Not Receiving Notices
If you're missing appointment notifications, your Notice Log is the best place to start troubleshooting. It shows exactly what alerts were sent and whether they were delivered successfully.
Check Your Notice Log First
Go to your Notice Log and look for recent appointment notifications. For each alert, you'll see the delivery status for every contact method (Email, SMS, Browser, Push).
- Green badges mean successful delivery
- Red badges indicate delivery failures
- Yellow badges show pending or disabled status
This tells you immediately whether SpotPatrol is attempting to send notifications and where the problem might be.
Common Issues by Contact Method
Email Problems
Check these basics first:
- Your email address is correct in your dashboard
- Email notifications are turned on (green "Active" status)
- Check your spam/junk folder
- Verify you haven't unsubscribed - If you clicked an unsubscribe link in a previous email, you won't receive new alerts. See our Unsubscribing guide to resubscribe.
Trial user limits - Trial accounts have a 5-alert daily limit. If you've hit this limit, you won't get more emails until the next day.
If you use Apple Mail on iPhone/iPad, your email notices with have significant delays because it only checks for emails every 15-30 minutes instead of receiving instant updates when new emails arrive. For more immediate email alerts, switch to Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, or other apps that support push email delivery. If you are also getting SMS notices, the time difference between SMS and Email delivery should be very obvious.
SMS/Text Problems
Check if you replied "STOP" - If you previously replied "STOP" to any SMS alert, you've been completely unsubscribed from all text messages. This blocks ALL future SMS from SpotPatrol, even if your dashboard shows SMS as "Active." See our Unsubscribing guide for detailed steps to resubscribe to SMS notifications.
Standard service required - Text notifications are only available with Standard service. Trial users get email and browser notifications only.
US phone numbers only - We can only send texts to US phone numbers due to messaging regulations.
Check your phone setup:
- Your number is verified (green "Active" status)
- SMS notifications are turned on
- Your carrier isn't blocking automated messages
Daily limits - Standard users can receive up to 15 SMS alerts per day.
Browser Notification Issues
Permission problems - Your browser must have permission to show notifications. Look for the permission prompt or check your browser's notification settings.
Connection required - Browser notifications only work when SpotPatrol is open in a browser tab. If you've been away from your computer, refresh the page to reconnect.
Safari-specific issues - Go to Safari > Preferences > Websites > Notifications and make sure SpotPatrol is allowed.
Check Location Activity Level
If you're not seeing any appointment notifications at all, check whether your selected locations actually have appointment activity. Use the "Avg Daily Openings" feature on your location list to see which centers typically have the most availability.
Weekend vs weekday patterns - New appointment releases are much slower on weekends. Weekdays typically see almost double the volume of appointment activity compared to Saturday and Sunday. If you're only checking results on weekends, you may not see much activity even at busy locations.
Some enrollment centers rarely release new appointments, so you might want to add more active locations to increase your chances of getting alerts.
Still Having Trouble?
If you've checked everything above and still aren't receiving notifications, contact us with details about:
- Which contact methods aren't working
- What you see in your Notice Log
- Your current service type (Trial or Standard)
We can investigate your account and help get your notifications working properly.