HTC Hero having intermittent text messaging problems?
By Donald Melanson 
posted October 26th 2009 3:38PM
posted October 26th 2009 3:38PM
There's not exactly much in the way of official statements on the matter just yet, but it looks like support forums have been piling up with reports of text messaging problems on the HTC Hero over the past few weeks, and with no signs of a fix in sight. Apparently, the phone can send texts just fine, but runs into a little trouble when it comes to receiving 'em, with most folks reporting only intermittent problems, and at least some not receiving any at all. Interestingly, the problem seems to be occurring in both the US and the UK, so it would seem to be a problem on the phone's end and not the carrier's, and a few people seem to have had some (brief) success after resetting the device. Of course, there are also plenty of folks having no problems at all, but there doesn't seem to be any question that the issue is out there. So, have you been missing some texts on your Hero? Let us know in comments.
i purchased my hero last friday and i also had this problem. like most people have said here it is definitely the sms app. it just does not show the messages. the fix is to use another sms app such as handcent. this solves the battery issue and also the sms issue. this worries me because 2 things can come of this. either it gets fixed soon and i am a happy customer or they dont because HTC is busy pumping out phones every 10 minutes. i hate to say this but HTC operates much like NVIDIA a lot of hardware and not a lot of refining. i spent good money on this phone and the software is mediocre. i know google makes the software but you cant release non working phones to the public. cmon HTC im counting on you. dont let this be another debacle like the video drivers for the Kaiser. lay off the THC HTC get to work my iphone buddies are making fun of me :(
PS dont let me get started on the 2.0 software. if the HTC hero wont be upgradable thats just sad , even the 3 year old iphone had decent 3.0 updates. tsk tsk.
yeah, I'm not really sure that whether I have experienced issues with receiving texts, but I suspect I may be a victim of this. Also, I am having the headset issue where it no longer detects when headphones are plugged in (but i can still use the headset toggle fix) and dust has managed to get under the screen already. :(
ae00i, using third party sms apps *does nothing for the missing messages problem.* It does, however, help with the battery drain.
http://community.sprint.com/baw/community/buzzaboutwireless/phones-and-devices/android_phones/hero
Why does an article about HTC Hero have a picture of HTC Magic/MyTouch 3G on it???
People, my Hero is strange - I synced it with Outlook but can see only some of my contacts. View is changed to "all", doesn't help. Strange is that through "search people" I still can find some more contacts. Help, please! HTC.com did not bother to reply :(
i've been playing with my new hero over the weekend, and so far I haven't had any missed SMS's as of yet. well, it took a while arguing with sprint to port over my existing number, but that's a whole separate issue.
i did switch to handcent sms to take care of the battery issue and it seems to integrate fairly well with the overall OS, no big complaints if HTC doesn't come out with an official fix (though that would be nice).
I did have problems but a reset does fix the issue
This is happening because former Windows Mobile users are obsessed with killing tasks.
I'm not having many problems with mine. Every now and then I receive the same text twice and sometimes get a text a couple hours late. But its not that often and its mostly only when I'm in my bomb shelter of an apartment (hardly any reception). Most annoying part is I can't delete apps like nascar and nfl. And other apps like Sprint Navigation start running in the background without me ever using them.
I've had this problem twice so far, the first time it caused an ugly fight since I wasn't getting any texts. The first time I texted 9999 allow all which worked:
http://support.sprint.com/support/article/Block_or_allow_text_messages_from_your_phone/case-ev207663-20090625-102112
The second time it stopped working I had to call support and removing the battery for a few seconds worked. It has nothing to do with killing tasks, and it has nothing to do with the built in SMS from my experience. First time it stopped working was using built in sms app, second time it stopped working I was using handcent. The guy from sprint was really rude and said he never heard of the problem I said it's out on forums everywhere.
I've not gotten normal txt since the 23rd... doesnt matter much because I have google voice and I get all my txt in a separate app...
Personally mine is working a-ok. I'm happy with my phone. The only drawback is the physical changes Sprint made to the phone. I wanted to have the chin and the typical HTC Android look like the Magic and G1. Also, with the Sense UI, they should have just made the other two windows, there being 7, one at the top and one at the bottom screens instead of them being all the way back, 2 flicks away from the middle window-screen. It's a pain to get to the last windows, makes them not worth putting any widgets, icons, etc. on.
A few days ago, my phone started timestamping my received texts with incorrect time. It doesn't do it with every received text, just randomly. I can send texts just fine, but to receive them means that I have to cross my fingers and hope that they come in with the right time, otherwise I have to search through the entire conversation just to see where it ended up. HTC originally suggested I turn off the Automatic time updates in the settings menu. That didn't work. Then they said it had to do with the towers that Sprint uses to transmit the messages. Sprint says that has nothing to do with this. I've done a soft reset, a hard reset, reactived the phone, and even switched out the phone for a new Hero... and nothing works. HTC won't acknowledge any problems with the software. Has anyone been able to fix this?
We got two phones on a family plan and there was this problem on one of the phones. I had to call Sprint customer care 3 times before it got fixed (or so I hope - I don't know if I've missed any messages yet!). They had to reset the phone each time. Absolutely no problems with the other phone though. Weird.
Not only sprint users have this issue. I have an htc hero, I bought it sim free and I am using it on telia in sweden. I am running firmware 2.73.405.05 wwe. From time to time the phone does not notify me of a received sms with the notification sound. Then when I wake the phone up pressing any button there you go, sound comes out. It is very annoying.
I haven't tried to hard reset the phone, I am uninstalling all the applications one by one to see if the cause is given by one of them, but I doubt it, I only have 5 apps from the market and they don't interfere at all with wireless connections or phone functionality.
I contacted HTC also and their reply was "wait for the next firmware". Great.....
Yep, I'm having this issue. I am intermittently receiving texts from many of my contacts.
People need to stop misinforming. It has nothing to do with sprint, a 3rd party text app, or killing tasks. This is a comfirmed htc issue. There is nothing you can do to fix it. A phone reset will provide a temporary fix. Sprint will not be able to do anything you can't do on your own by turning off and on your phone. Then just cross your fingers and hope it doesn't happen again. Hopefully, though htc will not promise, it will be addressed in the update. It's happened to me on 2 of these phones, and I am an advanced user who knows all about the phone's bugs and workarounds.
I received this email from HTC today.
Thank you for contacting HTC regarding an issue with not receiving text messages on your Hero for Sprint.
I understand how frustrating it can be when your device does not function properly. HTC has heard of this issue before and has promptly created an update. As of 11/18/09 HTC released an over the air update for your device, this update will be taking place over the next few days for all owner’s of the Hero for Sprint. This update should require no action on your part and will correct the issue you’re inquiring about. If you experience any issues after this update please let us know.
I see
I've been having a problem receiving text messages--sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't--and yes, a reboot does help. I have to admit that I've been using Task Killer, but I don't usually kill the "messages" app. However, I will stop using it to see if that fixes the problem.