APNs Delivery Metrics: What Exactly Triggers “Discarded - Disabled”?

Hello,

I'm trying to understand the exact meaning of the APNs delivery status Discarded - Disabled shown in Apple's Push Notification Console.

According to the status tooltip:

Push notifications which were discarded by APNs, because the push feature was disabled for the application on the target device. None of these were saved to APNs storage.

However, I'm unable to reproduce this behavior by disabling notifications through iOS Settings.

I performed the following test on a physical iOS device:

1. Installed our application.
2. Enabled notifications for the application in iOS Settings.
3. Sent a regular visible push notification (alert) from CloudKit console.
4. Checked the individual APNs Delivery Log. The status was Delivered to Device.
5. Disabled notifications for our application through Settings → Notifications → [Our App] → Allow Notifications.
6. Sent another regular visible push notification using the same device token.
7. Checked the individual APNs Delivery Log again.

Unexpected result:

Despite notifications being disabled in iOS Settings, APNs reported Delivered to Device, not Discarded - Disabled.

I'm checking individual notification delivery records, not aggregated metrics.

I'd appreciate clarification on the following:

1. What exactly does Apple mean by "the push feature was disabled for the application on the target device"?
2. Does Discarded - Disabled refer to the notification authorization status (UNAuthorizationStatus.denied) or a different device-side state?
3. If disabling notifications through iOS Settings does not trigger this status, what specific user action or device configuration does?
4. Is there a distinction between disabling notification presentation and disabling remote push delivery at the APNs level?
5. Under what exact circumstances does APNs report Discarded - Disabled instead of Delivered to Device?

• Push type: alert
• Notification type: Regular visible notification
• Device: iPhone 14
• iOS version: 27.2
• APNs environment: Sandbox

My goal is to understand the exact technical conditions that produce Discarded - Disabled, rather than just the general meaning of the status.

Has anyone encountered this behavior or received clarification from Apple about this particular APNs delivery status?

Thanks!