Text messages are randomly delayed by up to a day

I'd love to get an  answer here if the original poster found one or if a T-Mobile rep can be bothered to respond as I have the same problem. Notably I had  been using a Samsung Android phone with T-Mobile until 5 or so months ago and am now using an iPhone with T-Mobile and  I've had the problem  with both phones. I feel like that pretty much rules out the issue b eing anything other than a T-Mobile problem.

I have the exact same problem.  I just had a dump of around 150 messages dumped about 5 mins ago.  Messages were anywhere from 1 hour to about 24 hours old.  It is very sporadic for me as well.  This seems to happen every 3 months or so. 

My issue doesn't just apply to group MMS though.  There were at least 4 single SMS messages that were delayed and then dumped all at once.

I don't know who to blame.  I have an older original Pixel phone, but I don't have any issues with any other cellular related apps (phone calls for example).  Plus, I almost NEVER use Wi-Fi , so I don't use Wi-Fi calling. 

I have great service (4-full bars almost all the time). 

This is extremely frustrating because it feels like my messages are being ignored… and then when they do dump over, they dump all at the same time so the time stamps are incorrect.

I can't find anything online on what the issue is.  Any help is greatly appreciated.  I can also provide any additional data if needed.

¡Gracias!

I've now been having this problem for several weeks from my family group text and it's extremely frustrating as I'm always out of the loop now and might as well not even be in the group text. Restarting my phone only works sometimes. Can't wait to switch back to Verizon ASAP

when it seems like you havent received any texts in a while try texting yourself to see if it comes right through or if its delayed..helps rule out the problem being on your side..at least with sms...to test mms send youself a pic and see how long it takes to come through...

the delayed texts coming in...are they usually delayed from a specific person/people in the group or is it a bit random? could end up being the relay from one carrier to you that has the issue as well..kind of a hail Mary but cant exactly rule it out either.

one other thing to do would be a network reset..your phone might say you have great signal but you might be hung up on a further out tower causing issues.

someoneelse wrote:
I've been seeing this off and on for months in group texts mostly, but also in direct texts as well. The problem is that text messages are often delayed by up to 24 hours and then dumped all at once into my phone. This is looking to be a TMobile issue. I'm on an iPhone 11 Pro with the latest version of iOS. To sum up:
This is only with text messages, not iMessage or other messaging apps.
This happens when I have a good signal and a wifi connection in my house, but it has also happened when I'm out and have only cellular, but still a good signal.
The other people in group chats are spread across numerous different carriers. None of them have reported this.
The usual phone troubleshooting steps (quit the Messages application, restart the phone, etc) do absolutely nothing.
I checked the activity logs in my TMobile account. The text messages in question all came through at the same time according to the logs. It looks like it's somehow getting delayed inside of TMobile's system.
I've missed some texts due to this that were relatively time-sensitive. I don't think I need to express my frustration at something as old and dead-simple as SMS/MMS getting screwed up like this.
It also doesn't help my frustration when the browser based Places/Topics Browser is hopelessly broken and the page I'm using to write this keeps auto-scrolling down when I interact with a number of elements on the page.

This problem has appeared on this forum going back years.  It has been asked many, many times.

Im a new TMobile customer (was using Sprint with no problems for years).  As soon as I switched to T Mobile I started getting massive delays in group SMS.

I don't think the make/model of your phone matters, I don't think resetting your phone, resetting default network settings, etc etc, helps.  Nothing helps.  Just read the forums - the same issue gets posted, and there are 100s of people trying to troubleshoot to no avail.  This is 100% a TMobile problem and it is extremely frustrating.  I can't believe TMobile has this issue

Can confirm that this is still happening, as I just joined T-Mobile and started seeing these issues. It's disappointing to see that this has been an issue for so long.

I am happy and disappointed to realize this is not just me. The same exact issue you are all experiencing is happening to me as well. I've been shown text messages that were sent to me and never hit my phone. For example, around 4 am there was a bulk of text messages that came through to my phone from days ago. This is not good. I have an iPhone8  with the latest iOS update. I've tried rebooting the phone and taking it off wifi to let it use the cellular network. If anyone has any idea or tricks they tried on their own that worked please share. Otherwise, hopefully someone from t-mobile support raises this issue.

I had a similar issue and was able to find a solution. No promises but something you can try.

I was having an issue where receiving MMS texts (both group chats and pictures) would be delayed by 30-90 minutes, sometimes up to 4+ hours. Sending was fine, but then responses would come back 90 minutes late, which is suboptimal. I tried rebooting my phone, switching airplane mode on/off, adjusting settings in my messaging app. (I use Textra on a Google Pixel). Nothing worked.

But then I tried switching my network settings from LTE (preferred) and forced it to 3G service. All of the sudden, MMS was sending and receiving normally again. After 20-30 mins I switched back to LTE and it continued working normally. I wonder if during the pandemic without traveling as much and being connected to the same cell tower for too long it can creating timing issues between the tower and your phone. I assume switching to 3G forces the phone to reset the connection with the other network.

Hopefully this tip can help others! Good luck.

This just happened to me today.  After months of my contacts knowing me as "the guy who randomly doesn't get messages," and when I don't reply they have to ask "T-Mobile again?" I just received about 40 messages from within the last 24 hours.  There are implications as some of these messages were work-related.  Not good.  At least this time I received the messages, usually they must just time out and die somewhere before reaching my phone.

The problem with sending messages to myself is that the issue is random. It's not constant. Things might be fine for a week and then suddenly I'll get a couple dozen texts dumped from a single group thread. It's not any specific person being delayed in this case. It's the whole thread. I've also seen it with 1-on-1 texts as well, though it's usually groups. I've already tried resetting the network/carrier settings on the phone, but it keeps happening. I also have zero issues with any other network activity when this happens. I can call, browse the internet, etc without issue, and as I am, I get the text dump.

Also, TMobile, please learn what QA is when designing web pages. Clicking off of the text box that I'm currently typing in and then back on it should not autoscroll my browser to the bottom of the page.