If you are not receiving messages from the system, here are some troubleshooting tips to track down and isolate the problem.
1) Can you receive messages from other sources? Have a friend send you a text message today to make sure your messaging service on your cell phone is *still* working. If it's not working, please follow up with your cell carrier. *Please note - Peer to peer messaging does use a different carrier gateway than commercial short code messaging.*
2) Not all cell carriers deliver all messages reliably, sometimes the messages simply don't arrive on the handset. It needs to be determined whether the problem is related to one number or multiple numbers, and if it is a one time issue or ongoing.
Start by doing some fact-finding:
- Is this issue happening on one mobile number of multiple numbers? Make sure to document the phone number(s) affected.
- Is this happening on an ongoing basis? or is this a one-time issue?
3) Based on the issue you are experiencing, the next step is to check your system reports:
- MESSAGING > BLAST SCHEDULE - What is the status of your message? Does it show SENT, SCHEDULED, FAILED?
- REPORTS > SENT LOG - Do you see your message in the sent log? If it was sent to multiple recipients, do they all show in the sent log? Here you can use the FILTER search to isolate messages by the date, message text, the recipient, or perhaps a carrier. Check the Delivery Status, what does it say next to your message?
4) If you have verified that messages sent from the system do not arrive, while messages you receive from other sources do arrive, check with your cell phone carrier to verify that you do not have any SMS blocks in place. Some carriers may block messages from all non-cell-phone sources unless explicitly told to do otherwise.
In particular, you must ask specifically about "short code" blocks. Many cell phone plans setup these blocks automatically. A "short code" is a 5 digit number, as opposed to a full 10 digit number you'd get from another cell phone. Our system sends from short codes, as well as 10-digit local numbers and text enabled toll-free #s, so having such a block in place will prevent messages from getting to you.
When checking with the support staff of your carrier, you should note the exact time you tried to send a test message so that they can look in their logs. Also you should tell them that the messages are coming from the specific short code (e.g. "12345"). The "short code" used to send out messages from the system will appear as the source of the message in their logs.
5) Finally,
- if your carrier insists that they never got the message, and...
- if they have verified that there are no blocks in place
Then please contact support so that we can look into the problem. Please reply with as many details from your carrier's support staff as possible. If they gave you a case number, please provide us with that as well.