Cannot send or receive text messages on 4S...

sajero2 · ‎10-17-2011

Hello, I am a new iPhone customer. Received my 4S on Friday after pre-ordering from ATT on the 7th. Had no problems activating and can send and receive calls just fine. I cannot, however, send text messages or receive any from anyone other than ATT. It shows that I send them, but the people never receive them. Likewise, people have told me they sent me texts that I never received. I have only gotten the free messages from ATT.

ATT chat yesterday told me this was a known problem, however, I haven't been able to find other cases posted in this forum or elsewhere online so I was curious if it is just me or if others who recently activated their phones are having the same issue. Hoping for a solution soon!

Thanks for the help!

mcbush25 · ‎10-17-2011

I'm with you on this. I pre-ordered the iPhone 4S for both my wife and myself. We swtiched from another carrier and I spent about an hour on the phone Friday with tech support to get an answer of: "it takes roughly 72 hours after you have ported your number to being recieving your messages from other carriers as the inter carrier network has to transition."

OK...fast forward to this morning and my iPhone 4S can recieve messages from anyone on AT&T, but I cannot send, even to 151. The dreaded exclamation point pops up and says Message Send Failure. I tried a network reset and it didn't work.

Finally, I decided to speak with tech support. We go through a bunch of things and nothing works. Finally, she tells me to wipe my iPhone 4S clear and it will work. I do that and it doesn't fix it. The response I get is she has escalated it to a specialized team for resolve. She then proceeds to tell me I will get a text by the morning of October 20th (thursday) with a resolve. Are you kidding me? This is really making me wonder why I switched to AT&T to begin with. Crazy thing is my wife's iPhone 4S works great and all her texts are coming through now, but I am stuck here with a brick that I can call from and that is about it.

sajero2 · ‎10-17-2011

The strange thing for me is when I send one, it looks like I sent it. I get no errors, but no one ever receives it. Same with when people send me one; it shows that it goes through on their side but I don't receive it. Maybe we have different problems?

jamileh · ‎06-20-2011

sajero2 wrote:

Hello, I am a new iPhone customer. Received my 4S on Friday after pre-ordering from ATT on the 7th. Had no problems activating and can send and receive calls just fine. I cannot, however, send text messages or receive any from anyone other than ATT. It shows that I send them, but the people never receive them. Likewise, people have told me they sent me texts that I never received. I have only gotten the free messages from ATT.

ATT chat yesterday told me this was a known problem, however, I haven't been able to find other cases posted in this forum or elsewhere online so I was curious if it is just me or if others who recently activated their phones are having the same issue. Hoping for a solution soon!

Thanks for the help!

I haven't seen anything regarding this particular issue but thanks for posting about it (you too mcbush25). I'll see what I can find out!

--------------

As of May 1st, I am no longer serving as the Community Manager for AT&T. This account will no longer be able to accept private messages. If you have an account related issue, please send a private message to ATTCustomerCare.

Did a post have a solution that worked for you? Help other people find solutions faster by marking posts that helped you as an "Accepted Solution". Learn about accepted solutions here.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s position, strategies or opinions.

sajero2 · ‎10-17-2011

Please do let me know, jamileh. Because your chat support yesterday told me it was a "known issue" but it still isn't working for me and they didn't help me. Thanks!

freediverdude · ‎07-30-2005

I am on an iPhone 4, and upgraded to iOS 5, and ever since the upgrade i cannot receive texts either. Haven't tried to send any, will test that. Someone on a Verizon phone (not an iphone) tried sending me texts, and they didn't arrive. And that person's texting was working, he was texting others and sending and receiving fine. I also have my twitter account set up to send me texts, and I'm not receiving those either.

youngjm · ‎05-02-2003

I have not seen this issue either but try resetting your network settings.

Settings>General>reset>Reset network settings. You will have to setup your wifi networks again but that often clears up some garbage without having to setup you phone again.

Good Luck!

_____________________

For service or support questions including existing order status, call:
Customer Support: 1-800-331-0500

Information on iPhone unlocking can be found here by copying this link into your browser:
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Apple-Community-Discussion/iPhone-Unlock-Information/m-p/3260825#U3260825

freediverdude · ‎07-30-2005

Ok I tried resetting the network settings. There wasn't a flood of incoming texts waiting, so I'm guessing that didn't work, but we'll see.

sajero2 · ‎10-17-2011

Yikes, tried resetting the network thing and now I can't join my work WiFi even though I am entering the correct password. Hope that didn't screw it up somehow! Never had a problem joining before.

youngjm · ‎05-02-2003

sajero2 wrote:

Yikes, tried resetting the network thing and now I can't join my work WiFi even though I am entering the correct password. Hope that didn't screw it up somehow! Never had a problem joining before.

It will clear all your wifi hotspots but it should not cause any other problems. Double check that the autocorrect is not doing something unexpected with your password; type very slowly.

_____________________

For service or support questions including existing order status, call:
Customer Support: 1-800-331-0500

Information on iPhone unlocking can be found here by copying this link into your browser:
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Apple-Community-Discussion/iPhone-Unlock-Information/m-p/3260825#U3260825

sajero2 · ‎10-17-2011

Yeah, it's odd. I've tried several times. Maybe it's just the WiFi here. I'll have to try later. It keeps telling me I'm unable to join. In any case, it did not solve the texting problem. But thanks for the idea!

youngjm · ‎05-02-2003

sajero2 wrote:

In any case, it did not solve the texting problem. But thanks for the idea!

Have you called ATT and asked them to double check your account to make sure the stars are aligned properly? Sometimes things happen there?

Good Luck!

_____________________

For service or support questions including existing order status, call:
Customer Support: 1-800-331-0500

Information on iPhone unlocking can be found here by copying this link into your browser:
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Apple-Community-Discussion/iPhone-Unlock-Information/m-p/3260825#U3260825

jamileh · ‎06-20-2011

sajero2 wrote:

Yeah, it's odd. I've tried several times. Maybe it's just the WiFi here. I'll have to try later. It keeps telling me I'm unable to join. In any case, it did not solve the texting problem. But thanks for the idea!

Hey sajero2 - are you getting any error messages on your phone?

--------------

As of May 1st, I am no longer serving as the Community Manager for AT&T. This account will no longer be able to accept private messages. If you have an account related issue, please send a private message to ATTCustomerCare.

Did a post have a solution that worked for you? Help other people find solutions faster by marking posts that helped you as an "Accepted Solution". Learn about accepted solutions here.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s position, strategies or opinions.

jamileh · ‎06-20-2011

Hey all - if you're experiencing an issue where you can't send/receive text messages would you please do me a favor and log into your account on www.att.com and make sure you selected a messaging plan when you did your upgrade?

Scroll down to the "Web Text and More" section and make sure you have a messaging plan selected.

If you don't, add one and let me know if that resolves your issue.
If you do, and you're still seing this issue with no error message, please send me a private message with your name, the messaging plan on your account, account number, phone number and the best time to contact you.

--------------

As of May 1st, I am no longer serving as the Community Manager for AT&T. This account will no longer be able to accept private messages. If you have an account related issue, please send a private message to ATTCustomerCare.

Did a post have a solution that worked for you? Help other people find solutions faster by marking posts that helped you as an "Accepted Solution". Learn about accepted solutions here.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s position, strategies or opinions.

mstdenis · ‎10-23-2011

Text messaging stopped workign for me as well, I just got iOS5. That was NOT the problem, I read this post and it seems when my phone was upgraded they dropped the text messaging package on it. Just like this said, I checked, that was the problem, and I re-added text messaging.

Thanks!!!

asuburban · ‎11-02-2011

I had the same issue with my text messaging plan being dropped. I ordered my iPhone 4S through AT&T (and I waited two weeks for it while my friends that didn't pre-order just walked into Apple stores to buy theirs - but that's another story) and activated it online. Everything about my plan should have stayed the same, but for some reason my text messaging plan vanished. A very nice customer support rep added it back in, but I still went a whole day unable to send texts and had to waste time on the phone because of AT&T's mistake. As usual, the problem was AT&T and not Apple. So before anyone else with this issue blames iOS, just log into you account online and make sure there is still a text messaging plan associated with your line.

bt93 · ‎02-07-2012

I checked my account and sure enough, I didn't have a message choice selected. I selected my choice, waited about 45 minutes, and was able to begin texting again.

dubthedankest · ‎02-09-2012

People aren't receiving text messages because they don't have a text plan? If you don't have a text plan shouldn't you be defaulted into the Pay Per Use Messaging Plan and still send/receive texts but be charged per text?

I just got rid of my unlimited texting plan because it's ridiculous to pay $20 a month for the 5 texts I send a month. But now that I'm on the Pay Per Use Messaging Plan I can no longer send or receive text messages. If this is because I "got rid of my text plan" I am going to be very unhappy. What else is the Pay Per Use plan for?

If someone could shed some light on this I'd appreciate it greatly.

Thanks.

kdfederer · ‎07-20-2008

The only way you aren't getting text messages, is if you have them blocked. I have never had a text messaging plan and get texts all the time.
Contact Customer Service and see if somehow your texts are blocked.

chadr0xurs0x · ‎05-18-2012

try this it worked for me : go to the dialer and type in this number : *5005*7672*+13123149810# then hit call. this resets the sms center on your phone (what a rep told me). go to the text app and send text to 151 and see if it works. good luck!