Here’s Why Your iPhone Might Not Be Sending Messages (And What You Can Do About It)
If you aresending personal messageson an iPhone using the Messages app, there’s so much more you’re able to do than merely typing out text responses. You can text using your handwriting, send an animated message, or even use your photos to create a custom sticker, among other things. Thanks to newmessaging features included in iOS 17, you can quickly check in with friends and let them know where you are and have an easier time staying up-to-date in group chats.
However, you may encounter certain issues that prohibit your messages from going through. On an iPhone, when you send a message via the Messages app and it fails, you’ll likely see a red exclamation point next to your text followed by an alert that says it was “Not Delivered.” You can tap the exclamation point to try sending the message again, but this doesn’t always work.
There are several reasons why youriPhonemessage might not be sent. For starters, you may be typing the recipient’s phone number incorrectly. Sometimes a lacking or extra digit may be at fault. If you’re sure you have the right information and that you’ve input it with no mistakes, it may be time to explore other possible messaging-related problems and fix them accordingly.
You may not have cellular or internet connectivity
The most likely cause for stuck iPhone messages is being out of cell phone or internet range. You’ll need mobile data or stable Wi-Fi to send an iMessage or MMS message while delivering an SMS message requires cellular network connectivity. To ensure that your iPhone is properly connecting to a network, do the following:
While you’re at it, you may want to go back to Settings and turn Airplane Mode on and off as well to refresh your iPhone’s network slate. When none of this works, you may want tofix your iPhone’s lack of serviceby resetting network settings or updating your carrier settings if there are any.
Your iPhone’s ability to send SMS messages may be disabled
Another possibility for why your iPhone is failing to send messages is that the Messages app is likely not properly set up to cover delivering all types of messages. If you are communicating with other iPhone users, iMessage needs to be enabled. Similarly, you want to ensure that you’re able tosend SMS messagesas well as that is the only way for you, as an iPhone user, to communicate via text with Android mobile device owners. Here’s what you need to do:
Note that carrier messaging rates may apply when you send an SMS or MMS message.
There may be an iOS issue
In general, checking thatyour iPhone is up to dateis a good idea of guaranteeing that most of your device’s apps and features are running smoothly. However, even having the latest version of iOS installed can sometimes produce bugs that may render certain services temporarily unusable. If you inexplicably lose the ability to send messages through the Messages app, this may be the case.
Although this type of mishap is mostly out of your control, there are a number of things you can attempt to see if you can fix the glitch on your end. You can force-quit the Messages app by slowly swiping up on your iPhone screen to see all your open apps, swiping left or right to get to Messages, and swiping up on the app to exit it. You can also restart your iPhone by long-pressing on the side button and the volume down button simultaneously until you can slide the power button slider to turn your device off. Once you turn the iPhone back on, you can try opening the Messages app again to see if the refresh fixed the problem.
In addition, you may also want to check Apple’sSystem Statuspage to see if there are any outages to relevant apps or services. For instance, if you see that iMessage is down, you may need to wait until Apple resolves the technical difficulties.
Other reasons you may be having issues sending messages through the Messages app
If it’s been a while since you last received a message from a group chat on the Messages app, you may have inadvertently left the conversation by accident, or another participant may have removed you. There also may be other issues with the particular group message that may be out of your control. When you open the group chat and it says you left the conversation, the only way to rejoin it is if someone still in the conversation adds you back. Otherwise, the best way to resolve any group chat issues is to start a new one.
If you’re having trouble sending or receiving photos and videos in the Messages app,check your iPhone storageand make sure there’s enough free space. Furthermore, using SMS or MMS messaging to send media may be limited by your mobile phone provider’s file size constraints. You should be able to send full-size images and videos through the Messages app — again, messaging rates will apply — but they may take longer to go through. To send photos quicker, you can try lowering the image quality of the photos exchanged in the app:
Finally, when all your attempts to figure out why you’re unable to send messages on your iPhone haven’t yielded successful results, don’t hesitate to reach out toApple tech supportfor additional guidance.
