Help Wi-Fi calling and MMS

[petecal]

I recently started having problems sending MMS messages. I was experiencing long "sending..." delays. Sometimes over night.
I did some experimenting and it seems I don't have the problem if I disable Wi-Fi calling.

Does this make sense?

Phone is a Sony Xperia-C om T-Mobile.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Make sure your APN is correct. Sometime back I had issues with MMS where it would only send over wifi but not cellular and I was able to fix it by editing the APN. You can look online for the latest T-Mobile APN and compare it with yours to make sure they match, and if not edit it accordingly. Look specifically at the "MMSC" setting.

 

[ocnbrze]

you can also try and reboot the router as well.

 

[petecal]

Make sure your APN is correct. Sometime back I had issues with MMS where it would only send over wifi but not cellular and I was able to fix it by editing the APN. You can look online for the latest T-Mobile APN and compare it with yours to make sure they match, and if not edit it accordingly. Look specifically at the "MMSC" setting.

Well, I have these apps called APN settings and APN updater that I thought were supposed to take care of that "stuff". Apprently they don't.
I found T-Mobile settings for android.on the web. They were very different from what I had.

I just tried an MMS with an image and it was received in 10 seconds or less.
I re-enabled Wi-Fi calling and sent another one. It is still "sending" after 2 minutes.
I disabled Wi-Fi calling and in a few seconds that message was received.
I sent another image with Wi-Fi calling disabled and it was received in 6 seconds.

Looks like I run with Wi-Fi calling disabled.

I don't know if the APN settings did anything.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Interesting, guess it wasn't the APN but that was worth trying.
Does it happen only on your home wifi or others as well? If only at home you might have an issue with port blocking which could be an ISP thing. You could try the suggestion above to reboot your router and see if that makes any difference, if it doesn't maybe see if there are any ports you need to forward (shouldn't be but you never know) or ask your ISP if they are blocking anything. If it's happening outside your home network as well then forget about all that.

 

[petecal]

Oops, slap my forehead. I didn't reboot the phone. Maybe it needs that for the new APN settings.
I did the reset, re-enabled Wi-Fi Calling. Sent an MMS with an image. That was over 8 minutes ago. It is still "sending".

No more Wi-Fi calling for me.

I disabled it again and that message that was "sending" was received within 60 seconds.

I repeat: No more Wi-Fi calling for me.

Thanks.
Pete

 

[petecal]

Interesting, guess it wasn't the APN but that was worth trying.
Does it happen only on your home wifi or others as well? If only at home you might have an issue with port blocking which could be an ISP thing. You could try the suggestion above to reboot your router and see if that makes any difference, if it doesn't maybe see if there are any ports you need to forward (shouldn't be but you never know) or ask your ISP if they are blocking anything. If it's happening outside your home network as well then forget about all that.

I suppose I should but I have wasted enough time on this.

Thanks

 

[nickdalzell]

I've had a lot of issues with Wifi calling. I could send messages for example but the recipient never got them. It's now one of the first things I disable (right after Play Store)

 

[Dannydet]

Me too.
WiFi calling enabled produces more errors than any else.
Dropped calls, unable to dial out, too many glitches IMO...
I disable it and move on.
Kinda like Android Auto....

 

[nickdalzell]

I think the point of WiFi calling is to be able to call/text when you're in a no-signal area but have WiFi access (like when I'm at work--no service with Verizon, one bar if you're lucky with AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint? May God have mercy on your soul!). Unfortunately, while I could receive texts fine over it, sending was broken. I could send fine at least it appeared to send, but the recipient never received the message. It'd send instantly, not the usual delay I'd expect with SMS/MMS. They just never got the message--it showed as sent on my phone, but it just went into the ether.

Calling seemed to work fine though, but SMS is my primary communication method; like AOL Messenger before it.

 

[Milo Williamson]

I have barely called a few people over wifi and it seem pretty amazing over all, without using any of my mobile data too.

 

[nickdalzell]

Why would you use mobile data on a phone call? VoLTE calling doesn't mean you use your data allowance when on a voice call.

 

[svim]

Something to keep in mind is when MMS is involved it often requires mobile data (cellular).
MMS is a very dated protocol that came about when phone service was more limited. WiFi Calling uses broadband connectivity, not cellular connectivity, so depending on a complicated mix of T-Mobile (your carrier) and the recipient's carrier, the text messaging app you're using, and your ISP it's not out of the ordinary for MMS messages not being transferred when you have WiFi Calling enabled -- when both WiFi and mobile data enabled, by default your phone uses WiFi connectivity as a priority over mobile data, so when you disable WiFi Calling, even when WiFi is still enabled, that simply changes your text messaging conduit back to cellular connectivity.