Why am I unable to download MMS?

[rp17]

Can't download MMS

I switched from iPhone to Android a few months ago and while I love it, the only issues I've been having are occasionally not receiving messages from iPhone users (which include my entire family, unfortunately). Once we got over the initial problem of not receiving any of their texts if they were in Group messages (by asking them all to delete their previous conversation history with me, as un-registering my number with iMessage didn't help at all), it was mostly going well aside from the occasional missed message. Now out of the blue, I am getting "Could not download message" notifications, and when I go to the particular conversation, I see they tried to send a MMS. It gave me the option to try to download the MMS again, and in all cases after about 5 minutes I again got the notification that it could not be downloaded. This has happened both with pictures and with videos. I was on wifi everytime, with strong signal (in my home or at work). I'm on a Nexus 5X using the default messaging app.

Any ideas?

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Can't download MMS

MMS requires mobile data, not wi-fi. Make sure your mobile data is on. If the problem persists, see if turning wi-fi off temporarily helps.

 

[rp17]

Re: Can't download MMS

My cellular data was always enabled as well. I just tried turning wi-fi off and downloading them again, but same results. I typically am always connected to wi-fi due to my low data plan, but do always have cellular data enabled as well.

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you get MMS from Android devices without difficulty? If it's only from iPhone users, then you might have to contact Apple Support directly and ask them to make sure your iMessage has been completely deactivated and your phone number wiped out from their server. Make sure you talk to a live person about this--I've read about situations like this where people thought their iMessage had been deactivated but their phone number was still on the server.

 

[rp17]

I realize that would be helpful to know, but honestly I don't. The only people who try to send me pictures and videos are my immediate family, all of whom have iPhones. My boyfriend and couple of friends who have Androids don't ever send MMS.
I never talked to anyone at apple in person about this - i disabled iMessage on my iPhone before removing the SIM, and I also went to Apple's webpage to de-register my number with Apple, and it said it already had been. Maybe that's a next step. It's weird that this is only a recent problem. I wasn't having any issues with MMS until last week.

 

[nahoku]

Someone else on a Nexus was having issues with iPhone mms also. I believe it was something to do with Power Savings restricting background data. If I remember correctly, he went to Settings > Connections > Data Usage > Restrict background data. I'm not really sure it was Power savings, but try looking on your phone for places to restrict background data and disabling it so nothing is restricted.

 

[anon(123856)]

I realize that would be helpful to know, but honestly I don't. The only people who try to send me pictures and videos are my immediate family, all of whom have iPhones. My boyfriend and couple of friends who have Androids don't ever send MMS.
I never talked to anyone at apple in person about this - i disabled iMessage on my iPhone before removing the SIM, and I also went to Apple's webpage to de-register my number with Apple, and it said it already had been. Maybe that's a next step. It's weird that this is only a recent problem. I wasn't having any issues with MMS until last week.

Why not have your boyfriend send you an MMS as a test? Then at least you can narrow it down to whether or not it is a iMessage issue or not.