How to automatically receive MMS picture messages

“Those dreaded MMS messages are so frustrating! I can’get them to automatically download, and even when I manually try to download it, sometimes it still doesn’t even work!” This is the problem that many smartphone users go through. MMS messages not automatically downloading is a widespread and extremely frustrating. There’s no telling as to why MMS messages just won’t work how they’re supposed to without any tinkering, but with just a few minutes of your time, you can get your favorite text messaging app retrieving and downloading MMS without a hitch.

It’s not a difficult process, and in most cases, it’s the same series of steps for any text messaging app. And without further ado, here’s how to get MMS messages to download automatically.

Setting up MMS auto-retrieval

Again, setting up MMS auto-retrieval is a quick and easy process. First, open up your text messaging app. Next, in the right hand corner, tap the three-dot menu button and select Settings. Finally, scroll down to auto-retrieve and make sure the box is checked.

While you’re at it, it’s also a good practice to have Group Messaging checked, allowing you to send a MMS message to multiple people and get responses back in one group message over multiple individual responses.

Doing this should encourage your MMS messages to automatically download. However, even after following the prior steps, some people still have trouble with getting MMS messages to download properly. Here are a couple of ways to fix that problem:

1. Shut down, power on

The problem could be that your smartphone just needs to be restarted. It’s normal for technology to get hung up and error out, and while it can happen quite frequently, it can be fixed by quickly restarting or powering your smartphone on and off. To do this, hold down the power button for a few seconds and select Power off. Once powered off, hold down the power button again for a few seconds and let it boot up. Alternatively, hold the power button down for a few seconds. When the menu appears, select Restart. Both of these messages should fix any errors or hang-ups your smartphone is having.

If that didn’t work, you may need to move onto the next step.

2. Out with the old

Sometimes you just have way too many messages saved on your Android device. This can easily clog up your smartphone and cause it to experience some hang-ups. Head on through your list of saved messages and start clearing out text and MMS messages that you no longer need. This will not only free up some space on your Android device, but could fix the problem of having some MMS messages refuse to download as well.

If this didn’t work, it might be time to take some more drastic measures.

3. Hard reset

If the above methods haven’t worked, it might be time to reset your smartphone. Before continuing with a factory reset, you’ll want to make sure all of your data is backed up first. Go ahead and read this handy step-by-step guide on how to backup to the cloud we put together. Alternatively, in most cases, much of your app data is backed up to Google’s servers. You might want to double check on that by going into Settings > Backup and Reset and making sure Back up my data is checked. If so, you can go ahead and follow the below steps.

Head into Settings > Backup and Reset and select Factory data reset. Follow the steps that the reset wizard takes you through, and then when initializing your smartphone again, make sure to select the option for restoring your device over starting fresh.

Closing

These steps should have fixed your woes with MMS messages. One thing to keep in mind is that some MMS issues have to deal with your carrier. For instance, sending an MMS message over 1MB on T-Mobile’s network just won’t work. Likewise, MMS messages sent to you over 1MB will have trouble downloading. If you have a particular picture or video you really want to share, it might be worth uploading it to Facebook or another social networking service and sharing it with your friends and family there.

If you’re still having trouble retrieving and sending MMS messages, it might be worth contacting your carrier to see if there are any deeper, underlying issues at hand. Otherwise, if we helped you fix your issue, be sure to leave us a comment below!

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6 Star Wars technologies that exist today

By Cat DiStasio

The new Star Wars sequel had a record-breaking opening last week, proving once and for all the indelible mark the sci-fi saga has left on the world. On top of its social and cultural contributions, the film series has also inspired inventors and engineers to bring some of its futuristic technologies to life. When the first Star Wars installment hit the big screen, viewers ooh’d and aah’d over buzzing lightsabers, companion droids and all things hoverbike. Now, nearly four decades later, a slew of Star Wars-inspired technologies actually exist in real life. Although some were built just for fun (nobody really needs a lightsaber, do they?), others — like cybernetic appendages — are making a real difference in the world. Slideshow-350656

People have registered over 45,000 drones with the FAA

Now that the FAA’s mandatory drone registrations are open, how many people are rushing to sign up? Quite a few, actually. The administration reports taking over 45,000 registrations since the program opened up two days ago, on December 21st. In fact, the demand was sufficiently “overwhelming” that the FAA’s site has occasionally buckled under the load. It’s temporarily shutting down the site overnight (between the 23rd and 24th) to make sure that it can cope with the likely flood of registrations from people getting robotic flyers as gifts.

It’s too soon to say how effective the registry will be, since it’s likely that a lot of early sign-ups came from people who were well-aware of the requirement and eager to get it out of the way before the February 19th deadline. The real challenge is to catch both newcomers as well as those who don’t yet realize that they need to register existing drones — unless awareness spreads, the FAA could still see a lot of drones slipping through the cracks.

[Image credit: Phyo Hein Kyaw/AFP/Getty Images]

Source: FAA

Pandora signs new licensing agreement with two publishers

Pandora has reached a new licensing agreement with ASCAP and BMI, two major publishers in the music industry. 20 million songs are published between the two of those companies, so that’s a major plus for Pandora, although there aren’t any specific details about compensation rates.

This new deal also means Pandora will be withdrawing its appeal of one of the lawsuits from BMI, which presumably means their legal battles will wind down, too.

Pandora Signs Licensing Agreements with ASCAP and BMI

Pandora to drop its appeal of recent BMI rate court decision NEW YORK & OAKLAND, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 22, 2015– Pandora (NYSE:P), the world’s most powerful music discovery platform, and ASCAP and BMI, the world’s leading Performance Rights Organizations (PROs), today announced the signing of two separate multi-year licensing agreements for their combined catalogs of more than 20 million musical works. These deals create business benefits for Pandora, while modernizing compensation in the U.S. for ASCAP and BMI songwriters and publishers. In connection with the signing of the BMI agreement, Pandora has agreed to withdraw its appeal of the May 2015 order in the recent BMI rate case. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151222005117/en/ “This agreement is good news for music fans and music creators, who are the heart and soul of ASCAP, and a sign of progress in our ongoing push for improved streaming payments for songwriters, composers and music publishers that reflect the immense value of our members’ creative contributions,” said ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. “We’re extremely pleased to reach this deal with Pandora that benefits the songwriters, composers and publishers we are privileged to represent,” said Mike O’Neill, President and CEO, BMI. “Not only is our new agreement comparable to the other direct deals in the marketplace, but it also allows us to amicably conclude our lengthy rate court litigation and focus on what drives each of our businesses – the music.” “At Pandora we are delivering on our commitment to ensure that music thrives,” said Brian McAndrews, chief executive officer of Pandora. “These collaborative efforts with the leading Performance Rights Organizations, as well as our recent direct deals with several music publishers demonstrate our progress in working together to grow the music ecosystem.” While the specific terms of both multi-year agreements are confidential, for each deal, the respective parties worked together to build an innovative approach to public performance licensing. The deals allow both ASCAP and BMI to further their goal of delivering improved performance royalties for their songwriters and publishers, while Pandora will benefit from greater rate certainty and the ability to add new flexibility to the company’s product offering over time. The public performance royalties Pandora also pays to rights holders of master recordings are not affected by this agreement. ABOUT PANDORA Pandora is the world’s most powerful music discovery platform – a place where artists find their fans and listeners find music they love. We are driven by a single purpose: unleashing the infinite power of music by connecting artists and fans, whether through earbuds, car speakers, live on stage or anywhere fans want to experience it. Our team of highly trained musicologists analyze hundreds of attributes for each recording which powers our proprietary Music Genome Project®, delivering billions of hours of personalized music tailored to the tastes of each music listener, full of discovery, making artist/fan connections at unprecedented scale. Founded by musicians, Pandora empowers artists with valuable data and tools to help grow their careers and connect with their fans. www.pandora.com | Pandora Blog | Pandora LinkedIn | @PandoraPulse ABOUT ASCAP ASCAP is a professional membership organization serving and advocating for songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music for over 101 years. ASCAP’s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world’s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business – from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With over 555,000 members representing more than 10 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the world leader in performance royalties, advocacy and service for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com, on Twitter @ASCAP and on Facebook. ABOUT BMI Celebrating 75 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc. ® (BMI®) is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in more than 10.5 million musical works created and owned by more than 700,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The Company negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. In 1939, BMI created a groundbreaking open-door policy becoming the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today, the musical compositions in BMI’s repertoire, from chart toppers to perennial favorites, span all genres of music and are consistently among the most-performed hits of the year. For additional information and the latest BMI news, visit http://www.bmi.com follow us on Twitter @BMI or stay connected through Broadcast Music, Inc.’s Facebook page. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151222005117/en/ Source: Pandora Pandora Dominic Paschel, 510-842-6960 Corporate Finance & Investor Relations investor@pandora.com or Tracy Zamot, 917-579-6704 PR & Corporate Communications tzamot@pandora.com or ASCAP Cathy Halgas Nevins, 212-621-8414 cnevins@ascap.com or Audrey Cooling, 202-741-5568 acooling@gpg.com or BMI Liz Fischer, 212-220-3160 lfischer@bmi.com

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