Somebody else received an emergency alert as a wireless message or in their SaskAlert app but I did not.

Did not receive Wireless:

There can be many reasons why an alert is not received wireless.

1. Wireless alerts are issued using cell towers to triangulate and zoom into the locations selected for the alert, so depending on where the cell towers are located and where your device is located, will determine if you are in the alerting area. Wireless alerting can affect mobile devices up to and at times exceeding a 50 KM radius outside of the selected locations, due to cell tower triangulation.
2. Technical reasons which can include:
   • Your mobile device is not compatible to receive the wireless alerts
   • Your mobile device is not connected to LTE network
   • Your mobile device operating system requires an update

Did not receive alert to SaskAlert app:

1. Make sure you have the latest version of the SaskAlert app.
2. Check your cellular connection.
3. Check your WIFI connection (if on airplane mode or bad cell connection)

In your SaskAlert setting check the following:

1. Check the location setting to insure you have the locations selected you wish to receive alerts for.
2. Check if you have the “Follow me” setting on to ensure you are receiving alerts for where you are and just not your selected locations.
3. Check if you have Critical and Advisory Alerts checked off or Critical Alert only checked off.

The only types of alerts from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) that appear in the SaskAlert app are weather watches which are advisory alerts and weather warnings which are critical alerts; weather statements are not disseminated through SaskAlert.

The SaskAlert app is separate from the cellular broadcast technology that your cellular provider uses to send wireless alerts. You will need to contact your cellular provider to ask why you did not receive the test alert. The SaskAlert app also issues the provincial test alert for all locations in the province and the test alert will be received and displayed with in the application.

The decision to issue an alert and what locations the alert will be issued for, rests with the local, regional, provincial, territorial and federal authorities.

To find out if an alert had been issued:

To verify if an alert an Alert has been issued by the authorities, you should check the SaskAlert Website and follow these steps:

• Go to the SaskAlert website at  www.saskalert.ca
• Scroll down to View Archived Alerts and click on it
• Select the month for the archived alert you are looking for by clicking on the month
• If you know the date of the alert you are looking for, click that date or scroll through all the alerts issued for that month
• If the alert you are looking for is not displayed in the Archived Alerts that means, there wasn’t an alert issued by an authority

An alert was issued but not received:

If you know there was an alert issued but you didn’t get it on the app, follow these steps:

• Make sure you have the latest version of the SaskAlert app
• Check your cellular connection
• Check your WIFI connection (if on airplane mode or bad cell connection)

In your SaskAlert Setting check the following:

• Check the Location setting to insure you have the locations selected you wish to receive alerts for
• Check if you have the “Follow Me” setting on to ensure you are receiving alerts for where you are and just not your selected locations
• Check if you have Critical and Advisory Alerts checked off or Critical Alert Only checked off

AEA alerts are only issued for unusual, immediate dangers to the public. The decision to send a public emergency alert rests with the local, regional, provincial, territorial or federal authority. In some instances, the authorities choose to alert the public through local radio and TV channels, or online instead of through the AEA app. We suggest you contact the responsible authority to find out why they did not send the alert that you were expecting to receive.

If the mobile device you were using at the time had a weak or intermittent internet connection (low cellular or wifi signal), it can affect the alert notification being received. Another possibility is, if your mobile device was in deep sleep or hibernation mode, which it can do if it has been sitting idle for a while and/or if the battery is low. This too can impact an alert notification being received. With both of these possibilities, however, you will still be able to see the alert in the app if you manually open the app.

Critical Alerts:

If you received a critical alert notification but did not hear a sound

Check that your phone is not silenced or in do not disturb mode.

Verify that your Override Silent Mode in the app settings is turned on

Advisory Alerts:

If you do not hear a sound for an advisory alert you can check the advisory alert sound setting in your app to make sure is not turned off. Also check that your phone is not silenced or in do not disturb mode.

I see the notification for an alert on the lock screen but when I open the app there are no alerts listed.

Try, updating your app

1. Check that you have the latest version of the app
   • Go to the app store and check if there is a version update. If there is, it is recommended to update.
2. Try reinstalling the SaskAlert app. 

I just installed the app and I want to make sure it works.

You can add a Test location to confirm you see alerts in the app:

1. Pick a location name to do the test. Go to the SaskAlert website http://emergencyalert.saskatchewan.ca/ to check locations with alerts issued recently, and choose a location name.
2. Touch the SaskAlert app.
3. Touch Settings.
4. Touch Locations, on the “Add Town, City, Province, Territory” field, type the name you chose on step 1.
5. Touch Close.
6. Touch > Alerts.
7. Under Alerts for your locations, you should see the same alerts being shown on the SaskAlert website. If that’s the case it means the app is working as expected.

To remove the Test location, from inside the SaskAlert app

1. Touch Settings.
2. Touch Locations.
3. Touch Edit.
4. Select the location name.
5. Touch Delete (top right corner of the screen), touch Delete at the message window.
6. Touch Close.

You must have a strong enough cellular or wifi connection to receive an alert. If you do not have a strong enough cellular or WIFI connection when an alert is sent, the alert will be queued for a limited time and once your device has established reconnection it will become available.  Examples of when your device is offline:

• device is in airplane mode
• cellular or WIFI turned off
• out of range of a local cellular tower or wifi base station
• in dead zones where the cellular or WIFI signal is unavailable

Locations in the SaskAlert app are official regional boundaries defined by the Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) codes from Statistics Canada, which includes: cities, towns, villages, First Nation communities and Organized Northern communities, hamlets and resort villages. Not included in the SGC codes are un-organized communities. If you cannot find a specific location, try searching for the larger municipality and you will get notifications for your area.

How to set locations:

1. Go into Settings (top right hand part of the main screen).
2. Touch Locations (the first option in the Settings screen).
3. Start typing the name of the location you want to add in the top entry bar.
4. Choose the location from the list of results that appears below the search bar.

You can add as many locations as you choose, following these identified steps. 

Currently, the SaskAlert app is only available for locations within Saskatchewan.

The SaskAlert app is designed to notify devices of levels of alerts issued from authorities. Notification of advisory level alerts can be turned off, but notification of critical alerts cannot be turned off. However, SaskAlert respects your chosen device volume and do-not-disturb settings even when a critical alert is issued.

If your device is set to do-not-disturb mode or muted and in the app setting, Override Silent Mode is turned off, the app will respect your device settings and not issue the critical alerting tone.

Check that the version of your device is compatible with the app

• iPhone – iOS 11 or later
• Android – Android Lollipop 5.1 or later

The most significant use of battery power by the SaskAlert App is location updates to send you alerts for locations you travel to.

Turning off the “Follow Me” feature in the SaskAlert App will help to conserve battery power, but then you will not receive alerts as you travel to other areas in the province. 

You will still receive alerts for the locations you have manually chosen through the location setting of the SaskAlert app.

The SaskAlert App is showing that there were alert notifications received, but the Alerts list is empty when the App is opened. There are two reasons this could happen:

1. If it’s been more than 24 hours since the notification was received, and the alert has been cancelled, it may no longer be listed in the SaskAlert App.
2. If Follow Me is ON, and the notification was received while the device was in a different location, the alert may not apply to the current location when the App is opened.