Why do texts fail

The phone is out of signal for a few days - similarly to the above, if the phone has no signal for around 72 hours, it will likely move to being Failed and the mobile network will stop trying to deliver the text. The phone memory is full - on particular devices, if the device itself or the SIM card has full memory, the text can't be delivered. The mobile network is having issues - if the patient's mobile network is having any technical issues, this could also be a cause of a failed message.

We don't have complete control over the texts, and at the point you press Send, they get passed over to the network in the same way as a regular text when you send it from your phone. To allow for the sending of emoticons, messages can be sent using UTF encoding, although this hugely reduces the number of characters per text to just This unicode character detector helps you identify any non-standard characters.

From time to time, networks suffer from data and text outages. These days, this is relatively rare. But as recently as June , T-Mobile suffered a massive outage for 12 hours affecting SMS messages and voice services. Source Openstreet. If a customer fails to pay their monthly mobile phone bill, then the mobile network will switch off the customer account and no messages will be delivered!

This one is pretty rare. If someone is still using an old feature phone with limited capacity, then if the SMS message box is full, then no further messages can be received. Enter your email address below and we'll let you know when we publish new posts on our blog, or when other interesting stuff happens. Clearing your text message app's cache is also a good way to refresh it and remove any glitches.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. How to troubleshoot your Android if text messages won't send. Restart your phone. Check for updates. Clear your Messages cache. Check your SIM card. When not writing or spending time with his wife and kids, he can occasionally be found climbing mountains. His writing is spread across the web, and his books can be found at www. Swipe left over the conversation. Tap Delete.

Learn more If you still can't send or receive messages, contact Apple Support. If you don't receive SMS messages, contact your carrier. If you switched to a non-Apple phone, learn how to deactivate iMessage. Learn how to report unwanted iMessages. Published Date: September 20, Yes No. Character limit: Maximum character limit is Start a discussion in Apple Support Communities.