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Level 1

10 points

SMS inbox full? But not really.

I suddenly got a message a few hours ago that said "Your SMS mailbox is full. New messages cannot be received until you delete some messages." I know my iPhone is nowhere near reaching it's storage capacity and I have had the same messages on there from my last iPhone for a couple years. So it seemed odd. But I deleted a bunch of messages and turned it on and off and I was still unable to receive text messages. I then deleted a bunch of entire conversations and turned it on and off and still couldn't receive texts. I then backed up my iPhone and reset it to factory settings. When I did that it, I received all of the text messages I had been sent in the past few hours. Then, I restored it to its previous backup and again, it said my SMS inbox was full, which makes no sense, since I'd already deleted hundreds. If anyone can help, PLEASE. Thanks.

iPhone 4, iOS 4

Posted on Apr 13, 2011 12:51 AM

19 replies

Oct 18, 2011 2:07 PM in response to Jarelle

Same thing happening to my 4S. I called AT&T support and spent 1hr with the guy.. he did all he could and ended up filing a report for the engineers to take a look at. But seems like there is no real fix unless we loose everything! i work with the music industry and the texts and data I have saved is valuable! why should i have to delete it in order to receive texts! this *****! 😟

futch967

Level 1

0 points

Oct 19, 2011 6:48 PM in response to asalipscomb

You have to delete some old messages. iOS 5 reduced the message storage. Consider deleting message threads with a lot of pics or video.

Oct 23, 2011 5:36 PM in response to futch967

I deleted a billion old messages and it didn't fix anything. I restarted my phone, reset all the settings, and deleted even more messages. Still says my inbox is full. I can't receive texts from anyone right now. Does really no one know how to fix this?

Oct 24, 2011 8:15 AM in response to kathleenfromastoria

Just like "futch967" suggests, the only thing to do is delete message threads with a lot of pics and videos. I deletes a bunch of texts and threads but it wasnt until i deleted 2 from some of my most active freelance clients that my 4S finally worked. Those threads went all the way back to 2009!!! i had images of artwork and video clips for presentations and just those threads along must have had a ton of memory/space usage. Now it all works fine and all my other texts that restored from my 3GS are all there and all new texts come in with no problem. 🙂

SMS inbox full? But not really.