How to fix Galaxy S10 5G can’t send or receive texts | troubleshooting SMS not working

One of the frustrating problems one can have is being unable to send or receive texts. In this short guide, we’ll show the solutions if your Galaxy S10 5G can’t send or receive texts. Make sure to follow the list to ensure that you do a logical troubleshooting.

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How to fix Galaxy S10 5G can’t send or receive texts | troubleshooting SMS not working

Are you having trouble texting on your Galaxy S10 5G? This troubleshooting guide should help you fix if your Galaxy S10 5G can’t send or receive texts.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #1: Confirm network is working

If your Galaxy S10 5G can’t send or receive texts after setting it up for the first time, the foremost thing that you should do is to confirm that you have network signal. If there’s weak signal (1 or 2 signal bars) or if it keeps dropping where you’re at, that may be the reason for your texting problem. Try to relocate and find a good signal to see if that will work. If you’re inside a building with lots of glass all around or thick, reinforced concrete walls, go out and see if texting works. Wireless signals including network signals can get affected by a number of factors. Try moving in an open area and see if that will improve the situation.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #2: Check if voice calling works

Voice calling and texting works in the same network mode. If voice calling won’t work together with texting, there may be an on-going network issue. Check with your carrier to see if that’s the case.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #3: Force quit messaging app

Like any other app, the default Samsung Messaging app may crash for no apparent reason all of a sudden. That’s because there are a lot of possible points of failure in Android all the time. Sometimes, temporary glitch may develop in an app after an update or any coding changes in the operating system. Such bugs may go away when an app is refreshed though. To check if the problem is temporary, follow these steps to restart the app.

1. On your screen, tap the Recent Apps soft key (the one with three vertical lines on the left of the Home button).
2. Once the Recent Apps screen is shown, swipe left or right to look for the Instagram app. It should be here if you managed to run it previously. Then, swipe up on the app to close it. This should force close it. If it’s not there, simply tap the Close All app to also restart all apps.

Another way to force close an app is this:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
4. Tap Show system apps.
5. Find and tap the Instagram app.
6. Tap Force Stop.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #4: Clear messaging app cache

At times, an app’s cache may affect performance and cause problems. To ensure that the cache of the messaging app is in top shape, try clearing it and see what happens.

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
4. Tap Show system apps.
5. Find and tap the Instagram app.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear cache button.
8. Restart the device and check for the problem.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #5: Reset messaging app

A follow up to the previous step is clearing an app’s data. If nothing happens after clearing the temporary cache of messaging app, make sure to follow it up by clearing its data.

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap the More settings icon (three-dot icon, upper right).
4. Tap Show system apps.
5. Find and tap the appropriate app.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear data button.
8. Restart the device and check for the problem.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #6:Perform soft reset

The next troubleshooting step that you can do in this case is restart your S10. Just as apps may encounter errors from time to time, the device itself can do too. Glitches can develop as well if your phone is left to run for a long time. It is for this reason that phone users are encouraged to regularly restart their phones. Your S10 can benefit from a simple restart once every few days.

As a troubleshooting step, we recommend that you do another form of restart called soft reset. Basically, it’s a simulation of effects of the traditional “battery pull” procedure. If you haven’t tried it before, this is how it works:

1. Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 12 seconds or until the device power cycles. Note: Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
2. From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. Note: Utilize the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Allow up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.
3. If Maintenance Boot Mode screen won’t show, then your device does not have it. Simply wait for the device to power down completely.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #7: Confirm Message Center Number is correct

Message Center Number is an important information that makes possible getting and sending of SMS and MMS. If MCN is incorrect on your device, it won’t be able to send a text message though it can continue to receive them without problems. Usually, the MCN is set automatically once you insert a SIM card to a GSM device. For CDMA phones, this is usually pre-set by the carrier. Just in case this has never happened, you can manually check the MCN by doing these steps:

1. Open your Messages app.
2. Tap More settings (three-dot icon) at the upper right.
3. Select Settings.
4. Tap More settings.
5. Tap Text messages.
6. Tap Message center.
7. If you don’t know the correct MCN, be sure to ask your carrier about it.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #8: Reset network settings

If the problem still remains at this time, make sure to reset all network settings. This is one of the important troubleshooting steps for any network trouble in a Galaxy device. Below are the steps that you must do:

1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
2. Tap General Management > Reset > Reset network settings.
3. Tap Reset settings.
4. If you have set up a PIN, enter it.
5. Tap Reset settings. Once complete a confirmation window will appear.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #9: Clear cache partition

If your Galaxy S10 5G can’t send or receive text issue started after installing a system update or app, there may be a problem with the system cache. Make sure to clear the cache partition to fix the issue. Here’s how to do that:

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
4. Press the Volume down key to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
5. Press the Power key to select.
6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #10: Keep software and apps updated

Keeping the messaging app updated should be one of the important things to do. Although the Samsung is relatively aggressive when it comes to pushing updates, we still recommend that you check if the current version on your device is updated.

And speaking of apps, you want to make sure that the rest are updated as well. If you have apps taken from outside the Play Store, be sure to check them out as well. Keep in mind that poor app coding may sometimes impact other apps as well. Having a generally updated set of apps lessen the chances of bugs from developing.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #11: Check for rogue third party app

Other apps may sometimes interfere with Android and with other apps. To check if that’s the case, restart the phone to safe mode. Here’s how to do that:

1. Press and hold the Power button until the Power off window appears then release.
2. Touch and hold Power off until the Safe mode prompt appears then release.
3. To confirm, tap Safe mode.
4. The process may take up to 30 seconds to complete.
5. Upon reboot, “Safe mode” appears in the lower-left of the home screen.

Remember that third-party applications are disabled in this mode so what you can use are pre-installed apps. If the touchscreen issue won’t appear on safe mode, that means that the problem is due to a bad app. Uninstall the app you recently installed and see if that will fix it. If the problem remains, use the process of elimination to identify the rogue app. Here’s how:

1. Boot to safe mode.
2. Check for the problem.
3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
5. If your S10 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #12: Restore software settings to defaults

We don’t think factory reset will help in any meaningful way in this situation but if all of the suggestions has not worked so far, you might want to consider doing it. Before you do it, be sure to back your personal data up ahead of time.

Method 1: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy S10 via Settings Menu

1. Create a backup of your personal data and remove your Google account.
2. Open Settings app.
3. Scroll to and tap General management.
4. Tap Reset.
5. Select Factory data reset from the given options.
6. Read the information then tap Reset to continue.
7. Tap Delete All to confirm action.

Method 2: How to hard reset on Samsung Galaxy S10 using hardware buttons

1. If possible, create a backup of your personal data ahead of time. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
2. Also, you want to make sure that you remove your Google account. If your problem prevents you from doing that, then simply skip this step.
3. Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
4. Press and hold the Volume Up button and the Bixby button at the same time.
5. While still holding the Volume Up and Bixby keys, press and hold the Power button.
6. The Recovery screen menu will now appear. When you see this, release the buttons.
7. Use the Volume Down button until you are highlighting ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
8. Press the Power button to select ‘Wipe data/factory reset.’
9. Use Volume Down to highlight Yes.
10. Press the Power button to confirm factory reset.

S10 5G can’t send or receive texts fix #13: Contact network operator

Should nothing change even after performing a factory reset, the cause of the problem must be something beyond your ability to fix. The best party that can help you in this case is your carrier. Be sure to talk to your carrier’s technical support team and tell them that you’ve already done everything on your device.

 

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