Disable MMS/Texting over WiFi

fireguy_6364 wrote:

is your regular mobile data still turned on?

Yes.  Both regular and wifi turned on.  Problem occurs when the phone is in "wifi mode" or "mobile data mode".  And, as I said, problem also occurs when wifi mode is "off".

I’ve had to reboot my phone 5 times already today, and it’s just now 11 am.

I'm starting to think this problem is congestion-related.  I saw it on Thanksgiving.  I saw it again when we had severe thunderstorms rolling through our area, and again today as this "monster storm" begins to arrive.  My guess is that everyone and their dog is texting their friends and family in these cases.

Of course, I could be wrong.  But, as I tried to say earlier (post is being "moderated), my problem is not wifi calling related.

LawnMower wrote:

I'm starting to think this problem is congestion-related.  I saw it on Thanksgiving.  I saw it again when we had severe thunderstorms rolling through our area, and again today as this "monster storm" begins to arrive.  My guess is that everyone and their dog is texting their friends and family in these cases.

Of course, I could be wrong.  But, as I tried to say earlier (post is being "moderated), my problem is not wifi calling related.

Holiday network congestion across all networks, even international ones is very common for this time of the year.  Hopefully that's all it is and isn't a bigger issue.  I haven't personally had any issues with texts with my OnePlus 8T+ 5G.

HeavenM wrote:

Hola @LawnMower, Intermittent issues are the pits because temporary fixes make things seem fine and then they break again. One thing that I have seen with intermittent messaging issues for SMS or MMS is congestion in the "mailbox" rather than the network side. If the messaging app that you are using (messages on your phone or messages.google.com) has too many messages saved, new ones have a hard time finding a "place to sit." Restarting the phone will usually free up enough temporary memory to allow the messages that are pending to come in, but new ones are stopped at the door. MMS are larger files by nature and are usually the first to be affected. Have you had a chance to go through your messaging apps and delete as many messages as possible?

Thanks for that suggestion, @HeavenM !  I used to have an app on my old phone to periodically delete messages but I no longer have it.  I'll see if I can get one installed and delete some messages.  I have a lot of them

you cant just hold the text you want to delete to mark it then keep clicking your way down the list  to mark the next ones you want included to be deleted?

fireguy_6364 wrote:

you cant just hold the text you want to delete to mark it then keep clicking your way down the list  to mark the next ones you want included to be deleted?

I suppose I could do that, but I've got a lot of text messages, and it would take a lot of time.  I will do that if I have to.  Some of my mms messages have pictures attached that I want to save.

Years ago, I had an app that I could configure to backup messages that were older than some specified age and it would back messages up to gmail and delete them from the phone.  I've lost track of that app and I'm trying to find it again.  The apps that I see popping up on the Play Store seem to have backup and restore capability but it doesn't seem like they delete messages once they've been backed up.

Is there an app like that out there somewhere that I’m missing?

LawnMower wrote:

HeavenM wrote:

Hola @LawnMower, Intermittent issues are the pits because temporary fixes make things seem fine and then they break again. One thing that I have seen with intermittent messaging issues for SMS or MMS is congestion in the "mailbox" rather than the network side. If the messaging app that you are using (messages on your phone or messages.google.com) has too many messages saved, new ones have a hard time finding a "place to sit." Restarting the phone will usually free up enough temporary memory to allow the messages that are pending to come in, but new ones are stopped at the door. MMS are larger files by nature and are usually the first to be affected. Have you had a chance to go through your messaging apps and delete as many messages as possible?

Thanks for that suggestion, @HeavenM !  I used to have an app on my old phone to periodically delete messages but I no longer have it.  I'll see if I can get one installed and delete some messages.  I have a lot of them

I don't normally recommend downloading apps that manipulate your phone like that because it could unintentionally affect other things as well. If you have a ton of messages and don't feel like you can do it manually, then do what is best for you. I just wanted to give you some caution. Let me know how it goes

HeavenM wrote:

LawnMower wrote:

HeavenM wrote:

Hola @LawnMower, Intermittent issues are the pits because temporary fixes make things seem fine and then they break again. One thing that I have seen with intermittent messaging issues for SMS or MMS is congestion in the "mailbox" rather than the network side. If the messaging app that you are using (messages on your phone or messages.google.com) has too many messages saved, new ones have a hard time finding a "place to sit." Restarting the phone will usually free up enough temporary memory to allow the messages that are pending to come in, but new ones are stopped at the door. MMS are larger files by nature and are usually the first to be affected. Have you had a chance to go through your messaging apps and delete as many messages as possible?

Thanks for that suggestion, @HeavenM !  I used to have an app on my old phone to periodically delete messages but I no longer have it.  I'll see if I can get one installed and delete some messages.  I have a lot of them

I don't normally recommend downloading apps that manipulate your phone like that because it could unintentionally affect other things as well. If you have a ton of messages and don't feel like you can do it manually, then do what is best for you. I just wanted to give you some caution. Let me know how it goes

I went ahead and downloaded an app that does backup to my Google drive.  It works well and I can access the backed up messages and attachments through it.  That way I can save any pictures I'd like to save.

After backing up and verifying that it worked, I went through the fairly laborious job of deleting all the texts, including spam and blocked, from my phone.  That took a few minutes but now it's done.

The next step is to see if all that had any effect on my "failure to send" and "unable to download" problem.  I'll report back here with anything I learn.

Thanks again to all for the help.

LawnMower wrote:

fireguy_6364 wrote:

you cant just hold the text you want to delete to mark it then keep clicking your way down the list  to mark the next ones you want included to be deleted?

I suppose I could do that, but I've got a lot of text messages, and it would take a lot of time.  I will do that if I have to.  Some of my mms messages have pictures attached that I want to save.

Years ago, I had an app that I could configure to backup messages that were older than some specified age and it would back messages up to gmail and delete them from the phone.  I've lost track of that app and I'm trying to find it again.  The apps that I see popping up on the Play Store seem to have backup and restore capability but it doesn't seem like they delete messages once they've been backed up.

Is there an app like that out there somewhere that I’m missing?

 

i know i had the ability to lock certain pics etc in a text back when i used to use the Handcent texting app..just attempted it with the Google Messages app and unless im missing something it doesnt have the ability..basically i was able to lock said pic and then delete the whole text convo and whatever i saved was all that stayed.

might check to see if this might be an option. i cant remember which texting app OP uses..if its Googles then i didnt see this as an option in there.

Well, I’m not the OP, but I do use Google’s messaging app.  I can confirm there’s no easy way to do what we used to be able to do including “auto delete” messages that are older than a specified age. 

If anyone here knows if there is an "app for that", please advise.  Having to manually clean up old SMS and MMS messages is a pain.

I haven’t had any MMS problems for awhile now, but I’m not willing to declare my problem solved quite yet.

Again, thanks to all for he help.