Forum Discussion
Texting issues when connected to WiFi
I've been having an issue for about a week now where as soon as my phone connects to Wifi, I begin having issues sending and receiving text messages. I've been having the same issue as well as my Girlfriend, her Mom, and her Daughter all having the exact same issues when on WiFi. This includes 4 different phones, 3 different Samsung models and an iPhone. All T-Mobile devices. This issue seems to only be with text messaging. No issues with calls or any type of Data or internet related App. Just sending and receiving text messages.
I called support last week because I was certain this was a known issue for many people, but was told it was not. I went through all the trouble shooting steps with the team and nothing they could do seemed to fix the issue. I cleared my cache, checked my data to ensure it was all setup correctly, I'm even now using a brand new Note 9 and still having the same issues. When I called originally I was using my s7 Edge.
I've taken a few photos where you can see the change.
When you're not on WiFi you can see the 4gLTE symbol next to the service indicator and it seems to work fine.
https://postimg.cc/image/xsv6evu2v/
As soon as I connect to WiFi, that 4gLTE symbol goes away. I'm pretty sure it never did this before.
https://postimg.cc/image/r2ep5gemv/
Then when sending I get these errors..
https://postimg.cc/image/nisrfmwhj/
On top of the issue with sending failures, sometimes after taking minutes to send, the person who is receiving the message will get up to 4 copies of the same message. I will also receive up to 4 copies of a message when getting texts. So it's an issue with incoming and outgoing.
This seems to be something that change with an update/service. Not the device or anything. When I got my note 9, the 1st thing it had me do was connect to WiFi and I immediately noticed this same issue (no 4gLTE symbol) before installing a single APP or anything.
I'd like to point out, this is not always an issue. Most time it works pretty well, however it's a daily occurrence for the last week. Happens while I have full cell and 500MB+ WiFi service.
Please advise how this is to be resolved.
Thanks,
Matthew
If the messages are only failing when the phone is using the Wi-Fi calling, this is going to be something that we will need to open an engineering support ticket for. Please gather a few examples/date/time/numbers of the failures and contact us so our tech care folks can get a ticket opened up for you.
- soccer22Newbie Caller
Any resolution to this? It is happening daily on our phone - was a Samsung S5, now a Samsung S8.
- snn555Bandwidth Buff
if this is happening on all phones on all Wi-Fi networks then it would have to be an account issue. I did not see where all phones were on the same account however T-Mobile we need to address of the line settings and make sure that everything is refreshed and that there is no specific block or other issue on the account level.
- magenta6038965Newbie Caller
Hi tmo_chris,
"cellular preferred" was at least as bad or worse - no texts were getting through while I was on a wifi network. Today I had wifi calling turned off, though, and texts are getting through promptly. So it's definitely a bad interaction between wifi calling and texting - any suggestions how to fix?
One of my work locations is in a building with solid wifi but poor cell service, so it's important for me to be able to enable wifi calling when I'm there - and still receive texts!
Thanks,
Brian - clamtamt2Newbie Caller
Just switched to T-mobile and my texting over
wifi never worked. This is on all 4 devices I own.
Texting period is an issue over the T-Mobile network. Very slow and often fails to send. Wife is getting very frustrated and asking me to go back to ATT. Any help in fixing this would be great.
- magenta2037360Newbie Caller
So turns out the SIM not provisioned was for a different SIM card (the
person I bought the phone from left their old SIM in one of the slots). I
took that out and I didn't get that notification anymore with just my
active SIM.
I think I've figured out what the issue is:
I'm reading that in order for SMS/MMS to function properly over Wifi, Wifi
calling must be active. When I active Wifi calling while I have cell
service/mobile data, a smooth transition occurs and I am able to use
SMS/MMS over Wifi. Now, what ends up happening is my Wifi calling will
randomly become disabled (often accompanied with a "Error: Wifi calling
cannot be set up... something, something missing 911 address"). Whenever
this happens is when I notice my SMS/MMS over Wifi stops working (and I'll
notice Messages for Web will say "Not connected to phone"). I'll still be
connected to the Wifi so apps like Chrome, Gmail, Outlook, etc still work
but SMS/MMS won't work until that Wifi calling is reset... somehow. Usually
I reset it by switching airplane mode on and off and allowing that initial
connection to happen again but when I'm in an area (like my work/lab) that
doesn't have cell service, I cannot do this little trick. Either way, I'm
not sure what's causing the Wifi calling to randomly become disabled but I
believe that is the heart of the problem because I noticed it this morning
at my house and now at work.
Maybe it's a bug? Anywho, can anyone else confirm this issue and if I
explained it properly? Maybe T-Mobile can address this (I'm guessing it's a
T-Mobile thing since this has occurred for me while using an unlocked
Samsung S7 and now an unlocked OnePlus 6).
Regards
- texaskarenNewbie Caller
Same issues here. T-Mobile should be embarrassed that the problem has gone on this long with no solution
- neonight1986Newbie Caller
I have been having issues for a while. I just assumed it was my phone. (not a normal one) interesting to see its not just me. Phone calls and texts both only seem to really come in when I am not on wifi. In order to sign in, I had to take wifi off to get my two-factor authentication to get the text. I can call out no problem, texting out sometimes does not seem to be an issue. It's also not EVERY text. it's strange.
- LilikoiNewbie Caller
My partner and I ported our phones from Verizon in November. We both purchased new devices when we ported over- iPhone for me, android for him. We never had any issues with our old service and our old phones. Since porting, neither one of us has consistently received text messages. We’ve called and had trouble tickets opened and no one has called us back. The only troubleshooting attempted was to just never have WiFi on on our phones (seriously?). T-Mobile, we’ve been your customers for 6 weeks- your service problems have apparently been going on for years and your support is nonexistent!
- snn555Bandwidth Buff
Do all the phones have this issue in the same wifi network? Maybe the router is at fault.
- mvincent1102Roaming Rookie
This issue happens on all wifi networks. Home, gym, work. All secure and private networks. Same goes for all others.
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