Galaxy S8 messaging app showing “Currently unable to send your message” popup when sending
Today’s troubleshooting article talks about two messaging issues that has reached our attention. We know there are a lot of messaging issues out there that we are yet to address so consider the ones in this post part of our greater effort in resolving messaging problems on the S8.
Problem #1: Galaxy S8 messaging app keeps showing “Currently unable to send your message” popup when there’s no signal reception
This is a pretty specific problem. When I have no signal and I send a message on my S8’s default messaging app, the “Currently unable to send your message. It will be sent when the service becomes available.” system message gets stuck on my screen. It’s not a notification, it’s just a grey box on the bottom of my screen. I can’t interact with it and I can’t click on anything under it. If it helps, it also seems to get slightly lighter every few seconds, as if it’s fading before it gets pulled up again. Also, it has just appeared a new notification, one that says “Message service is sending a large number of text messages. Allow this app to continue sending messages?”. When I hit “Deny”, the grey box remains for a few minutes before disappearing. This has happened a few times to me, all of which I have fixed by restarting my phone, if there is another way to fix this other than waiting several minutes or restarting my phone, it would really be helpful. Thanks. — Andrew
Solution: Hi Andrew.Smartphones would continue to attempt sending SMS and MMS even when there’s no service coverage minutes after hitting the send button. This is a normal software design as the system will regularly sweep the airwaves in hopes of somehow being able to re-establish a link with a network. So, this is the reason why “Currently unable to send your message…” popup shows for some time before eventually fading out. We don’t think it’s a bug but if such popup message lingers for more than 2 minutes each time, then you can treat it as one. THe “Message service is sending a large number of text messages. Allow this app to continue sending messages?” screen usually shows up if a messaging app is having trouble sending multiple messages at the same time. This usually occurs if there’s network congestion, or in your case, the phone is not connected to the network at all. This might also happen if there’s a lot of queued messages that’s waiting to be sent. Workarounds for these situations vary and there’s no known “fix” for the. We suggest that you try any of the following suggestions below and see which of them works for you.
Toggle Airplane Mode on and off
Some Android users were able to fix this problem before by simply blocking all network functions of a phone thru Airplane Mode. If you can’t take the “Currently unable to send your message…” screen, just pull down the status bar from the top of the screen, look for Airplane Mode, and tap it. Then, wait for a few moments before turning off Airplane Mode again. If this won’t help, proceed to the next solution option.
Clear cache and data
Dealing with your device’s system cache is the next step in your troubleshooting ladder. That’s because sometimes, a corrupted system cache can lead to all sorts of problems. This is especially true after installing an update, or after installing an app. To check if you have a system cache issue, kindly do the steps below to clear the cache partition:
- Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S8.
- Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
- When the Samsung Galaxy S8 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
- When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
- Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
- Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
- Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
- The phone will now reboot longer than usual.
Remember, clearing the cache partition is only limited to fixing cache-related problems. If nothing changes, or if the issue remains, proceed to the rest of the troubleshooting steps below.
Reset network settings
One of the potentially good things that you can do in this case is is to reset the network settings. There’s a chance that the problem is being caused by a network bug. Sometimes, bugs may develop after changing some settings so you want to ensure that the network aspect of the operating system settings is taken are of. To reset your S8’s network settings:
- Open Settings app.
- Tap General management.
- Tap Reset.
- Tap Reset network settings.
- Tap RESET SETTINGS button.
Install app and Android updates
Some bugs are only fixable by installing patches to the problematic app or to the operating system. Because we can’t fully eliminate the chance of an app or Android bug causing a problem in this case, it goes without saying that installing an update is a must.
By default, your Galaxy S8 is set to automatically install app updates thru the Play Store app. If you changed this default behavior before, make sure to look under Play Store app settings and set it back to automatically download and install updates. If you don’t want that, try to see if there are pending updates for your apps and install them accordingly.
For firmware updates, you can check under Settings > Software update.
Use another messaging app
Should the suggestions above won’t help, it’s probably because the issue is specific to the messaging app itself. To check if that’s the case, try to use another messaging app. There are many free messaging app that you can use in place of the stock messaging app in the Play Store.
Factory reset
As a precaution, we want you to wipe your S8 and return all software settings back to their defaults if all the solutions above won’t help. Before doing it, be sure to create a backup of your files to avoid losing irreplaceable data.
To factory reset your S8:
- Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S8.
- Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
- When the Samsung Galaxy S8 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
- When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
- Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
- Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
- Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
- The phone will now reboot longer than usual.
Problem #2: Galaxy S8 won’t send SMS for an hour every few weeks
Hello. I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 unlocked. I use Total Wireless as my service provider. Every couple of weeks my phone stops being able to send or receive texts for anywhere between an hour to a day. I can access the internet, get emails and everything else that uses data (I’m not connected to wifi) so I don’t think it is data related. I have tried several of the things I have read on other sites-clearing the cache, turning my phone off and back on but nothing seems to happen. It just randomly starts working again. When it first started I thought it was an issue with Total Wireless but I got a new SIM card which is what they suggested and the issue is still occuring. Any help you can give would be great. — Jennifer
Solution: Hi Jennifer. The difficult part in fixing this problem is NOT doing the solution but in finding what causes it in the first place. If the issue only occurs once every couple of weeks at most, we say it will be very difficult for you to find a pattern.
The possible causes of this issue can include the following:
- software glitch
- a messaging app bug
- malware
- poorly coded app/ third party app issue
- network glitch or outage
To cover for the possibility that it might be a messaging app problem, you can try to reset messaging app to its defaults. Some messaging apps may have special settings in them that a user can set to regularly send SMS or stop from receiving messages at all. We would like to think that you’re using stock Samsung messaging app (so there’s no special setting that you can change to allow it to stop sending and receiving SMS and MMS on a time you set) but nevertheless, we strongly suggest that reset it back to its defaults. To do that, follow the steps below. Keep in mind that this procedure will delete your messages. If you want to keep them, make sure that you back them up first using Samsung Smart Switch.
Once you’re ready, here are the steps to reset your messaging app back to its defaults:
- Open Settings app.
- Tap Apps.
- Tap More settings (three-dot icon) at the upper-right.
- Tap Show system apps.
- Find the app you’re having an issue with and tap it.
- Tap Storage.
- Tap Clear Data button.
- Restart your S8.
- Check if the problem still exists.
Should the issue continues after clearing the messaging app’s data, the issue must be caused by something in the software or network. We don’t know how your carrier helped you troubleshoot this issue but they are actually the best people that can isolate the trouble for you. As a user, you’re only limited to doing some basic software troubleshooting so there’s not much that you can do about it. They should be the one to help you narrow down the possible cause. An issue like this can’t be fixed by one troubleshooting session with them. You have eliminate the rest of the possible causes with their help in order to know where the problem lies. Needless to say, third party support teams like us may not be of help in this situation.