A common problem for any Android user may be that they cannot send a text message to a single person. They can send and receive text messages from others, but for some reason, messages sent to this one person just aren’t getting through.
Here is a list of things to check to troubleshoot this issue.
Restart the Phone
A simple restart might do the trick. Hold down the “Power” button, then select “Restart“.
Check Blocking
Sometimes blocking happens accidentally. Check to be sure that you didn’t accidentally end up on a block list either with the message recipient’s carrier or on the block list of the recipient’s phone.
Check Contact Number
Open the “Contacts” app and ensure the phone number is correct. Also try the phone number with or without the “1” before the area code. I have seen it both work and not work in either configuration. Personally, I just fixed a problem texting where the “1” was missing.
Only MMS/SMS Setting
Note: This setting is not on all Android phones.
- From the Android device, open “Messages“.
- Open a message that was sent from the person who cannot receive your messages.
- Select the
located at the upper-right portion of the screen. - Select “Details“.
- Check the “Only send MMS and SMS messages” box. This setting may also be a switch you can switch to “On“.
Disable iMessage
If the recipient or sender has used or is currently using an iPhone, it can cause problems for Android users since the iPhone utilizes the iMessage network. Have the iPhone user disable iMessage by going to “Settings” > “Messages” and setting “iMessage” to “Off“.
In some cases, the iPhone user will need to perform these steps:
- Power off your smartphone.
- Power the iPhone off and insert the SIM card you used with the device before.
- Power on the iPhone.
- Ensure you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
- Open “Settings” > “Messages“.
- Slide “iMessage” to “Off“.
- Leave the iPhone powered on for about an hour. iMessage should eventually deactivate.
- Power on your device.
If you cannot perform this process, or you are still experiencing this problem, try the following steps to deactivate iMessage online:
Note: These steps will remove access to the appstore. You can always reactivate the device to gain access again if you wish.
- Visit the Apple Support Profile website, and login with your Apple credentials.
- Select your iPhone device on the site.
- Select “Unregister“, then select “Unregister” again.
iMessage should now be deactivated. Check to see if you can receive text messages from an iPhone user.
If things still aren’t working for you, or you cannot perform the above steps, contact Apple Support. They can usually send a code to your new phone and deactivate iMessage on their end. It usually takes a period of 24 hours for the deactivation to complete.
This process has fixed this issue on multiple occasions. On one occasion, we contacted Apple Support via email. The Support department said that the person sending the text message may need to change how they are sending text messages. They will need to use an account with that shows “name”(Mobile Phone) instead of “name”(iPhone). These instructions didn’t make sense to us, but I figured I would include that information in case it helps anybody.
FAQ
I have an iPad registered to the same phone number I am using with my Android. What do I do?
You will have to deactivate iMessage on the iPad and any other Apple devices that are linked to the phone number you are using if you wish to receive text messages on the Android.
Lydia says
@mary Kay Doyle
Thank you! Your solution worked for me!
Cleared cache, cleared storage and force stopped the app!
Lewis McDuffie says
Fancy Tipton’s suggestion worked on my AT&T Galaxy S9:
1. open the Message App
2. tap on the three-dot stack in the upper right corner
3. tap Settings
4. turn off Advanced Messaging with the slider
Eddie C says
I found a solution. Delete contact, clear cache/memory from Contacts and Messages App. Restart and enter your contact with a slightly different name.
Eddie C says
This seems to be a network/software issue and not the phone itself. I have no data plan and no problem texting and receiving except for one person on my contact list. I can only get that person’s text messages when i turn on my wifi. It’s a temporary fix until Android figures out that its probably effecting lots of people.
Wickkit says
I don’t have the MMS/SMS option (that I can find anyway.)
1. My friend and I both use Samsung phones
2. She’s not getting my texts and I’m not getting hers,.
3. Started about a month ago and she’s the only person so far that I know of that I have the issue with.
4. We don’t have each other blocked
5. Our contact numbers are saved correctly as well as the same as they were when we were able to text back and forth just fine.
6. She’s Straight Talk and I’m Total Wireless, which is Tracfone, which is pretty much the same company as Straight Talk as I understand it.
Any other suggestions?
Fancy Tipton says
The Samsung user probably had an update and that update turned on advanced messaging for them where they can now see that people have read their messages and see when others are replying. For some reason iPhone users don’t receive advanced messaging from Samsung. Have them turn it off in the message settings and you should start being able to send and receive messages from that iPhone user.
Blake says
After trying everything with my android and my friend trying everything with her iphone and I still couldn’t text her. We contacted our service providers and friends to no avail. We had text for years, it just started in April 2021, I started playing with my text. I knew sms would never send. So I sent to her a mms gif. It sent! So I sent another. Then I sent a photo of my cat with a few words attached to it and it sent. Then I thought, well she will be getting a photo of my pets with every single message. Then I researched how to send mms instead of sms. My phone didn’t have an option to choose like some do, and so I touched the 3 dots when I had her text open and I chose subject field. It popped up as urgent or I could type one in. I tried both and they worked! I use urgent now because it is tiny.
Mary Kay Doyle says
This happened to me yesterday. For one of my contacts, I could only send MMS. SMS would not send. I could receive SMS from the contact. None of these solutions worked for me. What did work was to go into Settings/Applications and for the Message application, Clear cache, Clear storage, and then Force Stop.
Tsbeck3r says
For me it just stopped working a day ago. I cannot send messages to my iPhone user girlfriend but she can send me messages just fine. I was enrolled with the beta program for messages so I thought that was the problem, it wasn’t. I down graded and upgraded the app like five times and erase all data. It’s only her, I can text her whole family (they also have iphones). I’m hesitant to delete our text trend but if it will solve the issue I’m more than willing
Perry says
Changing the “Only MMS/SMS Setting” worked for my Android.
Chris Kunz says
Noticing a theme of the person NOT receiving the text being a spouse, child, or friend. Also baring in mind that the ones having problems are android user’s sending to iPhones. I can only assume that people not receiving the messages are spoken to fairly often when they obviously can be. Perhaps the issue lies within NOT deleting older messages from the conversation? I don’t know just a thought, I also haven’t had a problem since then.
Coralie Gardner says
Same problem. Has anyone resolved this yet?
Mel says
I’m having the same probelm, just 1 contact who can send me sms fine but doesn’t get my messages or calls. I’m on Android, she’s an iPhone user.
Teresa Beazley says
I have Galaxy Note 10+ and I can’t text to my husband who has a IPHONE! My kids have IPHONE and they get my texts but not him! This is insane to me. Nothing is working!
Pete says
Same problem here and none of the above remediation techniques work. It all started because my apple id is connected to an email address. I have an ipad with that id. My Samsung Galaxy s20 cannot receive or send texts to one person with an iphone. The person cannot send or receive text messages from me, we can call each other without a problem. Here is the weird part, he can send me group MMS messages, I receive them, I can even reply! The only problem is when we try sending 1 to 1 texts. Neither of us have the other on a block list, because we can call each other, we can send group messages. We have talked to both carriers, ATT and TMobile and nobody can help. I am seeing more and more occurrences of this on the web without any resolution. This is a small problem now, but with what I am seeing on the web, more and more people are facing this issue.
P l Spears says
No it did not help. I am having the same problems…will not text to random contacts. Says error 104. I have Lifeline Assurance and they could not tell me what the problem is. So they are sending me another phone…which will probably be a waste.
Mike says
Try editing the contact number and then saving. This worked for me.
Janice Fortney says
Didn’t help. I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy. We were texting and suddenly I couldn’t text her at the same specific number. I had been using fir her. I totally deleted contact, restarted, re-entered contact info. Still couldn’t text her. No problems with any other contacts.
Hizranbaba says
I facing this issue I cannot send sms to one specific number in pakistan from uae etisalat using galaxy A71
Anne Lee says
No, it didn’t help me either. I also use a Samsung Galaxy (A20).
KIMBERLY KING says
No it did not help because I use a Samsung S5 Galaxy phone.