Unable to send or recieve imessage photos

[js20692]

Hi! I have been having an ongoing issue with not being able to send or recieve imessage photos. I have tried resetting the router, resetting the phone, resetting my network settings on the phone, and have contacted Apple and cannot seem to resolve the issue. Is there something else I should try? It is only an issue when my phone connected to the HughesNet WiFi. My other devices do not have an issue with the WiFi at all. At my current location, I do not have cell service and rely on my HughesNet connection to send and receive all imessages. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[maratsade]

I had that issue a while back and HN fixed it fairly quickly, so I hope they can do it for you as well.  

js20692 wrote:

Hi! I have been having an ongoing issue with not being able to send or recieve imessage photos. I have tried resetting the router, resetting the phone, resetting my network settings on the phone, and have contacted Apple and cannot seem to resolve the issue. Is there something else I should try? It is only an issue when my phone connected to the HughesNet WiFi. My other devices do not have an issue with the WiFi at all. At my current location, I do not have cell service and rely on my HughesNet connection to send and receive all imessages. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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[Liz]

Good morning js20692, 

I see it's your first post here, so welcome to the community! Did you try the other steps here? https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204065 Please let me know if none of those steps worked so we can try something else. 

maratsade, that time where engineering had to step in was likely because that issue was trending. Currently I'm not seeing any other reports about iMessage from other customers so it may not be the same situation from before. However, I appreciate you for reminding me of this past event, we can go through the same basic troubleshooting steps from then in this case. 

[js20692]

Hi Liz,

Yes, I have tried all of those steps and have not seen the issue resolve. It's been ongoing for at least a month.

Thank you!

[Liz]

OK, let's try changing the DNS on the phone.

Please change the DNS settings on your iPhone to a use a different DNS server such as Google's (8.8.8.8). Here are instructions on how to do so:
https://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-change-dns-on-iphone-ipad/
 

[js20692]

Hi Liz,

I tried that and it appears to have only made my connection very slow, but didn’t resolve the issue. Anything other ideas?

[Liz]

Hi js20692, 

OK, I've just cleared the DNS cache on the HughesNet modem. Please see if that made any difference. 

You said this has been happening for a month, so you were able to use iMessage before on a HughesNet connection?

Do you recall any changes to your system right before this started happening a month ago?

Which iPhone model is having the issue?

You said other devices don't have an issue with wifi, are any of those other devices also iOS? Are you saying they can use iMessage normally over the HughesNet connection?

[js20692]

Hi Liz,

No change today either. I have been able to use iMessage successfully for the majority of my time being a hughesnet customer. Nothing of note happened that I can pinpoint as being the cause of the change. My smart tv and laptops are not Apple products, but they work just fine. My phone is an iPhone 6.

[Liz]

Good morning js20692,

Thanks for confirming. What is the error message you get when trying to send a picture via iMessage? If you're able, could you please send a screenshot of the error indicating that you're unable to send?

Just to be clear is it only pictures that fail to send or does this include text messages?

  Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[js20692]

Hi Liz,

Appreciate your continued support! It says “iMessage failed to send”. Over the weekend i was getting that for both photos and plain text iMessages. There is also a delay in receiving iMessages as well, when most of them come through it says they were sent 15-20 minutes prior to them getting delivered to my phone.

Hope that helps!

[Liz]

Hi js20692,

This certainly does give more insight, thank you! Good to know that you can still receive messages, albeit delayed. I'm compiling this info to prepare to escalate to our engineers here at corporate because I think I'm running out of things we can try. I'll keep you posted and let you know if we have additional question or instructions.

  Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

[js20692]

Thanks Liz! I should point out that the delay in non-photo imessages is new since Friday. Hasn’t happened previously. the photo issue has been ongoing.

[Liz]

Hi js20692,

Thank you I appreciate this clarification, that's interesting. You'll hear from me once we have any other questions or instructions. 

  Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[Liz]

Good morning js20692,

An engineer brought up this status page to my attention, which reports on any current issues Apple may be experiencing. There is a status light for iMessage specifically, and it looks like it just recently resolved an issue: https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ However, that issue was just from yesterday for about an hour; I reminded the engineer you've been having this issue for at least a month now. I thought I'd share that link with you so you had something to check yourself if Apple was having problems.

I know you're using the iPhone 6, but which iOS version is it running? Has it been updated recently? 

Looking forward to hearing back.

[js20692]

Hi Liz,

I just updated to the new iOS 13. Due to the length of time the issue has gone on, and that issue only occurs when I am connected to the HughesNet WiFi, I don't believe it to be an Apple related issue. It works just fine any other time, just not when I'm on the HughesNet system.

Thanks!

[Liz]

Hi js20692,

Thank you, I'm also under the impression that this isn't just an Apple thing, but engineering needs the reassurance. So iOS 13 just came out on Sept 19, and your issue has been since before then. From which iOS version did you upgrade? I would think iOS 12, but I don't want to assume. Once you confirm which version you had before, I'll let the engineer that this issue persisted on those two iOS versions.

[js20692]

Hi Liz,

Yes, it was iOS 12 🙂 Thank you for your continued help! I appreciate it.

[Liz]

You're welcome, no worries, I want to help. I've sent this info over to the engineer. Once I have any further updates I'll let you know.

[Liz]

Good morning js20692,

Thank you for your patience while our engineer is investigating. So far no resolution yet, but he was able to reproduce the issue with sending a video on iOS 12. I'll post back once we have any news to share.

  Your patience and understanding are much appreciated.

[Liz]

Hi js20692,

I appreciate your patience while our engineers have been investigating. As recently as Friday they were able to reproduce what you reported, but today iMessage is working for them. Can you please confirm if you've also noticed this change?

Some things engineering would like confirmed:

Is it just picture/videos failing to send?

Is the issue limited to sending or receiving or both?

If pictures/videos are sending/receiving, is it just delayed?

How's sending/receiving plain texts? Delayed or normal?

  Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

[rhill]

Hi Liz, has this issue been resolved? I too have the same imessage issues that has been reported many times over many years by many customers. We have multiple devices sending or recieving imessages media very slowly. No issues when not connected to Hughes Net wifi.