I recently started using a VPN on my computer and phone. I haven’t had many issues except on my phone. Whenever I try to send an SMS text message that’s an image, it fails to send. When I disable my VPN and send it again, it works fine. It’s annoying to have to disable my VPN every time I want to send an image to a non-Apple user. It’s an iPhone 12 running iOS 16.1. My cell carrier is Visible. Has anybody else experienced this issue? And are there any fixes? Thanks!
I would suggest using a different dns provider. I dont use VPN from the application level as I use a router based vpn I merely point the phone to. I guess other than that I would not be able to replicate the issue. Also, you did not mention which vpn provider to see if there is a known issue with the application.
YES. Damned frustrating. I have been battling REACH for weeks and finally figured it out FOR THEM. They could not! Now, having issues with ‘Uphold’ a new service; they can’t send text verifications. I had issues with PayPal but when I turn off my cell VPN it works. This is crazy. Seems that many companies are BATTLING US, the consumer to Defeat our Safety and Security!!!
Does your plan have roaming?
Unlike traditional SMS, multimedia messages (MMS) are sent via the data connection, as opposed to the voice/text connection. Your phone transmits the image to the carrier’s MMS server, and the recipient’s phone gets a text with a link to download the image.
With a VPN enabled, your phone appears to the server as if it were connecting from another city/country, because your data traffic is routed through the VPN provider’s servers first. Therefore, the carrier could think that you’re roaming even though you’re not, and deny MMS if your plan doesn’t permit it while roaming.
But if you do have roaming, this could be an issue on their end. In any case, have you tried contacting your carrier about this?
Likely something about the Text message provider is either: Blocked by VPN, or getting blocked by the text provider.
Blocked by VPN: they might be black holing something on that providers network for spam filtering or otherwise.
Blocked by Provider: This is more likely - the text provider has IDS/filtering that blocks common VPN providers - to get around this you could use a FULLY DEDICATED service provider for your VPN needs… :hmm… 