APN Setting for MMS only

[Jorno]

The following is a reply to the post over here.  The reply would be off topic so a new post was created with hopes it may better serve the community.

I do not have a data plan.  A data plan is not required to send or receive MMS but the phone must have cellular data turned on.  Keep cellular data on the phone turned on and MMS works - easy peasy lemon squeezy.

However, with no data plan you get prompts to 'sign in to network' and programs will run in the background and try to make network connections through the cellular data.  Who wants to deal with prompts and have unnecessary background activity taking up resources on their phone?

By tweaking the 'APN type' value to 'mms' only (as shown in bold below), cellular data on the phone can be turned on (and left on), 'sign in to network' prompts stop, background programs stop trying to make network connections via cellular data (freeing valuable phone resources) and MMS works!

The following is the complete APN configuration I use in Android:

Name: Public Mobile mms only

APN: sp.mb.com

Proxy: Not set - leave blank

Port: Not set - leave blank

Username: Not set - leave blank

Password: Not set - leave blank

Server: Not set - leave blank

MMSC: http://aliasredirect.net/proxy/mb/mmsc

MMSC proxy: 74.49.0.18

MMS port: 80

MCC: 302

MNC: 220

Authentication type: Not set

APN type: mms

APN protocol: IPv4

APN roaming protocol: IPv4

APN enable/disable: APN enabled

Bearer: Unspecified

MVNO type: GID

MVNO value: 4D4F

* the original values for APN type: default,mms,agps,supl,fota,hipri

By using this configuration, your cellular data connection will only work for MMS.  If you have or add a data plan and wish to use cellular data, you must restore 'APN type' to the original values (listed above).

Full disclosure: the above information was acquired by searching the internet and testing settings on my own phone.

[mordicus]

100% sure I have saved the selected APN configuration.  I've tried saving and 3 different ways just to make sure that it wasn't a bug in Android 9 user interface.

Please note that the S7 runs android 8.  My S8+ runs Android 9.  I don't know if this can explain that it worked for you?

Thanks for the time saver trick to use "airplane mode" :O)

[Anonymous]

 @mordicus : How certain are you of having saved and selected the new APN? You could also probably get by with testing it with just airplane mode rather a full restart.

I tried this out a while ago on my S7 and it did work to have MMS only and no browsing.

[mordicus]

Yes, I had created a new profile.  Adding "mms,supl" to APN type let me select my new profile.  I restarted my phone to make sure of the APN configuration. After restarting the phone the APN switched back to a configuration with APN type set as "default".  Thus using data. 

My goal was: because I have the $15 plan with 250MB of data I wanted to be able to use mms without using any data when mobile data is enabled (mobile data enabled is needed to receive mms). 

I guess I'll go back to the noroot firewall solution.

thanks

[Anonymous]

 @mordicus : Did you read the whole thread? Try the APN Type = mms,supl <- no spaces. You might also need to make a whole other APN entry rather than editing what you have.

[softech]

@mordicus  you are using an old thread..  maybe you can create a new one for easy tracking?

Also, what was your issue in the beginning?   why you are changing your APN?

[mordicus]

On my Galaxy S8+ android 9 (pie) ; if I changed APN type from default to mms the new configuration cannot be selected. The radio button does not even show.

[Snmcinnes]

Thank you , I think that worked!

[DHoward]

I entered * for APN Type (an asterisk) and it works. MMS is finally working.  Thanks everyone for your input in these forums.  Switching to Public has been an educational opportunity.

[CJ01]

Unfortunately no, I've tried these settings and they don't work.

[Naepalm]

@CJ01  this might be helpful to you. 

[imecas]

I just configured both my phone and my wife's phone with the following APN setting with both Data and MMS working. The trick is to delete the values on the APN Type and save the configuration.

Name: Mobile Internet

APN: sp.mb.com

Proxy:Not Set

Port: Not Set

Username: Not Set

Password: Not Set

Server: Not Set

MMSC: http://aliasredirect.net/proxy/mb/mmsc

MMSC Proxy: 74.49.0.18

MMS Port: 80

MCC: 302

MNC: 220

Authentication type: None

APN Type: Not Set

APN Protocol: IPv4

APN Roaming Protocol: IPv4

Bearer: Unspecified

Mobile virtual operator type: GID

Mobile virtual operator value: 4d4f

Hope this helps

[Trekalong]

i had a problem with MVNO setting , phone reset at 50 changed to 4D4F, wolla it worked also i used on the APN field type...   default,supl,mms

[mastweb]

It works for me when I use "mms, supl" as the APN type!!! Having the "defaut" kept the notification and "mms" only just didn't work. Thanks!

[crazycolby]

good to know!

[mimmo]

@Jorno no appoigies needed.  I am used to "making things work" and if and maybe are always part of process when doing things the way they were not inteneded.  In the end sometime teh simplest solutions are best 1) upgrade plan to include data or 2 toggle data as she is currently doing.    will see how much data she uses in the next couple weeks and then decide from there.  

[Jorno]

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@mimmo wrote:

Thanks for the info @Jorno. Not sure it will work for my mom's situation as she uses data occasionally.  Will look at disabling  background data on her phone and see how that works. Else the other option is to do 500/30 days as it costs only 5$.

---

You are welcome, @mimmo.  I agree that these settings will not work for your mom's situation, as you wish to leave cellular data on the phone turned on allowing for MMS and all requested/foreground connections to work while preventing unrequested/background connections from consuming data (please correct me if I am wrong).

If you are unable to disable all sources of unrequested/background data consumption, the following might work.  If your mom's phone allows for multiple APN configurations, she might be able to have a 'MMS only' APN and a 'data and MMS' APN.  If she is okay with switching her data on and off, she might be okay with switching between APNs.  This setup would not eliminate the pain of switching between settings, but would allow MMS to be 'on' all the time without background data consumption.  The 'unstoppable' background data consumption would only happen while the 'data and MMS' APN is selected.

My apologies for all the 'ifs' and 'mights' 🙂

[Jorno]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

If your phone allows this change, this is very good advice to eliminate such error messages about cellular data connections.

However, on a significant portion of current Android phones, the preset APN settings saved within the phone's software cannot be editted nor deleted. I have even seen one model that shows all APN settings shown in the menus as blank but the data connection still works. Such phones that don't allow APN editting will only allow you to add additional APN settings.

---

@computergeek541, thank you for your input - I have near zero experience with other Android phones.

My phone (Motorola G 3rd Gen) does not allow to edit the default APN settings it receives from the network; however, it does allow to add new APNs.  Adding a new APN with the settings for MMS only (as listed in the original post) replaced the default APN (becoming the active APN).  For my phone, the 'Name' value (ie. Public Mobile mms only) had to be different from the name value in the default APN assigned from the network.  If the 'Name' value was the same, the phone would not save the new APN.

[Jorno]

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@Luddite wrote:

Setting APN Type to "default,mms,supl" has helped some.

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For this particular goal of using the cellular data connection for MMS only, including 'default' in the APN type does not help (at least not on Android).  The 'default' value sets the phone to use the cellular data connection for all types of data communication (ie. internet), causing 'sign in to network' prompts and allowing programs to attempt background network connections through the cellular data. 

The 'supl' value allows the cellular connection to be used for Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) data, which allows your phone to determine its geographic location based on information from the carrier.  The 'supl' value is included by default (for my phone) in the APN type setting, so there might be some benefit of including it in a MMS only setting.

Does anyone know if Public Mobile supports Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) data?

Note: definitions for APN type values were found at https://tamingthedroid.com/apn-type

[computergeek541]

If your phone allows this change, this is very good advice to eliminate such error messages about cellular data connections.

However, on a significant portion of current Android phones, the preset APN settings saved within the phone's software cannot be editted nor deleted. I have even seen one model that shows all APN settings shown in the menus as blank but the data connection still works. Such phones that don't allow APN editting will only allow you to add additional APN settings.

[mimmo]

Thanks for the info @Jorno. Not sure it will work for my mom's situation as she uses data occasionally.  Will look at disabling  background data on her phone and see how that works. Else the other option is to do 500/30 days as it costs only 5$.

[Michael77]

Good to know.

[Luddite]

Setting APN Type to "default,mms,supl" has helped some.

[will13am]

Some carriers like freedom use a separate APN for MMS.  This workaround makes sense when a single APN is used for both data and mms.