Push notifications not delivered to Android/iOS despite gateway reporting success

[CalMic2016]

Server Info

• Version: 8.3.2
• Deployment: Self-hosted Docker
• OS: Linux
• MongoDB: 8.0

Mobile Clients

• Android: Rocket.Chat app 4.71.2, Pixel 6 (stock Android), notifications permitted
• iOS: Rocket.Chat official app

Push Configuration

• Gateway: https://gateway.rocket.chat
• Push_enable: true
• Push_enable_gateway: true
• Push_production: true
• Push_request_content_from_server: false
• Push_UseLegacy: false
• Plan: Starter (Unlimited push notifications)

---

Describe the bug

Admin → Push → "Send a test push notification" reports "Your push was sent to 1 device" but no notification is received on Android or iOS. Nothing appears in Android notification history (Settings → Notifications → Notification history), confirming the notification never reached the device at the OS level.

Desktop notifications work correctly.

---

Steps to reproduce

1. Deploy Rocket.Chat 8.3.2 via Docker with gateway.rocket.chat as push gateway
2. Log in with the official Rocket.Chat Android app (4.71.2) and iOS app
3. Verify push tokens are registered: db.getCollection("_raix_push_app_tokens").find() — tokens exist with appName: chat.rocket.android and chat.rocket.ios
4. Go to Administration → Push → Send a test push notification
5. Interface reports success ("sent to 1 device") but no notification arrives

---

What was verified on the server side

Check	Result
Workspace registered with Rocket.Chat Cloud	✓
Cloud Workspace ID exists	✓
Push tokens registered in _raix_push_app_tokens	✓ (Android GCM + iOS APN)
Notification queue (rocketchat_notification_queue) processes and empties	✓
Gateway reachable from server (wget https://gateway.rocket.chat)	✓
Unlimited push plan (Starter)	✓
Push_request_content_from_server set to false	✓
Stale push tokens removed	✓
Cloud sync ("Sync license update") triggered	✓
Container restarted	✓
Legacy push mode (Push_UseLegacy: true) tested	✓ (no change)
Cloud push counter	0 (gateway never processes)

---

Conclusion

The Rocket.Chat server correctly sends push requests to gateway.rocket.chat. The gateway returns a success response (server reports "sent to 1 device") but the cloud push counter remains at 0, indicating the gateway accepts the request but does not forward it to FCM (Android) or APNs (iOS).

The issue is inside gateway.rocket.chat — nothing on the self-hosted server side can resolve this.

---

Similar reports

• https://forums.rocket.chat/t/push-notifications-to-mobile-not-working/22675 (v7.11.0, same symptoms)
• Mobile clients do not receive push notifications #32130 (v6.6.x, gateway "unsupported version" error)

[reetp]

Check your logs as per this (assuming this is not you?) Put them in debug mode & test.

Don't paste long logs here as it makes it impossible to read - use pastebin etc.

https://forums.rocket.chat/t/push-notifications-not-working-on-self-hosted-server/22797

[Harsheetsharma]

I can help investigate this.

Given that:

The server successfully queues and sends the push request
The gateway responds with success
But the cloud push counter remains at 0

This suggests the request is accepted by the gateway but never forwarded to FCM/APNs.

Before digging deeper, I’d like to confirm a couple of things:

1. Do debug logs (Log_Level=debug) show the payload being sent to the gateway and any response body?
2. Is this reproducible across multiple workspaces or only this one?
3. Can you confirm whether the workspace appears correctly in Rocket.Chat Cloud (no version/plan mismatch)?

If logs confirm a clean request/response cycle, this likely needs escalation to the gateway service since self-hosted instances don’t control that layer.

Happy to analyze sanitized debug logs if you can share them via pastebin.

[CalMic2016]

This is my deeper analysis.

Bug Report: gateway.rocket.chat silently drops GCM push — cloud counter stays at 0, no delivery

Server Info

• Version: 8.3.2
• Deployment: Self-hosted Docker
• OS: Linux (Kernel 6.17.0)
• MongoDB: 8.0
• Node.js: 22.16.0
• Plan: Starter (Unlimited push notifications)

Mobile Clients

• Android: Rocket.Chat app 4.71.2, Pixel 6 (stock Android 15), notifications permitted

Push Configuration

• Gateway: https://gateway.rocket.chat
• Push_enable: true
• Push_enable_gateway: true
• Push_production: true
• Push_request_content_from_server: false
• Push_UseLegacy: false

---

Describe the bug

Administration → Push → Send a test push notification reports "Your push was sent to 1 device" and the server log confirms the request reached gateway.rocket.chat/push/gcm/send with a successful response. However:

• No notification is received on the Android device
• Nothing appears in Android notification history (Settings → Notifications → Notification history), confirming the notification never reached the device at OS level
• The cloud push counter remains at 0 after every test, meaning the gateway accepts the request but does not forward it to FCM

Desktop notifications work correctly. The issue is reproducible 100% of the time.

---

Steps to reproduce

1. Deploy Rocket.Chat 8.3.2 via Docker with gateway.rocket.chat as push gateway
2. Log in with the official Rocket.Chat Android app (4.71.2) — push token is registered in _raix_push_app_tokens with appName: chat.rocket.android
3. Go to Administration → Push → Send a test push notification
4. Observe: UI reports success, server log shows the request went to the gateway and returned 200, but no notification arrives on the device

---

Debug log trace

Server log level set to 2 (every log entry) via OVERWRITE_SETTING_Log_Level=2.

Push token registration (after fresh login)

{"level":20,"time":"2026-04-28T14:25:12.294Z","name":"Push","msg":"Push token added",
  "dataWithNoAuthToken":{
    "token":{"gcm":"dfyKpV7IT_eRA8GLH6ntKZ:APA91bF9E9Uhe5DNvil0_G7wzDOaCsT_OqOYMAJg2rlG6r9ZmFgcp-YMoWSsp8WV2k55khDI4o2Seyw5EHckUape5i5szCvnYk27VWxUJWTOXIstdr_fHi0"},
    "appName":"chat.rocket.android",
    "userId":"mm9PgsJAr5amn7SE9"
  },
  "insertResult":{"acknowledged":true,"insertedId":"69f0c34849e77d21cc1b507d"}}

Push test triggered

{"level":35,"time":"2026-04-28T14:26:40.473Z","name":"Meteor","method":"push_test","userId":"mm9PgsJAr5amn7SE9"}

{"level":20,"time":"2026-04-28T14:26:40.481Z","name":"Push","msg":"Sending notification",
  "notification":{"title":"@mc","text":"This is a push test message","from":"push","userId":"mm9PgsJAr5amn7SE9","sound":"default"}}

{"level":20,"time":"2026-04-28T14:26:40.481Z","name":"Push","msg":"send message to userId","title":"@mc","userId":"mm9PgsJAr5amn7SE9"}

{"level":20,"time":"2026-04-28T14:26:40.483Z","name":"Push","msg":"send to token",
  "token":{"gcm":"dfyKpV7IT_eRA8GLH6ntKZ:APA91bF9E9Uhe5DNvil0_G7wzDOaCsT_OqOYMAJg2rlG6r9ZmFgcp-YMoWSsp8WV2k55khDI4o2Seyw5EHckUape5i5szCvnYk27VWxUJWTOXIstdr_fHi0"}}

Outgoing request to gateway — succeeds, no error

{"level":20,"time":"2026-04-28T14:26:40.485Z","name":"ExternalRequest",
  "msg":"Request not using SSRF validation",
  "url":"https://gateway.rocket.chat/push/gcm/send"}

{"level":20,"time":"2026-04-28T14:26:40.702Z","name":"Push",
  "msg":"Sent message to apps","title":"@mc","iosApps":0,"androidApps":1}

{"level":35,"time":"2026-04-28T14:26:40.705Z","name":"API","method":"POST",
  "url":"http://localhost/api/v1/method.call/push_test","status":200,"responseTime":238}

The entire push flow completes without a single error or warning in the server log. The gateway returns HTTP 200. The server reports androidApps:1. No notification arrives.

---

What was verified

Check	Result
Workspace registered with Rocket.Chat Cloud	✓
Cloud Workspace ID exists (69efacf04f39c9b670a50b8f)	✓
License valid (Starter, until 2026-07-26)	✓
Workspace syncs with cloud on startup	✓ (Synced with Rocket.Chat Cloud)
Push service started	✓ (Service successfully started: push)
OAuth token with workspace:push:send scope obtained	✓ (cache hit confirmed in log)
FCM token registered in _raix_push_app_tokens	✓
Push token cleared and re-registered via fresh login	✓ (same token returned by Firebase SDK)
Gateway reachable from server	✓
Gateway returns HTTP 200	✓
No error logged anywhere in server	✓
Push_UseLegacy: true tested	✓ (no change)
Cloud push counter after test	0

---

Root cause hypothesis

The gateway endpoint being called is:

POST https://gateway.rocket.chat/push/gcm/send

This endpoint internally appears to use the FCM Legacy HTTP API (Google Cloud Messaging / Firebase Legacy). Google sunset the Legacy FCM HTTP API in June 2024. If gateway.rocket.chat has not fully migrated to the FCM HTTP v1 API, delivery to Google's FCM will fail silently — Google no longer processes requests from the legacy API.

This matches all observed symptoms:

• Gateway accepts the request and returns 200 (its own request handling still works)
• No error is propagated back to the Rocket.Chat server
• The cloud push counter stays at 0 (gateway never completes forwarding to FCM)
• No notification reaches the device

The FCM registration token format on the device (APA91b...) is valid and unchanged — re-login proves the device keeps returning the same token from the Firebase SDK, so this is not a stale-token issue.

---

Expected behavior

gateway.rocket.chat/push/gcm/send should forward the push to Google's FCM v1 API and the notification should be delivered to the device. The cloud push counter should increment on each successful delivery.

---

Workarounds

1. Configure own FCM credentials — set up a Firebase project, generate a service account key, and enter it under Administration → Push → Custom Credentials to bypass gateway.rocket.chat entirely and push directly via FCM v1.
2. Upgrade Rocket.Chat — if a newer release has migrated to the FCM v1 gateway path, upgrading may resolve this.

---

Similar reports

• https://forums.rocket.chat/t/push-notifications-to-mobile-not-working/22675 (v7.11.0, same symptoms)
• Mobile clients do not receive push notifications #32130 (v6.6.x, gateway "unsupported version" error)