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Any solution to the iPhone to Android MMS problem?

My wife just bought a Samsung Galaxy S4. Friends with iPhones have been texting pictures to her, but she can't see them if she's connected on Wi-Fi. She gets a link the says "Download", which she clicks, and gets a progress bar. The progress bar stops, and ... well that's it. The picture does not appear, nor can we find it downloaded anywhere on her phone.

If she's on the LTE phone data network, she can see the photos just fine.

Is there a way to have the Samsung automatically switch to the data network? She's usually got that "auto-detect-wifi" option selection selected. The only way to get the MMSs that we've found is to turn off wi-fi.

Google revels that iPhone-to-Android MMS is trouble for a lot of people. No good solutions. Anyone know what the problem is, and how to fix it?

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Verizon_Support

gary_p,

Oh my, I am sorry to hear your wife is unable to send MMS to iPhone users. I know how much I rely on my MMS so let's get this mystery resolved. What software version does she have? Is she able to send MMS to other users? MMS will only work while connected to our network and wifi is off.

KarenC_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

gary_p

Oh KarenC,

The world is full of mis-information on this topic, and nothing is believable. I called Verizon Tech Support, and they told me that Apple uses a proprietary messaging system that is incompatible with Android devices, and I should tell all my friends with iPhones to turn off iMessaging. Seriously? Tell each of my 20 or so friends with iPhones, one of THE most popular phones, that they have to turn off *The Most Used iPhone App* because of me? I nearly fell off of my chair that such a suggestion could be made out loud.

As for MMS only working when WiFi is off, that also seems to be incorrect, or at least incomplete to the point of being not useful.

I was able to accidentally solve the problem by turing OFF "Auto Connect" in the Android's Connectivity menu. Now when at home the phone uses WiFi almost all of the time, but when an MMS comes in, the 4G icon briefly lights, and the photo appears. I don't know what "Auto Connect" is supposed to do, but evidently it does not manage connections automatically.

Now this solution may not work for all of the many people who have this problem (Google it). But one thing is certain: I've gotten wrong information from two different Verizon tech support people.

I hope this post helps someone else suffering from this condition.

unknown

Apple iphones do use imessage between iphones and iPads this is a fact. However iphones can send as text/MMS simply by turning the "send as MMS/text" in the device settings.

Another trick is to have your friends with android/iphones to remove your contact number and then reenter the number back to their contact lists.

You can also do the same on your phone. Then try sending.

I can send to my friends android phones and they have no problem sending to my iphones.

Good Luck

unknown

Check the settings data connections while on wifi. If her phone is set so that it refuses to connect to cellular if it has a wifi connection, change the setting.

It should not have anything to do with iPhones. this should happen for ever MMS message from any phone.

It also has nothing to do with iMessage. iMessage can only be sent and received by other apple devices. She would get NO MESSAGE AT ALL if the message were sent via iMessage.

BleezyD

I believe the issue is that Imessage uses data to send messages not SMS/MMS. So Iphone users can send any size files, or at least files bigger than 1.2mb cap that verizon has on mms. So between iphone users there is no issue, but since android uses actual sms/mms when iphone users send a file over, it can get stuck and cause issues due to the file size limit on sms/mms. At least that what seems to be problem. All my friends have iphone except me and this issue is causing us to abandon sms/mms all together since its been nothing but problems. I miss out on so many messages because of this problem.

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