Why did my alarm texts stop working? 6 causes, in order
When alarm texts stopped working with no error, the usual cause is a carrier email-to-text gateway that has closed. Look at the recipient address first. If it ends in a carrier domain, swap it for your Welco address and your alarms text again. If it doesn't, the five other checks below find the cause, in order.
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- Start with the address
- One swap fixes a dead gateway
- Then see every text's delivery
Replaces email-to-text from
- Verizon
- AT&T
- T-Mobile
Published:
Cooler monitor emails 5551234567@vzwpix.com; the Verizon gateway replies 250 OK but drops it, so no text arrives. The same alert sent to cooler-alarms@welco.ai goes through Welco to the phone. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Walk-in Cooler 2] Temp HIGH, 44.1 F at 1:37 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”
- AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have closed or are closing their email-to-text gateways. Dates are on the carrier shutdown page.
- A closed gateway can take your email and drop it with no bounce, as reported for T-Mobile.
- Check that the email left your system before you blame the phone.
- One test alarm to a real phone tells you more than any log.
Is a closed gateway behind my missing texts?
Answer the 3 questions to see your result.
If any answer is yes: A closed or closing carrier gateway is the likely cause. Replace that address with your Welco address, then send a test alarm. The migration checklist for alarms helps with many systems.
If every answer is no: The gateway probably isn't the problem. Work through the six checks below to find what is.
A silent gateway versus a path that reports back
An alarm text passes through three hands: your system, a mail server and a phone network. Each one only knows its own part.
Through a carrier gateway
- Your system hands the email to a mail server and logs success.
- A closed gateway can take the mail and throw it away, as reported for T-Mobile's tmomail.net.
- No bounce comes back, so the first clue is an alarm nobody answered.
Through your Welco address
- Per-text delivery reports say whether each text arrived and, if not, why.
- Sender approval refuses mail from an unknown address instead of losing it.
- A dry-run test mode checks a setup without sending a text or using credits.
Where a silent failure hides
This is how a missed logger alarm looks from each side when the gateway has closed. Every step reports success except the last one nobody can see.
The logger emails its alarm
Alarm: No Readings - Cooler B, to 5551234567@vzwpix.comThe mail server accepts it
The logger's log now says sent. As far as it knows, the job is done.
250 OK: queued for deliveryThe kitchen manager's phone stays dark
The gateway drops the message. No text arrives, and no error goes back to anyone.
The opening crew finds the problem
Cooler B has been without readings all night. Now someone has to check every shelf by hand.
An example sequence. Gateways behave differently, and some reject mail outright.
Find out why your alarm texts stopped working in 6 checks
Go in this order. Each check takes a few minutes, and the early ones catch most problems.
Look at the recipient address
If it ends in a carrier domain, compare it with our carrier gateway status list. A closed gateway means you've found the cause.
Make sure the email left the system
Add your own work email as a second recipient and trigger a test. If that email never arrives either, the problem is the system's mail settings, such as a changed password or mail server.
Confirm the alarm actually fired
Check that notifications are on for that point, and that nobody left it in maintenance or changed the setpoint. A quiet alarm can simply be an alarm that never tripped.
Check the number can take texts
Landlines and many desk VoIP numbers can't receive texts. Our guide on landlines and alert texts explains how to spot one.
Ask whether anyone replied STOP
A STOP reply ends texts from that sender to that phone until the person sends START. It's easy to do by accident on a busy night.
Look for carrier filtering
Mobile networks sometimes block texts that look like spam. See what carrier filtering is and why some words trip it.
Swap the dead gateway for one that reports back
Point the alarm at Welco and see what happens to every text.
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A logger alarm that went missing, and how it reads now
A cooler's data logger emailed a Verizon vzwpix picture address. When that path failed, nobody heard about it. Through Welco, the alert reads like this.
Alert email from alerts@logger-cloud.example.com, subject “Alarm: No Readings - Cooler B”. Welco trims it to one text of 92 characters: “Welco: [Cooler B logger] No readings for 30 minutes as of 10:05 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”
Text received: Welco: [Cooler B logger] No readings for 30 minutes as of 10:05 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
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Loggers like this one are covered on the data logger SMS alarm page.
Frequently asked questions
Why would alarm texts stop if nothing changed on our side?
How do I test whether my alarm text path works?
Can a phone stop getting alarm texts because someone replied STOP?
Alarms reach some phones but not others. What does that mean?
How long does the fix take once I know the gateway is the cause?
Will switching to Welco stop texts being blocked as spam?
What will on-call staff see once the alarm goes through Welco?
Welco: and names the place and the problem, as in the example above. There is no app to open. If someone replies, the reply goes back by email to the alarm's sender, though it does not clear the alarm.Know where every alarm text went
Replace the gateway with Welco and read a delivery report for each text. See pricing or start free.
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