How to fix your Galaxy S9 Plus if it won’t send SMS, keeps saying sending failed

Is your Android having trouble sending a text message? This short troubleshooting article should help you fix the problem. We discuss three #GalaxyS9Plus issues in this post and one of them is about this device being unable to send SMS. We hope you’ll find this post helpful.

Problem #1: Galaxy S9 Plus won’t send SMS, keeps saying sending failed

Hi. i am facing a problem on sending texts on my samsung S9 Plus. I bought the phone 3 months ago and it was working without any problems. But suddenly, It keep saying sending failed. The telecom company told me to change my message center number but couldn’t find the message center on my phone. I opened the menu on the message then setting them more setting then text message and couldn’t find message center. It says manage sim card and messages. How can I change my message center???

Solution: If changing the Message Center Number is the first troubleshooting step your network operator, then you should do it. Access to Message Center Number may only be possible using your stock Samsung text messaging app so be sure to use that. The steps below must be followed in order to change the MCN:

1. Open Samsung Messages app.
2. Tap More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
3. Tap Settings.
4. Tap More settings.
5. Tap Text messages.
6. Tap Message Center to edit it.

Again, make sure that you use the stock Samsung text messaging app (named Messages)  and not any other app. If you can’t find the Samsung Messages app anywhere, that’s probably because your carrier removed it. If you have the Samsung Messages app but can’t find the Message Center number on it, there’s a chance that it’s also due to your carrier removing said option in the first place. They usually do this to prevent users from messing up with the system. Make sure to tell them that you don’t have that option in your messaging app.

Delete old conversations

Sometimes, outgoing texts may not work if the messaging app’s memory is full. To ensure that text messages, both incoming and outgoing, won’t be disrupted, always make it a point to regularly delete old conversations, especially those that contain images or file attachments. Such files usually take big storage space so getting rid of them is practical in this case.

Delete messaging app data

Should changing the MCN or deleting old conversations won’t help, the next good thing that you want to do is to restore the messaging app to its factory state. Here’s how to do that:

1. Open Settings app.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
4. Select Show system apps.
5. Find and tap your text messaging app.
6. Tap Storage.
7. Tap Clear Data button.
8. Restart your S9 Plus and check for the problem.

IMPORTANT: Wiping your messaging app’s data will erase your text messages. Be sure to back them up if you don’t want to lose them. You can use Smart Switch for this task.

Check for third party app intervention

If your S9 Plus continue to fail to send texts at this point, you can restart the phone to safe mode and see if a third party app is causing the problem. On safe mode, third party apps won’t be allowed to run. If sending of texts works on safe mode, that means that one of yours apps is causing the problem.

To boot your S9 Plus to safe mode:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
8. Check for the probelm.

To identify which of your apps is causing the trouble, you should boot the phone back to safe mode and follow these steps:

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 S9 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Factory reset

Factory reset should be tried if all of the steps above have been tried without fixing the issue. Doing so will return all software information of your phone to their defaults so be sure to create a backup for your files using Smart Switch.

To factory reset your S9:

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 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).
4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
5. Press Power button to select.
6. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
7. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
8. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Problem #2: Galaxy S9 cellular signal keeps disappearing, mobile data won’t work

Hi. After i upgraded, I started having problems with mobile data. the icon of mobile data randomly disappears and reappears from the icons above ,where battery and time are. while disappeared i have no internet ofc, as well sometimes the mobile data icon up there grays out randomly for a few seconds to a few days ,and it does not have the line that cuts it through to mean that is disabled. it just seems like a shadow of the normal working one . is there a way to fix this because its very frustrating and i keep paying money for internet that i dont use because i can’t. Thank you.

Solution: Possible causes for your problem include:

• bad third party app
• corrupted Android operating system
• bad modem firmware
• Hardware malfunction

Fix #1: observe in safe mode

The first troubleshooting step that you want to do is to boot the phone to safe mode. Refer to the steps above.

Fix #2: install app and system updates

If there’s no bad third party app behind the trouble, then make sure that you install any available updates be they for apps or the system. Sometimes, network issues may be caused by bad or corrupted modem firmware so if there’s a pending system update, be sure to install them.

To manually check for an update, go under Settings > Software update.

Fix #3: Factory reset

This is the most that you can do in this situation. Refer to the steps above on how to do it.

Fix #4: Contact network operator or Samsung

If factory reset would not fix the problem at all, contact your network operator or Samsung and let them help you troubleshoot the problem. 

Problem #3: Galaxy S9 not receiving app notifications after an update

When receiving text messages I would not get a notification appear on my lock screen, only on home if my phone was unlocked for a brief second. However, there would still be numbers appearing on my app if I had a message, I just couldn’t reply on time and would often miss messages. I have just done the new update on android and now I don’t get any notifications whatsoever, not even numbers appearing by the app to say I have messages. I don’t know how to fix it, notifications are all turned on for text messages and theres nothing selected thats blocking them from appearing. What do I do?

Solution: If you’re 100% that the apps are set up properly, then you should consider wiping the data of BadgeProvider app. A lot of notification issues are fixed by doing this troubleshooting step. Here’s how it’s done:

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

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