Forum Discussion
Disable MMS/Texting over WiFi
So I have the dreaded sporadic issues sending an receiving text message while connected to WiFi. Since there seems to be no solution, T-Mobile sent me a 4G hotspot for my house. While in theory that's fine, I have better cell service in the house, I still want to use WiFi for my data. I have high speed internet for a reason.
OK. To the point. I don't want to turn WiFi off. That seems pointless. What I want to do is to Only Use Cellular Network for Texting, but I can't find any way to do so. I turned off WiFi calling, but that was never an issue. It actually worked fine. What I want may not be possible. Just curious if there is perhaps a Setting I'm not aware of.
I have a Samsung Galaxy 21 Ultra. Latest version of Android. I use the stock Samsung texting app (which could be the issue).
TIA
fireguy_6364 wrote:
is it both regular texts and mms having issues or just regular texts?
keep in mind that mms messages (group texts, pic texts and or super long winded texts) need a data connection to be sent/received. regular texts just the voice side
It's just MMS for me. If an MMS fails, I can send a regular text to one of the intended recipients without difficulty. I will key an eye open for possible regular SMS issues now.
I understand the need for data to support MMS. I've disabled wifi only for the messaging apps just now but left mobile data enabled. In this thread, and others around the net, I've noticed that MMS failures are common when wifi calling is enabled. It's been that way for at least 5 years if I'm reading things correctly.
Edited to add: This problem started occurring on Thanksgiving Day, and I attributed it to high volumes, but it has been happening intermittently since then.
Thanks for helping.
i use wifi calling quite a bit..only time i tend to see issues with texts and WFC is when the network im connecting to is a bit more miss than hit...like my work wifi..soon as i disconnect from it i’ll end up with a handful of texts kicking through..
another question..is this only happening with one locations wifi?
Same with me; just MMS failures when on WiFi only. Regular texts work fine. Enabling and disabling WiFi calling had no effect with me. It wasn't until I forced the text app to always use mobile data that the delay sending and failures stopped.
fireguy_6364 wrote:
i use wifi calling quite a bit..only time i tend to see issues with texts and WFC is when the network im connecting to is a bit more miss than hit...like my work wifi..soon as i disconnect from it i’ll end up with a handful of texts kicking through..
another question..is this only happening with one locations wifi?
So far, I've only noticed it happening with my home wifi; I seldom connect to wifi at other locations, but I'll keep my eyes open. To reiterate, this problem has been rare for quite a long time on the same home wifi and router. It's gotten much worse since Thanksgiving.
Since I disabled wifi on the messaging app, I get a nag about it every time I open the messaging application. That's annoying! But, so far, MMS is working with hit disabled.
Same here; I notice it on my home WiFi and seldom connect at other locations. Again, going to be out of cell service area over Christmas week and mostly hooked to WiFi. I'll know more after that.
both Samsung devices? for what its worth also (cant exactly hurt anything) Samsung uses their own texting app...so not to far fetched for it to have its own issues...throwing that out there just in case.
fireguy_6364 wrote:
both Samsung devices? for what its worth also (cant exactly hurt anything) Samsung uses their own texting app...so not to far fetched for it to have its own issues...throwing that out there just in case.
Nope. I’m using a OnePlus 10 Pro 5G
Here is another data point. Since disabling wifi on the Android messaging app, I can no longer pair with the messages.google.com site. I use that site all the time to send and receive MMS and SMS messages. That's a big disadvantage, to me, of disabling wifi on the messaging app.
I’ve discovered that my difficulties with MMS seem to have nothing to do with wifi calling.
Disabling wifi calling in settings had no impact. I still had the problem after I disabled wifi on the messaging app, plus I could not use the messaging.google.com site with wifi disabled on the messaging app.
Moreover, when I enabled wifi calling in the settings and in the messaging app, I went for two days with no disruptions to MMS.
The only thing that seems to work for me is rebooting the phone when MMS messaging fails. When that occurs, I get a "failed to send message" notification for a MMS message I tried to send or a "couldn't download message" for an MMS message I'm supposed to receive. Those are my triggers to reboot my phone.
Does anyone have other ideas about what’s causing what seems to be an intermittent MMS problem and how to fix it?
is your regular mobile data still turned on?
