Why Didn't I Get Email Notification of a FB Message?

By Naomi Bolton

Avoid the annoyance of not receiving Facebook message notification emails by setting everything up correctly.
i Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images

Email notifications are useful if you do not spend a lot of time on Facebook, but want to be informed of new messages. In order to make use of this feature however, you must have notifications turned on and have specified a valid address for the email delivery. Even with these features in place, the emails might land in your spam folder unless you add the Facebook domain to your list of safe senders. Note that Facebook does not notify you of messages from people not on your friend list.

Incorrect or Invalid Email Address

Facebook sends your email notifications to the address you specified when you created your account. If you have since switched to a different email address, you will not receive any notifications until you indicate this change to Facebook. To do so, open your general account settings page on Facebook and check that the primary email address listed is correct. If not, click the "Edit" button and then click "Add another email." Enter your current email address as the primary email and save the changes.

Notifications Turned Off

If you have disabled email notifications, you will not receive any mail about new messages until you enable this option. You might also have mistakenly clicked the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of an email with a Facebook notification. Open your general account settings page and click the "Notifications" tab. Click the "Edit" button next to the "Email" section and check that "Messages" is not on the list of unsubscribed emails. If it is, click the "Turn On" button to re-activate this feature.

Email Sent To Spam Folder

It is possible that you are receiving email notifications from Facebook, but they are being diverted to your "Spam" or "Junk" folder. This happens when the email service that you use incorrectly flags these notifications as spam. If you do find your Facebook emails in one of these folders, add the "@facebookmail.com" domain to the safe senders list of your email account to prevent it from happening again. This will ensure that your Facebook emails end up in your inbox.

Sender is not on your Friend List

You won't receive email notifications for a Facebook message sent from someone who is not on your friend list. In fact, you do not even receive notifications on your Facebook page for these messages. Instead of appearing in your Facebook message inbox, these types of messages are listed as "Other" in a separate section. This design is intended to prevent people from using Facebook's messaging service to spam others. If you wish to receive email notifications for a Facebook message, you have to add the person sending the message to your friend list.

ISP and Technical Problems

If you have checked that your email address is valid, notifications are turned on and no Facebook emails have ended up in the Spam folder, the problem might be your ISP. Contact your ISP to ensure that they are not blocking emails that are originating from the Facebook domain. If your ISP is not blocking these emails and you have exhausted all other avenues you can report the issue to Facebook. Use the Facebook Email Notification Report page (link in Resources) to describe the issue. Facebook will investigate the issue and contact you if more details are required to solve the issue.

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