Help [Samsung GT-I5800] Can't receive SMS (Text Messages).

[DePhille]

Hello,

I've got a problem with the GT-I5800 from Samsung (=Galaxy Apollo, =Galaxy 3). The problem is that I sometimes can't receive any SMS (Text Messages) on my phone. The problem started occuring about two months after I bought the phone, and has become worse since then. Right now I'm only receiving about 10% or 20% of the SMS sent to me. After a few days the entire bulk of missing SMS arrive all at the same time.

I think the problem lies with the phone's software:
- If I swap sim cards with another phone, the other phone receives all the missing SMS within about 10 minutes.
- The problem is not related with the signal type (HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE, GSM, ...) nor is it related to the signal quality (Even when the signal is extremely strong I still don't receive my missing SMS)
- The weird thing is that I can still send and receive e-mails, browse the net, call or get called. The problem only occurs with incoming SMS (And probably also MMS, but I haven't tested that out yet).

I have already tried the following:
- Turn the phone off/on and take the battery out for a moment.
- Set the connection to WCDMA-only
- Set the connection to GSM-only

I would like to keep a complete reset as the last option here. The goal is to find the cause for this problem so I can rest assured this won't happen again or at least know what to do to avoid the problem. It takes a while before I notice that I'm not receiving SMS - usually 'too late' - so I'm really looking for a solution and a complete reset cannot guarantee that the problem won't occur again.

- Does anyone have some suggestions or a solution to this problem? Is there anyone else experiencing the same problem?
- Unfortunately I am unable to reproduce the problem. At the moment it seems like the problem occurs "randomly", so if anyone has suggestions on how to reproduce the problem they're also welcome, of course.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kostasmac69]

i came across the same problem when i updated to froyo 2.2. is this the case to u?

 

[DePhille]

Nope, I'm still running the latest available version from Kies (2.1-Update1), I haven't rooted my phone or anything.

Did you have any of these applications at the time:
- A translator application
- CoPilot
- Photoshop Express
- Speed view
- Speed test
- ConnectBot
- Network Info II
- aTilt 3D Labyrinth
- Robo Defense
- Chess
- Air Control Lite
- Sudoku Daily
- xPiano
- Solo Lite
- Talking Parrot
- ShottGunn
- gStrings
- AndWobble 2 Free

Perhaps the problem is related to an application. Especially the translator app catches my attention, if I'm not mistaken then I installed that app at about the same time the problems started.

 

[misslalice]

hi i seem to have the same problem with my samsung galaxy s. i have reset my phone twice and got a new sim card and it has not made a difference. have you found what the problem is? i would rather not have to send my phone of for repair but this seems to be my only option now

 

[barqers]

What messaging app are you using?

 

[ffcloud2000]

Nope, I'm still running the latest available version from Kies (2.1-Update1), I haven't rooted my phone or anything.

Did you have any of these applications at the time:
- A translator application
- CoPilot
- Photoshop Express
- Speed view
- Speed test
- ConnectBot
- Network Info II
- aTilt 3D Labyrinth
- Robo Defense
- Chess
- Air Control Lite
- Sudoku Daily
- xPiano
- Solo Lite
- Talking Parrot
- ShottGunn
- gStrings
- AndWobble 2 Free

Perhaps the problem is related to an application. Especially the translator app catches my attention, if I'm not mistaken then I installed that app at about the same time the problems started.

I have the issue on 2.2 and i use Chess, Robo Defense and Speed Test

 

[barqers]

I'm on 2.2 and i use robo defense and speed test. I don't have this issue. So try the chess app.

 

[keon391]

i got the same problem too until i took out the external memory card and all went well. i hope this help!!!

 

[Pasoleati]

I have had the same problem twice over the last 5 days. First time putting the SIM card in another phone did solve the problem for awhile but as it happened again this morning I had to reset the phone to factory settings plus had to reboot twice. Since my primary means of wireless communicating is through SMS, I will be returning this piece of junk to the dealer and take a Nokia instead. Nokias are definitely not unproblematic, but from my point of view the message problems with Android (sending messages to wrong contacts) and Samsung are simply unbearable. It is frankly eating one away that one cannot trust the phone for such a vital function.

 

[madmaxxx]

Hello,

I've got a problem with the GT-I5800 from Samsung (=Galaxy Apollo, =Galaxy 3). The problem is that I sometimes can't receive any SMS (Text Messages) on my phone. The problem started occuring about two months after I bought the phone, and has become worse since then. Right now I'm only receiving about 10% or 20% of the SMS sent to me. After a few days the entire bulk of missing SMS arrive all at the same time.

I think the problem lies with the phone's software:
- If I swap sim cards with another phone, the other phone receives all the missing SMS within about 10 minutes.
- The problem is not related with the signal type (HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE, GSM, ...) nor is it related to the signal quality (Even when the signal is extremely strong I still don't receive my missing SMS)
- The weird thing is that I can still send and receive e-mails, browse the net, call or get called. The problem only occurs with incoming SMS (And probably also MMS, but I haven't tested that out yet).

I have already tried the following:
- Turn the phone off/on and take the battery out for a moment.
- Set the connection to WCDMA-only
- Set the connection to GSM-only

I would like to keep a complete reset as the last option here. The goal is to find the cause for this problem so I can rest assured this won't happen again or at least know what to do to avoid the problem. It takes a while before I notice that I'm not receiving SMS - usually 'too late' - so I'm really looking for a solution and a complete reset cannot guarantee that the problem won't occur again.

- Does anyone have some suggestions or a solution to this problem? Is there anyone else experiencing the same problem?
- Unfortunately I am unable to reproduce the problem. At the moment it seems like the problem occurs "randomly", so if anyone has suggestions on how to reproduce the problem they're also welcome, of course.

Thanks in advance!

Hi DePhille and others members,
I am haveing the same problem as you are right now. It's about 3 months that I bought Samsung GT/i5800 and problem that I cannot receive some SMS appeared now, and as you said, it's gettin worst :-( I am triing to solve that right now with my mobile operator and Samsung support, but so far with zero results.
Pls did you solve The problem already?

Ad. post:

I just try to place my SIM card to another mobile phone, and aproximetly after 10-15 minutes all SMS were received, then I placed my SIM to my phone (Samsung I5800) and everything worikng fine again. But I presumed that most likely The problem will occure again...

 

[DePhille]

Wow, seems like this post has gotten quite a lot of attention. I'm guessing this is quite a common problem then.

I tried a lot of things but none of the above suggestions worked (except for swapping putting sim card in another phone and then back into my phone, that solved the problems for a few days). Eventually, about 1.5 months ago, I gave in and tried resetting my phone back to factory settings. When the phone rebooted I received all held back SMS messages (about 30 of them) in less than 10 minutes and never had the problem ever since.

Still, I'm not sure the problem is solved, it might eventually come back ofcourse. So what I suggest is that we compare some stuff to see where the similarities are. Judging from posts on other forums regarding the same issues and some discoveries I think we should compare the following items:

1) All installed applications (non-standard ofcourse)
2) Brand and size of SD card
3) Amount of time before the problem started occuring
4) Number of received SMS messages in total
5) Number of received SMS messages in the biggest conversation
6) Have you ever rooted your phone? If so, what android version are you currently running?

I'll go ahead by posting my details first:
1) I already gave this in the first post
2) Dane Elec SDHC (16GB)
3) About three months after I bought the phone (I did not reset it)
4) I think it was around 3000
5) The biggest conversation contained about 2000 SMS messages
6) Nope, still running the standard 2.1

I think we should be able to find some similarities in here. Also, if you have one of those properties above and you don't have the problem then please reply aswell .

DePhille

 

[madmaxxx]

All right then,

1, The list of applications:
Adobe Reader
Bubble Burst Free
dxTop (dont using it most of the time)
Fire Clock (Gadget)
ICQ
Mobile Maps 10 (Sygic - but installed after the problem occured)
Orange (Theme for dxTop)
Overkill
Uninstaller
Wifi Analyzer

2, SD card
SanDisk (1GB) - it was enclose to phone in original package

3, Time when the problem occured
About 3 months after pusache (no restart)

4, Number of SMS total
Hmm, about 4 thousand

5, Biggest conversation
2 hundred SMS

6, rooting
I am not quite sure what does "rooting" mean. But I did not try to installing newer operating system (Froyo). I am currently runnig on 2.1-update1
core version:
2.6.29
root@SE-S608 #2

Right now I am thinking about reseting to factory default too, but first I will try one more thing. I will go to the dealer and I will urge him to set my phone on diagnostic, because of warranty. But as I said before Samsung support service told me today, that if the problem will be at the side of operator I will have to pay all costs and I dont presume it is at side of operator, but also I thing they will not search bugs in the SW (operating system), but they will test just HW. So we'll see. Did you tried something like this?

MadMax

 

[DePhille]

Okay so I think the SD Card is not the issue.
The issue might still be the large number of SMS messages though, so perhaps you could try to clear all SMS messages aswell? You can use Kies to back them up if you still need them.

If that did not work then it has to be either one of the applications or a software (Android) error.

I don't think it is an error due to the operator since the problem does not occur when you put the SIM card in another phone. I'm pretty confident it's either Android or an application.

DePhille

 

[madmaxxx]

Okey that sounds reasonable. I'll try to wait until the problem will occur again. Then I'll erase all my SMS. But I think there will not be problem too, because I erased almost all mys SMS and it was not helpfull.
Maybe I'll try put on warranty, in any case I'll inform you. If you will have some other idea, post them there and we will see.
Maybe we can try to write a formal complain to the Samsung support right to developers?

 

[madmaxxx]

I did more research and I found this article, so it would be helpfull for somebody...

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4991

 

[Pasoleati]

In my case the problem has not occurred since the above report I posted. I have also done some additional research and according to a thread on forums.whirlpool.net.au (I hope I got it right, Aussie Whirlpool fora anyway) the problem is not an Android or carrier problem, it is a software bug in all Samsung Galaxies (at least 3 and S). It apparently results from a case where the sender sends a longer than 160 characters long SMS that the sending phone splits up in several parts and for some reason the sending phone (bad signal etc.) has to send one of the parts twice. When the receiving Galaxy receives one part of the long message twice, it freaks up and generates a "protocol error" and stops accepting any messages from that carrier. And until the software is corrected the potential problem exists. And the problem should get fixed by swapping the SIM card into another phone and then sending an SMS to oneself.

So, this particluar problem is apparently independent of donwloaded apps, SD card issues etc.

 

[barqers]

I would use a different messaging application like GO SMS.

 

[Pasoleati]

Hmm, according to those Aussie fora the problem is not dependent which SMS application one uses as the problem lies with Samsung's software...And according to Go SMS site, that app needs the standard app to work.

 

[barqers]

Hmm, according to those Aussie fora the problem is not dependent which SMS application one uses as the problem lies with Samsung's software...And according to Go SMS site, that app needs the standard app to work.

Try a different ROM. People's custom ROMs usually contain fixes.

 

[Pasoleati]

I don't dare to void the warranty in any way and I believe such modding may do it.

 

[Pasoleati]

I had to bite the bullet and I downloaded the Go SMS and it solved the message length limitation nicely. However, this is basically very annoying as it by default means that Samsung is selling basically a defective by default product.

 

[barqers]

I had to bite the bullet and I downloaded the Go SMS and it solved the message length limitation nicely. However, this is basically very annoying as it by default means that Samsung is selling basically a defective by default product.

It was a bug. They fixed it in an update.

 

[Pasoleati]

What is the update date, code etc? I talked to the shop I obtained the phone from last week and they did not know of such an update. Neither they had any idea when the Froyo is here...

By the way, my phone has following specs:
-2.1 update 1
-2.6.29root@SE-S608 #2
-ECLAIR.xxjg7

 

[hyongsu87]

Hey guys, I read one of the suggestions, and I took out the SD card by properly unmounting. For me, I think this fixed the problem. So try it out and send some feedback.

 

[Pasoleati]

Has anyone had a problem in which the long (more than 160 characters) message sent from the Galaxy 3 has arrived at the receiving phone in a distorted form? I.e. the first 160 or so characters are as sent but the rest of the messagfe has been replaced with text that one either wrote weeks ago or even by text that the sender never wrote? I.e. it appears as if two different and completely independent messages have been merged into one. This problem has occurred 3 times in 5 days.