Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Fix No Notification Sound When Receiving New Text Messages in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

By default, a notification sound or message tone will be played if you receive a new text message to help you easily know that you have a new one. However, there are 4 conditions that can cause the notification sound is not played when you receive a new text message: 1)the notifications in the stock messaging app settings is disabled or the message tone is set to silent, 2)the phone is on silent or vibration mode, 3)the volume of the general notifications is too low, 4)the notifications of the stock messaging app is blocked or disabled. So, based on the things that probably make you get no notification sound or message tone when receiving a new text message, you can try fixing this issue by doing the following steps:


Step #1: Make sure the notifications in the stock Messaging app settings is enabled and the message tone is not set to silent
You can do so by using the following steps:
  1. Open the stock Messaging app.
  2. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then tap Settings.
  3. Scroll the screen to the very bottom.
  4. Tap Notifications. If notifications is off, tap the ON/OFF switch to turn it on.
  5. Tap Notification sound and then select the required message tone you want to use. Here, you have to make sure that you don't choose Silent as the message tone.
  6. Tap OK button to save the changes.


Step #2: Make sure to place your phone to the sound mode
You have to place your phone in sound mode to make your phone plays the notification sound when you receive a new text message by using the following steps:
  1. On any screen, swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notification panel and then tap to go to the settings menu.
  2. With the settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the Sound and display section and then tap Sound .
  3. Tap Sound mode and then select Sound.


Step #3: Make sure the notifications volume is adjusted
If needed, you can increase the volume of the general notifications by using the following steps:
  1. On any screen, swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notification panel and then tap to go to the settings menu.
  2. With the settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the Sound and display section and then tap Sound .
  3. Tap Volume.
  4. Drag the volume adjustment bar below the Notifications option to the right to increase the volume.
  5. Tap OK button to save the changes.


Step #4: Make sure the notifications of the stock Messaging app is enabled
You have to set your phone to show or enable notifications for the stock messaging app by using the following steps:
  1. On any screen, swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notification panel and then tap to go to the settings menu.
  2. With the settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the Applications section and then tap Application manager .
  3. Swipe the screen from the right to the left to access the All screen. You'll see all installed apps in your phone are listed here.
  4. Scroll down to find Messages and then tap it.
  5. Make sure to check the box in the left side of the Show notifications option to enable it and let you receive notification sound when you receive a new text message.

38 comments:

  1. I have a samsung s5. I am not getting notification sound or vibration when texting nack and forth with someone. Only when i am out of the acreen does it notify me

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    1. Hi Carla Geruso,
      Thanks for coming and I'm sorry for the late answer.
      Did it happen only with one contact?
      If that so, try to edit that contact from the Contacts app and then change the message tone and the vibration pattern to the required one.

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    2. It happens with all contacts when a conversation is open with that person

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    3. The solution I found was to download a texting app from the appstore. Works great.

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  2. Hello, I am having the same issue. It occurs when I am texting someone and leave the message window open. i.e. If I were texting someone, and I reply, put my phone down without locking it or changing pages, I receive no notification. This is bad because it causes me to miss messages because I wasn't staring at my phone. I do this often, because I don't want to have to open the message app or unlock my phone for every single message.

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    1. Hi Sonny Vongtip,
      Thanks for coming.
      FYI, I've tried duplicating your issue, but I still notified when I had a new message even when I was still in the message conversation screen.
      I don't know what's wrong with your phone, but you can try to solve your issue by performing clear cache and data for your Messaging app and then restart your phone.
      Also, there are some features in this phone that can help you to easily know that you have new messages, e.g: you can set your phone to repeat message alert every 2 or 10 minutes, you can enable flash notification, etc.

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    2. I have the same problem, and a relative's Samsung phone does this too

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    3. how can i do this- you can set your phone to repeat message alert every 2 or 10 minutes,
      I could do that on my S2 and S4 but can not find on the S5neo.

      Delete
  3. It's crap, i looked around at allot of websites and this is a problem for tons of people including myself. It effects the galaxy s5 and it's a problem for that phone with all of the providers. It is the most inconvenient thing that I could think of as far as messaging goes, there is nothing worse than being in a heated text war with my fiancé, when I am holding my phone on my lap and bc I didn't hear a notification, i didn't realize that I got one,.
    SAMSUNG....PLEASE FIX

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    Replies
    1. Hi Havasmidge,
      Thanks for coming.
      Seems that you have similar issue with Sonny Vongtip. Thus, you can read my reply in his comment to try fixing your issue.

      Delete
  4. This exact thing is happening to me with my Galaxy S5. If I am in a current text conversation and have the text window open, then I do not receive any sound when I receive a text from the other person. My wife thinks I am ignoring her....and this isn't a good thing.

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  5. This is the same with me on my galaxy s5, this didn't start doing this till after a update on my phone , I don't thing it the phone it ur update that cause the problem, like to see if the other on here mite remember if thats what happened to them.

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  6. Hi, for anyone who may have tried everything and still had the problem, see if you have a star shape or circle with a dash through on your status bar. If so, this means you've got your interuptions set to PRIORITY/NO interuptions, which is basically a way to allow only contacts put on your priority list to sound an alert or turn off all ringtone output all together. If you pull down the top of the screen and open up the quick applications you'll be able select whether to have interuptions into priority, none or all- put it into all. Hopefully that will help some of you. This may sound simple, but if you're moving from ios to android, it can be a steep learning curve. This solution was used on the Samsung Galaxy S5 With latest update installed.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Ollie Williams,
      Thanks for coming and share your thought here.
      Well, since I have not updated my phone to Android 5 Lollipop yet, I can't try this out in my phone. But, it's worth to try.

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    2. Hi there.

      No problem, it confused me at first and thought it best to share what I found :)

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    3. Well, I really appreciate it :)
      Something we think as a simple thing can sometimes be a useful thing for others. Moreover, an update sometimes brings some new features and we have no clue how to use/handle it. However, if you don't mind, you can share the detail steps to change the priority or interruptions settings here so that others who had updated their phones to Android 5 Lollipop and had the problem with the notifications can fix their problems.

      Delete
  7. Unfortunately the above comment is not a solution.

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  8. I have an S5 on lollipop which just happens to be rooted. A couple weeks after rooting I noticed my notification suddenly no longer working. I run with Messag+, the stock message app and Textsecure. I've tried many combinations of uninstalling, disabling, reenabling these apps for a possible fix. I even have a duplicate S5 with all the same conditions but the notifications still work. This does not appear to be an obvious problem with a simple solution. Hope this perspective helps others.

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  9. Soooo frustrated!! I am having this issue also. No notification when phone is on text screen. I'm also not getting a sound when my phone is ringing all the time. If my phone is not in use I get the sound when ringing. I have missed 3 important phone calls this week because my phone never rang. I just noticed I had a voicemail. Not sure what screen my phone was on when I didn't get the ring notification. I am very upset. Hundreds of dollars for a phone, and additional hundreds for the bill every month and I can't get a ding when I get a text?! Not cool!!!

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  10. Hi All,
    Thanks for coming.
    FYI, I have just updated my S5 to Android 5.0 Lollipop. And now I can confirm that this Android version has a feature called "Do not disturb" (it's an improved Blocking mode feature). This feature lets you mute all calls and alerts, except for your selected exceptions. Use the following steps to turn off this feature so that you can get all notifications:
    1. Go to Settings.
    2. With the settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the Sound and display section and then tap "Sound and notifications".
    3. Scroll the screen to the very bottom.
    4. Tap "Do not disturb".
    5. Slide the ON/OFF switch to the left to turn this feature off.
    6. Now, you should get notifications when you have incoming calls, messages, alarms, etc.

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    Replies
    1. the problem here is not being able to recieve notifications, what we are complaining is we need to get out of the message window immediately so that we can be notified of incoming message, if not we need to look at the message window and wait for the reply of the same person that we are communicating with. Again we do recieve notifications if our phone is locked or outside the message window. I regret updating my S5 to lollipop, very frustrating.

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  11. Galaxy s5....I've done all the suggestions and it still doesn't work. It worked just fine before the last 2 updates. Even the retailer can't figure it out! Very frustrating!

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  12. I have the Samsung S-5 model SM-G900A and the issue with default messenger app and alert tones only started when I updated from Android 4.4.2 to 4.4.4 and continued with Android 5.0
    Once a text or SMS is received, you will receive a tone alert but during a “text chat” with a sender, you will not receive subsequent tone alerts from that sender as long as the default messenger app is open. I went to my carrier technicians and to Samsung technicians at Best Buy and they could not fix it so you’ll get a tone alert on every instance. As a matter of fact, every other S-5 and Note 4 phone they tried behaved the same way. Therefore the issue can only be fixed with a software update from Samsung. No other brand of phone running Android behaved this way either because I was persistent that they tried it as proof that it is an issue only with the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy Note 4.
    Unfortunately, Samsung support staff will say it’s a feature of the phone but it is NOT! Until they acknowledge it’s a flaw and fix it you will have to live the inconvenience. I hope Samsung fixes it soon

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  13. Well after trying it all and also applying the latest updates still no sound from my messaging app ...very sad that a core functional element of the phone can get this little attention.

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  14. same problem with my S5 after updating to lollipop. Followed all procedures but still wont work. Now i need to get out the conversation after texting or need to look at my unit to check on the reply or else i'll miss reading it. It sucks

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  15. Same problem with my S3 - SAMSUNG PLEASE FIX THIS!!!

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  16. anyone have a fix for this yet?

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  17. Open the conversation, hit the drop down under the contact name this takes youyo conversation settings, turn notifications on.

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  18. I have the same problem with my S5 but have just discovered that if I turn off my screen while in text thread with someone, the next time they text I will get sound notification, pop-up box appears & envelope notification appears in notification area.although the visual notifications dissapear quickly

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  19. Same thing happening to me!! So frustrating!!

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  20. One year on I am reading this thread because my Galaxy S7 does exactly the same thing. If the phone is awake, I've recently messaged someone and put the phone down , there is no sound notification of an incoming response. As soon as the phone reverts to screen lock, I hear the text notification. So this issue is still there and I miss texts with my partner because I expect to hear a sound telling me I have a text ? Am I the only s7 user still with this issue ?

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    1. I am having the exact same problem with my s7. I have searched & tried advice from multiple websites, to no avail. I can't believe this problem hasn't been addressed by Samsung!

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  21. After updates, I too had this problem. This might help. Go to settings, then Sounds and Notif.,then down to Application Notif., then down to Messages. Mine was set to blocked. Why don't know..?? Turn on. This may help most or all :)

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    Replies
    1. That did the trick. Thank you for sharing.

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  22. THANK YOU!! For some reason I had no alert sound for sms's despite checking (what I thought was) everything! The App Manager screen showed that for some reason my notifications were blocked. Thanks for the suggestion - problem solved.

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  23. Thank you so much for this!

    #4 was the issue for me. I have no idea how this setting got changed, but somehow it did. I was starting to think I was going crazy.. There are multiple, completely independent settings for text message notifications, and the more obvious one was turned on.

    Much appreciated!

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  24. Its still not working for my s5 mini, despite haing cheked or tried all above suggestions. I have missed calls and texts due to the screen being open!

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