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Jetpack Silently Dropping Messages

Sometimes when I get a long message, the Jetpack silently drops it and give my indication of failure. The Jetpack user is not alerted in any way and the sender is notified of successful message delivery. Why? The same long text ALWAYS works if it is split into two smaller messages. Failing that, what is the maximum message length that the Jetpack will handle before silently failing.

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John_Getzke

I do not understand what you are describing. Are you referring to email messages or text messages? Jetpacks only connect devices over WiFi to the VZW network. Likewise Jetpacks do not alert users about incoming or outgoing messages, that would be the email or texting application. Jetpacks do not carry text message signals that your phone normally receives unless you are going through a website or some other messaging service normally available on the web. I can assure you the Jetpack does not care how long any of your messages are, as long as there is data to transmit the Jetpack will do it and consume your data along the way.

Please confirm your Jetpack model and the application you are using to send your messages so we can try to better answer your question.

Datahero

Thank you for responding to my question.

The Jetpack in question is a model MiFi 5510L and it is running software version 1.34.23.

This query is only about pure text messages being sent to the Jetpack from another Verizon phone (I.E., via SMS). There are no pictures involved and I have not tested this.

There is no e-mail being used at any point nor is there any other kind of software or device. There are no web sites being used, not even the Jetpack Admin page.

I am aware that the Jetpack does not alert users about incoming text messages and do not expect it to do so. It is not being used for alert purposes.

I can assure you that I have personally observed that when a message over a certain length is sent to a Jetpack from an iPhone, the iPhone will report success and the Jetpack will report nothing. No indication whatsoever. This behavior is consistent, repeatable and demonstrable. It has happened from two different iPhones.

If the exact same message is split into two smaller ones, it is successfully received in all cases.

I am hesitant to think that the iPhone could be the problem because it is reporting success and the message is stored.

I have not been able to test the behavior from other cellphones because I do not have any more smartphones at my disposal and my regular cellphones can not generate a message of sufficient length.

I have not tested the behavior from either web based or e-mail based services as this is not a requirement.

John_Getzke

Thanks for sharing, you are educating me in a new way to use the Jetpack which is taking a little getting used to. First time I have heard of someone trying to treat the Jetpack like an old school beeper or text messaging device.

It is very possible that the Jetpack cannot process text messages over a certain length. Id imagine you could have a friend generate a similarly long text message and send it to your Jetpack to reproduce the problem too. It doesn't sound like something on the iPhone is the problem.

What I suggest would be to first generate a few long texts from some friends devices to confirm its not an iPhone issue. Then I would contact VZW support directly and open a ticket for them to investigate. Considering the nature of this problem is so easily re-creatable it should be easy to speed through the troubleshooting steps and alert the hardware manufacturer. The hard part may be explaining to the phone rep what it is you are trying to do in the first place since this is such an unusual feature to take advantage of on the Jetpack itself.

Datahero

Yes, let me clarify: the Jetpack is NOT being used as a beeper. It makes no sound whatsoever and therefore can not be used for this purpose, nor did I ever expect to. That's fine. I am also aware that it can NOT be used to respond to any text messages. That's fine, too. I don't need either functionality.

It is being used to store copies of SMS messages and only SMS message sent both individually from separate phones and also group messages. Group messages are used to ensure delivery in case the message does not show up on older (non-smart) phones. The Jetpack is perfectly suited to this message receive only role. I think it's great for that.

Most of my acquaintances are iPhone fanatics, so I only have one person to ask who has an Android (who also wishes she had an iPhone). If it always works from the Android, then that would appear to put the ball back squarely in the iPhone's court.

Do you think texting from a web site might be of use as a rule out the iPhone? In other words, if the web site reports successful message delivery and nothing happens on the Jetpack side? Perhaps something from the Verizon Integrated Messaging web site?

Oh, I don't think that it would be all that hard to explain the problem to the phone rep: "My Jetpack won't receive long text messages". That isn't too complex for them, don't you think? On the other hand, one hesitates to overrate Level 1 support...

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