How to fix Galaxy S9 with texts that are not in order, can’t see a long SMS unless View More button is tapped

It’s not uncommon to hear Android users contact us about their device not receiving texts or SMS in the correct or normal order (most recent ones on top of the list). In today’s troubleshooting post, we bring you the solutions on how to handle this issue on the #GalaxyS9. We also cover another texting problem about a user’s inability to check a long message or text without having to click on View More button first. If you encounter any of these issues right now, make sure to refer to our suggestions below.

Problem #1: How to fix Galaxy S9 with texts that are not in order

MY MESSAGES NO LONGER DISPLAY IN DATE AND TIME ORDER.  THEY ARE ALL MIXED UP, WITH SOME NEWER MESSAGES AT THE END OF THE LIST.  IT IS VERY CONFUSING AND HARD TO FIND CURRENT MESSAGES. HOW CAN I TELL THE PHONE TO DISPLAY MESSAGES IN ORDER? AND, I DON’T KNOW WHICH ANDROID VERSION I HAVE. — NORA FAIFER

Solution: Hi Nora. We know of some causes why SMS may become out of order. Below is a list of these causes and how to fix them.

Verify system time and date are set correctly

This is the most common reason why SMS or messages (SMS and MMS) may be received in incorrect order. Users usually unknowingly encounter this issue after changing the correct time and date on their phones for whatever reason. Some may want to change their phone’s date and time in order to “cheat” in a game. Others do it for some other reasons. To ensure that your S9 has the correct date and time, use your network’s settings. Here’s how:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap General management.
3. Tap Date and time.

To adjust manually, ensure that Automatic date and time is off Switch off then:

1. Tap Set date.
2. Set the date then tap DONE.
3. Tap Set time.
4. Set the time then tap DONE.
5. Tap Select time zone then select the appropriate time zone.

We highly recommend that you use Automatic date and time option as that will ensure that your phone is constantly synced with your operator’s time and date down to the last second.

Once you’ve changed the date and time, send yourself a test SMS and see if it arrives on top of the old messages.

Delete messaging app cache

Should nothing change after you’ve corrected your phone’s date and time, the next good thing that you want to do is to see if it has something to do with your messaging app. Try clearing its cache first. Here’s how:

1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
2. Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6 or 7.
3. Once in there, look for the messaging application you’re using and tap it.
4. You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more.
5. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
6. You should now clearly see the CLEAR CACHE button. Tap it.
7. Restart your S9 and check for the problem.

Delete messaging app data

Should wiping of the messaging app’s cache won’t change anything, your next troubleshooting step should be to delete its data. Unlike clearing the cache, this one will restore the app’s settings to its defaults. This would result to the deletion of your messages so if you don’t want to lose some or all of them, you want to make sure that you back them up. There are two convenient ways to do that. One is by using Samsung Smart Switch and the other via your Samsung cloud service. Once you’ve backed your messages up, follow the steps below to clear messaging app data:

1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
2. Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6 or 7.
3. Once in there, look for the messaging application you’re using and tap it.
4. You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more.
5. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
6. You should now clearly see the CLEAR DATA button. Tap it.
7. Restart your S9 and check for the problem.

Try another messaging app

By deleting an app’s cache, you’re basically reinstalling the messaging app and starting it up anew. Usually, that should be enough to fix most issues but if nothing positive comes out of it, it’s high time that you consider replacing the one you’re using. So, if you been using Samsung’s Messages app, we suggest that you try other ones. There are many free but excellent texting apps in Play Store so just take your pick and see what happens.

Factory reset

As a final software solution that you can try, factory reset also ensures that any software-related issues are taken care of. We don’t know the full history of your device so there’s no easy way for us to know exactly where the problem lies. Factory reset should help you narrow down the causes to two things — phone-side issue or network/operator-side issue.

Factory reset will erase all user app data so be sure to back the things you don’t want to lose before doing it.

To factory reset your S9:

1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Samsung account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Samsung credentials to finish the master reset.
2. Turn off the device.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
4. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Contact your operator

Finally, if the problem won’t be resolved by doing all our suggestions above, you should let your operator know about it. In case you haven’t noticed, all the solutions you’ve done so far aims to fix bugs that might be found on your phone. Factory reset alone should be enough to return everything, including messaging to the way they were before. If that doesn’t occur, then there must be an external cause for your problem. Since the only other entity that can directly influence the order in which your messages are received is your operator, you should tell them your issue. We don’t know how they’re going to fix your problem but they must help you troubleshoot and fix it.

Problem #2: Galaxy S9 long texts can only be viewed by tapping View more button, can’t see a long SMS unless View More button is tapped

I just purchased a pre-owned Samsung Galaxy S9 and I have run into a few very basic features that previous Galaxys had that this one does not. I am NOT impressed. One of the most annoying things is that when receiving long text messages, the full messages aren’t able to be viewed. You must click a “View more’ button that pulls up the rest of the text in a different window. Then you must go back to the main message to reply. This is absolutely ridiculous and I want to know if there is a way to fix this. If not, how can we tell the people behind this issue to fix it? The prices of these phones get higher and higher and the ease of the technology being user friendly is getting worse. — Kylee R

Solution: Hi Kylee. We are not sure if we’ve already encountered this problem before or if we even understand how you describe the issue. If this pre-owned S9 has been doing what it does now ever since you got it, it’s highly possible that its messaging app may not be fully compatible with the current operator you’re connected to. Try switching to another messaging app and see how it works. Some carrier-provided messaging app like Verizon’s Message Plus may not work properly or at all when used on another carrier so try to see if the problem is non-existent if you’re using, say, Samsung Messages. Just like what we tell Nora above, you can also use third party texting apps from the Play Store.

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