Why didn't I get a BeAware alert for that event?

Usually one of two things happened. Either the event didn't meet your settings or cover a saved address, or you already had a message about an earlier version. Look it up in Recent alerts on the Alert Settings page. If it's listed, its label says what happened. If it isn't, the sections below explain why.

This page is for one event that slipped past, such as a warning you heard about on the radio. If no alerts reach you at all, start with the checklist for alerts that never arrive. It covers channels, phone setup, spam folders, and the fix for every label in the list.

What Recent alerts can and can't show

Recent alerts sits at the bottom of the Alert Settings page, which you'll find under BeAware in the sidebar. It answers the first question: did BeAware tie this alert to you at all? In most cases, your answer is right there.

It includes:

Thirty days of emergency alert email, up to the 50 newest entries.
Alerts deliberately held, each labeled with the reason.

It leaves out:

Emails about smoke, rivers, and wildfires.
Alerts still in their short pause before sending.
Texts and WhatsApp messages.
Anything that never matched one of your saved addresses.

Six labels deserve a closer read when you're chasing a single event.

Emailed. The message went out. An emailed alert gets one line, showing its newest headline and the time of the latest email about it. Search your mail for that headline, spam folder included.
Below your urgency level. The agency graded the alert lower than the level you picked, and BeAware never regrades it. On Recommended, for example, a Moderate wind advisory stays on your dashboard without an email. Choose Everything if you want those. A held alert can show up once for each revision the agency issues. If a revision lifts it to your level, it goes out then as a first message. To change your level, see how urgency and categories work.
Category turned off. That category's switch at the top of Alert Settings is off. Its alerts still appear on your dashboard, but no email goes out for them.
Daily limit reached. The limit counts alerts, not emails, so one email covering three alerts uses three. It resets at midnight UTC, which is 8 p.m. Eastern during daylight saving time. Extreme alerts are never stopped by it.
Alert ended before sending. Short-fuse warnings sometimes expire within minutes, during the pause before sending. BeAware never delivers an alert that is already over.
Delivery failed. A failed email doesn't count as heard. A later revision of the same alert can still reach you.

Why isn't the event in the list?

Because it was filtered out before it reached your account, or because it isn't the kind of event that sends a message. Work down this list.

It wasn't an official alert. Messages come from FEMA and Weather Service warnings, plus your own environmental readings. News stories, social media posts, and outages of power, internet, or online services don't send messages. Outages are shown in the app instead, on Home and the dashboard.
It came from your phone, not BeAware. Phones receive Wireless Emergency Alerts based on where they are. BeAware is a separate service that works from your saved addresses.
The agency graded it Minor, or left it ungraded. Those never send, at any urgency level. Frost advisories, for instance, often carry a Minor grade. A Weather Service Air Quality Alert can arrive ungraded. Your own air quality reading covers smoke instead.
It was a test, an exercise, or a cancellation. None of these send.
It had already expired. BeAware skips alerts that are over by the time it processes them. An alert with no end time is treated as expiring 24 hours after it was issued.
Its map left your address out. When an alert includes a mapped area, only saved addresses inside it count. Your county is not used as a backup, so a warning drawn over another part of the county leaves you out. It may still appear on your dashboard, which reaches 25 miles out. How the Emergency tab chooses alerts explains that wider view.
It named only your state. Statewide alerts are dashboard-only unless they also list your county or map an area that includes your home.
It covered a place you haven't saved. Matching uses your saved BeAware addresses, not where you or your phone happen to be. A deleted address is no longer checked.
It is still paused. Severe alerts pause for roughly 5 minutes and Moderate alerts for roughly 15, so related alerts can share an email. They join the list once they are sent or held.
It matched an unusually large number of accounts. An alert that would reach a very large audience at once waits for a person on our team to approve it. Once approved, it goes out on the next pass, unless it has expired by then.
Your plan doesn't include BeAware. Alerts are matched only for accounts on a BeAware or BeAware + BeReady plan.

I got the first warning, so why not the update?

Because BeAware treats most updates as the same alert, and it sends each alert once. Agencies reissue warnings as a storm moves or a river rises. BeAware links each reissue to the original and stays quiet unless the severity goes up.

Same severity: no new message. The earlier email still applies.
Raised to Extreme: a new message goes out right away.
Raised, but not to Extreme (Moderate to Severe, say): a message goes out only if your last one about this alert is several hours old. Otherwise it stays silent unless a later revision arrives after that gap.
A separate new warning: it gets its own message, even during the same storm.

To find the original, look for its line in Recent alerts. It appears once, under the newest headline. Check combined emails too. Their subject gives the count, as in "3 alerts near Home."

Why didn't a smoke, river, or wildfire reading email me?

Because environmental emails depend on the trigger level you chose and send once per episode. They don't come from agency alerts. Check these in order.

Your trigger level. Caution is the default. For email, that means an AQI of 101 or more, a river reaching flood stage, or an active wildfire within 10 miles. Change it with the gear on the dashboard, under Environmental alerts. Never alert me switches a reading off.
Timing. Readings update roughly hourly, so a short spike between checks can pass unseen.
One email per episode. You hear once when a reading first crosses your level. A second email needs a higher level, plus several hours since the first. After roughly 4 hours back under your level, the next crossing counts as new.
The daily limit. Environmental emails have a limit of their own. Danger readings get through regardless.
River cards and river emails grade differently. On rivers, dashboard cards run one step higher than the email rules. A river at action stage shows Caution on its card but counts as Above Normal for email. At flood stage, the card shows Danger while the email rules count Caution. So on the default level, a card can read Caution with no email.
Gauges without flood stages. A river gauge with no official flood stages always reads Normal for email, so it can't trigger one.
A gap in air data. If air quality readings stop coming in, BeAware holds off on air emails until they return.

These emails don't appear in Recent alerts. Search your mail for subjects like "Air quality at Caution near Home."

When nothing here fits

First, confirm the address. Use the location button at the top of the dashboard and check that the saved address is the one you expect. If you moved, choose Edit location from the "..." menu beside it.

Then contact support at support@bepreparedsolutions.co, or use the contact page. Include the alert's name, the date and time, and the address it should have covered. BeAware keeps a record of each alert it processes and each message it sends or holds, so we can check what happened for your account.