Messages not going through? Find your situation in the table below and jump to the fix.
| What you see | Go to |
|---|---|
| Status says Transmitted, but no text arrives on the phone | See the fix |
| Status says Failed | See the fix |
| Status says Skipped | See the fix |
| Your phone shows “Paired, but not reachable” | See the fix |
| The text is in your Messages app, but the person never got it | See the fix |
| Your phone shows a popup about sending many texts | See the fix |
Status says “transmitted” but no text arrives #
Transmitted means QuickText handed the message to your phone. Your phone then sends it as a normal text. If it never turns into a text, the cause is almost always on the phone side.
- Allow SMS on your phone. This is the number one cause. Android has to give KDE Connect permission to send texts, and it is easy to miss. See the SMS permissions guide.
- Keep KDE Connect running on the phone. Do not swipe it away while sending, and set its battery to Unrestricted so Android does not close it in the background.
- Turn off RCS chat in Google Messages. If you use Google Messages, RCS can get in the way of sending through KDE Connect. Open Google Messages, tap your profile picture, go to Messages settings > RCS chats, and turn off Turn on RCS chats.
- Try a different SMS app. Some SMS apps do not play well with KDE Connect. Install a different one, set it as your default SMS app, and try again. Fossify Messages and Google Messages are both good choices.
Still nothing after all four? The block may be at your mobile carrier. See the carrier section below.
Status says “failed” #
Failed means QuickText could not hand the message to your phone. Usually the phone was not connected at that moment.
- Open the Your phone page and check your phone shows Ready to send. If it does not, follow Phone paired but not reachable below.
- Wake the phone, make sure it is on the same Wi-Fi as your PC, and open the KDE Connect app on it once.
- Send again. On the finished screen, use Send remaining so only people who have not gotten the message yet are texted. Nobody gets it twice.
QuickText hangs or fails right when you connect the phone
Antivirus or firewall software can block QuickText from talking to KDE Connect, which shows up as failures or a frozen screen.
- Turn off your antivirus or firewall for a moment and try again.
- If that fixes it, add QuickText to your exceptions (whitelist it), then turn your security software back on.
QuickText is safe. Major tools like Windows Defender and Kaspersky show it as clean. More detail here: Antivirus or firewall warning (false positive).
Status says “skipped” #
Skipped means QuickText did not try to send to that person. There are two reasons:
- No phone number. The contact has no number saved. Add one on the Contacts page.
- The message came out empty. This happens when the whole message sat inside a personalization tag that had no value and no fallback. Add a fallback like
{{first_name|there}}, or check the message is not blank for that person.
Phone paired but not reachable #
Paired means your phone and PC know each other. Not reachable means the phone is not answering right now. One of these four steps brings it back in almost every case.
- Open the KDE Connect app on the phone. Android puts background apps to sleep. Opening it once reconnects within a few seconds. This alone fixes most cases.
- Let it run in the background. In the phone settings, exclude KDE Connect from battery optimization (sometimes called battery saver or app sleep).
- Same Wi-Fi on both sides. Phone and PC must be on the same Wi-Fi network. Mobile data does not work, and guest networks often block devices from seeing each other.
- Click Refresh after each step. On the Your phone page, the row turns green as soon as the phone answers. Then use Test connection for the final proof.
QuickText finds no phone at all (firewall)
If no phone shows up even though both are on the same Wi-Fi, Windows Firewall may be blocking KDE Connect.
Quick check in Windows Defender:
- Open Windows Security from the Start menu.
- Go to Virus & threat protection > Protection history.
- If KDE Connect or QuickText appears there as blocked, click it and choose Allow.
Allow KDE Connect through the firewall: KDE Connect uses ports 1714 to 1764. In “Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security”, add an Inbound Rule for those ports (TCP and UDP) and allow the connection for private networks.
The text is in your Messages app, but the person never got it #
This is not a QuickText or KDE Connect problem. Your text left the phone but your mobile carrier blocked it. This is common on prepaid plans, and even “unlimited” plans often have quiet anti spam limits.
First, confirm it is the carrier. Send a normal text by hand from your phone (not through QuickText). If that one also fails to arrive, your carrier has limited your number. Call their support line and ask if there are any restrictions on your account.
If manual texts work but QuickText ones do not, you are likely sending too fast. On the Send page, click Change pace and raise the pause between messages. A longer pause means a slower send, but far fewer blocks.
Your phone shows a popup about sending many texts #
Android shows this warning when an app sends a lot of texts in a short time. It is a built-in safety feature, not an error.
Since you meant to send these, tap Allow and QuickText keeps going. To see it less often, slow the pace down: on the Send page, click Change pace and add a few seconds between messages.
