Sprint Picture Mail Issue

[alex737]

Ok. I am really mad now. I have not gotten my picture mail since The 1st of the month. I have gotten like 4 total that have slipped through. I have called Sprint like 8 times and was told it was a known problem with the HTC Hero. I asked if it possibly had anything to do with the 2.1 upgrade. I was told absolutely not! On the 7th, one operator told me that the upgrade was coming out on the 9th. On the 9th, no upgrade. So I called and was told that it was coming, but unsure when, but still unrelated.
Called again this Monday, still a known unrelated issue. I was offered a service credit if $35.00.
Called today and spoke with Operator Pamela. She told me that it is a known problem and would be fixed with the 2.1 update. She said it was suppose to come out on the 9th but got pushed to the end of the month. Keep checking sprint.com/download. Man this is getting me mad.

 

[matbob]

I had nearly the same exact experience for one of the two phones my family has. I wasn't given dates but I was told to expect an update soon and to keep on eye on the download page. Been through a hard reset and some additional monkey work with the settings that made it work ok for just one pic msg before failing worse (used to be able to send, now no send or receive). VERY frustrating. You are not alone.

 

[jeffreynothing43]

i have had no picture mail issues...are you using wifi or is this an 'all around' issue?

 

[alex737]

I hardly use the WiFi. I get the message, but get a download button. When I hit the download button, it tells me that it is unable to download. I have to go to pictures.sprintpcs.com to see them

 

[matbob]

There is an issue with not receiving MMS with WIFI on. I have experienced this as well.

The "known issue" that the CSR referred to when talking to me and I assume the OP, is that the MMS just stops working. I was told by the technical service folks that HTC was working on the fix. I assume that the fix will come with the 2.1 upgrade. Based on the good reviews by people who installed the leaked RUU, I think this will be the answer. Crossing my fingers and waiting patiently.

 

[AnthroMatt]

It's not just the Hero though...Sprint's picture mail system is terrible. While the Hero does have issues, I have friends with regular phones (VE20, Rumor 2) that also just never get the pictures that are sent to them. They have to log into pictures.sprintpcs.com to see them.

Sprint should really just adopt real MMS.

 

[matbob]

Sprint should really just adopt real MMS.

What do you mean by that? excuse my ignorance.

 

[jeffreynothing43]

this is strange to me...i wonder if these problems are regional? reason i say that is because i haven't had any picture mail problems and neither does my family...and we all have sprint and live in different parts of the triangle (a bunch of cities). i also think its weird that you have to download from the hero, it shows up as a slideshow in my texts when ppl send pic mail.

 

[matbob]

when it works, it shows up as a slideshow every time. When it doesn't work, it either will not go out at all, or if it is received, it shows a download button that when pressed yields no result.

 

[alex737]

I use to always just get the picture in my message. In March, i suddenly got the download button. (I use Handcent SMS, but I does the same in the stock app). My wife has no issue, but she has a Rumor2. Sprint told me it is a HTC Hero issue.

 

[jeffreynothing43]

so is this fairly consistent - the pic mail not working? how often does it work vs. not working? are you rooted? i'm just curious...

 

[matbob]

Neither phone in my house is rooted. MMS works on one but not the other. It consistently does not work (i.e. once it stopped working, it never works). A hard reset seems to bring it back for a number of days or weeks, but inevitably the problem comes back.

 

[V425]

Ok. I am really mad now. I have not gotten my picture mail since The 1st of the month. I have gotten like 4 total that have slipped through. I have called Sprint like 8 times and was told it was a known problem with the HTC Hero. I asked if it possibly had anything to do with the 2.1 upgrade. I was told absolutely not! On the 7th, one operator told me that the upgrade was coming out on the 9th. On the 9th, no upgrade. So I called and was told that it was coming, but unsure when, but still unrelated.
Called again this Monday, still a known unrelated issue. I was offered a service credit if $35.00.
Called today and spoke with Operator Pamela. She told me that it is a known problem and would be fixed with the 2.1 update. She said it was suppose to come out on the 9th but got pushed to the end of the month. Keep checking sprint.com/download. Man this is getting me mad.

I only got a $15 credit... maybe I need to complain again, lol

 

[jeffreynothing43]

Neither phone in my house is rooted. MMS works on one but not the other. It consistently does not work (i.e. once it stopped working, it never works). A hard reset seems to bring it back for a number of days or weeks, but inevitably the problem comes back.

that sucks...and is actually a fairly big problem. it sounds like a phone issue right? cause you're saying that one phone has never had any issues, but your does consistently? maybe you can get a new one through the manufacture warranty? i dunno...i'm just throwing out ideas.

 

[matbob]

I have been meaning to get it either fixed or replaced (think the latter is the only real fix) but have been busy. No MMS is a big deal, but not the end of the world. Maybe I'm being too optimistic that the 2.1 update will be out any day and I won't have to spend an entire evening on the phone with customer service

 

[V425]

MMS stopped working for me about a month or two after having the phone. Hard resetting fixed the problem for about a month and I decided it wasn't worth re-customizing everything that often when it stopped again. I've had 2 pictures actually show up recently, but they were the only ones since the end of January (didn't continue to work though). My boyfriend knows to email pictures and thats all that really matters to me, lol. But MMS is a basic & important feature of the phone and everyone having this issue should contact Sprint and get a credit to their bill until it is fixed.

 

[dominicanyor]

I was having the same problem not receiving picture mail, so i just turn my phone off one day and it started working.

 

[V425]

I was having the same problem not receiving picture mail, so i just turn my phone off one day and it started working.

Not receiving MMS at all or getting the useless download button?

 

[AnthroMatt]

What do you mean by that? excuse my ignorance.

Sprint does not have "real" MMS in the same way that every other carrier does. Sprint has picture mail. It is just a different service they call MMS to avoid confusion.

Real MMS sends the media as attachments, almost like an email. Sprint's system stores the pictures on a web server. In the past, you always had to connect to the server through the browser on your phone to see any received MMS. Sprint still requires this, but now most phones will do it all in the background, so that the picture is already loaded when you open the message.

As an example, if my mother sends me a picture from her VZW phone to my email address, I get the picture as an attachment. If I send a picture from my phone to her email address, she gets an email full of HTML junk with a link to download the full size version.

In the past, though cumbersome, Sprint's system was nice in that it kept a backup of all your messages online so you could remove them from your phone without losing the picture. Now with most phones having either plenty of space or removable media, having a place to keep backups online is mostly worthless. In fact, I suspect many Sprint customers don't even know they can see their pictures online.

Sprint's insistance on staying with their system sometimes leads to issues...many times I can send the same pic to multiple people and (example...) the AT&T and VZW users get it fine and T-Mobile users cannot receive it.

 

[jeffreynothing43]

i'm just curious...anyone on here who is having pic mail problems, are you rooted or running stock? let's try and single out the problem if possible...

 

[jeffreynothing43]

anyone on here who is having problems with picture mail - are you rooted or running stock rom? let's try and single out the problem, if possible.

 

[V425]

anyone on here who is having problems with picture mail - are you rooted or running stock rom? let's try and single out the problem, if possible.

Not rooted, I use Handcent but the stock messenger does it too

I also think there is a difference between just not getting picture mail messages at all and getting the useless download button- I get the download button, or sometimes I get the notification for a picture message but when I go to the thread it isn't there (does show up on the website though)

 

[JB in AZ]

No MMS problems that I know of, Not rooted, running stock 1.5, using handcent.

 

[jeffreynothing43]

alright well, i just found out that the mms/pic mail stuff is known issue with android 1.5 - not sprint. really the only work around is a hard reset. it's also pretty hit or miss who's effected, but people running rooted 1.5 roms have seen less of this error. those of you out there not rooted, there's three things you can do...

-hard reset your phone
-wait patiently for sprints update
-root your phone

 

[zx12richard]

My phone quit getting pics I hard reset it be fine since