How to enable messaging app notifications on your Galaxy Note5

We’ve been getting questions regarding notifications on their Samsung devices lately. We believe this is because of Android Oreo update. For today’s #GalaxyNote5 troubleshooting episode, we provide you the steps on how to enable messaging app notifications. The steps are similar to how you enable notifications for other apps as well so we believe you’ll find this post helpful.

Problem #1: AT&T Galaxy Note5 can’t do group messaging on T-Mobile network

I ported my phone from AT&T to TMobile. The phone was unlocked but im having major issues with texting. Group messages are coming in as individual responses. When i go to settings, there is no option to program group texts. Nothing under MMS or Settings. On a text, i no longer have the option to select respond to group or just me. I also can’t tell if the message has been sent to me or a group. All of this started when i unlocked the samsung Note5 for a new carrier. — Giscott15

Solution: Hi Giscott15. Carrier-branded smartphones use carrier-specific firmware in order to work properly on the network it’s intended to work on. While using a smartphone to another network generally works, some features may be sacrificed in the process. And that’s not exactly intentional. Carrier firmware are designed to work with a specific network requirement so there’s a chance that porting a device to a third party network may block certain network functionalities. In other cases, problems like the the one you have is caused by incompatibility. If your Note5 was able to send and receive group messages while it was still on its parent network, then group messaging feature now is most probably incompatible with the current network. Unfortunately, there’s really no fix for that and if there is, it may require a complicated coding modification. Frankly, coders who develop unlock software for devices may not bother to look into the issue at all, even if it’s possible at all. Although both AT&T and T-Mobile are using the same GSM technology, their firmware, especially on the network aspect are basically different. Unlocking an AT&T phone only modifies a certain aspect of its network configuration and it doesn’t mean that all networking features will continue to work the same. If you don’t see any way to configure SMS and MMS settings to allow for group messaging, that’s probably it.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note5 LED not working when receiving text messages

The LED to receive text messages has stopped on my Note 5. I thought it was caused by the 3rd party app but when I used the system app it still doesn’t work. I’ve looked through all the setting and all seem to be correct. I’m trying to avoid a system reset but am unsure what else to do or if a reset will fix it. Also at times when I press the home button to activate the screen it immediately goes dark until its powered off/on. — TL Pike

Solution: Hi TL. The option to change LED behavior on the Note5 can be changed by doing these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Display.
3. Tap LED indicator.

If LED indicator is already set to ON but it continues to fail to work like it’s supposed to, you should consider doing a factory reset. This should help you tell if the reason for the symptoms are software in nature or bad hardware.

To factory reset your Note5:

1. Create a backup of your files.
2. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
4. Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
5. Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
6. The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
7. Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option Yes — delete all user data and press the Power key to select it.
8. When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
9. The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

If the issues remain after doing a factory reset, you can assume the cause is hardware malfunction. In this case, you want to contact Samsung for repair or replacement.

Problem #3: How to enable messaging app notifications on your Galaxy Note5

I came to this site looking for help with my text messages no longer being audible. I had done all the suggestions you had recommended except factory reset because, frankly, that’s a giant pain in the ass. The solution wound up being, which isn’t mentioned on any of your posts I found, was I needed to go into apps, then click messages app, and then allowing notifications on the main page. I suggest you add this fix to your page. — Paul Bucher

Solution: Hi Paul. If your Note5 was silent when receiving text messages before, there’s a few things that you can do to figure out where the problem lies. The first thing that we recommend in this situation is to ensure that app notification settings are properly configured. Here’s how to do that:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Find the messaging app and tap it.
4. Select Notifications.
5. Enable Allow notifications by moving the slider to the right.
6. Configure the rest of the options according to your preference.

If you did all these steps, then you were right to have skipped factory reset. Factory reset should be the final option. Before doing it, you can also try to reset app preferences or clear the data of your messaging app. Together, these should constitute the core potential solutions that you should do in this case.