IMPROVEMENT SUGGESTION

[#1]

Posting this in the freelancer section because I am sure that I'm not the only one who encounters this issue - if you're a freelancer and have problems with this too, please post about it so it gets some attention.

The Upwork messaging system needs to be fixed.  It works for the most part, but there are occassions where the system does not alert me to new messages.  I have repeatedly experienced situations where I am waiting on a client to respond, they finally respond, and there is no notifications, no emails notifications, nothing to tell me that I have received a message or any communication from anyone else.  At first I thought maybe it was due to the window sitting idle and not being refreshed, but that is not the case.  Even after refreshing the window and page, the notifications still do not appear.

The most recent example of this - I had reached out to a client asking them to provide me with some times that would work well for a meeting regarding their project.  While waiting for a response, I shift to other client projects.  Eventually, it appears that the client is not responding and I refresh the screen to see if there are any notifications - there are none.  I continue working on my other contracts and once again see that I have not received any response.  This time I navigate to the clients messages to follow up directly, where I discover that the client had responded with times to meet!  Obviuosly these times have now passed because the notifications don't work and now I am the one who has to answer for that missed communication.  It also impacts me because if I get that one client who isn't willing to accept my explanation, they can just as easily leave negative reviews claiming that I ignored their messages.

Upwork staff - could you please fix this issue?  I am 100% convinced that I am not the only person that deals with this annoying problem.

[#2]

Hi Jeremiah,

I can think of 2 things you might want to look into. Double-check your Upwork Notifications Settings:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/211067708-Manage-Notifications#:~:text=If%20you're%20no....

If it's still giving you trouble check your internet browser settings to make sure you have allowed for notifications for this site.

Hopefully this solves the issue your facing.

[#3]

I appreciate the suggestions but neither of those are the problem.  I do currently receive message notifications on both Upwork and through my email.  When I receive a message on Upwork, I get a little numerical icon above the message tab as well as an audible notification.  Shortly after, I will receive an email to the account that I have registered as my user account.  These are fine for 85% of the messages that I receive.

Unfortunately, the notifications from Upwork are not consistent.  About 15% of the time I receive messages that do not trigger the icon on the message tab, the audible alert will not sound, and I will not receive a notification email. 

This causes me to miss client messages and occassionally lose contracts.  

[#4]

Part of this has to do with browser updates. Google chrome for example has put restrictions on audio sounds from inactive tabs. Actual push notifications are dependent on your browser settings and are also not very reliable. Emails only go through if you don't have the messenger open I beleive (even if in an unopen tab?).

Do you have the mobile app installed? I find that I always get notified on my mobile phone and have pretty much no issues getting notified when using the app on my phone. 

[#5]

Jeremiah, yes, this has been an issue for at least 6 months and looks like it is not getting fixed. Still. 😓 I've reported this a long time ago. And once again two months back.

This week I some email notifications coming about half a day late, so I didn't notice and replied my hire very late.

The inconvenient impact of this issue might be that EVERYONE will start using other means to communicate the moment the ToS allows it.

Upwork, it would be in your best interests to finally get to the bottom of this. You still want us to use the built-in messaging tools, right? 😉

And Richard, the mobile app might be better. I had those notifications on at first, but at the time there were so many things going on that my phone was doing nothing but vibrating in my pants. So I turned off some years back to avoid... well you just guess what! 😜

I'll give the mobile notifications another shot now. Thanks for the tip. Great workaround! The freelance world is so much better with you in it. 😍

[#6]

Yes, I agree very much so - this is a loss of revenue for both the freelancer and for Upwork.  I have had a handful of clients tell me that they were fed up with Upwork because of the messaging system - either because messages would not register or because of the features prior to Zoom.

It is incredibly frustrating when I have to deal with ticked off clients - clients who should have no reason to be upset.  For the most part the Upwork messaging system is pretty good (in my opinion) - I'd say about 90% of the way there - it would be nice if Upwork would place a higher priority on this as it is the backbone of everyone's income.

[#7]

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Mikko R wrote:
Jeremiah, yes, this has been an issue for at least 6 months and looks like it is not getting fixed. Still. 😓 I've reported this a long time ago. And once again two months back.

This week I some email notifications coming about half a day late, so I didn't notice and replied my hire very late.

The inconvenient impact of this issue might be that EVERYONE will start using other means to communicate the moment the ToS allows it.

Upwork, it would be in your best interests to finally get to the bottom of this. You still want us to use the built-in messaging tools, right? 😉

And Richard, the mobile app might be better. I had those notifications on at first, but at the time there were so many things going on that my phone was doing nothing but vibrating in my pants. So I turned off some years back to avoid... well you just guess what! 😜

I'll give the mobile notifications another shot now. Thanks for the tip. Great workaround! The freelance world is so much better with you in it. 😍

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Just adding in as another person who has reported this. I get all notifications to my app and my desktop when the app is open, and I get email notifications. I have had messages go completely unnotified - meaning I only saw them and they were already marked read because I opened my messages and saw a client had sent something. No notification had come through to my phone, email, or desktop. 

[#8]

yes, you were not the only. not sure if that was already fixed.

[#9]

I've also noticed this happening. I've check my notifications settings and everything looks ok. I also checked my email setting to make sure I haven't mistakenly blocked anything and  I haven't. I get notifications from UW about things, but have stopped getting messages from clients forwarded to me.

[#10]

Now the Upwork messaging allows the client to pick a schedule to meet with the freelancer (as we were the king of France), but sometimes the clients, that have hundreds of scheduled candidates, don't want to take the bother to schedule with the freelancer in yet another platform, just because we can't use the service of their preference (Calendly, for example), because we cannot share contact details, and when we share a lenghty message explaing that we cannot schedule in Calendly because that involves contact information sharing, which is forbidden by the new Upwork ToS, and please schedule a meeting with me through Upwork messages, the potential client thinks: he believes he is the king of France and wants to be scheduled a meething with using his mentioned tool... next (as cold as is the job market). And that if he is not so impatient to skip the lenghthy description about the new ToS and the scheduling tool choice.

Best regards.

[#11]

What's the domain that a message from a client comes from so I can double make sure I haven't accidently blocked it? Can someone please post the email address they've got from a client responding to an offer or message through Upwork (without revealing personal info of course) ? Thanks.

[#12]

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Peter G wrote:

What's the domain that a message from a client comes from 

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mg.upwork.com

[#13]

I encounter the same problem from time to time with no particular pattern to when it happens or when it stops happening.

I manually check my project message boards throughout the day, but have still missed messages until too long after they were sent by a client.

[#14]

Same here, but they used to all be forwarded to my email, so occasionally I'm later than responding than I would like, which has cost me a few gigs. Very frustrating to say the least.