{"id":3626,"date":"2023-06-12T09:34:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T09:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3626"},"modified":"2023-11-20T15:51:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T15:51:00","slug":"permanent-and-temporary-sms-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/permanent-and-temporary-sms-errors\/","title":{"rendered":"Permanent and Temporary Errors in SMS Delivery Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3626\" class=\"elementor elementor-3626\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-6241ba43 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"6241ba43\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-14f2cae9\" data-id=\"14f2cae9\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-21be6f74 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"21be6f74\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><\/p>\n<p>When an SMS message is passed to the recipient\u2019s mobile network by an SMS Gateway the network will attempt to deliver it to the handset which is assigned to the destination mobile number.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Ordinarily, the message will be delivered immediately and the network will return a <a href=\"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/developers#delivery-status\">delivery status<\/a> of \u2018DELIVERED\u2019. If the message cannot be delivered a few different scenarios can play out.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Temporary Errors<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>If a \u2018temporary\u2019 error is returned by the mobile network in a delivery report, it indicates that there is currently a problem preventing the delivery of the message, such as the handset being out of range. As it implies, this problem may only be temporary. The mobile network will periodically try to re-deliver the message within the designated expiry period.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The SMS Works will update you with any temporary errors that we receive, leaving the message status as \u2018SENT\u2019. The delivery report JSON contains a \u2018failurereason\u2019 object, with a \u2018permanent\u2019 parameter that will be set to false. You can typically ignore these and wait for one of the following outcomes instead&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Permanent Errors<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>A \u2018permanent\u2019 error is returned by the mobile network when a definitive problem occurs that will prevent the message from being delivered, such as the recipient\u2019s mobile service having been suspended by the network. If a permanent error occurs the mobile network will discard the message and they will not try to re-deliver it.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>In this case, The SMS Works will send you a delivery report with a status of either \u2018UNDELIVERABLE\u2019 or \u2018<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/rejected-delivery-report\/\">REJECTED<\/a><\/strong>\u2019. The <a href=\"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/developers#delivery-report-parameters\">delivery report JSON<\/a> contains a \u2018failurereason\u2019 object, with a \u2018permanent\u2019 parameter that will be set to true, along with the reason why it won&#8217;t be delivered. In some cases you may want to try to resend the message after a delay (for example, if the mobile network indicates that the handset is set to \u2018Do not disturb\u2019, which the recipient can alter at a later date). In most cases though it indicates a more long-term problem with the number, so you may want to update your data. We\u2019ve grouped <a href=\"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/developers#delivery-report-error-codes\">permanent errors<\/a> into a few, easy to understand categories, to make your next steps easier to determine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The SMS Works does not charge for messages that are not delivered. Whenever a permanent error occurs we will refund the applicable number of SMS credits to your account.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Message Expired<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>If a temporary error prevents the immediate delivery of a message then the mobile network will attempt to re-deliver the message up until a designated expiry time. By default, The SMS Works sets the message expiry to 48 hours. When the expiry time elapses, a delivery report with a <a href=\"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/sms-message-expiry\/\">status of \u2018EXPIRED\u2019<\/a> will be returned to you. As above, we do not charge for expired messages, and the relevant number of credits will be refunded to your SMS Works account.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Message Delivered<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Our desired outcome! If a temporary error is overcome within the expiry period and the message can be delivered you\u2019ll receive a delivery report with a status of \u2018DELIVERED\u2019. All is well.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When an SMS message is passed to the recipient\u2019s mobile network by an SMS Gateway the network will attempt to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesmsworks.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}