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New S9 can send/receive texts (SMS) but not text pix (MMS)

S

syc0path

Lurker
This is a new unlocked phone I recently got from eBay for my wife. We have PagePlus Cellular service (a Verizon MVNO). This phone is a replacement for her old S7. I swapped the SIM card into the new phone and everything seemed to work. But it soon became apparent that the phone can't send or receive pix or other media via text.

I searched online and found some tips (reboot the phone, reseat the SIM card, clear the cache, etc, all to no avail). Eventually I checked the Access Point Names. The S9 didn't have any entries. I have an S8, so I tried manually copying my APN info to her phone, but it didn't work. Then I tried resetting the network settings. At this point, the phone lost all mobile network connections, and after trying every option I could find (both online and from customer service) to get it to connect, I had to factory reset the phone.

After the factory reset, I tried MMS again before I ran Smart Switch. Even without any additional apps on the phones, MMS still doesn't work. It doesn't work in Safe Mode either.

I also tried swapping SIM cards with my S8. My phone works properly with either SIM card, but the S9 doesn't get MMS with either SIM.

Right now the phone can send and receive calls and texts (SMS), but the original text media (MMS) problem remains. Can any1 offer some insight?
 
i would also talk to your carrier. and just curious are the people who are sending or receiving mms, are they iphone users by chance? cuz its been known that android, iphones, and mms do not mix well.
 
Dannydet said:
Maybe your carrier or your plan does not include MMS, only SMS....
Contact your carrier to be sure
Click to expand...
It's the same plan she had on her S7, and she had MMS on that phone. Furthermore, our daughter and I have the same plan and we have MMS.

ocnbrze said:
i would also talk to your carrier. and just curious are the people who are sending or receiving mms, are they iphone users by chance? cuz its been known that android, iphones, and mms do not mix well.
Click to expand...
I already went thru all the troubleshooting steps w/ the carrier, and ended up doing a factory reset that didn't solve the problem. The S9 does not send or receive MMS to or from any1, including Android devices. Her old S7, my S8, and our daughter's S8 all can send and receive MMS from iPhones.
 
syc0path said:
It's the same plan she had on her S7, and she had MMS on that phone. Furthermore, our daughter and I have the same plan and we have MMS.

I already went thru all the troubleshooting steps w/ the carrier, and ended up doing a factory reset that didn't solve the problem. The S9 does not send or receive MMS to or from any1, including Android devices. Her old S7, my S8, and our daughter's S8 all can send and receive MMS from iPhones.
Click to expand...
well if it not on their end and a factory reset made no difference, than i do not know what to tell you. maybe there is a hardware issue. try @Dannydet suggestion with another texting app. if that does not work, then you might want to contact the seller and see if you can return it.
 
Dannydet said:
Try using a different messaging app, such as Textra, in the play store.
Set it as default and see if that makes a difference....
Click to expand...
I installed the Google Message app and it's doing the same thing -- when trying to send a pic, it just says "Sending..." for a long time before it finally says that it failed. When receiving a pic, it just shows an image icon w/ a circle going around it, but it never actually downloads the image.
 
syc0path said:
I installed the Google Message app and it's doing the same thing -- when trying to send a pic, it just says "Sending..." for a long time before it finally says that it failed. When receiving a pic, it just shows an image icon w/ a circle going around it, but it never actually downloads the image.
Click to expand...
Textra does deliever and gives you a faster services instead of Mesenger plus, we are not trying to steer you down the wrong path.
 
syc0path said:
This is a new unlocked phone I recently got from eBay for my wife. We have PagePlus Cellular service (a Verizon MVNO). This phone is a replacement for her old S7. I swapped the SIM card into the new phone and everything seemed to work. But it soon became apparent that the phone can't send or receive pix or other media via text.

I searched online and found some tips (reboot the phone, reseat the SIM card, clear the cache, etc, all to no avail). Eventually I checked the Access Point Names. The S9 didn't have any entries. I have an S8, so I tried manually copying my APN info to her phone, but it didn't work. Then I tried resetting the network settings. At this point, the phone lost all mobile network connections, and after trying every option I could find (both online and from customer service) to get it to connect, I had to factory reset the phone.

After the factory reset, I tried MMS again before I ran Smart Switch. Even without any additional apps on the phones, MMS still doesn't work. It doesn't work in Safe Mode either.

I also tried swapping SIM cards with my S8. My phone works properly with either SIM card, but the S9 doesn't get MMS with either SIM.

Right now the phone can send and receive calls and texts (SMS), but the original text media (MMS) problem remains. Can any1 offer some insight?
Click to expand...

Are you absolutely sure the APN settings you manually copied and entered in the S9 are correct?
https://www.apnsettingsandroid.com/2021/08/page-plus-4g-apn-settings.html

Mainly because wrong or missing APN details can be a reason why MMS won't work.

I assume you're not getting cellular/4G data either, because that depends on the APN been correct as well.
 
Last edited:
This is my suspicion: if MMS won't work from one handset regardless of the SIM the APNs are the first place I'd look. If these are wrong then it won't work.

Some providers have different APNs for MMS and for other mobile data, though I know nothing about this particular carrier.
 
mikedt said:
Are you absolutely sure the APN settings you manually copied and entered in the S9 are correct?
https://www.apnsettingsandroid.com/2021/08/page-plus-4g-apn-settings.html

Mainly because wrong or missing APN details can be a reason why MMS won't work.

I assume you're not getting cellular/4G data either, because that depends on the APN been correct as well.
Click to expand...
I didn't know that APN affected mobile data as well, but that is an interesting piece of information. After u mentioned it, I turned off the wifi on the S9 so I would be able to tell if it had mobile data as I was testing APN settings. I went to the link u posted, as well as another link I found by searching, plus the settings from my S8. From those sources, there were 5 different APN's to test. In each case, I deleted any previous APN, entered the new APN as closely as possible (more on this later), rebooted the phone, and waited until it found a cell signal.

I found that 2 of the APNs (1 of which was from my phone) allowed for mobile data but DID NOT allow for MMS. So hopefully that means that the settings are close and just need to be tweaked to get MMS to work.

As I alluded to, I was not always able to enter the APN settings exactly. The phone would not allow me to save any settings that included "dun" under APN Type. However, dun = dial-up networking and is supposed to be obsolete anyway. So I used default,supl instead. If I entered 310 for MCC or 12 for MNC, the entire APN listing would disappear as soon as I tried to save it in the phone. And there was no option to leave APN Protocol or APN Roaming Protocol blank. So I used the settings from my phone for those particular items.

Here are the APNs I tried and the results:

**Works for internet but not MMS, note that dun cannot be entered
Copied from my phone
APN Name Tracfone - Verizon
APN TRACFONE.VZWENTP
Proxy
Port
Username
Password
Server
MMSC
MMS Proxy
MMS Port
MCC 311
MNC 480
Authentication Type
APN Type default,dun,supl
APN Protocol IPv4/IPv6
APN Roaming Protocol IPv4/IPv6
Bearer
MVNO Type GID
MVNO Type BA01270000000000

https://www.apnsettingsandroid.com/2021/08/page-plus-4g-apn-settings.html
**Doesn’t work for internet or MMS
Page Plus APN Settings
APN Name Page Plus
APN vzwinternet
Proxy Not defined
Port Not defined
Username Not defined
Password Not defined
Server Not defined
MMSC http://mms.vtext.com/servlets/mms
MMS Proxy Not defined
MMS Port 80
MCC 311
MNC 480
Authentication Type Not defined
APN Type default,mms,supl (or) internet + mms
APN Protocol IPv4 / IPv6
APN Roaming Protocol IPv4 / IPv6
Bearer Unspecified
MVNO Type Not defined
MVNO Type Not defined

https://bestmvno.com/apn-settings/page-plus-cellular-apn-settings/
**Works for internet but not MMS, note that dun cannot be entered
Suggested APN Settings Main
APN Name Page Plus
APN TRACFONE.VZWENTP
Proxy
Port
Username
Password
Server
MMSC
MMS Proxy
MMS Port
MCC 311
MNC 480
Authentication Type Not Set
APN Type default,dun,supl
APN Protocol IPv4/IPv6
APN Roaming Protocol IPv4/IPv6
Bearer Unspecified
MVNO Type
MVNO Type

**Doesn’t work for internet or MMS
Suggested APN Settings Settings
APN Name Verizon
APN vzwinternet
Proxy
Port
Username
Password
Server
MMSC http://mms.vtext.com/servlets/mms
MMS Proxy
MMS Port 80
MCC 310
MNC 12
Authentication Type
APN Type internet+mms
APN Protocol
APN Roaming Protocol
Bearer
MVNO Type
MVNO Type
**If MCC is entered as 310, OR if MNC is 12, the entire APN is deleted when I try to save it. Furthermore, there is no choice to leave APN Protocol or APN Roaming Protocol as blank.


**Didn't try this because I know I can't set MCC as 310
Suggested APN Settings Settings 2
APN Name Verizon
APN tracfone.vzwentp
Proxy
Port
Username
Password
Server
MMSC http://mms.vtext.com/servlets/mms
MMS Proxy
MMS Port 80
MCC 310
MNC 012
Authentication Type
APN Type internet+mms
APN Protocol
APN Roaming Protocol
Bearer
MVNO Type
MVNO Type
 
Hadron said:
Some providers have different APNs for MMS and for other mobile data, though I know nothing about this particular carrier.
Click to expand...
So are u saying that the phone might need 2 different APNs, 1 for internet and 1 for MMS? If so, I haven't found any other information about Page Plus using that type of setup. I also haven't found any APNs that work w/ MMS.
 
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