How To Fix Your Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 Can’t Receive Text Messages

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 that cannot receive messages from its default messaging app or third party app can be caused by several factors. It can be due to network signal issues, a software glitch, or a setting problem. To fix this you will need to perform some troubleshooting steps.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the latest premium 5G Android phone model of the South Korean company to be released this year. It has a foldable screen design that allows it to be used as a regular phone or a small tablet. It has several outstanding features such as a 7.6 inch Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X display protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, Snapdragon 888 5G chipset, S Pen support and an IPX8 water protection rating just to name a few.

Why is my Samsung not receiving text messages?

One of the common problems that you might experience when using your Galaxy Z Fold 3 phone is when you can’t seem to get any messages on its messaging app.

This common feature which all Android phone models share is expected to work without any issues on a Samsung phone such as this however the reality is that this issue can occur even on high end devices.

Here’s what you need to do to when your phone is not receiving messages.

Step 1: Check your Samsung phone signal

Your phone won’t be able to receive or send SMS if it does not have a signal from your service provider.

You might be in an area where your carrier signal is spotty such as in a basement of a building or you might be in an area that is outside of the network coverage area. These are some of the reasons why your phone won’t be getting any signal

You can check your phone signal strength on the upper right part of the display. If the signal is weak then you might want to try to transfer to a different location.

If the phone has a strong signal and you can’t seem to be getting any messages then here’s what you need to do.

Turn off the Wifi

Try turning off the WiFi of your phone and see if you can get at least a 3G signal. With the WiFi now off try sending yourself a couple of text messages and check if your phone is receiving messages.

Toggle airplane mode

Sometimes your phone is unable to register or connect to the network even if a signal is available. A solution to this issue is to toggle your phone’s airplane mode. This will reset your Samsung phone connection to the network.

Swipe down from the top of the screen to pull down the notification panel.
Tap the Airplane Mode icon to enable it. Doing so will disable all wireless communications.
Wait for a few seconds then tap on it again to re-enable it.

Check if your Samsung phone is getting a signal from the network. If it is, try to send yourself a couple of messages then check if you are receiving messages.

Step 2: Perform a soft reset

A soft reset is usually done when a minor software glitch occurs on your Samsung phone. This will refresh the phone’s operating system and clear out its RAM.

Your Samsung phone will reload all of its services during the soft reset. Your personal data, files, and apps will remain unchanged.

Soft reset

To turn off the Samsung phone by pressing and hold the Bixby button and the volume down button on the side of the device.
Choose Power off.
Choose Power off again. The phone will turn off.
Wait for a few seconds.
Press and hold the Bixby button on the side of the device to turn on the Samsung phone.

Once your phone has started try using the default app to send messages to yourself then check if you are receiving messages.

Step 3: Clear the Message app cache

If the message app you are using has corrupted cached data then this can cause messaging problems on your phone. In order to fix this you will need to clear the cache of the messaging app of your Samsung phone.

Clear messaging app cache

Open Settings
Scroll down and tap Apps.
Locate and then tap Messages.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear cache.

Once the above steps have been performed try to send yourself a message and check if you can receive new messages.

Step 4: Start the phone in Safe Mode

There are a lot of third party messaging apps available at the Google Play Store which you can use instead of the default app. If you are using a particular app you downloaded and are not receiving any new messages then the app might not be configured properly.

You can try to uninstall this downloaded app then create a text message and send it to yourself.

You can also start the Samsung phone in Safe Mode and check if the receiving messages issue does not occur this mode.

Safe Mode

Turn the phone off.
Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen appearing on the 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.
When Safe mode appears in the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume down key.

Try to send yourself some messages. If you are receiving messages then the problem is most likely caused by a third party app.

You can either configure the downloaded app properly if you want to continue using it, update the app if an update is available, or uninstall it and just use your device default app.

When you are done troubleshooting in Safe Mode you can restart the phone.

Step 5: Contact your network carrier

You need to make sure that your account is active. If you have an inactive account then you will not be able to use any network services such as making calls or sending and receiving SMS.

You should call your carrier to check the status of your account.

You can also insert a different SIM card on your phone and check if the issue persists. By using a different SIM card you can immediately isolate any account related problems.

Step 6: Reset the phone network settings

One of the causes of this problem is a corrupted network setting which will prevent you from receiving texts. In order to fix this you should perform the steps listed below.

Reset network

Open the Settings app on your device.
Scroll down and tap General management.
Tap Reset to view the reset options.
Tap Reset network settings.
Tap Reset settings and if prompted, enter your security lock.
Tap Reset to proceed with the network settings reset.

To verify if the issue has been resolved you should send yourself a message then check if you can get notifications on the message being received.

Solution 7: Perform a factory reset

The last troubleshooting step you should perform if all of the above steps fails to fix the problem is a factory reset.

This procedure will erase your phone data and bring it back to its original condition. Before proceeding with this step you need to backup your phone data since it will be deleted.

Factory reset

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy device.
Simultaneously press and hold the Volume up and side buttons until the device vibrates and the Android Recovery screen appears then release all buttons.
From the Android Recovery screen, select Wipe data/factory reset. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the side key to select.
Select Factory data reset..
Select Reboot system now.
Set up your Android phone.

Once the factory reset is complete try to check if the issue has been fixed.