AT&T MMS: photo and video file size?

Question

NJL1971 Author

Level 1

21 points

AT&T MMS: photo and video file size?

I've recently updated to carrier update 5.5 to enable MMS (iPhone 3.0). However, I can't send MMS photos from the camera roll to some phones. I suspected that the iPhone was sending the photos as large images, so I tried shooting a photo within "Messages", and that worked. It went through.

My question is... I've read on other posts that there is a setting to control how large of a files MMS sends. It's supposedly located here:

Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network > "MMS Max Message Size"

BUT, when I go there on my iPhone, I don't have a "Cellular Data Network" option under Network. Why doesn't this option show up?

I doubt many people on AT&T realize that some phones have a MMS file size limit, and that's why lots of MMS messages sent aren't going through.

Any ideas?

Two MacBook Pros 17", Mac OS X (10.5.7), and an iPhone 3GS

Posted on Sep 27, 2009 6:43 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 27, 2009 7:06 PM in response to NJL1971

You don't have a cellular data option because you are not allowed to edit these on a US carrier locked iPhone. The MaxMessageSize in the ATT 5.5 ipcc is set to '614400.' Of what I'm not sure. kilobits? That would be like 75MB? Which would be maybe 3-4 minutes of video?

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Answer 2

Sep 27, 2009 7:06 PM in response to NJL1971

The 5.5 release hides the option to access the cellular data network settings. The folks in the posts you are reading are likely using a beta or developer ipcc file.

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Answer 3

NJL1971 Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 27, 2009 7:39 PM in response to NJL1971

I guess I'll never be able to send camera roll pictures in MMS to some phones then. It took me all this time to finally suspect it might be file size that was preventing messages going to certain Nokia phones.

Boy, AT&T sure doesn't do a good job of explaining these issues to customers. I'm sure many people are pulling their hair out because they have no idea why certain MMS are going through and others are not.

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Answer 4

Sep 27, 2009 8:01 PM in response to NJL1971

Is there a way to tell the file size of the picture?

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Answer 5

Sep 28, 2009 3:17 PM in response to Davy Jones

That means 614400 bytes, which is about 600kb. If I'm not mistaken... even though that's the device limit, at&t's network will only allow up to 300kb files to be sent via mms. So that basically means fairly low resolution images/videos, but not more than that is needed really for viewing on a mobile phone.

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Answer 6

Sep 28, 2009 4:35 PM in response to darcal2000

Does the iPhone compress the video before sending over MMS? Because I see about 25MB+ per minute of video on 3GS. 300kb would allow a video about 0.5 seconds long.

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Answer 7

NJL1971 Author

Level 1

21 points

Sep 28, 2009 4:41 PM in response to NJL1971

I'm beginning to believe this whole MMS issue was not thought through very thoroughly by Apple and AT&T. Basic free phones have no problem handling this simple service (and have been for years), yet the iPhone can't even size a photo correctly. I have a feeling I will hardly use this service. It's not worth the headache.

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Answer 8

Sep 28, 2009 4:47 PM in response to Davy Jones

Davy Jones wrote:
Does the iPhone compress the video before sending over MMS? Because I see about 25MB+ per minute of video on 3GS. 300kb would allow a video about 0.5 seconds long.

Yes, the iPhone does compress the video before sending it.

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Answer 9

ActionJ

Level 1

0 points

Sep 28, 2009 11:14 PM in response to NJL1971

So that's it then. I ran out to an AT&T store, dropped $550 to do an early upgrade to the 3Gs and re-up my contract for another two years just so I could get the option to send photos via text message/mms and I can't do it because AT&T has a size restriction of 300kb? I spent two days trying to figure out why my text messages wouldn't complete sending. Hardly any of the photos in my photo album are that small. What a total frigging waste of my time and money, yet again.
This whole MMS "improvement" was not thought through thoroughly by Apple and AT&T at all.

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Answer 10

NJL1971 Author

Level 1

21 points

Oct 4, 2009 1:13 PM in response to NJL1971

Well, after I updated to OS 3.1, I have had some success with sending MMS. It seems that 3.0 might not be able to handle images as successfully. I urge everyone having problems to upgrade. Perhaps those first few weeks the network was under lots of stress, but it seems to have ironed itself out.

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Answer 11

NJL1971 Author

Level 1

21 points

Oct 7, 2009 1:29 PM in response to NJL1971

Seems the 3.1 OS update has solved my problem. 3.1 sizes images from the Camera Roll so that they are received by other mobile phones, not just the iPhone.

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