Straight Talk MMS & Data fix!

Mine says TFW also. Running ios 7.0.4. I can access the internet using safari. I can send and receive picture messages to/from another iphone. However, I cannot send or receive picture messages to/from a non-iphone. Any suggestions?

Also, where exactly do you find the official APN settings for an iphone on straighttalk? This page doesn't have iphone as an option: http://www.straighttalk.com/wps/portal/home/support/apn

The APN settings are automatic as long as you've installed the official Straight Talk APN profile from their mobile site using Safari. Have you installed the Carrier updates? The latest one I received no longer displays "4G", and instead shows "3G" as it should. Seems Tracfone Wireless is not playing AT&T's faux 4G game with this latest Carrier update.

For those of us who are not having problems with MMS automatically working, is your iPhone officially unlocked, either by Apple or your previous carrier (AT&T)?

Mine is unlocked. I have no issues with MMS working since these updates. I even get LTE since I purchased an updated SIM card directly from Net10's website. I know the MMS issues has nothing to do with the updated SIM card since the others I know with either Net10 or Straight Talk are able to send and receive MMS just fine with older SIM cards. They are unlocked, however.

Just chatted online with straight-talk. MMS is working for me now! Here's a screenshot of our conversation:

http://screencast.com/t/VQ7dnEYgGX1

I tried this and it did not pop anything up for me.
All it says is Cellular data (on)

Enable 3g (on)
Data Roaming (off)

Help?

When you go into settings-general-cellular scroll down and you should see where you would put in password name etc. Once you see that screen you need to go to notepad put the other sim card back in and once your network shows in top left hand corner of the screen tap home button again to return to the cellular network page where you can put the data in. I finally had to get another sim card from Straight talk and the settings were all ok without having to do the sim swap method. Good luck. It may take a couple tries before you find the right screen to add the apn values.

I'm happy for you that yours is working but my iPhone 4s (locked to att)worked for over a year and then all of a sudden I could not receive MMS about a week ago. Around 12/20/13. i've done everything you said and I still cannot receive MMS. Do you think that having it unlocked would really make a difference? Mine worked flawlessly for so long without being unlocked. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!

I understood that the phone has to be unlocked to get the apn changes made. You can get it unlocked (which means you can use it with other network carriers) by calling ATT. As long as you are not under contract with them and the phone is fully paid for att will unlock the phone. You would need account number and password if there was one on your att account. The most recent fix I just accomplished with Straight Talk IOS 7 on 4s iphone and had a new sim sent by straight talk. This was following the change to the TFW and it did work to get mms back on. I have learned that each time a setting change is made it interferes with the mms settings. Good luck[

I didn't have any trouble doing the sim swap with my locked phone?? Also, my wife has the same 4s, but has the newer sim. She has had no disruption of service whatsoever. Therefore, I ordered myself a new sim from ST. One question, how do you activate a new sim on a current service? Probably easy I guess. Any comments or thoughts would be welcome. Thanks!

ST included a sheet in with the sim and phone number to call them and they will activate the phone. You should be good to go. Good luck.

This is just additional help to all those out there having trouble with their messaging.

I am a straight talk customer using a locked iPhone 5s for AT&T and have had no trouble with the service. These are the steps I did to get all my stuff : go to settings, under general hit reset, reset all network settings and uninstall any apn profiles that you have installed on your phone.

Turn your phone off. Take out your sim and replace it. Turn the phone back on and everything should be working.

If your stuff is still not working you can do the sim swap method, ( I used simple mobile sim in the past) and follow all the steps that others have used. The straight talk sims will automatically change the network settings if you power off the phone then put the sim in. Like I said my phone is locked to AT&T and I have used this same trick for several other locked iPhones (5, 5s, 4s, and the 4), and this worked for me.

Just an update on how I am now handling the straight talk iPhone APN quandry.

Though the sim swap technique worked for me..every so often it would quite working..maybe because of updates..not sure..I would have to go through the process all over again.

In looking into it on another thread here a person had success working with Straight Talk support..UGH ( I KNOW)

I followed his lead and now am able to get internet and MMS WITHOUT messing with the sim swap APN custom settings.

If you bought a sim card in the BYOP (Bring your own phone) program that sim will work for this fix, If you , like me, bought a sim card before they had the BYOP program then you will need to order new BYOP sim card online at Straight Talk..They are $7 and right now they have a ship them for free deal going on...Don't believe you can buy just the card at Walmart..if you already are set up paying monthly.

Once you get the card you need to call Straight Talk and have them transfer your current number to the new sim..it goes pretty quick and within 2 hours after they switch..( it takes anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours for the change to take place) you are ready to procede...

In safari (won't work in Chrome) type in iapnupdatetfdata.straighttalk.com in the address bar, press go and install as your new APN profile

In my experience downloding this alone does nothing for you in getting the internet and MMS working but you will need this on your phone when you call Straight Talk support..

Call When you call press 1, then 5, then 5 again and 5 one more time... that should get you to a live person ( Unless they change the prompts) They make it difficult to talk to a live person but once you get to a human they will ask you for your phone number ..just tell them you need to be transfrerred to second tier iPhone support

Mention what you have done and tell them you need them to provision your sim card so you can get internet and do MMS texting

Be sure to tell them what model iPhone you have and what version of software you are running...They always try and blame it on the iPhone software and try to get you to run IOS7 ..well 3gs can't ..I just told them what version I had and we went forward....

They should be able to get you set up..They read from scripts so they may tell you Straight Talk doesn't gurantee MMS on all phones..Just tell them you already have been able to do it with the sim swap method so you know MMS is capable on your phone..

They go through the process with you and then do some mods on their side...It usually works imediately. Best way to test is to just text a picture to yourself if it sends and you receive it..you're good to go..If you still aren't working right just be persistent..you'll get there...If that person can't get you there ask for a "SENIOR SUPERVISOR"

If you ask for a supervisior in this iPhone 2nd tier area you'll find that they are all "supervisors" you need to ask for a "Senior Supervisior" oh the games people play....

I just completed the process last night on both my wife's and my phone and we are up and running..hoping I never have to give this a thought again..

One tech I spoke to did explain that there is a glitch between iPhones and a Android phones where Android phone users with older software versions may not get your text.. It is their belief the current Android software is compatible with iPhones for texting...pretty weird

Good luck to all of you! $45 a month rocks when it works

Good info.

I finally got tired of all this running around to keep things working just to save a buck. Since iOS 7, things have improved greatly (iPhone 4 and up).

I ended up just going with Sprint, and I switched to their new Framily Plan not long after it came out. I'm still working to get to 7 people to get everyone's price down to a baseline of $25. We're at $45 right now. That gives us unlimited talk, text and 1GB of data. You can add 2GB for $10 or unlimited with annual upgrades for $20 (what I did). That'll put me at $45 per month once I reach 7+ people. Now I'm also able to get new iPhones that are made for the network, and I can finance them for little to no money down. I can add tethering as well. Depending on your needs, the Framily Plan can end up saving you $20 per month over Straight Talk/Net10. On top of that, I get a bill every MONTH, and no longer need to buy a card or worry about having money in my bank account for the auto payment to come out on a different date every month. Remember, they are 30 DAYS of service, NOT monthly. So far, I have no regrets.

Sprint seem to run promotions for people switching carriers pretty often. My aunt is getting a $200 Visa gift card for switching from AT&T. I think they're still currently running something that gives you up to $600 or so for switching.

If Sprint is decent/good in your area, it's worth checking out. The store I dealt with said they'll help put people onto my Framily Plan to get me to 7 people if someone comes in and is interested. Current Sprint customers can start their own Framily, but they can't join an existing one. Joining an existing Framily Plan is for new customers only. Sprint also works with you if you have poor credit, provided you don't owe them money from a previous account.

Wow..after all that and guess what...I HATE THIS!!!!

Frustratinf after all of that time and effort I came to discover that with the new sim cards and straight talk setting I absoulutely can send all the MMS and picture messages I want...as long as you're on an iPhone...😠..."sorry it is a known issue at AT&T that there is an issue between android and iphones sharing MMS.....

Baloney!

The issue is with apathetic lazy people who recognize that if the phones work easily there is not as big a demand for the "Help supoort staff"...job security??

So back to the sim swap..routine..fortunately people are still posting updated APN settings that work..

I deleted the tfdata apn that Straigh Talk provided and used the ones below....

I can now magically MMS both android and iPhones at the same time and send and receive text and pictures from both type phones..

Doing the sim swap technique..

after you get into your APN setting ..but BEFORE you change the setting remove the t-mobile or foreign sim card that got you into the setting and put back the ST card...wait for the ST sim to get connected... then

input these settings... from there you should be good...at least as of this date the settings below are working very nicely for me...

Good Luck!

APN: tfdata

Leave the Username and Password fields blank.

In the MMS section enter the following values:

APN: tfdata

Leave the Username and Password fields blank.

MMSC: http://mms-tf.net

MMS Proxy: 66.209.11.33:80

MMS Max Message Size: 1048576

MMS UA Prof URL: http://www.apple.com/mms/uaprof.rdf

Update ... 😠

Sadly not quite a perfect fix above..I am able to send pics and MMS to both apple and android phones..these setting do work better than the stock Straight Talk provided setting...unfortunately not perfectly or consistently..

I had my daughter try and send a pic from her android..it sent successfully on her side...never received it..;(

I sent a MMS to an android and a iphone...it sent successfully from my phone ( no error message / failure) but only the iPhone received..oddly, when the iPhone recipient replied back both the android and I got the reply...weird....

Oh well we'll keep struggling with this...

It is really important to recognize the savings via Straight talk vs AT&T..their best deal for a single phone is $65 plus all the taxes they throw on you..easily endss up being $70 a month probably more that verses the ST $45 no taxes works out to a minimum of $30 a month savings..no biggy right? 1 year $360 savings 10 years $3,600 savings...That's a lot of spare change for the little inconveb=niences you have to put up with using straight talk

"It is really important to recognize the savings via Straight talk vs AT&T..their best deal for a single phone is $65 plus all the taxes they throw on you..easily endss up being $70 a month probably more that verses the ST $45 no taxes works out to a minimum of $30 a month savings..no biggy right? 1 year $360 savings 10 years $3,600 savings...That's a lot of spare change for the little inconveb=niences you have to put up with using straight talk"

Valid points. However, if you (like me) like to get a new phone every year (each new iPhone release), the advantages start to waste away. That's why I ended up switching from Net10 to Sprint's Framily Plan. I only need a few more to be at the $25 base level (I have 2 that will be joining soon, putting me at 5 out of 7 to get there). I optioned for the $20 unlimited data with annual upgrades. So, I can finance my new iPhones every year, which is much better than coming up with $650+ each time I upgrade. My first upgrade should land in January (perfect timing for the rumored 5.5" iPhone, I hope).

As for taxes, it depends where you are and how you refill your account. If you do autopay or buy cards at Walmart, you have to pay taxes. Same for Net10. Your state may vary.

Back to the savings - after 2 years, you've only saved enough with Straight Talk or Net10 to cover the cost of buying a new iPhone. Yes, you can resell your old one, but that's barely a year's worth of savings. If you upgrade yearly, well... you're not too much further ahead. If you can get by on 1GB of data, Sprint would only cost $25 + iPhone payment = about $45 per month or less (typical payment on a 16GB 5S is about $22). That's a bargain for light users. You can option for another 2GB of data for $10 more. You can also add tethering, which is important to some users. Sprint's unlimited doesn't get throttled, like Straight Talk and Net10 (2.5GB each). Sprint just throttles video streaming down to 1Mbps, which is sufficient and wise for the network.

With some of the plans from the different big carriers, especially Sprint and T-Mobile, they're starting to get back some of the customers that were lost to these prepaid plans. Thank you T-Mobile for getting the ball rolling.