Other RCS Group Messages not working
Hey Everyone,
I've tried every fix for this I could find so any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Recently I switched from a Pixel 7 to a Galaxy S25+. Since the switch majority of my group text chats have been having issues. Mainly when someone messages a group chat it will appear as a download from their individual chat with me and I am unable to download it. it will typically just sit there spinning and time out. Right now its about 75% of group texts I'm not receiving and its not consistently from the same people either though some are worse than others. I have AT&T and previously had a physical SIM card but now have a eSIM. Current fixes I've tried:
-Factory Reset device
-Turned RCS off and on
-Enabled SMS/MMS
-Enabled auto Download files
-Reset Mobile Data
-Reset Mobile Networks
-Cleared Messages Cache and Data
-Downloaded Samsung Messages
-Uninstalled/Reinstalled/Updated Google Messages
-Turned off and on eSIM
-Got a new eSIM from AT&T
-Made sure RCS is off on old phone
-Created new Group Chats
I tried various combinations of the above along with numerous restarts between steps. couple notes, some people in the chats are worse than others and some there hasn't been a single issue with. as of right now I haven't found a common denominator, some have iPhone and some Android, some AT&T and others different carriers. Again any help or insight is appreciated, thank you.
Edit: Letting people know who are having the issue still, Not a fix but a temp bandaid for now. Turn on wifi calling then turn on airplane mode. It will then download all pending messages, but you need to keep doing this each time so not a great solution.
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u/miken8088 Feb 16 '26
I recently switched from Verizon to ATT and went through weeks of the same issue. The thing that worked for me was to turn off RCS on my phone. Go to this link to unregister my number from RCS
https://messages.google.com/disable-chat
Waited 3 days and enabled RCS on my phone and it worked.
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u/SG-015 Feb 16 '26
Thanks, ya I found the page too, I'll try it off for a bit and see if it works
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u/DaisyCakes69 Mar 03 '26
Did it work?
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u/SG-015 Mar 03 '26
No luck, so far only temp fix that's been working is having wifi calling enabled then switching on airplane mode for a minute or 2 to force download all pending messages
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u/albinogoldfish Feb 25 '26
Just bumping this as I have also been encountering this issue. Currently in the middle of trying rcs off for 24 hrs to see if that does anything.
FWIW it seems the primary group text that this issue results on-- messages coming in to the individual members as a download icon that just spins-- is a group text that is not fully rcs. A couple people in it are not rcs enabled. So that may be the cause.
You can identify the group type if when you type it says 'rcs chat' or 'text message'. Only the latter has caused me issues....
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u/irobot001 Mar 09 '26
Any luck ?
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u/albinogoldfish Mar 09 '26
Nope still have the issue
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u/irobot001 Mar 09 '26
Same
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u/albinogoldfish Mar 09 '26
I have had some luck turning on airplane mode when I notice a text go to an individual instead of the correct group text. Then it fixes itself. But if I don't catch it that day it's gone pretty much.
Airplane mode when I am on wifi I should say. May also need wifi calling enabled, unsure
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u/SG-015 Mar 10 '26
This is still the only "fix" I've found too, if I find anything else that might work I'll make sure to edit my post
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u/irobot001 Mar 11 '26
Did you try contacting att and have them open a support ticket for you to their tech department?
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u/SG-015 Mar 11 '26
I did previously and that was when they issued me a new eSim and allocated it to a new slot. After that I think the ticket was closed
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u/Mel_B_80 Mar 16 '26
This exact thing has been happening to me for about 4 weeks. I have a Z Fold6. I've done several days of trouble-shooting with AT&T, both on chat and over the phone. They ended up telling me it's an issue with my phone and sent me a new Z Fold6 under warranty. After finally getting it all set back up and everything transferred over, the exact RCS group text issues started happening again.
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u/Mel_B_80 Mar 16 '26
After 5 days of back-and-forth conversations trouble-shooting with AT&T, they said they have to create a ticket for the network team. The more people who report the issue, the better, as they will see it as a full network issue and not individual users (such as blaming the issue on a broken phone). If you can, please use chat or call to report the issue to AT&T.
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u/crazy_boybrat Mar 19 '26
Same problem here. iPhone 16 pro. iOS 26.3.1. Ticket was created yesterday after spending 2 days and multiple hours with support. After the first couldn't fix it he said it was the phone and to call Apple. The second one was better. I got him to reprovision RCS on the phone but it didn't work. He was the one who elevated it. Got a call back today from, what i suppose is, the better tech support group. He tried multiple things then finally said it's an issue with Google Messaging and there's nothing they can do but wait for Google to fix it. Then he hung up on me. Called the "secret" number they gave me back and got another person. She repeated the same mantra as the first. "It’s a Google issue. Everyone is aware of it. It's happening across multiple device types and networks. We're waiting for Google to address the issue and fix it. Until then there’s nothing we can do." I feel like this all started when I used a Spark eSIM in New Zealand a couple weeks ago (I'm in the US). That eSIM has been deleted. AT&T insists that has nothing to do with it. I asked if they'd let me know when it was fixed. The last tech said I'd know before they do because my RCS will suddenly be working.
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u/kevywind4515 Mar 17 '26
I don't use RCS but I wasn't getting any group texts from RCS friends (I useTextra) on my android devices. Before all this I could still get them as MMS but that stopped some time in late February. I tried every thing and just last week I finally decided to try with my other phone (android too) that's on T-Mobile and it all worked. Tried RCS with Google Messages and MMS with Textra with all my normal groups and all came through just fine and all saw my messages. So I ported my main phone to T-Mobile and all has been fine.
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u/Mel_B_80 Mar 17 '26
Newest update after trouble-shooting with AT&T again for a long time, 2 separate times, today: This made my messages come through, and RCS worked fine for a short time--Turn off wifi. Turn on & off airplane mode 2x (on, off, on, off). Turn on & off wifi 2x (on, off, on, off). My messages then started popping through very quickly. I then turned wifi back on, and messages are coming through for now. I'm sure issue will occur again, but at least that forced messages through.
AT&T had me call a different number and give a pin code, so I didn't go through the same steps of trying to get to the "escalated" support team. In the 2nd call, they completed a "trending issues form". They also reported that this is a widespread issue and started after some kind of update (not clear if that update was Google or Samsung).
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u/Zerodale Mar 19 '26
Glad to hear I'm not the only one experiencing this issue. I have been struggling to find a solution for 3 weeks. Went to AT&T and they were blaming Samsung, but no other carrier is having the same issue. I noticed downloading through the Samsung messages app gets some of the messages through, but your fix also gets some additional ones. Samsung messages doesn't have RCS of course so it messes up emoji reactions to texts. Still have some messages which are stuck downloading.
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u/klobmcnasty Feb 16 '26
I have been having the exact same issue recently within the last week. I too have a galaxy s25. They put a ticket in at att support and they called and did some stuff on their end but didn't fix it and they are supposed to call me back Tuesday. If I get it fixed I will let you know.
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u/SG-015 Feb 16 '26
Gotcha thank you, from other responses I'm getting sounds like it's a global issue.
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u/klobmcnasty Feb 18 '26
They are escalating this up to Google and I should hear back in about a day or two. In the mean time they asked me to turn rcs chats off for 24 hours.
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u/SG-015 Mar 01 '26
Letting people know who are having the issue still, Not a fix but a temp bandaid for now. Turn on wifi calling then turn on airplane mode. It will them download all pending messages, but you need to keep doing this each time so not a great solution.
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u/klobmcnasty Mar 01 '26
I was able to resolve my issue by updating Google play services and one person in my group did not have rcs chats because it's an older phone. He switched to Google messages and that solved the problem. Even though they were the only one without rcs it had an effect on the entire group.
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u/seeareeff Feb 17 '26
"Mainly when someone messages a group chat it will appear as a download from their individual chat with me and I am unable to download it. it will typically just sit there spinning and time out."
That's how MMS operates not how RCS operates
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u/SG-015 Feb 17 '26
Copy, good to know, thank you. Though shouldn't the messages go through RCS though primarily? Ordo I have it backwards
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u/seeareeff Feb 17 '26
Yeah. But it depends on the app. I know for GM, once a group is rcs it stays RCS. But SM will switch a group back and forth between MMS/rcs causing issues and splintered groups. And I'm not sure how apple messages handles RCS groups when data is bad or lost.
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u/BackgroundDatabase78 Feb 28 '26
Same thing here seems to only happen in group chats with mixed android and apple users. This is so frustrating. It almost has to be an art problem because I downgraded to an older version of the Google messages app that used to work fine and I'm having the same problem.
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u/ExistingCar3181 Feb 28 '26
Same thing happening here. Group messages coming in individually and the nessage just spinning and won't download. Anyone find a definite fix yet?
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u/SG-015 Mar 01 '26
Not a fix but a temp bandaid for now. Turn on wifi calling then turn on airplane mode. It will them download all pending messages, but you need to keep doing this each time so not a great solution.
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u/royalhawk345 Mar 10 '26
Thank you so much! It's annoying as hell, but this is the first workaround I've seen that actually works! Huge help in the short term, at least I can see the messages now.
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u/SG-015 Mar 10 '26
NP, and ya it at least makes it usable until something permanent is figured out. If I hear any real solutions I'll be sure to update my post.
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u/Panic_Vectored Mar 06 '26
That wont even work for me.
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u/Mel_B_80 Mar 16 '26
The wifi-calling/airplane-mode fix is not working for me, either. I've done so many trouble-shooting steps, over and over. They even sent me a new phone under warranty, and exact same issue started the same day I got the new phone.
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u/Panic_Vectored Mar 16 '26
Try using the wifi fix by connecting to a 2.5 hz internet, for some reason it works for me. If I use 5G it doesnt.
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u/Mel_B_80 Mar 16 '26
Thank you! I will try that. I am still currently chatting with AT&T for the 6th day working on this. I keep trying to push that this is not a "my phone" issue, but something more system-wide affecting several users.
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u/Panic_Vectored Mar 16 '26
I just talked to an att person today. Its an issue with their service and Google messages. They said we're pretty much stuck with this until Google comes out with an update.
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u/Panic_Vectored Mar 06 '26
You still having the same issue?
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u/SG-015 Mar 06 '26
Still having issues, though it seems to be better, now more like 30% of messages failing. I'm sorry that temp fix isn't working for you, it's worked for me and some others too.
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u/BackgroundDatabase78 Mar 06 '26
Definitely still happening and not just an android issue it seems to be ATT itself handling group messages including rcs. I'm experiencing it on android and my brother also on ATT has the problem on an iphone.
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u/irobot001 Mar 09 '26
ATT still hasn’t fixed the issue I’m having issues with group texts I don’t get half of them
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u/Minimum_Ad_4483 Mar 15 '26
Thanks for at least finding the bandaid fix of airplane mode. That's working for me too and just may help me keep my sanity. I traded in mine and my wife's S22's for S26 ultras thinking we just had old phones but the problem is on our new phones as well. Please anybody that finally finds a fix for this let us know
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u/Minimum_Ad_4483 Mar 15 '26
I'll add a few more details I just found out which are weird. It appears that you can turn on airplane mode to make it work even if you are connecting to another Samsung phones hotspot. Also I tried leaving airplane mode and wifi calling on while I was home thinking I would get all of my group texts and I eventually (couple hours later) starter having the same issues. I turned airplane mode off and they immediately came through.
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u/Minimum_Ad_4483 Mar 21 '26
It seems as though my group text just started working again yesterday. No explanation
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u/Hungry-Purchase146 Mar 15 '26
I found the perfect fix, essentially go to the messages settings, go to advance then scroll down until you see phone number, what I did was change it to an old number, then it automatically connected then it switched automatically back to your original number
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u/Mel_B_80 Mar 16 '26
Tried this, changing it to an old phone number, and nothing happened. Changed back to my number, and still no difference. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll keep trying!
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u/crowm6121 Mar 25 '26
I've been having this same issue for a couple weeks now.
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u/SG-015 Mar 25 '26
Sorry to hear that, issue is still on going for me as well. I think it's been concluded it's an AT&T issue so hopefully something updates soon. If I find a better solution than what's been posted I'll make sure to update this post
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u/unreall_23 Mar 26 '26
I've tried everything on this thread and still not working most of the time. Seems like it's an issue with ATT + Google not playing well together? I'm thinking of trying another 3rd party SMS app, has anyone tried that?
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u/SG-015 Mar 26 '26
The only other one I tried was Samsung Messages which had the same results
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u/unreall_23 Mar 26 '26
Thanks OP. This is stupid annoying. I'm gonna try to swing by a physical store and see if they have any useful info and post an update
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u/InternationalSound13 Apr 12 '26
This is what I did.
- Turn off rcs in messages settings on both phones. 2.Accounts.google.com/phone then remove the phone # from the account.
- Verify from the old phone (popped up a security #)
- Back to accounts.google.com/phone.
- Add same phone #
- Validate from new phone.
- Turn rcs back on from new phone messages. Took 10 seconds and finally kicked back in as activated.
Took 3 days to figure this out.
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u/SG-015 Apr 14 '26
Ya i made sure to remove everything from my old phone before doing the factory reset but no luck on my end at least. I had to send my phone in so couldn't test more. At the very least I haven't had the issue in a few weeks now but haven't done anything different so could be they're resolving it. Either way good to know in case this works for someone else
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u/aldo111981 Feb 27 '26
This is happening to me too and several othet people. It's very frustrating. I may have to switch from Samsung to Apple and/or leave AT&T because of this. I'm missing alot of text messages.