Forum Discussion
Text messages are randomly delayed by up to a day
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.
I have the same problem, SMS and MMS, not just in group messages. I'm wondering if the above solution helped, or if anyone has found a solution?
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.
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.
Both my wife and I are having the same issues… no ideas why. Been going on for 2 days now. We just get a dump of message at night. So frustrating to be out of the loop with friends and family. Thinking of switching after 4 great years.
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
Just joined T-Mobile after 3 years on Google Fi and am having the same issue. I figured since Fi uses Sprint & Tmo, switching was a no brainier... Apparently I was wrong.
I'm getting delayed messages and voicemails. I figured tier 1 service from T-Mobile was better than tier 2 Google Fi, but apparently I'm wrong.
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.
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
This has been a problem on my Google Pixel 1 for several months. I thought it was my outdatedpoutdated model but I'm pretty sure it's the quality of T-mobile's service. I used to be delayed a day, maybe 2, but yesterday (Friday at 2:11pm) I received texts from the previous Saturday (2:27pm). That's ridiculous!
The one time I called T-Mobile, they advised me to go to Settings > Apps and Notifications, clear the settings, and restart. That seemed to be a temporary fix, but this bug happens pretty regularly.
T-Mobile, how are you embarrassing yourselves with something so basic that other companies have figured out?
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!
