Anyone having issues with SMS via T-Mobile lately?

[nickdalzell1]

Most recently, as in the last few weeks, during the day (10AM to around 5PM) I've had SMS either failing entirely despite having bars, to showing as sent but the recipient never receives it, or I receive responses but the replies I send never get there. Sometimes, I get messages hours late (my girlfriend has sent me 'good morning cutie' messages that I don't get until 6PM!!!) or she gets my messages hours late, or both of us receive duplicate texts.

This seems to be happening only on T-Mobile, as I have both AT&T and Verizon lines too, and neither of them are having this problem. I notice pretty often that when my message send but folks never get them, I'm in 'wifi calling mode', and disabling wifi tends to solve that problem. Phone calls are working just fine. Is this some type of Covid-related overdemand on the cellular network or anything?

 

[C DM]

Most recently, as in the last few weeks, during the day (10AM to around 5PM) I've had SMS either failing entirely despite having bars, to showing as sent but the recipient never receives it, or I receive responses but the replies I send never get there. Sometimes, I get messages hours late (my girlfriend has sent me 'good morning cutie' messages that I don't get until 6PM!!!) or she gets my messages hours late, or both of us receive duplicate texts.

This seems to be happening only on T-Mobile, as I have both AT&T and Verizon lines too, and neither of them are having this problem. I notice pretty often that when my message send but folks never get them, I'm in 'wifi calling mode', and disabling wifi tends to solve that problem. Phone calls are working just fine. Is this some type of Covid-related overdemand on the cellular network or anything?

Not sure if this might be related, but there's a recent thread about T-Mobile issues with some SMS messages:

4-digit verification code texts

Prior to iOS14, I had no problem at all receiving these 4-digit verification code texts ("short codes") ... from either businesses, utilities, or whatever who need to verify your account/identity. Since downloading iOS14, for some reason I'm no longer receiving these texts. As if my iPhone is...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Probably a localized problem specific to where you live. If it were a widespread issue, this forum and (others elsewhere) would be flooded with complaints.

There is zero evidence of that.

I actually use two MVNOs (in different phones) operating on T-Mobile USA towers and I have seen no change in either one. For the record they are Mint Mobile and TruSIM.

If there were any congestion/capacity issues, MVNO customers are always the first ones to be reprioritized for reduced access. That's me.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Just affects T-Mobile for me and I've tried different phones same issue. It's worst in the day, but duplicate texts and delays are all over the T-Mobile community forums dating back to 2015.

Today for example my girl sent me messages and I'd reply, the phone showed them as sent, but she never got them. She kept wondering why I wasn't responding even though I was, and they were definitely sending, but she never got them and I had to resort to calling her to explain. The phone itself works at least.

Seems to be wifi calling causing most of my problems. If I'm in a no-coverage area and connected to wifi calling, I can receive texts but even though they show as successfully sending from my end, they never get to the recipient.

Most common issue is when I have plenty of bars but type and send a message (on mobile network, wifi calling off) it shows 'no signal found on mobile networks' despite having three or more bars. It does this when there's no data signal, just bars. I thought SMS worked without needing data, unless that's changed recently? When I have bars but no data, I can still make calls, just can't send texts. Can't receive either until I get Edge at least.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Maybe malfunctioning SMS relay hardware in your area.

Every cellular provider has periodic regional outages. The fact that there's a ___ community forum where people are complaining of the occasional outage is not noteworthy.

Major outages are actually pretty well covered by the mainstream tech media these days. Example: BleepingComputer has been on top of the recent Outlook/Office 365 snafus.

MacRumors reports iCloud outages.

Widespread telecommunication snafus don't fly under the radar. If it's not trending on Twitter, it's probably a very limited outage.

Like I said, the big ones make the news, like this one. It was a trending subject on Twitter when it occurred.

From my vantage point, it sounds like localized problem to wherever you are. I live in Silicon Valley, nothing of note.

If T-Mobile USA had an nationwide SMS outage, I know I'd see it in my Twitter feed.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Does anyone know if T-Mobile is using the data network to send/receive texts? because when I don't have data but just bars, I can't send texts or receive them. If I enable Wifi calling, I can receive them fine, but even though they show as sent from my end, the other person doesn't receive them. I have to disable Wifi and find a data signal and try again. The only consistent factor is lacking data, or it trying to route via wifi calling.

At home I forced it to 2G only mode and it seems to succeed in receiving and sending just fine. But that's not an option at work. I just have bars or wifi calling as the only available options

 

[Erehy Dobon]

SMS historically runs on the voice network, not the data network. That's a function of how the technology emerged. Short messages (160 characters or less) were able to be slotted in the blank spaces (i.e., unused spectrum portion) of voice calls. Carriers basically viewed them as really short calls which is why old plans had finite talk minutes and texts. A text was a call in the eyes of the carriers.

To this day, one can shut off cellular data and still get SMS messages. I do this with my TruSIM dumbphone. When I travel internationally, depending on where I am, I might shut off cellular data to avoid expensive data charges but I'll still get SMS. This works brilliantly with Google Voice which forwards incoming SMS to my TruSIM number (which is a US number) even if I'm somewhere halfway around the world. In much of the world incoming SMS messages are free.

Add all of these today and that's why I suspect that an SMS relay in your area is malfunctioning.

 

[nickdalzell1]

What about RCS messaging? All I know is without data, texts fail. With wifi calling, receiving fine but though showing as successfully sent, the other person never gets it. At home, with Edge data, full bars, send and receive text just fine. Turn on 4G and no internet, but calls work, texts fail.

Trying to figure out if it's a network issue, if Covid and folks staying home are overcrowding the towers, or if there's some odd APN issue. I have the APN settings T-Mobile sent to me and they're identical on my phone, but only Edge works for internet/MMS and texts only work if that's available. Almost like only the GSM portion works, but the LTE/WCDMA/HSPA+ is dead.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

I dunno anything about RCS messaging.

As a Silicon Valley resident, I am familiar with oversubscribed cellular towers. They're mostly a thing of the past unless there's a huge concentration of people in a small area (e.g., sports arenas) but that's not an active scenario in COVID-19 times.

People staying at home aren't going to overcrowd towers. That only happens when there's an abnormally large concentration of users in a dense metropolitan area.

Are you in a rural area? It has been years since I've seen the EDGE icon on my various handsets.

I think my last phone that required an APN configuration was my iPhone 4S so nine years ago. That was back in the first or second year after AT&T iPhone exclusivity expired.

Note that this has basically been a two-person conversation for the past three hours. If there was a widespread outage, I doubt we'd be the only two people causally chatting about this.

If COVID-19 has any impact, it's probably the slower response by T-Mobile's service department to dispatch a crew to address malfunctioning hardware in your area.

 

[nickdalzell1]

No, I'm in the city. Rural area pretty much equates to no service, or bars but no data. I forced my phone into 2G mode (EDGE) to find out if it improved service. It actually did. At least now I got MMS and internet without needing wifi. Put it back to LTE/WCDMA/HSPA+ and it shows the 4G LTE icon, but the arrows don't flash and every app complains about no internet. All I can do then is make calls, even texts fail saying 'no signal on mobile networks'

Both T-Mobile and Verizon have 2G still up and going, even though Verizon was supposed to shutter theirs in December 2019. My Galaxy S5 still finds a ton of 1x data in rural areas, but has plenty of LTE elsewhere. EDGE only exists for T-mobile. I'll have to play around some more and see what happens. Maybe I'm roaming on an AT&T tower or something? If I do a search for network operators I get AT&T and T-mobile, even though this is a T-mobile branded phone. Sometimes only AT&T shows up, but I can't do anything on it but make calls. It won't text through it. No data either.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

Well LTE works here in Silicon Valley.

The more you describe it, the more it sounds like a T-Mobile outage specific to your locality.

 

[nickdalzell1]

LTE works I just can't seem to utilize it. Got the 4G LTE icon but the apps say no internet. It's up there, but the arrows aren't flashing indicating data going back and forth. That only happens when I force it to EDGE mode. Being such an older phone it has that option in settings. But this issue was happening with both my iPhone (SMS failing but iMessage fine) and another Samsung phone made this year.

 

[Erehy Dobon]

I am bowing out of this conversation.

Dinner is ready and there's nothing I can do anyhow. My suggestion to you would be to contact T-Mobile Customer Service on a landline if necessary.

Best of luck.

 

[MathewTXUS]

Most recently, as in the last few weeks, during the day (10AM to around 5PM) I've had SMS either failing entirely despite having bars, to showing as sent but the recipient never receives it, or I receive responses but the replies I send never get there. Sometimes, I get messages hours late (my girlfriend has sent me 'good morning cutie' messages that I don't get until 6PM!!!) or she gets my messages hours late, or both of us receive duplicate texts.

This seems to be happening only on T-Mobile, as I have both AT&T and Verizon lines too, and neither of them are having this problem. I notice pretty often that when my message send but folks never get them, I'm in 'wifi calling mode', and disabling wifi tends to solve that problem. Phone calls are working just fine. Is this some type of Covid-related overdemand on the cellular network or anything?

Most recently, as in the last few weeks, during the day (10AM to around 5PM) I've had SMS either failing entirely despite having bars, to showing as sent but the recipient never receives it, or I receive responses but the replies I send never get there. Sometimes, I get messages hours late (my girlfriend has sent me 'good morning cutie' messages that I don't get until 6PM!!!) or she gets my messages hours late, or both of us receive duplicate texts.

This seems to be happening only on T-Mobile, as I have both AT&T and Verizon lines too, and neither of them are having this problem. I notice pretty often that when my message send but folks never get them, I'm in 'wifi calling mode', and disabling wifi tends to solve that problem. Phone calls are working just fine. Is this some type of Covid-related overdemand on the cellular network or anything?

I am facing the exact same issue.
Outgoing SMS issue with iPhone 12 Pro with a T-Mobile e-SIM & Physical SIM despite device changes.
With eSIM switched to a physical T-Mobile SIM into a iPhone XS device, the SMS still do not go from T-Mobile to some people with android phones or with android phones apps like sideline or to doc office computer. I can receive SMS from everyone and iMessage work fine. Troubleshoot done with Apple tech support and concluded that it not my iPhone device issue or eSim vs physical sim issue.

This is either a T-Mobile SMS issue to android phones, android apps like side lines and computer based SMS or it could just be a T-Mobile SMS issue. Is anyone else facing this issue and do we know any fix. Already i worked with Apple tech support and T-Mobile tech support. Verified it is not Apple issue. T-Mobile advanced tech team can’t figure out the issue.
Were your issue resolved? Can you help update current status of your issue.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I have long since switched to a Verizon-based SIM and it works perfectly fine, same iPhone. After a few tests using other phones I think I found the culprit.

1. Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G. An older Samsung T-mobile-exclusive from 2011. When the SIM was still on T-mobile, it has a feature known as 'wifi calling' which also appears to route texts through wifi if cellular isn't available. At work this kept being used since at work there is literally zero signal for T-Mobile. When I'd send a text via SMS whenever the 'Wifi calling activated' shown in the notification area, (and a blue phone icon up top) the text shows as 'sent' but the recipient never received it. When in a proper area for cellular coverage the text shows 'sent' and the recipient actually gets it. She never received any I sent when in wifi calling mode at all, despite them showing as successfully sent (it also sent instantly, not the delay I'd get over cellular). Now phone calls would route over wifi fine, and I could still make and receive calls perfectly fine.

2. In the iPhone, the text would attempt to send, and sit there with a green line up top, and then fail. It wouldn't send anything until I was in proper LTE coverage. Both the S Relay and iPhone would receive texts in T-Mobile Wifi Calling mode fine, just not send. Or show sent but no one received it.

So in a way I think T-Mobile's wifi calling and texting was having some sort of conflict. Doesn't happen over Verizon. Straight Talk (which uses Verizon and other towers depending on the SIM you use in their BYOP SIM kit) doesn't appear to support Wifi Calling or VoLTE (that last one is quite odd in 2021!)

 

[MathewTXUS]

I have long since switched to a Verizon-based SIM and it works perfectly fine, same iPhone. After a few tests using other phones I think I found the culprit.

1. Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G. An older Samsung T-mobile-exclusive from 2011. When the SIM was still on T-mobile, it has a feature known as 'wifi calling' which also appears to route texts through wifi if cellular isn't available. At work this kept being used since at work there is literally zero signal for T-Mobile. When I'd send a text via SMS whenever the 'Wifi calling activated' shown in the notification area, (and a blue phone icon up top) the text shows as 'sent' but the recipient never received it. When in a proper area for cellular coverage the text shows 'sent' and the recipient actually gets it. She never received any I sent when in wifi calling mode at all, despite them showing as successfully sent (it also sent instantly, not the delay I'd get over cellular). Now phone calls would route over wifi fine, and I could still make and receive calls perfectly fine.

2. In the iPhone, the text would attempt to send, and sit there with a green line up top, and then fail. It wouldn't send anything until I was in proper LTE coverage. Both the S Relay and iPhone would receive texts in T-Mobile Wifi Calling mode fine, just not send. Or show sent but no one received it.

So in a way I think T-Mobile's wifi calling and texting was having some sort of conflict. Doesn't happen over Verizon. Straight Talk (which uses Verizon and other towers depending on the SIM you use in their BYOP SIM kit) doesn't appear to support Wifi Calling or VoLTE (that last one is quite odd in 2021!)

The WiFi calling in my iPhone 12 Pro is off and I never use WiFi calling.

 

[nickdalzell1]

It's also possible T-Mobile's SMS gateway depends on data. I couldn't get SMS to work period if I wasn't at least connected with an Edge or LTE network. Not sure if they're doing some sort of RCS messaging or what.

 

[MathewTXUS]

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.

 

[nickdalzell1]

That means your MMS is working, which is not the same protocol as SMS. That only needs data (you can even send MMS messages with a standard 'home phone' SIM inserted into a smartphone, but SMS will fail).

Might want to call your carrier. I had this 'bug' not long ago but it wasn't related to T-Mobile. I could receive calls and SMS/MMS, but placing calls I got a recording "We're sorry, but we were unable to authenticate your phone" and SMS sending all failed. MMS strangely worked.

Called Straight Talk (I was using my HTC Thunderbolt, and worried that this was a sign of the whole VoLTE transition) and they fixed it. They said I had an 'IMEI mismatch' (which was scary odd) and it has worked fine since. It also affected a phone-call only Galaxy S4 mini I use as a backup line, but simply rebooting it fixed the whole 'we're not able to authenticate your phone' error.

SMS though failed with an error code, which translated to 'not authorized'. I still don't know what caused an IMEI mismatch. That was in January, and hasn't happened since. The HTC was old enough to show actual SMS errors which helped when I called custome care. Most modern phones just give a generic 'failed' icon or simply say 'not sent'. doesn't help with troubleshooting.

 

[MathewTXUS]

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 experience.

 

[nickdalzell1]

It might also have a lot to do with their merger with Sprint causing some serious compatibility issues. This has caused some issues with T-Mobile branded phones as well as Sprint-branded phones (as in a few years old or older, not any modern variants).

With Straight Talk, they wanted to blame my phone at first and told me to go to settings-->general-->reset network settings. I had to tell them multiple times 'this isn't an iPhone, no such menu exists on Android!' and they refused to leave their script. Eventually I got transferred to a Tier 2 and they figured out the issue and it was indeed on their end, not mine, and it was fixed in a few minutes, me not ending my call with them until I verified everything worked.

In my case, it was also related to VoLTE switchover, which the HTC Thunderbolt doesn't officially support, which would affect calls and SMS, but not MMS or data usage, but since CDMA activations are verboten as of 2018, and I activated the phone in late 2019, it only picked up LTE (which massively helped battery life), and their fix made it work via a technicality, where even with being unsupported for VoLTE the calls and SMS still use LTE because that's all the phone picks up today.

My issues with the S-Relay and iPhone that made me create this thread might have more to do with the whole Sprint acquistion. Being much older devices, possibly not supporting whatever band it uses for SMS and calling, or that band being broken during the whole Sprint merger. Who knows?

 

[IowaLynn]

I'm on ATT and iphone 12 - tried plain 12 and now 12 Pro. Sounds like trying to connect to a fax machine sometimes. Works ok with my older iphone X. I'll try next using WiFi calling and see if that makes a difference.

Maybe it needs new SIM. BUT no problem when put in Samsung S20, S21 Ultra, and Note 20.

I don't trust Apple at this point. Points to why I keep Android and iPhones in the house. Can also test with a Surface GO-2 LTE

 

[nickdalzell1]

If you're hearing robotic sounds in calls you're not utilizing VoLTE. A lot of pre-paid MVNOs and some mainstream carriers refuse to activate it even on a new phone.

There was supposed to be a mandatory requirement to have VoLTE after 2020--but Verizon once delayed it to 2021, now indefinitely, and AT&T delayed their 3G shutdown till at least February 2022, and T-Mobile up and decided to keep EDGE and HSPA+ going also indefinitely. While I appreciate such support for older devices (especially mine!) I can see it causing issues since they won't turn on VoLTE on devices which support it (it sometimes requires carrier activation).

Wifi calling is nice when it works, but I face a lot of bugs where SMS messages try routing through it, appear to send perfecly fine, but the other person never gets it (just dies in the ether).

SMS is my primary communication method on any phone. 99% of calls are junk or robocallers, and I might make a call once or twice a year at best.

 

[VineRider]

I’m on AT&T with a 12 Pro. I have volte and have had it for years. I cannot imagine AT&T not activating it on a new device. All my iPhones dating back to 2016 have had volte

 

[nickdalzell1]

My 6S is using a Straight Talk SIM and it still doesn't have VoLTE. It's 'enabled' in settings, but call quality is low enough to recognize it as NOT being VoLTE. Same with my Galaxy S5 before that. I've noticed that '1x' also displays as the data type at work, as well as during calls.

Doesn't work if your SIM was never provisioned for VoLTE.