Why This Article?
I had a straightforward use case: one Nuki smart lock, two users, and one additional device, all Apple devices. These devices should receive push notifications, but for two years, this setup didn’t work properly. Nuki’s support wasn’t helpful, and the software struggled to handle Apple push notifications correctly. In my case, two devices received notifications, but the admin’s device (which is critical) did not.
The Solution
There’s a workaround that helps restoring push notifications. Below is the process I used to clean things up and ensure all devices were receiving notifications correctly.
Cleaning the Mess: Step-by-Step Instructions
If you’re having trouble with missing push notifications, follow these steps to resolve it:
- No Factory Reset Needed: There’s no need to factory reset your lock or change anything on the bridge if the only issue is missing push notifications.
- Remove Additional Web Accounts: If you’ve added web accounts for the main account under “Rights Management”:
- Log in to every account via the web, remove the lock, and then delete the account.
- Clean Up the Main Account:
- Log in to the main account via the web, remove the lock, and delete the account.
- Manage Users in the Nuki App:
- On your main device, remove all users except for the main user.
- Reinstall the App on Other Devices:
- Delete the Nuki app from all other devices, then reinstall it.
- Recreate Users and Set Up Devices:
- Recreate the users on your main device.
- Set up each additional device with separate user credentials, not with the same user across devices.
- Note: Don’t activate Nuki Web on these devices yet.
- Assign Admin Rights:
- At least one of the other devices should have admin rights.
- On one of them, remove the main user.
- Reinstall the App on Your Main Device:
- Delete the app on your main device and reinstall it.
- Re-add the Main User:
- On one of the other devices with admin rights, add the main user, and then set up your main device again.
- Check for “Nuki Web” User:
- Ensure there’s no “Nuki Web” user on your main device.
Final Setup for Push Notifications:
After cleaning up the setup, follow these steps to get push notifications working:
- Activate Nuki Web on the Main Device:
- Before configuring notifications, activate Nuki Web.
- Configure Notifications on the Main Device.
- Login via Web with Main User Credentials.
- Create a Separate User for Each Device:
- Under “Rights Management,” create a separate user for each device, and set a password for each one.
- Verify Account Status (optional but recommended):
- Go to “Manage Account / Account Status” and make sure the status is “Verified” for the main account and all others.
- Activate Nuki Web for Each Device:
- In the iOS app, activate Nuki Web for each device using the individual credentials for each separate user you created. Then, set up notifications.
Now, everything should be working fine. In the web app, you should see an entry for “Nuki Web” and an entry for “iOS” for each device.
Explanation:
The Nuki software (both the iOS app and the web server) handles iOS device certificates correctly only when devices are set up properly from the start. When the Nuki app is installed, iOS generates a unique device ID. This ID is exchanged with the Nuki web server, likely seen as the “iOS” entry on the integration page. The device ID must match with the iOS installation, otherwise Apple will not send push notifications.
However, reinstalling the app or logging in from multiple devices with the same credentials causes a mismatch between the stored device ID on the server and the app, which stops push notifications from working. Unfortunately, the Nuki system doesn’t automatically check if the device ID on the server is still correct. The only way to fix this is to delete the web account, reinstall the app, and generate fresh device IDs for each device.