Unable to send photos with my new iPhone to non-iPhone users through Messages

I completely relate to waisting three hours of your life! When did you stop using your Iphone 11? Because that's the model I have (with TotalbyVerizon, formerly Virgin as carrier.)

Apple tech checked my SIM card Saturday (12/16/23) on her phone and said it's showing that MMS isn't active, so had me contact the carrier. I spent 40 minutes on a chat with the carrier immediately after, until I was told to turn off the phone (which I was chatting on) and reset the network after turning back on.

It didn't change anything so I gave up until the yesterday (Sunday 12/17/23) when chatted with someone else, who, after many resets and reboots, eventually scheduled a call-back. I had to start from the beginning when the call-back came. (Their phone system called me and had me hold for an agent, so SHE thought I called HER.)

Her final attempt also ended with a "hang up now, and turn phone off and on in 20 minutes," with an additional instruction to dial *73 and THEN reset Network. "If it doesn't work call back." Called back when didn't work and got automated phone help, which was completely unsatisfactory.

ANYWAY, I was thinking maybe it's only certain phone models because two people I know, one with a newer phone and one with an older one, don't have the problem and according to posts here, apparently, it's multiple carriers.

Thanks for reading my long venting.

Hi Lawrence - a few things:

If you think I spent that much time as I did (not an exaggeration) on the phone with support, on both sides, without speaking with senior support agents, you must think me a dim bulb indeed :) your information that a senior tech could fix it immediately is not correct. and I understand that you haven’t dealt with this issue to the extent that someone suffering the problem has, but please be careful with such definitive statements. You chide the users for not having read through the full 18-some-odd page thread. I have. And it’s great that some people have fixed the issue by calling their carriers or toggling Bluetooth but for many folks it’s not that simple.

For the benefit of those actually troubleshooting:

One’s likelihood of getting an uninformed tech at the first level is very high, as you note. That’s true. Higher for Verizon, but not dramatically higher than Apple. Apple’s first level techs are fairly spotty two. On the Apple side you get tech cowboys who assure you they know exactly how to fix the problem but wind up stumped. With Verizon you get script readers who repeat the same process over and over regardless of your reporting that you’ve performed all of these steps numerous times. Anyone who has actually troubleshot the **** out of this thing will tell you that’s true.

At the senior level, both Verizon and Apple have some very well informed, patient, and curious techs. Maybe one in three at Verizon, Apple fifty-fifty.

Apple absolutely altered how MMS permissions worked on iOS last summer, affecting the type of toggles users encounter in the Settings app. Maybe this coincided with a change at Verizon, I don’t know. I don’t know your sources, but there was definitely changes in iOS (I learned this about eight hours into my journey, from an Apple tech).

And yes, the MMS service is handled by the carriers. The permissions for activating/using the service are handled by iOS. It’s not quite so one-sided (that claim is a stubborn pattern in your posts — and I read your posts months ago and used that certainty to lean into Verizon techs, and that’s how I learned what I did, so thank you. But I also learned that your information doesn’t seem to be sourced from actually troubleshooting this issue).

And it’s typical that Verizon has to keep up with improvements to the security features in iOS and they are often playing catchup, but this is an extraordinary case. But to say that, no, it was a Verizon upgrade that broke the function doesn’t ring factual. More like an “I’m rubber and your glue” type response. If Apple was clear on the broken code on Verizon’s side, you can bet they would insist their carrier partner would address the relatively simple problem. Nothing is simple with this one, Lawrence. That’s why the issue persists.

And this is why the problem likely persists. Hot potato syndrome. But that’s just a guess….

Same iPhone 12 Pro

I just updated my iPhone three days ago. I have set, reset, turned on, turned off MMS. I followed instructions about going to settings etc.nothing has worked.

Any ideas 🤷🏻‍♀️

You can’t send photos ,videos or audio files through sms as non iPhone users aren’t on iMessage they use sms

hope this helps

I am sorry that did not work on my phone

As has already been said several times, MMS can only use cellular data, because MMS is carried by your network carrier, and your carrier doesn’t have access to your Wi-Fi network.

You can certainly let Apple know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

No, I will not stop insisting that SMS/MMS problems are carrier problems, because THEY ARE. Just read the thread you posted to.

bluetooth worked for me. But why? 🤦🏻‍♂️

Drakarnir wrote:

the bluetooth thing worked for me too. i am wondering if it could have something to do with my apple watch with cellular service being connected to the phone. do you have a cell connected watch too?

I have an Apple Watch with cellular service and have no problem sending pictures to non-iPhone users. And, I don't turn BT off. Ever.

It's, all BS - Same problem thru multiple iPhones, multiple carriers, and multiple years and multiple osx and iOS. Apple just doesn't give a s..... I've got multiple family members & several just can't afford Apple or their work/home phone has to be non apple. So I have to always do 2 sets of messages. Forget it, it's not even worth trying. Setting SMS & MMS on the iPhone is still useless.

JPK_01 wrote:

It's, all BS - Same problem thru multiple iPhones, multiple carriers, and multiple years and multiple osx and iOS. Apple just doesn't give a s..... I've got multiple family members & several just can't afford Apple or their work/home phone has to be non apple. So I have to always do 2 sets of messages. Forget it, it's not even worth trying. Setting SMS & MMS on the iPhone is still useless.

Really odd. Through almost 16 years of using iPhones, and 7 different models, and 3 different carriers, I’ve never had a problem sending or receiving MMS messages.

I still can not send any photos or short videos to anyone that does not use an iPhone. This is ridiculous. Maybe it is time to switch to an android. It will not send via Wi-Fi or cell service. And yes my MMS is on in messages.

Where in Apples documentation do you find instructions to contact your carrier to correct this issue? The average Joe doesn't fully understand the difference between sms and mms. They just know they can't consistently send messages they way they want to to their non apple user friends. This is not an iPhone 14 issue. These complaints have been around since iPhone 7 and earlier.