--- title: "Why hasn't my SMS arrived?" description: "Check in the right order whether your SMS was sent, whether it was received, and where it may have gone missing, both for a recipient and for a test." url: https://help.sarbacane.com/en/articles/433-why-hasn-t-my-sms-arrived collection: "Frequently Asked Questions about text messages" updated: 2026-10-29 language: en alternates: [fr, es] --- # Why hasn't my SMS arrived? Check in the right order whether your SMS was sent, whether it was received, and where it may have gone missing, both for a recipient and for a test. If a recipient hasn't received your SMS sent with Sarbacane Campaigns, the cause is almost always one of the following: the campaign hasn't been sent yet, there's a problem with the number, the contact was excluded, or the phone classified the SMS as spam. Check them in the order below. ## Prerequisites - A Sarbacane Campaigns license. - The campaign name and the number of the recipient concerned. ## Steps 1. Check that the campaign was sent. In [**My campaigns**](https://campaigns.sarbacane.com/#!/p/campaignslist/camp/default/preview), check its status. An SMS marketing campaign scheduled for the evening, on a Sunday, or on a public holiday will be sent during the next permitted time slot (Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.). 2. Check whether the SMS was received. Under the thumbnail of the sent campaign, check the **number of SMS messages delivered**. To check for a specific recipient, open the campaign statistics, then **Behavioral tracking**, and check the **Received** column. 3. If the SMS was received, ask the recipient to check the spam folder in their messaging app. Once the SMS has been delivered, Sarbacane can no longer know what the phone does with it. 4. If the SMS was not received, check the number: make sure it is a mobile number, that it is written in international format (+33 6 06 06 06 06), and that it follows the same format in all your lists. If you combine lists in which numbers are written differently, some contacts may be excluded. **Important**: contact analysis applies a single country calling code to all numbers: the code for the country from which you create the campaign. If your list contains numbers from several countries, do not run the analysis; go straight to the **Verification** step, which checks only unsubscribed contacts, undeliverable numbers, and invalid numbers. 5. Check that the contact has not been excluded. While creating an SMS campaign, at the **Recipients** step, at the top right of the screen under the **Next** button, click the three dots, then run the **Contact analysis**. Sarbacane automatically excludes contacts without a number, landline numbers, duplicates, undeliverable numbers, and unsubscribed contacts. 6. Resend the SMS to contacts who did not receive it using a **To non-recipients** follow-up. If it still doesn't arrive, ask the recipient to check that their number is active and can receive SMS messages, then contact customer support with the campaign name and the number concerned. ## Expected result You know at which step the SMS was lost and what action to take. ## Troubleshooting ### My test SMS didn't arrive Check your spam folder, then wait a few minutes: sending may be temporarily delayed. If the test still doesn't arrive, contact customer support with the campaign name and the number tested. **Note**: a test SMS uses credits, just like a regular send. ### A valid number is classified as undeliverable Remove the number from your NPAI list in Sarbacane Contacts, then contact customer service so they can remove it from Sarbacane's internal list as well. ### My recipients abroad didn't receive anything Check that each number has the correct country code. Some countries cannot receive SMS messages sent from Sarbacane, including the United States. ## Related articles - [How can I prevent my SMS messages from being marked as spam?](https://help.sarbacane.com/fr/articles/432-comment-eviter-que-mes-sms-arrivent-en-spam.md) - [How can I import contacts into a Sarbacane SMS campaign?](https://help.sarbacane.com/fr/articles/48-comment-importer-des-contacts-dans-une-campagne-sms-sarbacane.md) - [How can I restart an SMS campaign in Sarbacane?](https://help.sarbacane.com/fr/articles/47-comment-relancer-une-campagne-sms-dans-sarbacane.md)