If you notice that you have not had an SMS reply in a long time or you send yourself an SMS but did not receive it, there could be a few reasons why. In this article, we will cover the main reasons you might not be able to send an SMS message, and what you can do to correct this. 

Note: If you are blocked due to spam, we are not able to change your VoIP number until the block has been lifted.


Getting a "Blocked" or "Failed" message when sending SMS: 

If you try to send an SMS but are getting a message that states "blocked" or "failed", you will need to check to see if you are currently blocked due to spam. To verify this, you can check the status of your recent messages which will indicate if they are blocked or delivered.

To do this, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Login to your VanillaSoft VoIP portal using your username and password.
2. From the left-hand pane, select Text Messages then select List Text Messages.
3. Click on one of the numbers that you have texted to see the message and status.
4. On the far-right, you will see the status of this message
5. If the status shows BLOCKED_SPAM, this indicates that you have been blocked from sending SMS.

Note: If you haven’t registered for the new VoIP portal, follow the Registering for the New VoIP Portal article to get signed in.


Why Spam Blocks Happen

Being blocked due to spam could be caused by several different reasons, all of which were done by a 3rd party carrier and not VanillaSoft. The usual cause is the amount of texts that are sent out within a certain amount of time, or the content of the messages that you are sending out (also known as 'fingerprinting'). If a carrier flags your number as spam, you would be blocked for all carries until the block is lifted.

Note: Carriers do not notify VanillaSoft or the user that is using the VoIP line when a block has occurred. It is the user's responsibility to keep track if their messages are being sent or not. 


Lifting SMS Block

All SMS blocks are temporary and will be lifted after a certain amount of time. How long will depend on the carrier, how many times you have been blocked in the past, what caused you to be blocked, etc.. The best way to get the block lifted sooner rather than later, is to stop texting completely and give the block time to be lifted. It is recommended that you disable the SMS feature from your account to ensure that you aren't sending any automatic texts when resulting a call. You could then send yourself 1 text in the morning and see if that goes through. If not, try again in the afternoon by sending 1 text. Repeat this process until the block is lifted.

Note: You can have your admin disable the SMS feature from your profile but will need to get them to enable it in order to send your test messages.


How To Prevent Being Blocked

There is no guaranteed way to prevent being blocked, but there are steps you can take to reduce your chances. You can view the SMS Best Practices article to help prevent further blocks from occurring.