Table of contents:

Basic Troubleshooting Checklist
Account Set-up Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting Receipt of SMS Updates

Basic Troubleshooting Checklist

Having trouble with your Twitter SMS account? Does Twitter not recognize you when you try to add your phone via text message? Don’t panic. You are likely running into a problem that can easily be fixed using these simple troubleshooting tips:
 

1. Start Over
Send the word STOP to your Twitter code. This will cancel the phone activation process and you can start over. Send the word START to begin again adding your phone.

2. Check your username and password online
Go to www.twitter.com and sign in to your Twitter profile. This will double-check that your username and password are correct. If you find your password isn't what you thought it was, request a new password here and we'll email you a reset. (Since you're here on the web, try web-based phone activation!)

3. Avoid signatures and "Re:"
Many phones will append a signature or "Re:" to text messages. If your phone is doing this, Twitter will not be able to recognize the username and password you've sent. Try again, and make sure your messages contain ONLY the characters in your username or password.

4. Watch for characters and capitalization
Do not include quotes, the @ symbol, or any other uneccessary punctuation in your text messages. Also, make sure your phone does not automatically capitalize the first letter of your password – passwords are case sensitive!

Account Set-up Troubleshooting

Below are solutions to common issues that users have when setting up their Twitter SMS account.

I sent 'Start' but there's no response from Twitter.
Sending START to Twitter should provide instructions on how to add your device to your account. If you don't receive any message from us, there may be a few reasons:

• Please make sure that your carrier is supported and also that you are sending START to the right number.
• START is an instruction, a command. Do not message 'Start' along with your username, signature or any other characters. For example : Start laura or Start, luv keerthi or Start :) or Start ! or Re:| Start. These won't be accepted!
• If your phone has already been added to/is associated with another account, you will not receive a message from us and START will simply be posted as a Tweet on your other account. You can check to see if your phone is attached to a Twitter account here.

I sent START and received "Sorry, your phone is not verified..."
If you receive a message that says "Sorry, your phone is not verified," it may be because your phone is in a 'half-verified state'. To fix this:

• Visit the Mobile tab on Settings page of your account, you will see a verification code displayed on the page.
• Click the Delete and Start Over button to remove the phone from your account.
• Then send START to the appropriate Twitter short code to add your phone. Make sure that you check all the Twitter accounts that you own.

Twitter is not accepting my password!
If you receive a wrong password message no matter how many times you enter the password, here are a few points to keep in mind:

• Passwords are case sensitive, this means 'a' and 'A' are different.
• Also be careful, phones normally CAPITALIZE the first letter of a word. This may cause your password to be incorrect.
• Make sure your phone does not have a signature or something like Re:| associated with the password.
• You will be given three attempts to enter the correct password. If you are unsuccessful, wait for a few minutes, then send START again and instructions will be sent to you.
• If you have forgotten your password, you can always request a password reset here.

Twitter is not accepting my username!
Are you seeing the message "Sorry this username does not exist!"? This might be due to one of the following reasons:

• You are entering a username that does not exist on Twitter. If that is the case, and you have not linked your phone with another Twitter account, send 'Start' again.
• You will receive a message similar to this: "Welcome to Twitter! Reply with SIGNUP to begin. Already on Twitter? Reply with your 'USERNAME' instead."

Now, reply with SIGNUP and follow the instructions below:

• If you already have a Twitter account that you want to link your phone to, make sure you have spelled the username correctly, otherwise your phone might get tied-up with a different Twitter account.
• The system will also not recognize the username if it is associated with a deleted account.
• When you reply with a username, do not use quotes, symbols and/or smileys along with it. 'Luke' or @luke or luke :) are incorrect.
• If you 'reply' to the Twitter message, the username may sometimes reach us like Re:keerthi, please remove the Re: from the message before sending.

If you are confident that you are sending us only the required details and are still not getting a response from us, try one last thing:

• Send STOP and send START again. This should resolve the issue.

If you are still having problems, please contact Mobile Support.

Troubleshooting Receipt of SMS Updates

Missing Twitter SMS updates is a fairly common problem.

• If the Twitter SMS queue is too overloaded with text updates, some will be dropped.
• This means you may experience occasional missing updates from certain folks at busy times.
• If you're missing updates from the same or all person(s) consistently, this may be a different problem.

Things to check:

• Make sure your phone number is added to your account. You can check this under the Mobile tab in your account's Settings page on the web.
• Make sure your time zone is correct, and your online sleep settings are not the reason updates are missing.
• Verify that your Twitter mobile update preferences are set to ON so you are receiving messages to begin with; send ON to Twitter to get the confirmation message that updates are ON.
• Be sure you're following the person whose updates you're missing, and updates for that specific person are turned on. The default phone setting is OFF until you visit the profile page and turn text updates ON, or send follow username from your phone, like this: FOLLOW Oprah

If all of the above is good, then:

• Try un-following and re-following the person whose updates you're missing. Send OFF [username], then ON [username] to your Twitter code to do this. Or visit their profile on the web.
• Try resetting your mobile preferences by texting the word OFF to your Twitter code. Wait a few minutes, then text the word ON to your Twitter code.

If you're still not getting updates from that person, submit a request with the details about what's happening, and don't for get to include this info:

1. Your username and the user name of the person you're missing updates from
2. URL of the missed update, like so: http://twitter.com/coates/status/1114430687
3. Your phone number and mobile service provider

Our support team will look into it for you.

Missing updates on the web

Twitter updates are delivered in real time, so if they've gone missing we may be having problems. Check the status blog to find out if Twitter is experiencing known issues with Tweet delivery.
If you're missing someone's updates in your home page, be sure to check their profile to verify that you're following the person. (Make sure you're not blocking them, as well.) Check your timeline history to verify that their most recent message isn't there. Some things to try:

• Block and un-block the person
• Un-follow and re-follow the person
• For protected persons, cancel your follow request, and send a new request

Sometimes it helps to re-establish a follow relationship when things seem fishy. If you try this and it doesn't work, submit a request and include the following information:

1. Your user name and the user name of the person(s) you're missing updates from
2. URL of the most recent update you missed, like so: http://twitter.com/coates/status/1114430687
3. If you're missing all messages from the person(s), or just intermittent messages
4. If you're able to see the updates on a 3rd party application (like Tweetie, Twitterrific, or Twhirl) even though they don't appear in your Twitter home page
5. If you're able to receive the updates on your phone, if you have one attached to your account.

Our support team will do some sleuth work to see what's going on.

Missing updates on a third party application

• Check and make sure you're getting updates on twitter.com
• If you are, but they're missing from the app, contact their support department to see if anything is amiss.
• Most app developers also have Twitter accounts and help sections for their applications for these situations.
• If you're an app developer and something has gone awry with your app, get in touch with the API team.

Why do my Twitter updates turn off intermittently?

Assuming that you haven't exceeded any limits, you might not be getting updates because Twitter was unable to communicate with either your phone or your network, and turned off your updates automatically.

• When we send a text message to your phone, we receive a verification message back from your service provider confirming that the message was received.
• If for whatever reason we don't receive a reply from your phone's network confirming that your phone (or your phone's network) is receiving our text messages, we turn off texts to your phone automatically.
  • This might happen if you go to an area with no reception, for example.
• This avoids sending costly Tweets into space.

I'm not receiving text message updates for @replies

A number of users are not receiving SMS updates of @replies for accounts they follow. Normally, it works like this: @bob follows two accounts (@keerthi and @charles) and has device updates activated for both accounts. If @keerthi replies to @charles, then @bob would receive that Tweet on his mobile device via text message.
However, for some users, @keerthi's reply to @charles never shows up on @bob's mobile device. If you believe that you are experiencing this issue:

1. first verify that you have completed adding your phone to your account
2. then, make sure you have mobile updates turned on.

If you have verified your mobile and account settings, and are receiving normal Tweets via text but are missing @replies then please file a Support ticket.