What to do about your Samsung Galaxy S8 that shows messages failed to send but they’re actually sent [Troubleshooting Guide]

While the Samsung Galaxy S8 is a powerful phone, it still encounters some hiccups from time to time and one of those hiccups has something to do with sending text messages. We have received reports from our readers recently saying their device notifies them their text messages aren’t sent but recipients actually received them. It appears like the error message is triggered even if the sending is successful.

In this post, I will walk you through in finding out what the real problem with your phone is. This way, we can try to formulate a solution that might fix it and even prevent it from happening again in the future. But to be able to do so, we need to rule out every possibility that’s why we need to do some troubleshooting procedures starting from simple ones to more complicated methods. Read on if you’re one of the owners that’s bugged by this kind of problem as we may be able to help you.

But before anything else, if you’re currently experiencing different issues with your phone, then I suggest you visit our Samsung Galaxy S8 troubleshooting page for we’ve already started providing support to our readers who own this device. We understand your phone is still brand new and it should work perfectly without a hitch but not even Samsung can guarantee there won’t be any problems. What we do here is provide help to our readers the best we can so if we haven’t published posts about your concern, feel free to contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy S8 that has issue sending text after an update

Problem: I’ve had my Galaxy S8 for a couple month now and last night I did a software update. Now, all of my text messages are coming back failed, but the people I’m texting are still receiving them.

Solution: This might be just a minor issue with the app or the firmware. In fact, we’ve encountered several issues before that have similar symptoms as this and we’re able to fix them by doing a few procedures for the firmware. Let’s try to see if we can fix this problem using those methods and that said, here’s what I suggest you do.

Step 1: Do the forced reboot procedure

It might be just a glitch in the system or the app and more often, glitches can be fixed by refreshing the phone’s memory. So, I want you to do the forced reboot procedure which is a simulated battery disconnect that is equivalent to the battery-pull procedure.

Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys together for 7 to 10 seconds.
The device will then reboot.

After you do so, try sending a text message to your number to see if the problem is still happening. If the phone still says message sending failed but you were able to receive it, then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Delete the cache and data of the Messages app

Usually, due to newly installed firmware it’s not far that the files and data of the app will become outdated and create inconsistencies in your phone. This time, we have to delete the cache and data of your messaging app to make sure that all caches can run smoothly to the new system. Here’s how:

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Find and tap on Settings.
Touch Applications and then Application manager.
Swipe to ALL tab.
Find and touch Messages.
Touch the Force Close button first.
Then, tap Storage.
Tap Clear cache and then Clear data, Delete.

However, after you do so and the issue is still happening you can jump to the next step.

Step 3: Boot in Safe mode to know if third-party apps have something to do with it

Since clearing the cache and data of the app did not resolve the issue there is a possibility that a third-party apps triggered it. We will try to isolate the problem by temporarily disabling all third-party elements in your phone and you can do that by starting it up in safe mode.

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

While in this mode, try sending a text message to your own number to see if the problem still occurs because if so, then we have to proceed to troubleshooting the firmware. Otherwise, we just have to find the app that’s causing the problem and probably do something about it because it’s clear that if the problem is fixed in this mode, one or some of the apps you installed is causing the problem. In which case, you can try updating apps that need to be updated by following the steps below…

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Play Store.
Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu > Settings then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
Choose one of the following options:
- Tap Update [xx] to update all applications with updates available.
- Tap an individual application and then tap Update to update a single application.

Or you may try clearing the cache and data of the apps you suspect or even uninstall them.

How to uninstall applications from your Galaxy S8

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Apps.
Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
Tap the desired application.
Tap Uninstall.
Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Step 4: Try wiping the cache partition so caches will be replaced

Assuming the problem still occurs even in safe mode, then we have to troubleshoot the firmware as this problem might have been caused by some corrupt caches. We need to delete those caches so that they will be replaced by the system. Don’t worry, it may sound a bit complicated but the only thing need to do is to actually just delete them and everything else will be done by the system. Follow these steps to delete all the system caches in your phone…

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
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).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
Press the Power key to select.
Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

If the problem still occurs after this, then move on the next step.

Step 5: It’s time to reset your Galaxy S8

After doing all the steps above and the issue still occurs, then you have no other choice but to reset your phone as it might be a firmware issue. However, all your files and data will be deleted when you do this so make sure you make a backup prior to the reset. After the backup, disable the Factory Reset Protection so that you won’t be locked out.

How to disable Galaxy S8 Factory Reset Protection

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
Tap Accounts.
Tap Google.
Tap on your Google ID email address if multiple accounts are setup. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
Tap 3 dot icon.
Tap Remove account.
Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

How to do the Master Reset on your Galaxy S8

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
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).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope this troubleshooting guide helps.

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