There's not exactly much in the way of official statements on the matter just yet, but it looks like support forums have been piling up with reports of text messaging problems on the
HTC Hero over the past few weeks, and with no signs of a fix in sight. Apparently, the phone can send texts just fine, but runs into a little trouble when it comes to receiving 'em, with most folks reporting only intermittent problems, and at least some not receiving any at all. Interestingly, the problem seems to be occurring in both the US and the UK, so it would seem to be a problem on the phone's end and not the carrier's, and a few people seem to have had some (brief) success after resetting the device. Of course, there are also plenty of folks having no problems at all, but there doesn't seem to be any question that the issue is out there. So, have you been missing some texts on your Hero? Let us know in comments.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Perrin @ Oct 27th 2009 5:10AM
I too have had a few problems but mostly with mms messages, which resulted in me re-entering settings for text and mms as per instructions via T-mobile online support. Once handset rebooted all ok.
I'm a UK user.
Alex @ Oct 26th 2009 4:02PM
My Sprint Hero has had problems in regards to MMS. There are a few incoming MMS that will "break" the sms system of the phone. Specifically the text alerts that I was getting from my bank. Every time I was sent a text message, the thread would be from my bank and not from the person that sent it.
Of course I can not find the posts and threads about the issue that people like I are having, but the only work around is to do a hard rest and stop the offending MMS/SMS message being sent to your phone. Which I have had to do with my bank...
Hopefully this and the 100% awake time issue will be fixed on the Hero sooner rather than later.
Drastic91 @ Oct 26th 2009 11:49PM
My phone has been doing the same thing where my bank messages are in the same thread as my facebook and text messages from certain friends. I hope that there is a fix for this very soon!
Martin @ Oct 26th 2009 4:34PM
Everyone that I have heard reporting this problem has some task killer app on their phone. Once they got new phones or hard reset and didn't put a task-killer on they had no problems (also something regarding having app system info stored on the sd card even after you hard reset it.
Adam @ Oct 26th 2009 4:45PM
Interestingly enough, I rebooted my phone this morning and received 6 text messages I had missed from over the last few days. I chalked it up to either Sprint craziness or an oddity in Handcent SMS (which I'm using instead of the stock messaging app due to the battery issue).
I did have a taskkiller installed at one point but took it off when I was going through the whole troubleshooting battery life problem.
Martin @ Oct 26th 2009 4:49PM
/\ see :D Plan on getting the Hero or Moment this weekend depending on Moment reviews (and availabiligy if I choose Moment) so hope I don't have these troubles, considering its been one of my biggest issues with the Touch Pro.
Paul @ Oct 26th 2009 4:56PM
I think Martin is on the right track.
My Sprint Hero has this issue. Based on comments in various message boards, I'm thinking its because I'm using a task manager app (taskiller), though as yet I havent been able to do a hard reset to verify. In my case it's seemed spotty. I've not been able to correlate the behavior to using the "kill all background tasks" option in the app as some suggest.
Going to hard reset in the next couple of days and not use those type of apps and see how I get on. I'm not a heavy texter so I can live without for a little while (and have been).
Mir @ Oct 26th 2009 5:06PM
Martin, I'm having the same problem on my Touch Pro! i thought I was the only one. do you think its an issue with the phone or Sprint?
Martin @ Oct 26th 2009 5:37PM
Its the phone Mir. They have so many returns too that if you are lucky, and take it in to get repaired (replaced) they will give you an upgrade for free. Tried this at my stores but they are too smart and said need to do 3 returns before you can get the free upgrade, but you should try your store. People are ending up with Touch pro 2s and some people I have heard got Heros out of it...
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1595357
As for the taskkiller issue we are talking about, it looks like the SMS program needs to be running and these taskkiller apps are killing the SMS program which is causing the issue.
Alex @ Oct 26th 2009 6:07PM
This happend to my sprint hero 3 days after purchase, I did not have a task killer on the device. At that time I hadn't even used the market place. I was recieving sms here and there but at the worst point I wouldn't recieve any. Others who I sent sms to would not recieve my text either, especially with GSM providers (weird but I tested this). I called sprint which advance tech support said they knew nothing of the problem. They reporgramed my msid (network number) and shortly there after the problem started to improve. But when I tested prior into calling sprint I had a T-mobile phone, AT&T phone, 2 other sprint devices and Verizon device. I sent a test sms to each one of them and then sent one from each device to my hero. The sprint devices recieved the sms in about a second, verizon about 3 sec. AT&T and T-mobile didn't recieve my text but I recieved theirs. That's when I called Sprint tech support and they reset my msid. On the MMS issue, initially and MMS I sent worked fine, recieving, I've had about 80% success. My sms hasn't had any problems since the msid reset (about a week and a half ago) and MMS recieving seems to be improving. Reguardless, I think this is a minor set back in an amazing phone (before playing with this device I thought I wouldn't like android... I'm a believer now) I do hope Sprint/HTC sends some updates here shortly to imporve these small issues.
Mike @ Oct 26th 2009 6:38PM
I've had some problems but for the most part they seem to work.
Sometimes I'll get the same text twice, or the date will be off, and there was an image someone sent me that it couldn't display in a slideshow unless I saved it and viewed it from the album.
Other than that most people respond right away to my message and I don't see signs of major problems.
Hoping for donut and an update from HTC soon.
heat1 @ Oct 26th 2009 6:44PM
hey that has happend to me but I power down at nite. Since then it has not happend
mackaikai @ Oct 27th 2009 1:10AM
yes, im having the same problem...for the past few days, I am not getting all my SMS....I've since gone back to my HTC Touch Pro....com'on HTC, fix this problem.......sigh, might have to exchange this for a Samsung Moment.. :(
Demosthenes9 @ Oct 27th 2009 4:23AM
What a coincidence. I bought a Hero Saturday and just started having this problem this evening.
I don't have an task killer installed. Also, I'm using ChompSMS.
herotour @ Oct 27th 2009 9:38AM
wifey had messaging problems with her hero, and never really had powered her phone off. she could send messages but not received them. thought it was a network issue, so we powered the phone on/off and then it seemed to do the trick and she gets her messages now.
James D @ Oct 27th 2009 10:18AM
It's not exclusive to this phone. I have a Motorola W490 and it does this all the time. It's irritating but it's not just the Hero having this issue.
Rich @ Oct 27th 2009 1:20PM
My USA Hero is about a week old...missed text messages this a.m. from other networks, but sounds like it's the phone not the network. Called tech support...did a battery pull and reboot. Received test messages fine after that. I've got 3 more weeks to return, and if it comes up again it's a deal killer, which would be painful as I otherwise LOVE this phone.
Ryan @ Oct 28th 2009 12:43AM
I've had recent problem of the same with my Pre. Not as bad. Jist the date being off. Or receiving some texts late. But I am a heavy texter so this is very upseting. I was actually going to think about trading my Pre in for a Hero because of this. But I guess I'll keep my Pre. I like the Pre better anyways. They keyboard makes it so much easier to text!
Martin @ Oct 28th 2009 9:41AM
Glad you like the Pre. I played around with it, and used to play with my gf's Centro all the time. I am on the opposite spectrum where I think the Pre's keyboard will make it harder for me to text. I really wish I could get the Pre though because I LOVE WebOS. To me it is the best Phone OS out there, but I just do not like the hardware they used for its first outing (the plasticyness I could get over, its just I cannot use that keyboard!!). Hopefully after my year with this new phone is up, Palm will have a phone more to my liking (and Pixi is going to be the same problem for me sadly :( )
Kevin Jenkins @ Oct 30th 2009 6:44PM
I have been receiving about 80% of my e-mails only.....the phone is great other than that.
dr. funkenstein @ Oct 31st 2009 9:51PM
Just got a brand new one. Very nice phone in many ways. Sense is pretty cool and should make checking emails from the home screen very easy (you can flip through pages in a useful and entertaining way) -- but the phone is missing emails, so that's a potential deal killer. My company uses google domains, and I use gmail personally, so this is doubly frustrating because the built-in (non-upgradable, as far as I can tell) gmail client only registers with one gmail account -- so you can't sync/push more than one gmail or google domain account. So stupid to blow an advantage like this.
Anyway, I do like the phone so I hope they fix this quickly.
dr. funkenstein @ Nov 2nd 2009 3:19PM
Here's an update -- I've been getting most of the messages on my Hero from my gmail and google domains email accounts, but, despite multiple uncheckings of the Delete from Server option, Outlook is now failing to pull messages from the google servers that i've already read on the Hero. They show up in gmail but never get to outlook. Never had these problems with my Blackberry. Still like the device, but these problems are frustrating.
Damon @ Nov 3rd 2009 6:53AM
i go DAYS without receiving a single text and i know that people have sent me numerous. Its extremely frustrating. I absolutely love everything else about the phone. ive been through 3 phones in the last month due to various issues and i do not want to return this one but if there is no resolution i may have to...
Melissa @ Nov 4th 2009 2:29PM
I didn't receive any messages yesterday from 12:30 - 10:30 p.m. You talk about frustrating! To tell the truth, there was an erie silence to the day. Anyway, I have had problems other times, too, like I will send a message and someone will get it 2 hours later. I have had this phone less than 2 weeks and I love it except for this problem. I do think that I may turn this phone back in because of it, however.
melissa. @ Nov 10th 2009 11:59PM
I noticed I couldn't receive text messages about two days ago. I could send but not receive. so I called sprint. he told me that when the memory on your phone gets full or somewhat full it sets off a flag, blocking incoming messages. he told me I had to back up my phone to my computer (to basically reset it) this would unblock it. but he said it would be easier if I took it to the sprint store. so I took it today. it took about 40 minutes. the guy told me it was problem with htc and that they were working on developing something to fix this. he told me I have to be careful and delete my messages to make sure this doesn't happen again. he said that if it did I should take it to the sprint store and that they would send me a new one. he also told me the 1.6 update should be available maybe at the end of this month. and that the 2.0 update would be available sometime during January or February next year.
teresa @ Nov 10th 2009 9:26PM
Just got my HTC Hero on Saturday...have found that when trying to open video text messages from other people it comes up as a slide show and doesn't play the video, also there is no sound when playing any texts with sounds. I took it to sprint today was there an hour and 1/2 and they don't have a clue either. The guy I was talking to said it may just be the way this phone is set up and that if I want to see any videos that people would have to email them to me....this to me sounds like bs....why can every other phone on sprints network or any other network get video texts with no problems...but mine can't? ....doesn't sound like he knows what hes talking about.
Any one got any ideas?
Lynix @ Nov 14th 2009 3:09AM
I got the HTC HD2 around 2 days ago, fresh out of the market so to speak and it is an awesome phone, However.. I am facing the SMS issue which I think from what I am reading is a glitch in Microsoft Windows mobile 6.5 with Hero & HD2, basically sms works fine until a certain time (which I am not sure when) that I send smses but get no delivery report and then I know I have to restart the phone to ensure all my smses get sent. It could be a problem with 3GS and GSM or simply a patch needs to be added by HTC or Microsoft.. I am looking into solutions..
stevecman @ Nov 21st 2009 11:52PM
I bought two HTC Heros a few days ago and found that the SMS on one unit worked fine and on the other unit, SMS would only send but not receive.
I downloaded the latest firmware for the misbehaving handset and it appears SMS is working fine now.
Now if I can figure out how to get the Google Talk widget to work....when activated, it advised that I have entered the wrong username and password...yet my G-mail works fine on the unit!!!