Notifications and Focus Modes

Turn on Do Not Disturb

1. Click the Control Center icon in the top-right corner of the menu bar (the two-toggle icon)
2. Click Focus
3. Click Do Not Disturb to enable it

You can also hold Option and click the clock/date in the menu bar to quickly toggle DND.

Set up and schedule Focus modes

1. Open System Settings > Focus
2. Click an existing Focus (like Do Not Disturb) or click the + button to create a new one
3. Under Schedule, click Add Schedule to set automatic activation times, locations, or app triggers
4. Under Allowed People, choose who can still reach you during this Focus
5. Under Allowed Apps, choose which apps can send notifications

You can create separate Focus modes for Work, Personal, Sleep, and more. Each one remembers its own allowed contacts and apps.

Per-app notification settings

1. Open System Settings > Notifications
2. Click any app in the list
3. Toggle Allow Notifications on or off
4. Choose the alert style: Banners (disappear automatically), Alerts (stay until dismissed), or None
5. Configure whether notifications appear on the lock screen, in Notification Center, or as badge counts

Fix notifications that stopped working

• Check Focus mode – If DND or another Focus is active, most notifications are silenced. Check Control Center.
• Check the app's settings – Make sure the app has notifications enabled in System Settings > Notifications > [App]
• Check in-app settings – Some apps (like Slack and Teams) have their own notification preferences separate from macOS
• Restart Notification Center – Open Terminal and run killall NotificationCenter to restart the service

View notification history

Click the date/time in the top-right of the menu bar to open Notification Center. Recent notifications appear in a scrollable list. You can clear them individually or click Clear All at the top of each group.