Web Push Notifications: Only one iPhone is allowed to receive push notifications at the same time

[diegocjorge]

Description

When using the Seerr web app (PWA) on two different iPhones with the same user account, enabling notifications on the second device breaks notifications on the first. The app seems to identify both devices as the same entity, preventing concurrent Push Notifications. If I re-enable it on Device A, Device B stops receiving them.

It seems the subscription/token registration is overwriting the previous one in the database instead of creating a unique entry for each physical device of the same model.

Version

3.1.0

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the Seerr web app on iPhone A and enable Push Notifications. (Confirmed working).

2. Open the Seerr web app on iPhone B (using the same account). Observe that instead of the button labeled “Enable web push,” it displays as “Disable web push,” even though I never enabled notifications on that device. Additionally, you can see the option to “Delete subscription” for iPhone A.

3. Press “Disable web push” and then press “Enable web push” on iPhone B.

4. iPhone B now receives notifications, but iPhone A stops receiving them entirely.

5. Adding a different device type (e.g., an iPad) works simultaneously, suggesting the issue is related to how similar device identifiers are handled for Web Push.

Screenshots

Device A - Working as intended:

Device B - Can't enable notifications without deleting Device A:

Logs

Debug logs are enabled, but no specific errors or relevant entries were generated during the push token registration process.

Platform

smartphone

Database

SQLite (default)

Device

iPhone 15 Pro

Operating System

iOS 26.3.1

Browser

Safari (PWA mode)

Additional Context

I recently migrated from Overseerr, but I’ve never encountered this issue when using Overseerr’s web push notifications on the same devices.

Also, I use a Plex account for logging in.

Search Existing Issues

• Yes, I have searched existing issues.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow Seerr's Code of Conduct

[0xSysR3ll]

Web push subscriptions have been a bit messy in Overseerr. They technically worked, but the subscription process could be pretty buggy for or a lot of users. For more context, see: #2140.

You're also right about how devices are identified. Right now it's based on the browser's user-agent, which makes it hard to tell devices of the same type apart. For example, two iPhones using the same browser version will report the exact same user-agent. I assume the same thing happens with Android devices too.

I also didn't really think about the case where a single user might use multiple iPhones, but that turns out to be exactly the kind of edge case where this limitation shows up.

I’ll see if there's a better way to identify devices.