How to fix group messaging on the Samsung Galaxy S5
Two and a half weeks ago, my friend purchased a Samsung Galaxy S5. Yesterday he discovered that group messaging was not working, which was needed for work, and after going to the T-Mobile store he was told to contact Samsung. After contacting them and two factory resets later with no group messaging options showing up, he was offered a refurb.
He asked if they would give him an RUU or factory ROM image so he could flash it rather than waiting on shipping, and was told that was proprietary and his only option left was to get the refurb shipped.
So he called me. A few searches later I found out he’s not the only person having this issue and running into a Samsung wall two or three hours after T-Mobile gives up. I’m not seeing other carriers with the same issues reported, but who knows.
If factory resetting the phone doesn’t work, and all else has failed, grab a different SIM. That’s what finally ended my friend’s three plus hour debacle. This was a launch day phone and evidently these are launch day problems that Samsung and T-Mobile customer support have not figured out yet.
The issue was with the SIM that shipped with the phone. Swapping the SIM out allows you to see group messaging options, putting the original back in removes the group messaging ability.
Not having an infinite amount of Samsung Galaxy S5s available to play with on different carriers, I can’t say if this will work across the board, but it can’t hurt to try if you have a spare SIM laying about. It was definitely the solution on this S5 on T-Mobile.
Anyway, if you’ve got a spare SIM to try, it could save you hours of dead ends with your phone carrier and then the phone manufacturer. If you try the SIM first, it could save you from factory resets and having to set your phone up again.
