topic Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts in Tech Support

Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 11:16:34 GMT

Hi, I hope someone from Tech Support can help me on here because the normal routes have proved fruitless so far. I've moved to the O2 network from EE with a new phone and I'm having trouble with the number port. After the port, calls seem to be working fine, texts from individuals and O2 seem to be working but verification SMS texts from e.g banks, NHS, TfL, HMRC aren't coming through which is making app migration and accessing services painful.

I called O2 on 202 (live chat fails to launch) and I was told my phone wasn't working after some other basic checks and I was told to call the manufacturer. I didn't accept since there are reports of this issue all over the forum indicating an incomplete port. They said I would need to wait up to 5 days for a response from a back-end team but I'd be grateful an O2 tech can pick this up and check for me or if there are any settings on my account that need to be modified.

Thank you.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

MI5 — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 11:37:36 GMT

@Vazzer

Send a direct message to O2 on one of the socials.

They are good at sorting these kind of issues.

(https://o2uk.co/O2CFB) , X (https://o2uk.co/O2CTW) or Instagram (https://o2uk.co/O2CIG)

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 11:47:20 GMT

Thanks @MI5, I've seen that mentioned a few times and although I'm reluctant to use the socials for this kind of thing I think I'll give it a go.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 15:24:18 GMT

I've gone full circle. On X they have found that the analyst I spoke to this morning escalated a ticket with the back-end team and I've been told I need to wait for them to get back to me. I guess I'm stuck until they get to that ticket. I didn't realise porting was fraught with such pitfalls and that it's not a strightforward fix. I just hope I don't miss anything important.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Enlli — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 16:05:00 GMT

Porting should be simple and quick as far as the customer is concerned. Problems can occur and O2 seems to have more than most.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

MI5 — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 16:44:54 GMT

Keep reminding them on X @Vazzer until it's sorted 👍

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 17:46:10 GMT

Thanks for the advice @MI5

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 17:57:09 GMT

Thanks @Enlli

I can't say it's necessarily a worse problem for O2, I haven't ported a number in years, but just searching the internet this issue does seem to be widespread across numerous operators. From the experience I've had so far though, I think there should be more awareness from the support staff. It seems a little crazy that I have had to approach O2 Support, this forum and the socials to feel like the problem has been understood.

I guess this has become a bigger issue in recent years with the prevalence multi-factor authentication and major services using SMS as a way to quickly provide information and it feels like the penny hasn't dropped with the operators. Not having access to some of these SMS texts is crippling!

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:57:42 GMT

Just to keep this topic up to date in the hope it may help someone some day, the issue still persists and it's been over a week since the port now. I did start receiving 2FA / OTP SMS messages in dribs and drabs that were old and essentially useless due to the time it took to reach the phone. It's as if they were queued somewhere and going around a circuitous route before reaching the phone several hours / days later. I guess it's better than then disappearing completely into the ether. Oddly though I don't seem to have received any delayed SMS messages from NHS services, e.g. the NHS app when I am trying to authenticate.

O2 have closed my ticket without any explanation and no solution. In fact I have had no contact from them at all since the ticket was logged. The social media team have been checking for updates and they told me today the ticket was closed but they couldn't see why.

I'm really not sure what to do next, but I'll see if the X / Twitter team has any suggestion for next steps. This is a very poor show at the moment from O2 though.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

jonsie — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:59:05 GMT

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 16:38:00 GMT

Thank you @jonsie

I had already come across your helpful guide. I can confirm the message centre is set correctly and I tried the things you suggested but sadly no joy.

I've also tried:

Resetting mobile network settings
Restarting phone
Disabling RCS
Disabling Wi-Fi to ensure everything is going over the mobile network
Removing the record of the temporary O2 number from my Google account

I called 202 again and they have escalated another ticket and I have another 5 - 7 day wait.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Enlli — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 19:07:33 GMT

@Dave-O2 Can you take a look at this please

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Dave-O2 — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 08:50:24 GMT

Morning @Enlli, thanks for the tag

@Vazzer Can you please drop me a PM with the affected mobile number and i will see what i can do 👍

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:39:51 GMT

Thanks @Enlli and @Dave-O2 .

@Dave-O2, I'll PM you.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:25:48 GMT

I wanted to provide an update to this one given I think I'm close to having the issue fully fixed.

A second ticket was raised with the 'back-end' team (after my first one was closed) to investigate. When I got in touch with @Dave-O2 he could see both tickets and he took me through some of the tests and I was able to provide feedback that @Dave-O2 passed back to the back-end team.

On Friday the back-end team made some changes and I started to see some results late Saturday. I had a standard set of OTPs I was testing and the banking ones seem to be fixed. It was a little more hit and miss with TfL and NHS apps although they worked long enough for me to set up biometric authentication on the phone apps which stopped asking for OTPs. I could still test these through the website.

So I'm now monitoring the situation. I have access to my most critical services and I'll see how the week progresses.

@Dave-O2has been extraordinarily helpful and really communicative over the last few days. I cannot thank him enough.

Thanks also to @Enlli for asking @Dave-O2 to intervene - things felt like they started to move from this point. Thanks to @MI5 and @jonsie for their inputs too.

If I get more information as to the back-end changes I'll try and put together a bit of a write up to help others but I'll keep this one updated with any new information.

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Enlli — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:30:18 GMT

Thank you for the update @Vazzer

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

jonsie — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:32:15 GMT

Slowly getting there 👍

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Gkadam — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 20:52:19 GMT

Hi @Vazzer I'm facing a very similar issue to yours. I have a complaint form raised with the back end team after multiple calls to further care. Hoping yours is resolved now though? Any pointers that I can take to the team to help resolve this faster? Thanks

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

Vazzer — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:08:18 GMT

Hi @Gkadam

I've been meaning to post back for a while but I was waiting for a bit more of a long-term response after testing things for a while so I guess now is a good time.

I'm pleased to confirm the issue is definitely fixed and has been working since my last post. I've had to use 2FA on my phone a number of times now, including those I hadn't tested previously and they all seem to work.

Another new O2 customer DM'd me asking exactly the same question as you and I couldn't provide him the 'fix' since I was never able to speak directly to the 'back end' or 'porting team', but I gave some pointers. Hopefully these will help you as well as assist others with this issue as well.

The approach that worked for me seemed to include the following:

1. Get a ticket logged with a reference from O2 (you'll need to go through 1st line support for this which can be frustrating when on hold for ages, being given a quick fix that doesn't work or logging a ticket and having it closed without any further interactions).

2. Try and find a contact you can speak to regularly to keep you updated. In my case it was @Dave-O2 the community manager - his constant and timely contact was fantastic and I believe it was his taking responsibility to keep me updated and passing information to the back-end team that got this eventually fixed.

3. Keep on top of O2. As you saw in my thread, at one point they closed the ticket without doing anything.

4. Be precise. I kept a log of OTP / 2FA texts received and times that I initiated them. This allowed me to vaguely work out the delay or if they never came through at all. The delay eventually came down to zero.

5. Have a handful of OTP / 2FA services you can test without locking yourself out.

It goes without saying to do the basics as per @jonsie's thread eg reset network configuration, restart the phone etc and the community here were really helpful and at least made you feel like you weren't left on your own. If @Dave-O2 can take a look at this one and help you then that'll be the best route to get this fixed.

I hope that helps. It does seem to be a problem that's easily fixed once the back-end team know about it and treat it like a real issue rather than user error. It's almost like there's a step in the porting tasks that gets missed.

Good luck!

Re: Ported number from EE to O2 and not receiving 2FA / Verification SMS messages / texts

SnoopyLucy — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 08:38:27 GMT

I am having the exact same issue. Only 2FA SMS not being received, except the o2 ones. Moved across to o2 last week. How do I resolve this as I am missing essential information due to not being able to authenticate myself. I have a ticket open with o2 but need a quick fix, thanks.