diff --git a/Classes/Notifications/NotificationModelController.swift b/Classes/Notifications/NotificationModelController.swift
index c0549a946..d21143525 100644
--- a/Classes/Notifications/NotificationModelController.swift
+++ b/Classes/Notifications/NotificationModelController.swift
@@ -51,13 +51,6 @@ final class NotificationModelController {
         width: CGFloat,
         completion: @escaping (Result<([NotificationViewModel], Int?)>) -> Void
         ) {
-        // hack to prevent double-fetching notifications when awaking from bg fetch
-        guard UIApplication.shared.applicationState != .background else {
-            // return success to avoid error states
-            completion(.success(([], nil)))
-            return
-        }
-
         let badge = githubClient.badge
         let contentSizeCategory = UIContentSizeCategory.preferred
         // TODO move handling + parsing to a single method?
diff --git a/Classes/Systems/Feed.swift b/Classes/Systems/Feed.swift
index 24ec2cf6f..baa20cc3a 100644
--- a/Classes/Systems/Feed.swift
+++ b/Classes/Systems/Feed.swift
@@ -76,7 +76,10 @@ final class Feed: NSObject, UIScrollViewDelegate {
 
         view.backgroundColor = .white
 
-        refresh()
+        // avoid app launch in the background triggering viewDidLoad-based network calls
+        if UIApplication.shared.applicationState != .background {
+            refresh()
+        }
 
         adapter.collectionView = collectionView