No MMS messages without manual action

Renewably3997

For the past several weeks, I've experienced an issue with MMS messages. I no longer receive notifications from the GrapheneOS Messaging app for incoming MMS messages (this is on the main owner profile). When I manually launch the messaging app, it immediately fetches all of the pending MMS messages queued up from the carrier. Some of the message are days old, depending on when I last launched the app. This doesn't seem like a simple notification problem- the app is definitely going out to the carrier to fetch so I can watch the MMS message slowly come in. I hadn't thought much of it because most MMS messages are junk spam these days but today I missed something important. I've verified that my APN settings are correct for my carrier and I do not have any other SMS app installed. Anyone experience this or have any suggestions to resolve?

Renewably3997

I should add that this is limited to MMS messages only SMS messages come in automatically as expected.

splattergames

did you enable automatic MMS fetching in the advanced settings of the SMS app? Also check the 'while roaming' option to be sure.

Renewably3997

splattergames thanks for the reply- yes, both of those settings were on.

splattergames

Renewably3997 well, that was worth a try. Is the issue occuring in the owner profile? From what I've seen here in the forum, secondary user profiles seems to be in some cases problematic with SMS and MMS.
Two things you could try is using a different SMS app (like QUIK) to see if the issue is related to the app itself or check if the SIM is able to receive MMS properly on a different phone. If it doesn't, the issue is most likely with your provider.

Renewably3997

splattergames Ok, I'll give that app a try. I read in another thread that non-native SMS apps could cause problems like this but at this point, I don't know what else to try. I'm on a major carrier so I'd be surprised they couldn't manage MMS. The SIM was in an iPhone previously and never had this problem. Thanks again!

Renewably3997

So, as a follow up, things have gotten even stranger. Today I received two MMS messages. Both messages had an expiration date in the future and yet, in the stock messaging app, when I attempt to download them, I receive a response "message expired or unavailable." I installed the QUIK app as suggested. When I launched this app, a third message immediately arrived. This particular message was blank in QUIK with no option to download. I then return to the stock messaging app and this new message suddenly appeared and I was able to download it. So it seems that QUIK fetched an MMS message that the stock app was unable to find. Yet, it couldn't actually download the message. Only the stock app was able to download this MMS message, despite being unable to download two others that arrived the same day. When I put my SIM card into an iPhone, MMS messaging works as expected. So this is definitely a GrapheneOS issue. I'm not going to complain about GrapheneOS because the developers generously donate their work and time for the benefit of others. At the same time, this is core functionality and I very literally can't afford to miss messages like this. Any other suggestions?

splattergames

Renewably3997 I would say "core functionality" is a bit of a stretch. MMS is an unencrypted, unsafe protocol that never really took off and is already being phased out completely by different carriers around the world.
I can understand your frustration though. The problem that Android has compared to iOS, is its SMS database. It needs to be synced and interpreted by an SMS app which sometimes fails. I had whole conversations vanish in one app, just to reappear in another with no way to fix that. I can imagine that the devs (mainly Google through AOSP) are not focussing their efforts on legacy code anymore since SMS is also mostly being replaced by modern instant messaging services and arguably RCS and losing its importance in the process. I can't really give you a recommendation here on how to proceed with that... Mainly I would suggest to stick to one SMS app and don't swap around, since that caused the most problems for me (the re-syncing of the SMS db).

Renewably3997

splattergames I get that and totally agree with you about MMS. Nothing would make me happier than to be rid of it. The problem however is Apple and the way they've intentionally prolonged the protocol to lock customers into their ecosystem. When an iPhone user messages me, it's SMS or MMS because that's what's baked into their messaging app. I'm open to other messaging services but, in general, iPhone users are not. I need to interact with them- it's part of my livelihood. Apple finally caved in on RCS but the damage has been done. Plus, in order to use RCS on GrapheneOS, you have to open up a bunch of invasive permissions to Google, which, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of GOS in the first place. So while I understand that MMS is an archaic and insecure technology, it is unfortunately, still very much alive, at least for the time being, and from a pragmatic standpoint, I need my phone to reliably receive MMS until it is no longer a default for millions of users.