Solved

Why am I randomly not receiving texts?

  • 8 August 2019
  • 61 replies
  • 102652 views
C

A few months ago it came to my attention that I was not receiving certain messages from what seemed like a single person (they showed me their phone proving they in fact had sent me these messages).  Then it happened with another friend. Both these individuals have iPhones and are on T-Mobile. I'm an Android user.

It is seemingly completely random, sometimes even in the middle of a conversation, selective texts sent seconds or minutes apart will not come through.

So far I have tried:

  • Changing to the stock texting app (I normally use Mood)
  • Clearing the text app cache
  • uninstalling and reinstalling Mood
  • changing the SIM
  • T-Mobile advised me to do some kind of reset (which all it did was make me have to put in all my WiFi passwords again)
  • full factory reset
  • Confirmed APN settings
  • Bought another damn phone.

Annoying that I could never figure out wth was happening, but no matter, it seemed like things were working. Well, the problem has returned, and it's very difficult to troubleshoot or know when it's happening because it's not like there's an error message. I don't find out until days or weeks later, and I imagine sometimes never at all. People think I'm just ignoring them.

I have also had issues where texts come in very delayed, I'm talking anywhere from like a half hour to 24 hours later.

These are just regular old sms texts, usually brief ones too, not group chats media etc., if that matters.

Is it possible that that I am momentarily losing service when these messages are being sent and they just kind of disappear into the void? lol

Solutions?

icon

Best answer by tmo_mike_c 20 August 2019, 18:18

View original
This topic has been closed for comments

61 replies

J

Thanks for sharing your experience. After a month of trouble shooting by T-Mobile tech team, they could not fix the issue. Tech team was saying it is device or apple issue which is a usual tech tactic of passing the buck.  I changed device, changed from eSim to physical sim, nothing fixed it. 

Today i left T-Mobile and within 5 minutes of number transfer to new provider, all the text messages are working fine. So it is a T-Mobile issue or may be carrier competition where Verizon or AT&T deliberately randomly block T-Mobile incoming text to its customers or it could be T-Mobile tactic for some other reason. I think it was deliberately blocked or made broken than any other issue or else the tech team could have easily fixed it. They don’t want to fix it. 
I took the decision to port out of T-Mobile as T-Mobile tech team seems to be helpless. This is my story. 

Same issue, opened two tickets and these don’t give a rats about it. 

C

Wow, this goes on forever. Is there any chance it is related to the integration of 5g? The first posts are from the initial testing of the new 5G towers. I have tried all the suggestions. Thinking about getting a new sim card and trying that.

M

I am having the same issue, although I do not believe it is an apple or Android issue nor do I believe it is a carrier issue. I think it's a worm or virus on our phone. Due to a friend of mine was complaining that he wasn't receiving all my texts...(same issue everyone is speaking of). I thought he wasn't being truthful and then it started happening to me with just my husband, and then it started happening to my husband and only from his brother. I went for a long weekend with my mom and by the time we came back now it's happening to her. In conclusion I believe it's a worm.

J

I have this same problem, from other T-MOBILE customers who text me, regardless of which phone brand they use.

J

This seems to be a T-MOBILE problem, not a given phone issue.

M

Thanks for sharing your experience. After a month of trouble shooting by T-Mobile tech team, they could not fix the issue. Tech team was saying it is device or apple issue which is a usual tech tactic of passing the buck.  I changed device, changed from eSim to physical sim, nothing fixed it. 

Today i left T-Mobile and within 5 minutes of number transfer to new provider, all the text messages are working fine. So it is a T-Mobile issue or may be carrier competition where Verizon or AT&T deliberately randomly block T-Mobile incoming text to its customers or it could be T-Mobile tactic for some other reason. I think it was deliberately blocked or made broken than any other issue or else the tech team could have easily fixed it. They don’t want to fix it. 
I took the decision to port out of T-Mobile as T-Mobile tech team seems to be helpless. This is my story. 

7

Same issue here on Revvl 2 Plus set up new in 2018DEC - first time in early 2019 it took me days to realize that I was not receiving text messages. In one case, messages I sent were received, but I did not get the replies until 20 minutes after t mobile tech support “refreshed” my line, received all unreceived text messages at once. Happens ever since about ever 30 to 60 days.

Today I know I was not receiving txt messages, I restarted, nothing. went about my day, restarted this evening, nothing. Once a t mobile tech told me, put it in airplane mode and restart, then take it out of airplane mode, so I did that and nothing. Cleared the messaging cache, data, and forced app to stop, restarted again, still nothing.

While I was tooling around here and asked to sign in, forgot my passcode, then needed to do a two step authentication, when the short code came from t mobile, all back logged messages were also received, the order in which they were received is also interesting, the t mobile short code should have been last, but it was second to last and a text message from a line on my plan which was sent hours earlier was last.

I just wish I knew what the fix is when detected or stop it from happening.

Very wierd, Snowden knows. He should be pardoned. 

M

An update:

SMS messages that I replied or send in the form of pictures or screenshots are received by those who were not receiving my SMS messages before. The SMS that I am typing using my keypad and sending are still not received by the receiver. 

M

It's an iPhone problem with receiving messages. But I'm not sure if it's isolated to tmobile iPhones.

TMobile is recording that the messages are sent (from both iPhone and Android). 

The setting for "Send as sms" instead of iMessage was on for the iPhones in my situation. 

Like I stated above, I receive SMS & iMessage fine whether it is iPhone or android. When I reply to the SMS to people who do not have iMessage, it goes from my iPhone, but the receiver never get my reply SMS. T-Mobile has records of these SMS replies with date & time stamp in my online T-Mobile account, which means it went from my iPhone. I changed the devices, tested it and the SMS replies are send from my side but the receiver never gets it. The interesting aspect is when I remove T-Mobile Sim on these devices and insert a Verizon SIM, the receiver gets my reply SMS. So i don’t think it is a device issue. It is either a T-Mobile SMS issue or android issue vs T-Mobile.  

P

It's an iPhone problem with receiving messages. But I'm not sure if it's isolated to tmobile iPhones.

TMobile is recording that the messages are sent (from both iPhone and Android). 

The setting for "Send as sms" instead of iMessage was on for the iPhones in my situation. 

M

Based on the info above, is this then an android issue. I have iPhone 12 Pro and T-Mobile is the carrier. I get all the SMS send to me from all type of smart phone and all carriers. But when I reply to those SMS, the SMS goes from my iPhone but the receiver never gets those replies from me. The reply SMS I send is getting tracked with time & date in my T-Mobile account, which means it went from my iphone. 
But what about some iPhones owners not getting my reply SMS but they do get it when iMessage is on, when iMessage is off the SMS never reach them even though it went from my device. 

P

This one is easy. has done it to some of my android (mostly lg’s) 

download google messages from the play store. keep wifi off after you download it and install it.

 

install it, accept and permit all necessaries access to your phone.

 

simply go to and enable chat features, it will either ask you or go under settings, in the messages app. accept whatever! let it set up until it says ready to use or chat features are active.

 

This sounds like they're referring to RCS.

I'm also experiencing this issue. Sharing my situation:

I used Google Messages until it bugged last week, and conversations would not load. Chat features (RCS) was on. I didn't hear from contacts that my messages weren't being received for over a year with my Nokia 7.1. (But also I've sent fewer messages in 2020...)

I switched to the Textra app and started hearing about missed messages again this week. I did not disable RCS after switching, but Google Messages was bugging out on me so maybe the setting was disabled.

In a group chat of 5, with me as the only android user-- One ios was connected to my same WiFi, Two was driving, Three was connected to my same WiFi, Four was in a facility and using data. One and Two didn't get my group text through Textra. Three and Four did.

 

M

Hi 

I have no issues in getting SMS message, but when I reply to those SMS messages where it goes from my iphone, but the receiver never gets my SMS message. This affects my friends who are on android phone, international SMS to iPhone who is not using iMessages and short code messages to doc office etc. The interesting aspect is, I take the T-Mobile SIM out and put a Verizon SIM and those SMS goes and receiver gets it. 
So this is something with T-Mobile SMS application and it is affecting one phone line in my account. The other two Phone lines works normal. 

C

I experienced same problem when my source was sending me a verification code for security purpose.  I called T Mobile customer Service. She found out that the sender number is blocked from sending me a message.  Typically, if it is a corporate entity who is sending messages such as this, the company uses 'short code'  as sending number.  Apparently, T Mobile has blocked numerous short codes for some reason, my guess is to filter unsolicited msgs. I asked t mobile customer service to unblock all 'short code' numbers. This should correct some of my problems such as Institutional text msgs.  If you rely on text messages to receive COVID vaccine related msgs, you may want to fix this. My problem was COVID related notification issue in order to complete registration.

Thanks for sharing this. I have had this issue isolated to verification codes for several years. After reading this post I called T-mobile and asked them to allow short code numbers and it worked immediately.  Oddly the number I tested on showed as a normal phone number, not a short code. This was also isolated to my phone line in our family plan.

M

After extensive troubleshooting with T-Mobile and Apple, it was identified that SMS messages send with iPhone 12 Pro from T-Mobile to AT&T and Verizon is not going through. iMessages works fine. Devices changed and the issue still persist. The issue is with SMS from T-Mobile to AT&T & Verizon numbers. T-Mobile to T-Mobile SMS works fine most of the time.  A ticket is opened with T-Mobile advanced tech team to further investigate and waiting for a resolution. It is a good idea for Verizon and AT&T customers contact the respective services to troubleshoot if you are missing the SMS messages. 

I highly doubt that’s the issue because because all 3 of the people i’m having problems receiving text messages from… are also T-Mobile customers.

It was tested several times from different devices. People who have iMessage works with no issues. The issue is definitely with when I send text from T-Mobile to Verizon or AT&T numbers, I get SMS but when reply it goes but not received by my friends. Some of T-Mobile to T-Mobile text also could be missing. 

My conclusion after several trouble shooting is either T-Mobile digits issue or SMS from iPhone to android issues or could be due to using international eSim for few days on the iPhone and then switching to T-Mobile eSim when back in US. 

R
Badge

After extensive troubleshooting with T-Mobile and Apple, it was identified that SMS messages send with iPhone 12 Pro from T-Mobile to AT&T and Verizon is not going through. iMessages works fine. Devices changed and the issue still persist. The issue is with SMS from T-Mobile to AT&T & Verizon numbers. T-Mobile to T-Mobile SMS works fine most of the time.  A ticket is opened with T-Mobile advanced tech team to further investigate and waiting for a resolution. It is a good idea for Verizon and AT&T customers contact the respective services to troubleshoot if you are missing the SMS messages. 

I highly doubt that’s the issue because because all 3 of the people i’m having problems receiving text messages from… are also T-Mobile customers.

M

After extensive troubleshooting with T-Mobile and Apple, it was identified that SMS messages send with iPhone 12 Pro from T-Mobile to AT&T and Verizon is not going through. iMessages works fine. Devices changed and the issue still persist. The issue is with SMS from T-Mobile to AT&T & Verizon numbers. T-Mobile to T-Mobile SMS works fine most of the time.  A ticket is opened with T-Mobile advanced tech team to further investigate and waiting for a resolution. It is a good idea for Verizon and AT&T customers contact the respective services to troubleshoot if you are missing the SMS messages. 

R
Badge

Having similar issue.

 

Bought a new phone (iphone). When i switched services and tested everything seems to work. Calls and text. 

 

But it was a few days later that i realized that while most of my friends are able to text me, There were two who’ when they text me the text messages would actually go to the old phone (android).

I have since reset the old phone and it’s not receiving these texts anymore. But when  those same friends of mine send me text messages i dont get the messages at all.

I have since opened a ticket with T-Mobile tech support and they seem to be having trouble figuring it out.

B

I experienced same problem when my source was sending me a verification code for security purpose.  I called T Mobile customer Service. She found out that the sender number is blocked from sending me a message.  Typically, if it is a corporate entity who is sending messages such as this, the company uses 'short code'  as sending number.  Apparently, T Mobile has blocked numerous short codes for some reason, my guess is to filter unsolicited msgs. I asked t mobile customer service to unblock all 'short code' numbers. This should correct some of my problems such as Institutional text msgs.  If you rely on text messages to receive COVID vaccine related msgs, you may want to fix this. My problem was COVID related notification issue in order to complete registration.

T

Same exact issue here. It started New Years 2021. We’ve had 2 or 3 calls to TMobile , where they check things like phone updates and data usage numbers. According to them all should be good, it isn’t. First my husband had a fit because he thought I was ignoring his texts, but I never got them. Then I noticed people who normally reply to my texts weren’t replying. 2 other people have now verified they are Not Recieving my texts!!! I have an android 8. When my husband and i test it, it seems to work. It’s very frustrating, as I have several friendships I’ve cultivated through text. It’s embarrising to keep having to ask people if they recieved my texts and sent one back, or if all of my connections have chose to suddenly ignore me. Just today someone verified through E mail, they got my text, I did NOT get theirs!

D

Yeah, step 1) go to boostmobile.com 2) give t-mo the boot! But seriously, no, they don't appear to care about us.

A

Same issue!! Any solution?

D

Well, I was about to add my experience, but I see there are TONS of people having the exact same issue. T-Mobile wants me to wait 2 hours to talk to tech support. This is crazy. I’ve been a customer for 15 years, but I hear you LOUD AND CLEAR T-MOBILE, I’ll take my business elsewhere.

S

I have the same problem for quite some time. Tried all the suggestions above. But my other SIM slot used in other countries when traveling overseas does not have the issue.  Nor does my other family members. 

C

Hello, I've called TMobile, I've gone into a local store, I've talked on text assist on my device, and no resolution has been given that works. I have a specific friend/number that cannot text me at all, she constantly gets "not delivered" but the funny thing is, she can reply to me if I send a message to her first. She's has to use messenger to deliver a message to me, and shows me a screenshot of the not delivered text. This is a major issue. I've checked blocked, spam, every setting I can, no assistance from TMobile, except for a reply that says, oh we're updating our services with Sprint, try back later. I'm furious, this is ridiculous. My guess is your new Sprint users are working great though. Highly disappointed in TMobile service on this issue! 

New badge winners

  • Curious George
    Ms Toihas earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    Patmercerhas earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    ch2024has earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    Ajohnson188has earned the badge Curious George
  • Curious George
    silky24has earned the badge Curious George
Show all badges
Terms & Conditions