SMS Issues with iOS 5

drwatz0n said:

So, my question to everyone else is: have you been having any significant issues with SMS on iOS 5?

Click to expand...

Well, I work with SMS and have been doing some testing with iOS 5 on iPhone 4 and haven't found a single failure yet.

Based on what you just told it's hard to say what really happened. Possible scenarios are that either the sending phone was not able to submit the message to the SMSC and queued the msg; or the SMSC has not been able to deliver the message to you right away and queued it.

SMS works so that if you are able to submit a message it's then guaranteed to be delivered if only the recipient is available within 7 days (carrier's settings on the SMSC may limit the validity period).

I've been using iOS5 and haven't really had any SMS issues either, sometimes I'll get double messages where I receive the same message, slide to unlock and when it unlocks it shows the message twice, a little weird but overall is fine. It might not be an iOS5 issues, and maybe a network issue...? just a guess

matty.p1987 said:

I've been using iOS5 and haven't really had any SMS issues either, sometimes I'll get double messages where I receive the same message, slide to unlock and when it unlocks it shows the message twice, a little weird but overall is fine. It might not be an iOS5 issues, and maybe a network issue...? just a guess

Click to expand...

This pretty much sums up my experience and bugs I've encountered. The biggest problem with the Messages app is when it refuses to open (I launch it and it crashes after a couple of seconds until the 3rd or 4th time). So yeah, problems with the app but not with receiving and sending messages.

Probably just network latency.

yeah

I'm having the same issue, hopefully its fixed in the next beta..

Me and my buddy downloaded iOS 5 on our iPhone 4's. Mine is on ATT and his is on Verizon. I am not seeing any issues but he is having issues with SMS and I've been searching for a solution on the internet as I don't see this problem widespread. I'm going to probably wipe his device and restore to an old backup to see if it fixes it but basically he's having these massive time gaps both in sending and in receiving. Meaning the people he's texting claim he hasn't sent anything etc.

Mine, however, is working just fine.

Anybody else having these SMS problems? I'm running iOS5 w/ Verizon but haven't noticed anything yet. Just being cautious and wondering.

I've noticed a lot of people having issues with SMS and MMS messages. But the majority of them don't truly understand the underlying foundation of the whole process. I am not one of those either, not an expert. But I do know that there are many issues where a message going from one carrier to another takes a long time. Sometimes days in fact.
So while this may seem like a problem, verify with your friend what carrier they are on. Just to check and see. Its possible that is the issue and not iOS 5.
But it also could be.
If it is, then I would suggest you file your problem/bug in the developers site on Apple. You know, since this is a developers beta software at the moment. Let us know what you find out. I'm interested in the outcome.

I've had the same issues I noticed you lock the screen on the SMS screen you want get notications for texts

iceterminal said:

I've noticed a lot of people having issues with SMS and MMS messages. But the majority of them don't truly understand the underlying foundation of the whole process. I am not one of those either, not an expert. But I do know that there are many issues where a message going from one carrier to another takes a long time. Sometimes days in fact.

Click to expand...

For SMS, there should not be any extra delay in delivering the messages. What really happens when you send a message to someone is (simplified):

1. Your terminal creates the message and transmits it to the Base Station (BS) you are connected to.
2. The BS forwards the message to the Service Center (SC, SMSC, SMS-C, whatever you like to call it) defined in the message (phone setting).
3. When the SC receives the message, it will save the message. Finally, an acknowledgement is sent back to the terminal by the SC. Submitting part is now complete and the terminal shows you that the message has been sent. (By the way, in iPhone the actual sending is only the last few pixels on the scrollbar)

4. Now the SC starts a delivery process and queries the network for the recipient's location.
5. Corresponding Home Location Register (HLR) will return the address of the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) where the recipient is currently registered in, worldwide.
6. The SC delivers the message to the MSC, which forwards it to the correct BS, which then transmits the message to the receiving terminal. An ACK is sent back by the terminal all the way down to the SC and the message is deleted from the SC.

From this you should easily see that the whole sending-receiving should not take more than just a few seconds. Should there be an error in sending the phone will notify you about it. Basically, you are out of coverage, the SC address configured in the phone is incorrect, or there is a bug in the phone's messaging app.

The delivery part is more prone to delays and the most common reason is that the recipient is out of reach (e.g. phone off). If the SC fails to deliver the message it will retry based on a retry scheme set by the operator, typically more frequently in the beginning and then gradually less often.

drwatz0n's issue most probably relates to iPhone dropping off the network for a period, which seems to happen every now and then on this iOS5 beta. The six hour delay refers to a common retry profile selected by mobile carriers. Of course, other scenarios are also possible, but at the moment I doubt it. More investigation would be needed.

Sorry to bump the thread but I am having the exact same issues with Verizon iPhone on iOS5 beta 2. I feel like sending and receiving texts are very delayed. Sometimes I'll be waiting for a response, and I'll send a text to myself to "check my status of texts" (a trick I made up). Right after I send this, a response from someone I'm texting is received. Then, the message I sent myself doesn't get received until about 10 15 minutes later. I have to resend messages to get the others sent.

Or, I'll receive a message from person A, person B and C all at once. I know they didn't send them all at the same time, that's just too much of a coincidence. Wtf!! I can't see when they actually sent the message so I never know.

I got a message this morning at 7AM, I asked and I was told it was sent at 1AM.

What's going on?? Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks

Just confirming the issue for me as well. I have a verizon iPhone beta 2. Same exact thing. I would get no notifications of the texts coming back to me or anything. It was aggravating enough I downgraded. Hopefully beta 3 will have a fix for it.

same here

Reporting that I have had the same issue on my end to. I have the iPhone 4 iOS 5 beta 2 and at&t so its obviously not limited to carriers. One thing that I have discovered fixes the problem temporarily is a wire sync with iTunes, not sure how it works but every time i connect it works fine. Another issue I am having with this too is also not being able to send messages, the text gets to about 90 percent then stops and won't send at all. Like others have said hopefully this will be fixed in the next beta.

Yea it's very aggravating. I hope the beta 3 comes out soon and fixes it so I don't have to downgrade.

ivanpk said:

Sorry to bump the thread but I am having the exact same issues with Verizon iPhone on iOS5 beta 2. I feel like sending and receiving texts are very delayed. Sometimes I'll be waiting for a response, and I'll send a text to myself to "check my status of texts" (a trick I made up). Right after I send this, a response from someone I'm texting is received. Then, the message I sent myself doesn't get received until about 10 15 minutes later. I have to resend messages to get the others sent.

Or, I'll receive a message from person A, person B and C all at once. I know they didn't send them all at the same time, that's just too much of a coincidence. Wtf!! I can't see when they actually sent the message so I never know.

I got a message this morning at 7AM, I asked and I was told it was sent at 1AM.

What's going on?? Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Any updates on this? I would like to know if I should be prepared for some SMS issues with Verizon's network after the iOS5 gets released…

From your description above I read there are some signalling issues with Verizon's network and the iOS5. For some reason the SMSC does not get acks from the phone and/or the phone "drops off" from the HLR/VLR (propably due to fast dormancy made too early) and thus the SMSC does not try to deliver anything until the phone is found again and everything queued up will be shot out at once.

I would like to know about this also. I experienced it in Beta 1 but would like to know about Beta 4.

Same Issues on Bell

I've been having the same issues with iOS 5 beta 6. Text messages are delayed, or out of order. I'll often get batches of them from multiple people at once, and they take longer to send than in iOS 4.

I'm on Bell in Canada, and my network coverage is excellent. This is definitely an issue with iOS 5; I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one.

This seems to be an issue in the iOS5 since from the description above it is clearly not in the network or in the SMSC. It means I'll have to spend some days in the lab…

Just a friendly reminder, that's the risk you take running beta software that's still under development.

If you're not a developer youre setting yourself up for this kind of frustration. There's no point just to have the "latest".

Why not, heaven forbid, have patience and wait. Let them get it sorted out and ready for release.

Signal issues??

Could it be a signal issue on Verizon phones? I have noted since updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 5 that my signal drops out of 3G mode and displays an 'o' where the 3G was. While this is displaying, I can attempt to make calls and I get reports from people that they answer, but never hear anything. On my end, it is just dead.

I have had a couple of failed SMS messages as well, and sure enough - the 'o' is shown where 3G is supposed to be. Signal goes from 5 bars to ZERO for several minutes while sitting in the same place where I have always have 4-5 bars of service.

I am on Verizon - and interestingly enough, the second iPhone 4G on my account which has not been upgraded to iOS 5 is not having these issues - sitting on the table, side by side.

Any ideas???

Same SMS issue

I have iPhone 4 on verizon running iOS 5 and I'm having the same issue with SMSs. Sometimes messages will randomly not send. Other times they send fine, yet I get an exclamation point on the messege app button as if something didn't send. Hopefully this gets fixed because it's happening about 15-20 times per day for me and I really don't want to go back to iOS 4.

Any suggestions (excluding restoring to old iOS) would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

Possible solution ...

blaapple said:

I have iPhone 4 on verizon running iOS 5 and I'm having the same issue with SMSs. Sometimes messages will randomly not send. Other times they send fine, yet I get an exclamation point on the messege app button as if something didn't send. Hopefully this gets fixed because it's happening about 15-20 times per day for me and I really don't want to go back to iOS 4.

Any suggestions (excluding restoring to old iOS) would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

Click to expand...

I allowed my battery to run completely down - to the point it wouldnt even try to power up any longer, waited another 24 hours or so and then charged it fully and powered it on. Haven't had any issues since. Using the slider to power off didn't work previously.

I suppose it could have been pure coincidence but thought it was worth mentioning.

Good luck!

If your on AT&T it could be a bad SIM card, had a delay in messages calls went to VM without ringing on my sons iPhone 4, went to Apple they said phone is ok and to ask AT&T to swap the SIM, sure enough that is exactly what it was, and AT&T said it happens with the 4's from time to time.

I haven't had any issues with either text messaging or iMessaging.

I'm having text issues on my iPhone 4s and my wife's iPhone 4. When we text eavh other her text come in as if I sent them. My messages aren't sending either. Any one else having that issue?