14 DAY TRIAL // iOS 8 has a flaw that customers on Apple Support Communities have documented well. Something or other is preventing the notification banners in iOS 8 from going away.
Some – not all – users claim that notification banners on iOS 8 remain stuck at the top of the screen. While some have already found workarounds, it’s still Apple’s job to give this bug its final blow.
Happens on all iDevices
According to the commenters up on Support Communities, the issue is not inherent to a particular type of device.
We can confirm that at least three device models are affected – iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 6 – after a quick rundown through the posts, with some users considering it a small annoyance and others downright regretting their upgrade because of it.
Thread starter philippeafa writes, “I have been having some issues to dismiss the notification bar that appears on the top of the screen. I used to dismiss it by swiping it up. After I upgraded to iOS 8, my gesture doesn't work when I'm using some app like Facebook and get a notification from another app like Whatsapp.”
“I swipe up and the notification freezes and won't go away until I press the home button, wich [sic] weirdly makes the notification go away but won't bring me back from the app to the home screen. This is really annoying,” writes philippeafa, who owns an iPhone 5s.
User Wicekdsight confirms that he too is having the issue: “I have the same issue on iPhone 5. Very annoying.”
And fellow poster skycat561 chimes in to say, “Same here.. iPhone 6, iOS 8. I think I can with messages, just not other apps.”
The workarounds
The simplest workaround is to hit the Home button and the banner will go away, according to several users. In fact, user philippeafa actually mentions this but not as a workaround. Rather, he considers it an inconvenience. And he’s right.
Another temporary fix is to pull down on the banner, and then quickly push it back upwards to dismiss it. It’s something we can confirm as a working gimmick, but it’s not clear if it works on freezing banners.
A user named Agkatz claims to have yet another fix. He says, “When notification gets stuck just rotate the orientation of the device. The notification should disappear.”
Apple is known to be working on several planned iOS updates, so the fix shouldn’t be too far off (if the company is reading the news).