Network Not Available

[kxcortez]

Last night my phone had issues with connecting to the network, saying it was unavailable. I couldn't send text messages, until now. I can receive text messages however and make/receive calls. Need help resolving this issue! I'm in Calgary.

[Mana]

@kxcortez Thanks for doing all the troubleshooting. S4 in an old phone now but it should still work without any issues. 

During your troubleshooting, have you confirmed that the text messages that the sms app fails to send actually do not get send to the receiving party?

the reason, I am asking this is, I have noticed this with some hangout versions that it may falsely say "fail to send" but the message are actually sent and received by the receving party. 

[kxcortez]

Following up to my previous post, I am able to send SMS again! But it looks like I can only do it from the native Messenging app on my Samsung Galaxy S4. I believe I am not only having an app issue but a phone issue in general.

Here is what I did:

Just to make sure it wasn't an account issue, I contacted a moderator to see if they can re-sync my phone to the PM network, but this didn't work. Also as per @mimmo and @Mana's suggestion, I tried my SIM card on another phone. I swapped SIM cards with my wife (who is using the same phone on the Telus network). Somehow this enabled my phone to sync the Message Centre number (which was previously wiped out), and I was able to text with Samsung Messenging again.

@srlawren I installed Textra and I was having the same issues as Android Messages, I can only receive but not send text. I also tried rebooting to recovery mode and clearing system caches, but this didn't solve the issue. So I believe the only solution that I can think of is to do a factory reset, or upgrade to new phone (which is much needed anyways).

[SD08]

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@srlawren wrote:

... I'm stuck with my usual myriad of messaging apps.....

Daily, I use BBM (my better half is literally the only person I know that still uses it, and I keep in touch with her via BBM), Textra (for SMS messaging with my low-tech mother and uncle and few others friends and colleagues (when I'm not Slacking with them instead)), Slack for talking to coworkers.  Almost daily I use WhatsApp to keep in touch with a couple of key friends (though many many of my contacts are on it).  And about weekly or so I find a use for Facebook Messenger, which I hate, but literally almost everyone alive is on, including my also low-tech step mother whom is my conduit to my zero-tech father, and they live across the country so that one is still, sadly, important on my device.

What a joy, right?!?!

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And I thought I had too many already with just three:  Whatsapp, stock Samsung/Android text, and FB messenger.   For different circles of people, just like in your case.

[srlawren]

@Luddite interesting question!  Until this morning, I'd never installed Telegram.  I'd heard that it's secure, it's data-based and not SMS-based, and I beleive it is popular in some parts of the world.  That said, after seeing your question, I decided to install it this morning and have a look.  After installing and giving it access to my contacts list, it found precisely......  zero-point-zero of my contacts as Telegram users.  So, unfortunately, I don't really have an opportunity to test it out.  A quick google search found a 2016 article comparing the various chat apps and where they are popular, and it looks like Telegram is most popular in areas where I have nobody to talk to, so I guess I shouldn't be shocked. So, unfortunately, I can't help you much here!

Interestingly, though not so much a geographic issue in this case, this is the same issue I have with Google's Allo.  I'd love to try it out more but I literally have 3 of my contacts that use it, and none of them are folks I would really want to message with, unfortunately.  So, for now, I'm stuck with my usual myriad of messaging apps.....

Daily, I use BBM (my better half is literally the only person I know that still uses it, and I keep in touch with her via BBM), Textra (for SMS messaging with my low-tech mother and uncle and few others friends and colleagues (when I'm not Slacking with them instead)), Slack for talking to coworkers.  Almost daily I use WhatsApp to keep in touch with a couple of key friends (though many many of my contacts are on it).  And about weekly or so I find a use for Facebook Messenger, which I hate, but literally almost everyone alive is on, including my also low-tech step mother whom is my conduit to my zero-tech father, and they live across the country so that one is still, sadly, important on my device.

What a joy, right?!?!

[Luddite]

Have any of you texting gurus have any thoughts on Telegram? https://telegram.org

[kxcortez]

Yes, I am on an Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S4). It is indeed a texting app issue that wasn't allowing me to send SMS. I was using Google Messenger (now Android Messages), and it has never given me issues until now. When I used the phone's default messenging app, I was able to send SMS no problem. Unfortunately while I was trying out different fixes, I wiped out the Message Centre number (it says "Not set") and now I cannot send text again. The Message Centre field is greyed out and won't allow me to manually input. My APN settings are correct.

The good news is that I was able to find a solution about my sim card issue, so I no longer have issues connecting to the network.

[srlawren]

@kxcortez if you're on an Android phone, could you try a different texting app?  I know it sounds odd but it often resolves weird texting issues on Android, at least for a while.  There are many available in the play store. Android Messages is Google's excellent app, and it's totally free.  There's a chance you may already be using it.  If so, then keep reading.  If not, it's a great place to start.  My personal favourite 3rd party app is Textra SMS, but there are other popular ones such as Chomp SMS as well.  Worth a try.  If an alternate texting app doesn't resolve it, you could try clearing (deleting) all or most of your SMS conversation history and then rebooting your phone into recovery mode and clearning the system cache.  This doesn't delete any of your data and is worth a try.  Finally, if none of those work, you may have to try a factory reset.  This process DOES delete all your data though, so make sure to back up anything you wish to keep that isn't already backed up and/or sync'd to a cloud service (Contacts may already be in GMail, Photos may be backed up by Google Photos, etc) first.

[Mana]

@kxcortez Trying your sim in another phone is a good idea to test your sim. 

Also if you know someone else with an active PM sim, please try that in your phone with issues. That will help eliminating any phone issues. 

Also, what phone do you have?

have your tried searching for available network from settings? Either automatically or manually?

[kxcortez]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I did suspect that it may very well be a phone issue. In the past week I kept getting a "Unable to detect SIM card" error on my phone. But I just find it weird that all network functions work except for sending sms.

These are the solutions I tried but didn't fix the problem:

- cleaned the sim card

- rebooted the phone

I will have to try these solutions:

- try the sim card on an old phone

- try to fix the sim seating

- etc

I'll report on an update!

[mimmo]

@will13am  you are right sims typically don't go bad, but it does happen occasionally.  but is the simplest thing to troubleshoot

if sim in an old phone works= answer is there is a problem with new phone take next steps :

• double check setting
• factory reset
• clear caches
• check sim seating
• ...

if sim in old phone doens't work:

• account related problem
• sim problem
• clean sim
• ...

[zhadj030]

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@will13am wrote:

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@mimmo wrote:

do you have an old phone you can pop the sim in.  that will isolate phone vs sim issues.  have any settings chaged on your phone?

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Why does the SIM card get so much finger pointing?  There's no moving parts, it's steady as a rock.  If the car fails to start, the last thing I would do is consider getting the key fixed. 

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It does not hurt to check on that, maybe something happened and the SIM got moved, or some dust intervened, you never know.

you know sometimes before checking why the internet is not working you need to check that the modem is on and the cable is plugged.

[will13am]

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@mimmo wrote:

do you have an old phone you can pop the sim in.  that will isolate phone vs sim issues.  have any settings chaged on your phone?

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Why does the SIM card get so much finger pointing?  There's no moving parts, it's steady as a rock.  If the car fails to start, the last thing I would do is consider getting the key fixed. 

[mimmo]

do you have an old phone you can pop the sim in.  that will isolate phone vs sim issues.  have any settings chaged on your phone?

[will13am]

Not seeing huge reports of outages in the network.  Either it is a local problem or something buggy on your phone.  Try a reboot, see if that changes anything.