Fix SharePoint Server Alerts Not Sending Notifications for Edits
Question details
Users need to resolve an issue where SharePoint Server fails to send alert notifications when existing survey responses are modified.

- Product
- SharePoint Server
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Managing team surveys and relying on automated alerts to track updates and edits to submitted responses.
- Observed behavior
- The system successfully sends an initial confirmation email when a survey is submitted, but no notification is triggered when the survey responses are subsequently edited.
Verify your specific SharePoint Server version, document your exact survey alert configuration, and confirm whether this issue affects all users or only specific accounts before seeking advanced support.
Escalate to the SharePoint Server Management Community
Since this is an advanced on-premises server issue rather than a general SharePoint Online glitch, the most effective solution is to consult the dedicated Microsoft Server engineering team.
Troubleshooting alert notification failures in SharePoint Server often requires diving into Timer Jobs, SMTP service logs, and internal farm configurations. The Microsoft Q&A platform hosts dedicated engineers who can investigate these specific server-side processing errors.
Write down your exact SharePoint Server version, the specific survey configuration, current alert settings, and a clear description of the notification behavior.
Open your web browser and go to the official Microsoft Learn Q&A page designated for SharePoint Server Management (search for the 'office-sp-server-management' tag).
Create a new post outlining your issue. Be sure to include all the diagnostic information you gathered so the SharePoint Server team can accurately investigate the alert processing failure.

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Frequently Asked Questions
Why do SharePoint Server alerts fail only when a survey is edited?
This can happen if the event receivers associated with the survey list are corrupted, if the Immediate Alerts timer job is experiencing a delay, or if the specific alert parameters were configured to only trigger on new item creation rather than modifications.
Where can I check if my SharePoint Server timer jobs are running?
You can check the status of Timer Jobs by navigating to SharePoint Central Administration, selecting 'Monitoring', and then clicking on 'Check job status' under the Timer Jobs section. Look for jobs related to 'Immediate Alerts'.
Does this survey alert issue happen in SharePoint Online as well?
While alert delays can occasionally happen in SharePoint Online, the architecture is entirely managed by Microsoft. The specific failure described is typically unique to on-premises SharePoint Server configurations and farm health.




