New User- No SMS
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It sounds like this may be a common issue, but wanted to introduce myself and put some feelers out for what is going on. My husband and I had old Flip Phones operating on 3G Verizon, and they shut the 3G down in our area. We ordered Pinephones and after over a month, have not had reliable SMS, although phone calls seemed to work okay. We ordered used Pixel 3a phones and installed Ubuntu Touch. SO far, same thing. We tried US Mobile (Verizon mvno) and not having any luck, and also tired Puretalk (ATT MVNO). I am willing to try another carrier, but is anyone in the rural US actually getting text in and out with UT on the 3a? I am so frustrated, this has been a huge waste of time and money for us to still not have working texts! Any info appreciated!
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@nutmeg see pm from Pinephone site, and welcome aboard here!
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@nutmeg also try turning wifi off, and reboot with it offf as per this https://forums.ubports.com/post/53329
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@nutmeg I am troubleshooting with the same scenario: Pixel 3a XL with US Mobile (the "white" SIM which is actually T-Mobile network not the "black" which is Verizon). For me I can send SMS reliably, but receive has been mostly "miss" but I noted better results with wifi disabled when booting (this is NOT a solution, just trying to figure out why it works sometimes and mostly doesn't work)
Unfortunately, it seems a bit more nuanced and I can't reliably reproduce successful SMS. Note I DID get MMS receive and send to work as well as SMS receive, but again now it seems to not work again. After reboot with the wifi off I seem to get SMS that have stacked up (just in testing by sending from my wife's phone to me).
Note I have a Nexus 5 that works reliably for SMS and MMS with this same SIM, so it isn't Ubuntu Touch only, and isn't the network, but seems to be specific to Pixel 3a (and Pinephone.... unfortunately the 2 devices that you have).
Can you please check by turning OFF wifi and then rebooting and see if you can receive SMS? Also MMS? You MAY need to apply the MMS patches if that is important, but it doesn't fix the "nothing coming in" problem in my case so my personal approach is to look at MMS later: first step is try and sort out why SMS doesn't get received.
Anyway, confirming you have a consistent problem with me is a first step, hopefully we can consolidate experience and track down the issue.
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@rik thank you so much for the response. We have temporarily tabled the Pinephones for now out of frustration. I am now wondering if we should ship the Pixel 3a's back while they are still under the return policy. We really need working phones. I think we may have to try the AT&T SIM since discovering that is the only Cell Tower even broadcasting in our area. Will post a follow-up after switching over.
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@nutmeg well, it unfortunately does seem there is some challenge in receiving SMS and I am trying to decide what to do myself: it works reliably on my nexus 5 with UT but battery is pretty shot on that. I would hope we could solve SMS not coming in, but honestly I have no idea where to look, hoping someone can point us in the direction of digging through logs, etc.
At this point I would like confirmation from a European user they reliably receive SMS. I think they do, but would like it confirmed.
It seems the 3a (XL) is a great phone for UT, but still some rough parts like no incoming SMS! Maybe you hold them with hope that it will get fixed, but understood you may need to do something different right now. Argh, it is hard going against the mainstream huh?
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@rik
Okay, strange. I had reset the APN, restarted, with Wifi off, and when it came back on, I got all the SMS that had tested with earlier but not received.... -
I have a Pixel 3a and originally tried Patriot mobile, and it would not connect to the cellular network at all. I had not tried it before I flashed UT so I reflashed to Android and no connection again. I got an AT&T prepaid 5G sim card. It connected with Android so I reflashed UT, calls and messaging is working fine, I have sent photos as well.
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@nutmeg could you confirm again what network you are using that you got messages through on finally? I am positively surprised to see that @mw4jet isn't having trouble with the AT&T network for SMS and I think MMS too (for photos). I thought @UniSuperBox 's Red Pocket Mobile SIM (AT&T??) was not working? Anyway, best to document here what network is working and if people could also confirm sms send / receive and mms send / receive and the reliability (if it stops and needs a phone "restart" to get the messages queued up or not) it would be helpful.
Still hoping there is some command we can dig up that we could run to more definitively determine if SMS receive is in a "broken state" or not.
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My first pixel 3a xl had the same issue of no sms in. I was able to get it working reliably with alfreds help, though im not quite sure what fixed it really, you can look at the orginal pixel 3a thread to see what was all done. I have a 2nd xl and have not been able to get sms in working. Can only get it if i toggle airplane mode. I use red pocket mobile.
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We tried US Mobile initially and had phone calls but no SMS. Tried PureTalk (AT&T MVNO) and have phone, SMS out, but really no reliable SMS in, except a few random strays. Will report back after we try Red Pocket. We live in a very rural area and after looking carefully at cell tower data, it appears that AT&T is the only network with 4G out here now that Verizon shut their 3G off (we used to only get service with Verizon). We are going to try Red Pocket, ATT, Straight Talk, and one more when the SIM cards come next week, will report back after.
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I read on reddit or xda that the problem could be with which android 9 ROM you used. Apparently, somewhere closer to android 10, a couple of the builds broke sms/mms on android for the 3A, which would break it here.
So, maybe try flashing an earlier or later version of the android 9 factory build. Could explain why some have working sms and some do not.
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Since it takes some time to reflash, we should keep a log of which build we use so we are not duplicating data. I would be willing to try this tomorrow. Will update which build I try.
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@rocket2nfinity said in New User- No SMS:
I read on reddit or xda that the problem could be with which android 9 ROM you used. Apparently, somewhere closer to android 10, a couple of the builds broke sms/mms on android for the 3A, which would break it here.
So, maybe try flashing an earlier or later version of the android 9 factory build. Could explain why some have working sms and some do not.
This is what I thought as well, On my 1st phone, I got sms working flawless by installing android 9.0 (PD2A.190115.029); I tried it on my 2nd phone and it didnt work.
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@dieharddan Thanks for the tips, I will look at this more.
In the last day I have tried keeping "Cellular Data" OFF and I am more reliably getting SMS. I am not confident to say 100% but so far I haven't missed a test SMS yet?? Again will need more testing.
So far I think @Nutmeg and I both used the Android version mentioned in the install guide: PQ3B.190801.002, is that right? I did NOT test SMS / MMS to much extent on the Android side before flashing UT, so that could be a good test if we don't get anywhere. I'd prefer to not re-flash but certainly a working phone would be worth it
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@rik Okay, SO tried the oldest version of 9.0 for Android, and confirmed SMS sent and received, now downloading the developer version of Ubuntu.. Will see...
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No change, now I cannot send or receive texts.... Will wait for various SIM cards in mail.
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@rik okay, well, as an update, I am actually receiving some texts, the first since installing Ubuntu on the 3a. I feel like doing a happy dance. I am not getting all test SMS, but am excited to be getting any at all.
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@rik I am quite happy with it so far, backing off the IOS app environment is tough, I am an avid Bluetooth audio consumer so I am making adjustments with UT. I am hoping the "play/pause" feature on BT headset will soon be functional. The SIM I have is the AT&T prepaid "Bring Your Own Phone" 5G from BestBuy. The only glitch I've had so far is UT has a group message send option, and it worked, but all the reply's to me failed and I had to respond individually. I've made no adjustments to the cellular settings. Oh, and the photo was sent and received. My wife still uses IOS and I even received her i-emoji LOL!
*edit to add: I have the 2G/3G/4G selected, cellular on, data roaming on. Carrier and APN are the setting I have not altered.
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We got the Red Pocket card today, set it up per the APN instructions. Phone calls work, can send SMS, received one SMS, now nothing. Not sure what to try now...
