turn On Notifications
  2. Turn Off Do not disturb (while testing, push will show when this is disabled)
  3. Scroll down under Notifications from apps and other senders
  1. Make sure your browsers are turned On.

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Prompt display issues

The following are common reasons why the web push notification prompt may not display as expected.
1

Confirm a prompt is configured

Review your Web permission prompt setup to ensure you have configured a prompt and understand the different browser behaviors.For instance, some browsers like Safari require a user gesture (clicking a button) before the native prompt can appear. Details for each browser can be found in our Web permission prompt > Native permission prompt section.
2

Check browser compatability, incognito, private browser, or guest browser modes.

Browsers do not allow users to subscribe to notifications in these modes. This is why the Slide Prompt may show but the native Permission Prompt will not display.Make sure you are using a browser and device that supports web push.
3

Check your browser's Notification Settings

Navigate to your browser’s settings and check the “Notifications” permission setting. Chrome example: chrome://settings/content/notifications
In this example:
  • The user has selected “Don’t allow sites to send notifications” which will prevent the native permission prompt from showing. This must show “Sites can ask to send notifications” to allow the native permission prompt to show.
  • The user has added https://yoursite.com to the “Not allowed to send notifications” list, which will prevent the native permission prompt from showing. This must be removed from the list to allow the native permission prompt to show.
Browser specific documentation:
  • Chrome - This page explains how to manage notifications in Chrome by going to Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings > Notifications, where you can control default behavior and manage permissions for individual websites.
  • Firefox - This guide covers Firefox’s Web Push notifications, explaining how to manage notification permissions through Settings > Privacy & Security > Notifications, and how to control permissions for specific sites through the address bar’s site information icon.
  • Safari - This Apple guide explains how to customize Safari notifications on Mac through Safari > Preferences > Websites > Notifications, where you can manage which sites can send notifications and control notification behavior through System Preferences.
  • Edge - This article details how to manage Edge notifications by navigating to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Site permissions > Notifications, or by clicking the site information icon in the address bar.
4

iOS/iPadOS requirements are not met.

For iOS, there are some additional requirements to prompt users for their subscription. More information can be seen in the Mobile Web Push for iOS/iPadOS guide.

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Troubleshooting steps

After checking the above, follow these steps to troubleshoot your OneSignal Web SDK setup.
1

Open the browser developer tools console

The browser’s developer tools can be used to interact with our web SDK on your webpage and enable logging to check for errors.
  • Chrome: Right click on the page, click Inspect, and click the Console tab of the popup window that opens up.
  • Firefox: Right click on the page, click Inspect element, and click the Console tab of the popup window that opens up.
  • Safari: Go to Safari → Preferences → Advanced and make sure Show Develop menu in menu bar is checked. Then, on your webpage, right click, click Inspect element, and click the Console tab of the popup window that opens up.
2

Verify OneSignal has loaded and initialized on your page.

In the Console, run:
JavaScript
  OneSignal.initialized
What the result means:
  • true ✅ - OneSignal is initialized and ready. Continue to the next step.
  • false ⚠️ - OneSignal loaded but hasn’t finished initializing yet. Wait a moment and try again.
  • Uncaught ReferenceError: OneSignal is not defined ❌ .Verify the OneSignal JavaScript snippet is in your site’s <head> section, Check that the script loads before you try to use OneSignal methods.Review the Web SDK Setup guide
  • OneSignal is already defined The SDK is being initialized more than once on the same page. Remove one initialization method. If using the WordPress plugin, remove any manual OneSignal code from your theme files.
3

Enable web SDK logging

You can now run commands in the developer tools Console. Execute the following code:
JavaScript
  OneSignal.Debug.setLogLevel('trace');
  • You should see undefined as the result.
  • Close the tab and open a new one to the same page. Refreshing alone won’t trigger all SDK initialization events.
  • You will start to see OneSignal SDK logs in the Console.

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Configuration errors

You may encounter the following errors after OneSignal initializes:
Error: SDK already initialized
What this means: The OneSignal Web SDK init code is being called more than once, often caused by combining WordPress plugin setup with manual code or accidentally adding the OneSignal init code multiple times. How to fix: Remove any duplicate init calls. If using the WordPress plugin, remove any manual OneSignal code from your theme files.
Error: Can only be used on: (URL Set in OneSignal Dashboard)
What this means: The domain you are currently visiting doesn’t match the site URL configured in your OneSignal dashboard. How to fix: Copy the site URL in your browser and paste it into your OneSignal dashboard Settings > Push & In-app > Web > Site URL configuration. Make sure it is the site origin using the following format:
  • Protocol: Must be https:// (for local testing, see Localhost configuration)
  • Domain: example.com vs www.example.com
  • Subdomain: app.example.com vs example.com
All three components must match between your actual site URL and your dashboard configuration.
Error: OneSignalSDK: The “My site is not fully HTTPS” option is no longer supported starting with version 16 (User Model) of the OneSignal SDK.
What this means: Your OneSignal dashboard is configured to use an HTTP site and you likely updated to use HTTPS. Your users that subscribed to your site while using HTTP or the “My site is not fully HTTPS” option are actually subscribed to a subdomain we provided you in the format https://your-label.os.tc and not your actual site origin. This is because web push isn’t supported on HTTP sites or websites that cannot host service workers. How to fix: You have 2 options, but both require your users to resubscribe because they are actually subscribed to the os.tcsubdomain.
  1. Create a new OneSignal App and set the new App ID in your OneSignal init code. The benefit of this is you can continue sending push from the old/original OneSignal App. Send as many notifications as you want letting your users know the site has been updated and they should come back and subscribe again to keep getting updates. Offering a discount or incentive to resubscribe goes a long way. Set the “Launch URL” to a landing page and provide them a button to easily resubscribe like our Bell prompt, Custom Link prompt, or Category Slide prompt. See Permission prompts for more details.
  2. If you want to keep the same App ID, you would need to use our Update an App API to update the chrome_web_origin and safari_site_origin to your HTTPS site origin. Because these users subscribed to the os.tc subdomain, they do not have push permissions allowed in the browser for your site. The browser doesn’t “know” they are subscribed to your site, so they will get prompted again. If they subscribe again, they will have 2 web push Subscriptions to your site on the same browser and will get duplicate notifications. For this reason, we recommend deleting all your current web push subscribers to prevent them from getting duplicate notifications. Before deleting, send a few notifications letting them know the site has been updated and they should subscribe again to keep getting updates. Offering a discount or incentive to resubscribe works really well. Set the “Launch URL” to a landing page and provide them a button to easily resubscribe like our Bell prompt, Custom Link prompt, or Category Slide prompt. See Permission prompts for more details.

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Service worker installation errors

If you are presented with the Native permission prompt and click “Allow”, you may encounter the following service worker installation errors:
Y: Registration of a Service Worker failed.
[Service Worker Installation] Installing service worker failed TypeError: Failed to register a ServiceWorker for scope (‘https://your-site.com/’) with script (‘https://your-site.com/...’): A bad HTTP response code (404) was received when fetching the script.
[Service Worker Installation] Installing service worker failed TypeError: Failed to register a ServiceWorker for scope (‘https://www.yoursite.com/’) with script (‘https://www.yoursite.com/...’): A bad HTTP response code (403) was received when fetching the script.
The script has an unsupported MIME type (‘current MIME type’). [Service Worker Installation] Installing service worker failed SecurityError: Failed to register a ServiceWorker for scope (‘https://your-site.com/’) with script (‘https://your-site.com/…’): The script has an unsupported MIME type (‘current MIME type’).
[Service Worker Installation] Installing service worker failed SecurityError: Failed to register a ServiceWorker for scope (‘https://your-site.com/’) with script (‘https://your-site.com/…’): The script resource is behind a redirect, which is disallowed.
What this means: Your service worker file is configured incorrectly. How to fix:
1

Find your service worker path

Our SDK looks for the OneSignalSDKWorker.js service worker file in the root directory of your site unless you specify a custom filename or location as described in the Service Worker Setup Guide.Make sure you have configured the correct filename, location, and scope for our SDK to find the service worker file.
2

Visit the service worker file directly in your browser

Based on your configuration, open the file directly in your browser.
  • If you did not configure a custom location, then you should see the JavaScript code for the service worker file in your site’s root: https://yoursite.com/OneSignalSDKWorker.js
  • If using WordPress, you should see it here: https://yoursite.com/wp-content/plugins/onesignal-free-web-push-notifications/sdk_files/OneSignalSDKWorker.js
  • If using a custom location, you should see it here: https://yoursite.com/your-custom-location/OneSignalSDKWorker.js
File names are case-sensitive. Make sure you use OneSignalSDKWorker.js or the filename you configured.Some servers will automatically lowercase the filename. Take this into consideration if you cannot find the file.
3

Verify the file loads

  • You should see the following JavaScript code:
    JavaScript
    importScripts("https://cdn.onesignal.com/sdks/web/v16/OneSignalSDK.sw.js");
  • This file must be served with a content-type of application/javascript.
  • There can be no redirects to this file. Files must be hosted on the same domain as your site (no CDN or proxy domains)
Review the Service Worker Setup Guide for more detailed setup instructions.

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Notifications not shown

This section assumes:
  1. You have reviewed the Notifications Not Shown: Web Push guide for common reasons why notifications may not be showing up in your device.
  2. You were shown the Native permission prompt and clicked “Allow”. See Prompt Display Issues above if you did not subscribe via the Native permission prompt.
If the above are true, follow these steps to check your Subscription ID and send yourself a push notification:
1

Get your Subscription ID

Run the following code in the browser developer tools console:
JavaScript
  function getUserInfo() {
  	console.log('getUserInfo()');
  	Promise.all([
      OneSignal.Notifications.isPushSupported(),
  		OneSignal.Notifications.permission,
      OneSignal.User.PushSubscription.optedIn,
      OneSignal.User.PushSubscription.id
  	]).then(([
      isPushSupported,
      isSubscribed,
      isOptedIn,
      subscriptionId
    ]) => {
      console.log('The current URL of this page: ', location.href);
      console.log('Push is supported on this browser: ', isPushSupported);
      console.log('You are subscribed to notifications in the browser: ', isSubscribed);
      console.log('You are opted-in with OneSignal: ' , isOptedIn);
      console.log('Your OneSignal Subscription ID: ', subscriptionId);
    }).catch(e => {
      console.error('Error getting user info:', e);
    });
  }
  getUserInfo();
This will tell you:
  • The URL of the page you are on if there is any confusion.
  • If the current browser you are using supports push notifications.
    • true means the browser supports push notifications.
    • false means the browser does not support push notifications.
  • If you are subscribed to notifications in the browser.
    • true means you allowed push permissions for this URL.
    • false means you did not allow or denied push permissions for this URL.
  • If you are opted-in with OneSignal.
    • true means your Subscription is subscribed to push notifications in OneSignal.
    • false means your Subscription is not subscribed to push notifications in OneSignal. Check for the optOut() method is being called on your site.
  • Your OneSignal Subscription ID.
    • Save this for the next step. This is the ID you will use to send yourself a push notification.
    Save this console data to a text file and share with our Support team if you need further assistance.
2

Send yourself a notification

If you are subscribed to notifications, opted-in with OneSignal, and have a Subscription ID, you can send yourself a notification.Follow the steps in the Find & Set Test Subscriptions to set yourself as a tester and send yourself a notification.
3

Test with Chrome

If you are not getting notifications in Chrome, use these Chrome-specific diagnostic tools to identify the issue.
  1. In a new tab, open chrome://gcm-internals.
  2. Click the “Start Recording” button on the top left. Making sure you see “Connection State: CONNECTED”.
  3. Leave this open and send yourself another push notification to your Chrome web push Subscription.
  4. You should see something in the “Receive Message Log” if you got it.
  • If you don’t see a “Data msg received”, then your Chrome browser is not receiving the notification at all. Please let us know on support about this.
  • If you see “Data msg received” but you still didn’t receive a notification, continue to the next step.
  1. Open a new tab to chrome://serviceworker-internals
  2. Search for Scope: https://your-site.com (replace your-site.com with your actual site domain).
  3. Click Inspect, or Start -> Inspect. A Chrome Developer Tools popup will appear.
  1. On the Chrome Developer Tools popup to our service worker, click the Console tab, and run OneSignalWorker.log.trace();. It should return undefined. Any messages from our service worker should now appear in this popup.
Need help?Chat with our Support team or email [email protected]Please include:
  • Details of the issue you’re experiencing and steps to reproduce if available
  • Your OneSignal App ID
  • The External ID or Subscription ID if applicable
  • The URL to the message you tested in the OneSignal Dashboard if applicable
  • Any relevant logs or error messages
We’re happy to help!