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Registration troubleshooting

Important

For your privacy, messages are only stored on your devices. Signal does not have a copy of your conversation history. New installs of Signal do not restore your previous message history. If you have your old device, use these steps to transfer message history to your new phone.

See also: 

Not receiving the verification code?
When it arrives, do not share the verification code with others.

  • Confirm that you are within range of your mobile network and can receive SMS messages.
  • Confirm you can receive a phone call to the number.
  • Check that you have entered your phone number correctly.
  • Confirm that you did not block messages from from unknown senders.
  • Enter the full international phone number and omit any leading zeroes
    • For numbers from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the number should start with +5521.
    • For numbers from Argentina, the number should start with +549.
  • Contact your provider and confirm that you have not responded "STOP" to messages from unknown senders or opted out from receiving business or transactional notifications.
  • If your provider is T-Mobile, Metro PCS, Google Fi (using T-Mobile), or other T-Mobile based service,
    • To receive the verification code by SMS:
      • Call #611# and ask the representative to remove the "Shortcode Blacklist" for your account.
    • To receive the verification code by call:
      • Call #632# to turn off Scam Block.
      • iOS Users: Go to iOS Settings > Apps > Phone > disable the setting Silence Unknown Callers.
    • Google Fi users can switch the underlying carrier. Here are some dialpad shortcuts you can use to switch out the carrier that’s backing your Fi connection.
      • To see your current carrier info: ##fiinfo##
      • Switch to T-Mobile: ##fitmo##
      • Switch to Sprint: ##fispr##
      • Switch to US Cellular: ##fiusc##
      • Switch back to automatic: ##fiauto##

Additional Registration Troubleshooting

Android

When it arrives, do not share the verification code with others.

  1. Confirm that you are using the most recent version of Signal.
  2. Enable all the permissions for Signal through your Android phone Settings. Even if they are already enabled, please turn it off and back on then restart your phone. 
  3. Update the Google Play services app on your phone.
  4. Disable your VPN app or check that it allows *.signal.org and TCP port 443.
  5. Too many attempts? Wait some time (1 hour, 1 day, etc.) before trying to register again.
  6. Check that you have free space on the (small) data partition of your phone, not the (large) SD card. This is easy to confuse on older devices. You can free memory by uninstalling apps that you no longer use.
  7. Check phone-specific optimization lists and make sure that the following conditions are true:
    • Signal is excluded from the list of automatically optimized apps when in the background.
    • Signal is included in the list of apps that are allowed to start themselves.
    • Signal is enabled through specific steps for Huawei phones:
      - Settings > Apps > Apps > Signal > Power Usage Details > App Launch > Set to Manage Manually > Enable Auto-Launch, Secondary Launch & Run in Background
    • Signal and Google Play services are enabled through specific steps for Xiaomi phones:
      - Security > Permissions > Autostart > Allow
      - Settings > All > Startup manager > Allow 

iOS

When it arrives, do not share the verification code with others.

  1. Confirm that you are using the most recent version of Signal.
  2. Disable your VPN or data monitoring app or check that it allows *.signal.org and TCP port 443. 
  3. Check your messages app for the Unknown Senders inbox or disable this feature by going to iOS Settings > Messages > Filter Unknown Senders.
  4. Enable all permissions available to you through iOS Settings > Apps > Signal.
  5. Registered too many times? Wait some time (1 hour, 1 day, etc.) before trying to register again.
  6. See Error 0? Check steps 1-4 above.

Desktop

Signal Desktop must link with either Signal Android or Signal iOS to be available for messaging.

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