Why does picture messaging stop functioning after a few months?

wally

@ezst036 Can I ask what device you're using? Mine's a Oneplus 5/5T. It did seem like a number of other people had struggles with MMS on these devices, including some where it worked and then would suddenly stop working.

In case it's useful, here's what I used to do before I found the nuntium command. I have no idea whether it's all needed, but this fix also worked reliably, the restart nuntium command was just a lot faster.

"I have a weird process that fixes it, some of which is probably unnecessary/superstition: I change my MMS APN to something incorrect, disable MMS, restart phone, correct the MMS APN, enable MMS again, restart phone again, and then it works."

full post in
in https://forums.ubports.com/topic/8145/mms-status-on-the-oneplus-5-cheeseburger/3

arubislander

@wally said in Why does picture messaging stop functioning after a few months?:

I wonder if there's a way to get that command back. After a quick bit of searching I tried "apt-install upstart" without success.

Anything involving apt is a bad idea as a quick fix.

16.04 used upstart for managing services. 20.04 uses SystemD. The equivalent command to yours is:

systemctl --user restart nuntium.service

wally

@arubislander
That's a really helpful tip, for me and no doubt for others. Thanks a lot!

ezst036

@lduboeuf

In that case, it is not a combined APN setting. Only works if APN has the same name.

Thank you for clarifying that. I will try resetting the APNs, rebooting and ensuring no wifi, but having done these a few times already I don't expect much of it.

Hopefully I can collect more info on how to actually troubleshoot this instead of doing a re-install, I would need to put in some kind of bug report that amount to more than just "it's broken" as that won't help me nor anybody else.

ezst036

@arubislander said in Why does picture messaging stop functioning after a few months?:
The equivalent command to yours is:

systemctl --user restart nuntium.service

Thanks for helping sort this out!

Sadly though, this did not do anything appearing to resolve the issue. The nuntium logs used to be located at: ~/.cache/upstart/nuntium.log

Do you know where they are located at now due to systemd?

ezst036

@wally said in Why does picture messaging stop functioning after a few months?:

@ezst036 Can I ask what device you're using?

I currently have a Fairphone 4. I started out with a Pixel3a though and it happened on that one once too.

I followed the steps you provided as best as I could:

change my MMS APN to something incorrect, disable MMS, restart phone, correct the MMS APN, enable MMS again, restart phone again, and then it works.

This did not work, but I could not follow the steps as typed. It seems that on 20.04 OTA4 when the phone restarts all APNs are enabled, not the disable as I left it. I thought I might get around this by shutting off all mobile data in its place within these steps, but the icon still only spins and spins.

lduboeuf

@ezst036 said in Why does picture messaging stop functioning after a few months?:

@wally said in Why does picture messaging stop functioning after a few months?:

@ezst036 Can I ask what device you're using?

I currently have a Fairphone 4. I started out with a Pixel3a though and it happened on that one once too.

I followed the steps you provided as best as I could:

change my MMS APN to something incorrect, disable MMS, restart phone, correct the MMS APN, enable MMS again, restart phone again, and then it works.

This did not work, but I could not follow the steps as typed. It seems that on 20.04 OTA4 when the phone restarts all APNs are enabled, not the disable as I left it. I thought I might get around this by shutting off all mobile data in its place within these steps, but the icon still only spins and spins.

Yes, just remove the provided APN, recreate a new one, try just one with Internet to see if cellular data is working first, then add the MMS one.

wally

@ezst036 Sorry to hear those things haven't worked. I assume that if restarting nuntium didn't fix the problem, it's just a different issue than I was having.

I hope you're able to resolve it somehow without a full backup and re-install. I presume that in the past when this has happened to you, flashing without wiping data didn't fix the issue?

ezst036

@wally said in Why does picture messaging stop functioning after a few months?:

@ezst036 Sorry to hear those things haven't worked. I assume that if restarting nuntium didn't fix the problem, it's just a different issue than I was having.

I hope you're able to resolve it somehow without a full backup and re-install. I presume that in the past when this has happened to you, flashing without wiping data didn't fix the issue?

I have only found backing up and using the UBPorts installer to start fresh as a resolution.

It's working again now, wiped and now have OTA-5.

EDIT: (3/10/25):

I marked the discussion as solved, and wanted to make a few notes for reference.

I updated to OTA-8. This is important compared to other OTA-x because there was an update commit made to the apns-conf.xml in the source tree after I made some requests on Gitlab. My cell provider's APN by default was out of date. Now when I do a fresh UBports install I do not have to change the APN information, the default is correct.

Hopefully that prevents the software from getting confused between my "custom" APN setting and the "default" outdated APN contained in the source xml file. I only need the default.

I will create a new discussion or Gitlab bug request should the issue come back.

wally

Well, I'm glad you have a fix, but it sure sounds painful. Wish someone had been able to find a simpler way.
Hopefully this thread at least helps others with similar issues.