Title: wordpress text message not working
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# wordpress text message not working

 *  [dragonsjaw](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dragonsjaw/)
 * (@dragonsjaw)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/)
 * Does anyone have this plugin working on their site?
    I have question on the plugin
   forum and direct to the developers, but no response. ( [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-text-message-options-page-not-right?replies=1](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-text-message-options-page-not-right?replies=1))
   It seems so simple no idea why it’s not working.
 * So what other SMS plugins will do this same thing?
    This isn’t for marketing,
   it is for alerts updates.
 * Ideas?
    thanks

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)

1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/page/2/?output_format=md)
[→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/page/2/?output_format=md)

 *  Thread Starter [dragonsjaw](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dragonsjaw/)
 * (@dragonsjaw)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398195)
 * Does anyone understand this error message:
 * `Warning: /home/******/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-text-message//
   59944a91f6256dd6c1f8b1a4190eeb56.spc is not writeable in /home/******/public_html/
   wp-content/plugins/wordpress-text-message/simplepie.inc on line 1774`
 * I have changed permissions on both the .inc file and on the whole wp-text-message
   folder.. and still no joy.
 * Odd, I just searched on this part:
    59944a91f6256dd6c1f8b1a4190eeb56.spc and 
   found links to other sites parent directorys.. guess I will move on from this
   plug in.
 * Seems so simple.. why isn’t there one out there that works?
 *  [totalbounty](https://wordpress.org/support/users/totalbounty/)
 * (@totalbounty)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398406)
 * [@dragonsjaw](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dragonsjaw/) – try the latest
   2.03 release, works with WP 3.3
 * most of the other SMS plugins do different things
 * of course it’s for marketing, why else would people subscribe for SMS updates?
 * plugin works fine, tested on Hostgator, Dreamhost, Bluehost, 1&1, godaddy, etc.
 *  Thread Starter [dragonsjaw](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dragonsjaw/)
 * (@dragonsjaw)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398407)
 * Well a very good use (way better than marketing) would be SMS for emergency notifications.
   I haven’t played around with this since the last post, will get the latest version
   and do some testing.
 *  [jtprattmedia](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jtprattmedia/)
 * (@jtprattmedia)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398408)
 * your use is noted, but something a website owner would use for themselves. This
   plugin is for update notifications to website visitors. If it was for SMS emergency
   notifications is would be, well…a different plugin.
 *  [cdberkman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdberkman/)
 * (@cdberkman)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398414)
 * Using this plugin for a while now and it was hit or miss as to whether or not
   it wanted to send out messages. Now after a clean install of both wordpress and
   the new WordPress Text Message plugin (2.06), I am confused. When I attempt to
   send out a text message, the message remains in the queue either “forever” or
   10 minutes. When I say “Forever”, it either won’t send and just remain in the
   queue or take upwards of an hour to send. Other time it will send immediately
   or 5, 10, or 20 minutes. Is there something that I am missing as to how this 
   thing is supposed to work? NOTE: I am simply sending the message to my own phone
   to test this.
 *  [totalbounty](https://wordpress.org/support/users/totalbounty/)
 * (@totalbounty)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398419)
 * WordPress cron is not the same as Unix cron. With a UNIX cron job, the operating
   system uses the cron job (that you’ve scheduled) to do something at a specific
   time and date.
 * WordPress cron allows you to schedule things at a specific time / date / interval–
   but it gets triggered in the background (at that time and date) when a WordPress
   page is called.
 * In other words – let’s say you have a plugin scheduled to do something “in 20
   minutes”, but you don’t get a lot of traffic to your website, and the next time
   you get a page hit is in 30 minutes. The WordPress cron will run 10 minutes late.
 * So the reason the WordPress text message plugin would send out SMS messages immediately,
   or in 5, 10, or 20 minutes depends on how busy your site is.
 *  [cdberkman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdberkman/)
 * (@cdberkman)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398420)
 * @Totalbouty…. Thank you for the response, but here is my issue. I have modified
   and added cron jobs on both WordPress and on my server. The plugin is still not
   sending any messages. Yes, now it will not send at all (both before and after
   creating cron jobs). To ensure that it wasn’t my site, I recreated another wordpress
   site using only what was provided with the install. The only Plugin that I added
   was the WordPress Text Message from Total Bounty. Again completely clean install.
   Everytime I attempted to send a message, it just gets stuck in the Queue. You
   are now thinking that this has to be a server issue on my side……. Well I downloaded
   and installed another SMS plugin from another provided via WordPress and it works
   every single time, instantainiously. I have used WordPress Text Message for over
   2 years (started with Semper-Fi). The first year it worke great everytime. The
   second year when it was re-written, it was sporatic. And now it won’t work at
   all with the latest release. Not sure what the issue is but I just sent myself
   4 messages and all came through immediatly with the other SMS plugin.
 *  [totalbounty](https://wordpress.org/support/users/totalbounty/)
 * (@totalbounty)
 * [14 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398421)
 * [@cdberkman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdberkman/) There’s nothing 
   special about our plugin – it sends email out the same way as any other WordPress
   plugin that uses the email function. It may be a server issue – it’s really hard
   to say.
 * We can fix major issues that we can replicate, but had the problems you describe.
   What webhost are you using? I’m glad the other plugin works for, if it’s a server
   issue maybe the other plugin is your best option.
 * Not that it’s consolation to you – but we’ve nearly 3,000+ downloads in the last
   month – and your complaint is the only single one of this nature (so far). If
   we get any others we can investigate, but to date we don’t have any.
 *  [cdberkman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdberkman/)
 * (@cdberkman)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398422)
 * [@totalbounty](https://wordpress.org/support/users/totalbounty/). Again, Thanks
   for the feedback. I am currently using Dreamhost, and have been with them for
   the last 12 years. SMS is critical to the WordPress install (3.3.1) that I am
   using and the only one that requires it. I unfortunately cannot provide the site
   name or link as it is a privacy issue. In any case I am glad that it is working
   for others and appreciate your help. That said, I have attempted hundreds of 
   plugin installs, and 9 times out of 10, they simply don’t work. I will usually
   not respond to the makers of the plugin. I don’t expect “free” to work all the
   time. The only reason why I am providing feedback, is because I have been using
   this plugin for such a long time and it went from working to not.
 * Again thanks!
 *  [jtprattmedia](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jtprattmedia/)
 * (@jtprattmedia)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398423)
 * [@cdberkman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdberkman/) – if you’ve installed
   hundreds of plugins and 9 times out of 10 they don’t work, you have to consider
   if there’s an issue on your end. We’ve been doing WordPress since 2005 and building
   websites for 17 years. I don’t know your entire situation, but 2 things that 
   resonate with me are the fact that (it sounds like) you’ve been on the same shared
   webhost server for a very long time. Also, it sounds like you’ve possibly been
   on the same WordPress database for a very long time (updated again and again 
   through multiple versions).
 * I don’t know your experience level with either development or WordPress, but 
   nearly every time you install a plugin you add database entries (and in most 
   cases) new tables. Even if you just try it for a few minutes, and then delete
   it (the tables and entries remain). The standard WP install has less than a dozen
   db tables – if you’ve installed hundreds of plugins – you could have 80-100+ 
   tables, in additional to hundreds of extra records in the options tables. Plugins
   are written by different developers that set their own naming conventions (that
   sometimes conflict). All I’m saying is – we see more conflicts with a setup like
   this, than a new WP installation. We also have 10x more issues with a WP website
   that has been upgraded over time through multiple versions, than a fresh install.
   The same can be said for an older webserver (in most cases).
 * You may or may not want to do this, but (if we were you) we would get a $5 account
   at hostgator on a new server, export your db and content – create a new db on
   hostgator, import your db and content, and add fresh versions of your theme and
   plugins one by one. I guarantee that updated version of your website will run
   completely different. We only know this because we fixed hacked websites all 
   the time – and this is how we do it (export content, fresh db). We noticed how
   much better the sites run (and the excessive db tables on existing sites) – so
   we started doing it for aging sites needing a tuneup.
 * Whether you love your webhost or not, the hardware and OS might be aging and 
   patched to infinity and beyond (as well as your WordPress db).
 * In regards to the plugin and previous version, the very old version from Semper
   FI is still available – bugs, security holes, and all. We didn’t take over his
   version, we forked his plugin into a new one.
 *  [cdberkman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdberkman/)
 * (@cdberkman)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398424)
 * [@jtprattmedia](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jtprattmedia/). Appreciate
   the feedback and your resonance with what I stated in my post is my fault. I 
   have been building websites for 12 years now and with that said, I have been 
   using WordPress and Joomla for a few years now. I build and maintain numerous
   sites/domains using both programs. Straight to the point though. Because I thought
   that it may have been the install that was causing the problem, I installed WordPress
   under an new domain. No custom templates, no packaged plugin/themes. Completely
   bare bones install with only WordPress Text Message. When I say that I have installed
   hundreds of plugins, I have done this over time using different domains and installs.
   I am not using the same databases/tables etc. I also have a domain that I use
   strictly for testing in the event something doesn’t work on one of my sites. 
   The whole background behind this thread was not to say anything bad about the
   plugin. The issue may be between Dreamhost and the plugin. I just don’t know.
   But I did find a plugin that sends SMS messages immediately with absolutely no
   issues. I understand that not everything will work with every single host.
 *  [jtprattmedia](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jtprattmedia/)
 * (@jtprattmedia)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398425)
 * [@cdberkman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdberkman/) No problem at all–
   we always try to get some background because (as you prob already know) a great
   bulk of the time the issue is another plugin conflict, bloated db, webserver 
   settings – etc.
 * All in all very few complaints / issues come up with this plugin. In the past
   there were maybe 2 inquiries about sending out emails (to sms), and we had initially
   thought it was the way the plugin sent out emails (and the reply to field). We
   were told by some sys admins on different hosts that it was some kind of “x-mailer
   issue” (again the differences in webhosts and how they send out email). When 
   the latest updates were made – we checked the plugin (and the way it sends out
   emails) to make sure it was working the same as other email notification and 
   sms plugins (and it was). So to that effect, if there is an issue (besides webhost
   mail server settings) we haven’t been able to find it.
 * Sounds like on your end it is a webhost issue if another plugin works and ours
   doesn’t (on a new install). My suggestion was get a $5 account on another host
   and do the barebones test to see if it works (to confirm it).
 * Hope that helps.
 *  [lpgalady](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lpgalady/)
 * (@lpgalady)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398436)
 * I have a site where I have been using this plugin for 2 years now and its been
   working fine. All of sudden it is no longer showing on the sidebar – the template
   has not been changed, it appears in the backend in widgets and not on the live
   site – weird. Has this happened to anyone else? I have deactivated and deleted
   and uploaded a new fresh version of the plugin hoping maybe that would do the
   trick but…alas…it did not.
 * ‘[http://www.looneyslaxclub.com&#8217](http://www.looneyslaxclub.com&#8217); 
   is the website and it was in the right sidebar, however as you can see its not
   showing up
 * any assistance would be gratefully appreciated.
 *  [totalbounty](https://wordpress.org/support/users/totalbounty/)
 * (@totalbounty)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398437)
 * [@lpgalady](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lpgalady/) – this plugin hasn’t
   been available in the repository for 2 years.
 * having said that – no we haven’t seen this. Could be latest version of WP conflicting
   with your theme and/or the plugin.
 *  [lpgalady](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lpgalady/)
 * (@lpgalady)
 * [14 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/#post-2398438)
 * hmmmm interesting…however that doesn’t answer my question.
    Ok so the plugin 
   maybe was more than 1 year but less than 2 years.
 * its not showing on the sidebar and the template has remained the same for the
   entire time – are you saying the WP upgrade to 3.3 could be why it is not showing
   any longer.
 * I noticed earlier in the week that I was directed to a Total Bounty website for
   support forums on this plugin – I take it that is YOU..however when I posted 
   something there I received no response which is why I came here to try to get
   this resolved.
 * So basically I will need to do without this plugin or use another SMS plugin 
   that works 🙂 too bad there is no solution for this issue.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 23 total)

1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/page/2/?output_format=md)
[→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/page/2/?output_format=md)

The topic ‘wordpress text message not working’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 23 replies
 * 6 participants
 * Last reply from: [clevernickname](https://wordpress.org/support/users/clevernickname/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-text-message-not-working/page/2/#post-2398455)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics
