Solution to text which says "Downloading" but never does.
June 2, 2017 10:32 PM Subscribe
User of an old Galaxy Ace Samsung phone, who receives text messages from friends with iPhones which display no actual text, instead just gives a message size (which seems large), an expiration date and time, and then a single word: "Downloading."
I received one today which looks like this:
I received one today which looks like this:
Message size: 32KB DownloadingHow to fix this? My guess is, I'm being sent photos.
Expires: 16:22 June 5
Sending emojis in a text message can result in an mms not an sms ( https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jan/02/charged-extra-emoji-texts-smartphone-bill ). To be able to receive mms you should be able to get your network provider to send the correct settings to your phone (or you can enter them manually).
posted by JonB at 11:40 PM on June 2, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by JonB at 11:40 PM on June 2, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sometimes, against logic, MMS won't download over Wifi but will download over data. Is this something you can try switching to, or have you tried that already?
posted by Sunburnt at 1:06 AM on June 3, 2017
posted by Sunburnt at 1:06 AM on June 3, 2017
group texts can cause it to be mms too, but if your phone is having a problem with those, it will do something like this and look like it is just a person-to-person text. at least that's been my experience. have especially run into this when using third party messaging apps rather than the native one.
posted by solotoro at 6:27 AM on June 3, 2017
posted by solotoro at 6:27 AM on June 3, 2017
On a old Galaxy S phone, Android 2.3.5, it'll say "downloading" for a long, long time if you don't have a data plan, or if you don't have "mobile data" turned on. I had this problem with a pay-as-you-go plan.
Swipe down, and see if "mobile data" is enabled. If it is, then you are being blocked from mobile data by your carrier or service plan. If it is not enabled, turn it on, and see if the little icons in your signal status bar show any activity. If that doesn't fix it, you may have to interact with the service plan carrier to turn on data service, perhaps on a web page.
If "mobile data" is not enabled, you will not receive an error: it will simply not work, and not finish.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:29 AM on June 3, 2017
Swipe down, and see if "mobile data" is enabled. If it is, then you are being blocked from mobile data by your carrier or service plan. If it is not enabled, turn it on, and see if the little icons in your signal status bar show any activity. If that doesn't fix it, you may have to interact with the service plan carrier to turn on data service, perhaps on a web page.
If "mobile data" is not enabled, you will not receive an error: it will simply not work, and not finish.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:29 AM on June 3, 2017
Response by poster: Yeah, I think that's my problem. It does use a pay-as-you-go AT&T plan, and AFABulous' link led to this AT&T page which suggests adding a new APN, which I did, but I can't select the new one! Additional factor is I'm using a very old SIM card, which I now realize is probably obsolete.
posted by Rash at 10:58 AM on June 3, 2017
posted by Rash at 10:58 AM on June 3, 2017
There is a meme going around where you send someone a gif that makes it look like their phone is downloading a photo but it is just an animated gif of the download circle and the word "Downloading". So, this could just be a joke.
posted by soelo at 9:11 AM on June 5, 2017
posted by soelo at 9:11 AM on June 5, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by AFABulous at 11:13 PM on June 2, 2017