How do I determine source of notification?

[RhinoCan]

I'm trying to help my brother with a problem he's having with his Moto G Power phone running Android 11.

This morning, his phone started ringing roughly every 2 minutes but neither of us could figure out WHY. He couldn't think of anything he'd done to create a notification and I couldn't see anything useful on the screen indicating why it was ringing when it did ring. I poked around and found only a single alarm in the Clock app but that was supposed to ring on weekends only and it's Thursday so I was pretty sure that wasn't it. I deleted the alarm anyway but the ringing continued, which confirmed the alarm wasn't the issue.

I had received an Amber Alert yesterday afternoon and asked if the ringing had started then but he said it had started this morning.

I went into settings and looked under notifications and saw that he'd received an Amber Alert three hours ago but I couldn't see any way to verify that it was the reason he was still getting the frequent ringing. I asked if he'd clicked OK to acknowledge the message and he said he'd tried.

Finally, as I was typing this message, it rang yet again and this time, when I looked on the screen, it was an Amber Alert - the same one I'd seen yesterday! - and after I clicked OK, the ringing stopped.

Even if this mystery/annoyance is now behind us, I still need to ask: if a phone is ringing/notifying unexpectedly, is there a reliable way to determine WHY it is ringing/notifying, i.e. what app or condition is causing it? The first many times I looked at the screen when it rang, there was NOTHING to indicate why. This was exasperating. I'd like to think Android gives you some reasonable way to determine why a given noise is being emitted by one of their phones.

 

[Unforgiven]

Normally anything that makes a sound also puts something in the notification bar. Even when a call comes in it will put a phone icon in the bar. Now when you are talking about Amber Alerts or Emergency Notifications, those work differently, so there may not be the same type of notification icon. I think these types of alerts are sent from towers to any phones the signal reaches, instead of a list of specific devices. Think of it like a siren. If it's close enough, you can hear it.

 

[ocnbrze]

never had any issues before on all of my phones as far as figuring out what notifications sounds goes to what is notifying me. i never had any mysterious sound coming from my phone that i can't explain. i always will get some popup or it will show up in my notification bar.

i think you might just had a one off event.

 

[MaceDocea]

This is the first time I hear about this, I don't understand why this is happening

 

[RhinoCan]

I've confirmed that the phone hasn't rung or made any other strange noises since I clicked OK on that Amber alert yesterday. Clearly, that was the issue: the Amber Alert hadn't been properly acknowledged so it kept ringing at very frequent intervals to let us know that this little girl was missing.

The frustrating thing was that whenever it rang, all I saw was a clock telling me what time it was but nothing that said WHY the phone was ringing.

I've reminded my brother that he MUST click the OK on the Amber Alert when he gets it to keep the phone from nagging him incessantly.

Thank you all for your help with my odd question!

 

[svim]

.....
Even if this mystery/annoyance is now behind us, I still need to ask: if a phone is ringing/notifying unexpectedly, is there a reliable way to determine WHY it is ringing/notifying, i.e. what app or condition is causing it? The first many times I looked at the screen when it rang, there was NOTHING to indicate why. This was exasperating. I'd like to think Android gives you some reasonable way to determine why a given noise is being emitted by one of their phones.

Go back through that Settings >> Notifications menu and spend a lot of time just opening each menu option and any resulting sub-menu options to see what might be relevant. And that might not be necessary as there's a good chance it's just some app that he probably can just disable its Notifications.
The Settings >> Notifications menu should provide a listing of most or all installed apps, with the option to just leave as is or disable.