Skip to main content

Connie Task Alerts — Advanced Troubleshooting

Purpose: get an on-screen desktop pop-up (with sound) when a new task is routed to you in Connie, even when Chrome isn't your focused window.

Supported browser: Google Chrome. These steps assume Chrome, on a standalone Connie page (e.g. your-org.connie.team) — not Connie embedded inside another website.

The #1 gotcha

A notification can be delivered to your computer but never shown on screen — it lands silently in the OS notification list instead. If alerts "aren't working," the fastest tell is to open your notification center and look: if Connie alerts are piled up there but you never saw them pop, it's a display / Focus setting — not Connie, and not a permissions problem.

✅ Basic checklist (all agents — do these 3 in order)​

1. Chrome — allow notifications for your Connie site​

  1. In Chrome, open your Connie tab (e.g. your-org.connie.team).
  2. Click the tune / sliders icon (or 🔒) at the left of the address bar → Site settings.
  3. Set Notifications → Allow.
  4. Confirm you're in the correct Chrome profile (avatar, top-right) — the one you actually log in to Connie with. Permissions are per-profile.

2a. Mac — turn on notifications + alert style​

  1. System Settings → Notifications → Google Chrome
  2. Allow Notifications: ON
  3. Alert style: Alerts ← important. (None = silent, never pops. Banners = pops but vanishes in ~5s. Alerts stays on screen until you act.)
  4. Turn ON: Play sound, Show in Notification Center, Badge app icon.

2b. Windows — turn on notifications + banners​

  1. Settings → System → Notifications → make sure notifications are On.
  2. Find Google Chrome in the app list → turn it On, then click it.
  3. Enable Show notification banners and Play a sound. (Banners is a separate toggle from "show in notification center" — both should be on.)

3. Turn off / pass through "quiet" modes​

  • Mac: Control Center (top-right) → make sure Focus / Do Not Disturb isn't active (no moon icon). To keep DND on but let Connie through, see Layer 3 below.
  • Windows: Settings → System → Notifications → ensure Do not disturb is Off.

Quick test: switch to another app (Chrome in the background) → have a task routed to you → you should get an on-screen alert with sound.

🔧 Advanced — admins & deep troubleshooting​

Desktop alerts pass through three independent layers, and any one can silently kill them. Diagnose in this order.

Layer 1 — Is the notification even arriving? (rule out Connie / Chrome)​

Open the OS notification list and look for piled-up Connie notifications:

  • Mac: click the clock (top-right) to open Notification Center.
  • Windows: click the date/time (bottom-right).
tip

If they're stacked there but were never shown on screen → delivery is fine; it's a display setting (Layer 2/3). Do not touch Connie or site permissions.

Layer 2 — Alert / display style (the most common silent culprit)​

  • Mac: System Settings → Notifications → Google Chrome → style was likely None (delivers silently). Set to Alerts.
    • The entry that actually presents web-push alerts is "Google Chrome Alerts" (the alert notification service) — make sure it is also set to Alerts, not just the main Chrome app.
  • Windows: Settings → System → Notifications → Google Chrome → enable Show notification banners. (A banner can be off while "show in notification center" is on — that produces the exact "silently piling up" symptom.)

Layer 3 — Focus / Do Not Disturb suppression​

  • Mac: Focus modes each have their own allow-list. To keep DND on but let Connie through: System Settings → Focus → (each mode you use, e.g. Do Not Disturb, Reduce Interruptions) → Allowed Notifications → Apps → ➕ → add Google Chrome. Adding it to one mode does not cover the others — add it to every mode you use, and watch for a scheduled Focus (e.g. an automatic 9am–5pm Do Not Disturb) that silently activates during work hours.
  • Windows: Settings → System → Focus / Do not disturb → check automatic rules (turns on during set hours, when an app is full-screen, when mirroring a display, when gaming). Disable the rules that fire during shifts, or add Chrome under Set priority notifications.

Chrome-side advanced checks​

  • chrome://settings/content/notifications — confirm your Connie domain is under Allowed, not Blocked, and that "Sites can ask to send notifications" is enabled.
  • Profiles: confirm you're logged in to Connie in the same profile that holds the Allow permission. A second/work profile without the permission is a common miss.
  • chrome://settings/system — if available, ensure Chrome uses native OS notifications (so OS Focus/style settings apply).
  • Chrome must be running (even in the background / minimized) to receive a push. Fully quitting Chrome = no notification.

Admin one-liners (Mac — verify state without clicking)​

For administrators or TechOps confirming a user's machine state from a terminal:

See which notifications actually reached macOS (proves delivery vs. display):

sqlite3 "$HOME/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.usernoted/db2/db" \
"SELECT datetime(delivered_date+978307200,'unixepoch','localtime'), app.identifier \
FROM record JOIN app ON record.app_id=app.app_id \
WHERE app.identifier LIKE '%hrome%' ORDER BY delivered_date DESC LIMIT 20;"

Check which Focus is active right now (an active storeAssertionRecords entry = a Focus is on):

cat "$HOME/Library/DoNotDisturb/DB/Assertions.json"

TL;DR​

  • Chrome → Allow notifications for Connie.
  • Mac → Notifications → Chrome → Alerts + sound.
  • Windows → Notifications → Chrome → banners + sound.
  • Turn off Do Not Disturb (or add Chrome to its allow-list).
  • If alerts seem missing, check your notification center first — they're usually arriving, just not popping.