For several months, we received tons of complaints coming from Samsung Galaxy S5 users saying that their device suddenly misbehaving and it's not receiving any text message (SMS) after installing the latest update. So, in this post, I have to discuss this problem to shed light about it and to determine the possible factors why this is happening.
As a matter of fact, in troubleshooting this issue there are numerous of reasons to consider that this problem occur on your phone. But if the system has been updated before the issue started, then, that's a different story. It could be the caches had been ruined during the update or there were incompatible applications running in the firmware and caused the issue. So, to be certain what the problem is, we will try to rule-out all possibilities until we can come out to the solution and fix the issue.
Here are the procedures that you need to do:
Step 1: Check if you're phone is getting a good signal
Before performing any troubleshooting methods on your phone try to check first if you are getting a good signal in your area. If it shows on your status bar that your signal is weak that would be the reason your phone is unable to receive any text message. In this case, try to restart your phone and see if you can get a strong signal, if so, proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Empty your Inbox and send a text message to your phone number afterwards
Another reason that your phone cannot receive a text message is due to full Inbox. In this step, we suggest you to delete some of your messages or delete all of it if possible to be sure that there's an extra space for the incoming message. After you do so, send a text message to your number and see if your phone can receive it. But if the issue is still the same, there might be another factor triggering it, proceed to the next method.
This is how to delete text message
- From Home screen, tap Messages.
- Tap the preferred message thread.
- Tap and hold the preferred message.
- Tap Delete.
- Tap DELETE to confirm.
Step 3: Make sure there is no rogue app in the system
Since, the issue still happening after the first 2 steps you performed, this time, we will try to reboot your phone in safe mode. The purpose of restarting it in this mode is to verify if a culprit is causing the problem by preventing all third-party apps from running in the system. So, while in this state use your device and send again a text message to your number to see if the problem is fixed. If you can already receive a message, it is evident that there's a culprit you need to uninstall. Follow these steps to boot in Safe mode:
- Turn off the device.
- Press and hold the Power key.
- When 'Samsung Galaxy S5' appears on the screen, release the Power key.
- Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume Down key.
- Continue to hold the Volume Down key until the device finishes restarting.
- Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
- Release the Volume Down key when you see Safe mode.
But if booting in safe mode and the issue still persists, proceed to the next method.
Step 4: Delete the System Cache Partition
As the system has been updated it's not far that the overall files and data of the phone was corrupted during the process. In fact, deleting the system cache partition from time to time is necessary to all android users especially if a new system has been installed to be sure that all files running in the firmware are up to date. This time, we suggest you to delete all the system files and data so that fresher ones will be created and could be recognized once it is loaded to the firmware. This is how to do the step:
- Turn your phone Off.
- Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys at the same time.
- When the phone vibrates, release the Power button but continue to press and hold the Volume Up and Home keys.
- When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the remaining buttons.
- Scroll to and highlight Wipe Cache Partition using the Volume Down key.
- Select the option by pressing the Power key.
- Wait until the cache partition has been wiped completely. When its done, you'll see Reboot System now is highlighted.
- To restart the device, press the Power key.
Step 5: Bring your device back to its factory settings by doing a reset
After doing the previous methods and the problem still persists, then, your phone might experiencing a serious-firmware issue and you don't have a choice but to do a reset. Meaning, you have to bring back your Galaxy S5 to its factory default and all files and data will be removed from the system once you do this method. So, before you follow the steps we recommend that you should create first a backup by moving it to your personal computer or SD card.
- Turn off the device.
- Press and hold the Volume Up, Home key and Power keys at the same time.
- When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume up key and Home key.
- When the Android System Recovery appears, release the Volume Up key and Home key.
- Press the Volume Down key several times to highlight 'wipe date / Factory reset'.
- Press Power button to select.
- Press the Volume Down key until 'Yes - delete all user data' is highlighted.
- Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
- When the master reset is complete, 'Reboot system now' is highlighted.
- Press Power key restart the device.
But after you do the reset and you're still unable to receive any text message, the last option that you should do is to call your service provider for there might be an issue on their end. Because if they have to confirm that there is an outage in your area or a major revamp happening on their system that may be the reason that you cannot receive an SMS.