Why am I able to send but unable to receive MMS?

[zinglook]

able to send, unable to receive MMS...

I am a new Android user... have had nothing but dumb phones forever.

I have a new Moto E 2nd gen purchased from Consumer Cellular. APN settings were set up by the carrier. I've googled all over... asked customer support, changed APN settings... and I continue to have the same problem:

* Cellular data works fine. I get LTE connections. I can browse, etc.
* sending MMS works fine
* When someone sends me an MMS... I don't receive it until later. And when I say "later" what I really mean is: I will never receive it... Until I send an MMS. Invariably what happens is when I send an MMS, I get 5 or 6 queued up inbound MMS messages from hours before.

The specifics:
phone: Moto E 2nd Gen
android version: 5.1
messaging app: just the default android messaging app

Original APN settings that were installed on the phone: (note... mmsc is formatted oddly because forum said I didn't have enough posts to include links. In my settings I do not have spaces in there.)

name: consumer cellular
apn: ccdata
proxy: notset
port: notset
username: notset
password: notset
server: notset
mmsc: http : // mmsc.mobile.att.net
mms proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
mmsport: 80
mcc 310
mnc 410
auth type none
apn type: default,mms,supl,hipri
apn prot: IPv4
apn roaming prot: IPv4
Bearer: unspec

I emailed CC support... and they had me set up 2 separate APNs:
APN#1

name: Wap GPRS
apn: ccdata
proxy: notset
port: notset
username: notset
password: notset
server: notset
mmsc: http : // mmsc.mobile.att.net
mms proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
mmsport: 80
mcc 310
mnc 410
auth type none
apn type: internet
apn prot: IPv4
apn roaming prot: IPv4
Bearer: unspec

APN#2
apn: ccdata
proxy: notset
port: notset
username: notset
password: notset
server: notset
mmsc: http : // mmsc.mobile.att.net
mms proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
mmsport: 80
mcc 310
mnc 410
auth type none
apn type: mms
apn prot: IPv4
apn roaming prot: IPv4
Bearer: unspec

(in other words: it looks like 2 identical apns but one used for internet, one used for mms)

I'm not sure if the problem is on the CC end, the APN end... or if there is just some setting I've missed or mucked with that does not check for new messages (or allow a push).

Ideas?

 

[zinglook]

Re: able to send, unable to receive MMS...

I seemed to solve this myself. Or at least I think I have. A day or two will tell.

But since my googleosity couldn't find an answer, I'll just leave mine here in case someone else does this to themselves. And yes, I am pretty sure I did this to myself.

I had chosen the lightest data plan CC offers. I'm in range of wifi 90% of the time. I had gone through every setting I could find and tried to tweak this thing such that it would be a data nibbler. At some point it looks like I went into Settings->Data usage->App usage->Messaging and enabled 'restrict app background data'.

Enabling that ... and the app can do its check in the background and get new messages in real time.