[expo-notifications] Background notification tasks not working

Summary

I followed the expo notification here, but have not been unsuccessful getting the background notification task to be performed. I send a push notification via: curl --location --request POST 'https://exp.host/--/api/v2/push/send' \ --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \ --data-raw '{ "to": "ExponentPushToken[***************]", "title":"Testing", "body": "Testing body", "content-available": 1, "data": { "type": "testType" } }' The notification is received but the background task is not performed. In the device logs I can see the background task is registered (I’m testing on an iPhone 11 on a TestFlight build):

Jul 25 14:28:04 ComBingedapp(UserNotifications)[35196] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Creating a user notification center
Jul 25 14:28:04 ComBingedapp[35196] <Notice>: EXTaskService: Restoring tasks configuration: {
    "@jcalem/Binged-app" =     {
        appUrl = "https://expo.io:443/@jcalem/Binged-app";
        tasks =         {
            "BACKGROUND-NOTIFICATION-TASK" =             {
                consumerClass = EXBackgroundRemoteNotificationConsumer;
                consumerVersion = 0;
                name = "BACKGROUND-NOTIFICATION-TASK";
                options =                 {
                };
            };
        };
    };
}

And the notification is displayed:

Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Received remote notification request 98FF-3C16 [ waking: 0, hasAlertContent: 1, hasSound: 0 hasBadge: 0 hasContentAvailable: 0 hasMutableContent: 0 pushType: Alert]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Process delivery of push notification 98FF-3C16
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Error>: No data found at /var/mobile/Library/UserNotifications/0F01E0E1-A979-4946-BEDC-12EC59173DDD/Categories.plist
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Badge can be set for notification 98FF-3C16: 0 [ canBadge: 1 badgeNumber: (null) ]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: Getting effectiveSectionInfo for section identifier: com.bingedapp
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Getting effective section info
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: Getting requested effective section info (sync)
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: Got effective section info [ result: 0 ]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Got effective section info [ hasResult: 1 ]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: Getting effectiveSectionInfo for section identifier: com.bingedapp
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Getting effective section info
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: Getting requested effective section info (sync)
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: Got effective section info [ result: 0 ]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Got effective section info [ hasResult: 1 ]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [Persisting notification 98FF-3C16: 1 [applicableSettings: 1]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Saving notification 98FF-3C16: 1 [ hasAlertContent: 1, shouldPresentAlert: 1 ]
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: Saving file at /var/mobile/Library/UserNotifications/0F01E0E1-A979-4946-BEDC-12EC59173DDD/DeliveredNotifications.plist with 16 items
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(CoreServicesInternal)[63] <Notice>: kExcludedFromBackupXattrName set on path: <private>
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Delivered user visible push notification 98FF-3C16
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Error>: No data found at /var/mobile/Library/UserNotifications/0F01E0E1-A979-4946-BEDC-12EC59173DDD/PendingNotifications.plist
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Load 0 pending notification dictionaries
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Error>: No data found at /var/mobile/Library/UserNotifications/0F01E0E1-A979-4946-BEDC-12EC59173DDD/Categories.plist
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Notice>: [com.bingedapp] Adding notification 98FF-3C16 [ hasAlertContent: 1, shouldPresentAlert: 1 hasSound: 0 shouldPlaySound: 1 ]; destinations 270: (
    NotificationCenter,
    LockScreen,
    Alert,
    Forwarding
)
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Error>: No data found at /var/mobile/Library/UserNotifications/0F01E0E1-A979-4946-BEDC-12EC59173DDD/Categories.plist
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(UserNotificationsServer)[63] <Error>: No data found at /var/mobile/Library/UserNotifications/0F01E0E1-A979-4946-BEDC-12EC59173DDD/Categories.plist
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: BBDataProviderProxy com.bingedapp has enqueued a bulletin request
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: BBDataProviderProxy com.bingedapp is now sending enqueued bulletin request to BBServer
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: BBDataProvider: Add bulletin to destinations 270: (
    NotificationCenter,
    LockScreen,
    Alert,
    Forwarding
)
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: Publishing bulletin for section <com.bingedapp>: subsectionIDs: (null), bulletinID = <AFABFBA5-9B4C-445F-BA9F-921EF713184B>, expiration date = <Sun Aug  1 14:28:15 2021>, expiration events <0>
Jul 25 14:28:15 SpringBoard(BulletinBoard)[63] <Notice>: BBServer: Publish bulletin AFABFBA5-9B4C-445F-BA9F-921EF713184B to feeds 1067: (
    NotificationCenter,
    LockScreen,
    Banner,
    LockedBanner,
    Forwarding
)

Managed or bare workflow? If you have ios/ or android/ directories in your project, the answer is bare!

managed

What platform(s) does this occur on?

iOS

SDK Version (managed workflow only)

42

Environment

Expo CLI 4.4.7 environment info: System: OS: macOS 11.2.3 Shell: 3.2.57 - /bin/bash Binaries: Node: 12.13.0 - /usr/local/bin/node Yarn: 1.19.1 - /usr/local/bin/yarn npm: 7.11.2 - /usr/local/bin/npm Managers: CocoaPods: 1.8.3 - /Users/jcalem/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.6.3/bin/pod SDKs: iOS SDK: Platforms: iOS 14.5, DriverKit 20.4, macOS 11.3, tvOS 14.5, watchOS 7.4 IDEs: Android Studio: 3.5 AI-191.8026.42.35.6010548 Xcode: 12.5/12E262 - /usr/bin/xcodebuild npmPackages: expo: ^42.0.0 => 42.0.3 react: 16.13.1 => 16.13.1 react-dom: 16.13.1 => 16.13.1 react-native: https://github.com/expo/react-native/archive/sdk-42.0.0.tar.gz => 0.63.2 react-native-web: ~0.13.12 => 0.13.18 npmGlobalPackages: expo-cli: 4.4.7 Expo Workflow: managed

Reproducible demo or steps to reproduce from a blank project

1. Add remote-notification to UIBackgroundModes:

"infoPlist": {
   ...
   "UIBackgroundModes": [
       "remote-notification"
   ]
}

1. Define background task (globally scoped)

const BACKGROUND_NOTIFICATION_TASK = 'BACKGROUND-NOTIFICATION-TASK';

TaskManager.defineTask(BACKGROUND_NOTIFICATION_TASK, ({ data, error, executionInfo }) => {
    // Update state
});

I’ve been able to get BackgroundFetch working with the same task body so I know this part works 3. Register the task in a top level component

...
useEffect(() => {
   Notifications.registerTaskAsync(BACKGROUND_NOTIFICATION_TASK);
}, [])
...

1. Add “content-available”: 1 to push notification payload

[cruzach]

Expo’s push API does not accept the content-available key. You’ll need to send directly through APNs. Please refer to the Push API documentation: https://docs.expo.dev/push-notifications/sending-notifications/

[cruzach]

The docs explicitly state “Handling incoming notifications when the app is not in the foreground (not supported in Expo Go)”. You can test that behavior by either running expo run:ios, building your standalone app, or by using the expo-dev-client library

when the documentation mentions including “content-available”: 1 in the push notification payload, does that mean to include it in the data key as below?

If you’re using APNs directly, please refer to the APNs docs for where to place keys