MMS sending and receiving issues

This bug has been coming and going for year(s) on my Samsung S8 on xfinity mobile, sometimes getting worse, sometimes getting better, from time to time, update to update.   It is a software problem with root-cause(s) that reside both inside "MMS gateways"  as well as the phones  OS & native apps & third-party apps.   The "MMS gateway software" has to be smart enough to handle every possible customer phones, on every possible software version, each acting a bit differently with regard to this "MMS-over-wifi" stuff both at the phone OS and app level.   As we customers have seen, it is very difficult.    These software problems are faced universally across all carriers - so changing carriers is a like a dice game and you will inevitably see occasional similar problems on every cellular carrier & MVNO as they update software.    

Possible workarounds include:  toggling wifi on and off and on, toggling airplane mode on and off, toggling cellular radio on and off and on, and putting phone into airplane mode with wifi on - and then reboot the phone.  

iPhones are subject to similar bugs but one reason they are not as observable is that most iPhone people enable iMessage.    iMessage software has much more functionality than MMS & SMS while also supporting MMS & SMS.        So iMessage using its own smarts and this tends to "mask" the unreliable-by-design behavior of cellular's SMS & MMS.  All of the underlying unreliability and bizarreness of MMS & SMS can affect iPhones too - especially if you disable iMessage.  

I'm sooo not a Comcast employee. But I am a Level-2 network troubleshooting/support specialist. A CCIE for those who know what a CCIE is. If not, no biggie, just an FYI.

Personally, I believe (at least my problem) is the Android OS push update (to Android 10) that was done by Samsung in Feb of 2020 (Feb of 2020 for me. Your timeframe may vary). I'm hoping the next OS update will fix the problem.

Problem Description (for me): Phone will not send, or receive, MMS over WiFi. With mobile data OFF - no sending/receiving of MMS at all. With mobile data ON and connected to WiFi - phone uses cell network to send the data (so uses data from a pay-by-the-gig data plan). Yes it benefits Xfinity financially since pay-by-the-gig customers will likely use more moble-data. But it does not "feel" like the problem/situation has been induced intentially by Comcast

I have two phones

Samsung s9+:

• Problem Started: Feb of 2020 and still exists
• Text Messaging App: It came with Verizon Message+ as texting app when purchased a year (??) ago from Xfinity-mobile.
• WiFi APs: Problem exists with all WiFi APs. I use non-Xfinity, Netgear router/APs at home and have tested when connected to 2.4gig WiFi & 5gig WiFi of a LOT of APs.
• Current Adroid Version: Android 10

Samsung s8:

• Problem Status: Problem appeared a year ago (??) after an OS update (forget the before and after Android versions) and changing from the default text messaging app to Version Message+ cleared up the problem regardless of the WiFi A.P. I'm connected to.
• Text Messaging App: Currently Verizon Message+ app. Came with some other default app when purchased about 3 years ago from Xfinity-mobile.
• WiFi APs: NO problems (MMS over WiFi works) with all WiFi APs. I use non-Xfinity, Netgear router/APs at home and have tested when connected to 2.4gig WiFi & 5gig WiFi of a LOT of APs.
• Current Adroid Version: Android 9

I have the same problem description and status posted in Samsung support. If "home" for samsung support is in China, with the coronavirus being what it is, I expect a new OS that might fix the problem could take a while. I have changed my S9+ to Unlimited date and turned mobile date ON until there is an OS push or some other thing to try (a Google Messaging update, etc (??)) that might fix the problem.

@Comcast_Support : PLEASE keep people updated on the status (I'd personally recommend email updates to customers, not just updates here). Doing away with the Gen-1 pay-by-the-gig plans was one thing (I did actually expect that to happen, but only drives the cost from ~$5.xx/month to ~$20.xx/month-guessing on the taxes and fees that will be over & above the $12). But people HAVING to keep mobile-data turned ON (incoming MMS is lost with mobile-data turned OFF, even if you can deal with turning it on for a moment when sending MMS) will result in customers moving to other vendors.

The MVNOs who do fancy stuff like gatewaying MMS over wifi are responsible for building or subcontracting all the functionality into their own backend MMS-gateways plus every supported android handset OS & every integrated app.      With Apple handsets there is just one OS for all the phones.    MVNO can write IOS apps but is not allowed near the IOS source except via API/APN/profile such as you see used for the xfinity-hotspot-app.   With android handsets the MVNO is required to own the source and support and proprietary programming for every handset's different android OS and the OS-integrated apps.   Android third-party apps "should" work it is hit or miss.     So many different android handsets - so many android OS versions - so many source code trees.   The result is many more bugs on android phones especially for MVNOs with arbitrary proprietary functionalities like MMS over wifi.      Not trying to make excuses, because bugs are bugs!   

ps - The customers here in this forum are ALL OVER THE BALL technically.   Please do continue all the great investigations & detailed problem reports - they are awesome.      

bashcli-ish person, your point about the previous "free 100M" vs the current "you are going to use 1G and pay for it" is especially well-taken.   

Possibly consider that a result of this change are that there are now up to 1G of discrepant-bytes allowed before the most observant customers SCREAM whereas previously there were only 100M of discrepant-bytes allowed before the observant customer will notice the problem and SCREAM.    

I've had the same issues, my husband and I both just switched from AT&T.   He doesn't seem to be having any issues.  So far I have reset my network settings, didn't work, and then went to the store and they installed a new SIM card, and I thought it worked because I was getting texts from the certain individuals I wasn't before, but now I just realized, there are still issues obviously, because somene else can't respond to my texts.  Frustrating.  I guess will have to go and install the 3rd party app Textra.  

I have been unable to receive any MMS at all today, it was working as recently as yesterday. Phone restart, turning airplane mode on/off, wifi on/off, nothing seems to help. I have the option to tap to download on the appropriate contacts, but messages never download and eventually time out.

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@commodore_dude wrote:

I have been unable to receive any MMS at all today, it was working as recently as yesterday. Phone restart, turning airplane mode on/off, wifi on/off, nothing seems to help. I have the option to tap to download on the appropriate contacts, but messages never download and eventually time out.

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What phone, android version and texting app are you experiencing the problem with? It is odd that it just started today as the Android 10 OS, that seems to be "known bad" for this issue, was pushed out back in Feb of 2020. But the phone, android version and texting app you're using will be of interest/use to a number of folks that are following the thread I would think.

Received the latest samsun patch the other day and still cannot send MMS while connected to Internet when connected to the Xfinity/Comast Interet. At my vacation home which has Spectrum as the Internet provider it works just fine. I use the same modem and router at both locations.

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@bob-mmk wrote:

Received the latest samsun patch the other day and still cannot send MMS while connected to Internet when connected to the Xfinity/Comast Interet. At my vacation home which has Spectrum as the Internet provider it works just fine. I use the same modem and router at both locations.

 

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That is odd. Should have nothing to do with what cable-modem and/or router you're connected to. What rev of Android are you on now (after the patch)?

It is an issue that is tied to your home network. I cannot send picture text messages from in my home when wifi is turned on, but I can when wifi is off and mobile data is on. If I walk outside and go down the street I can send messages with wifi on.  

With limited information, and not actually troubleshooting, it could be a big assumption that it's the WiFi, or underlying network infrastructure supporting the WiFi, that is "the" (implying only one), or "a" (implying one of multiple) problem causing the issue.

Based on my read-though of a number of the instances of MMS over WiFi not working when mobile-data is OFF, some could be WiFi-A.P./network-infrastructure caused and a great number more point to within the device (interaction between the OS and texting app(s) ). 

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@ComcastChrisL wrote:

Hello everyone,

I wanted to provide an important update to this issue.

Samsung is currently working on a software update to address this issue; this is anticipated to be available beginning in March. More details will be provided by Samsung in the coming weeks.

The issue stems from the operating systems themselves, Android 9 and 10.

Please be on the look out for the incoming update that should bring resolution to this issue. Thank you again for your continued time, and support.

Chris

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Hi @ComcastChrisL , 

I just found your post.  I just got off the chat with someone from support and they stated: "Very well, I checked and it seems like there is not a way in which MMS can be set to be sent using a wifi connection."

Is there or is there not going to be a resolution to this and how will we be notified.  As you you can tell from this (any many other forums), you have some pretty angry customers, especially since this has been going on for two years.