Is you suddenly find yourself unable to send a direct message to a friend on Facebook, then it’s easy to jump to conclusion and assume that they have blocked you.
However, if and when you confirm that the user hasn’t blocked you, either by visiting their Facebook profile or asking them outright, you may find yourself wondering what exactly has happened. After all, direct messaging and interaction is a big part of the Facebook experience – so what could have caused it to suddenly stop working?
Here are a couple of reasons why you may find messages blocked on Facebook – and how to fix them.
Your Messenger Has Been Restricted
Did you know that excessive activity on Facebook can lead to restrictions being placed on your account? If you send too many messages at once, or you violate community guidelines with the content of your messages, you may find that Facebook temporarily restricts your ability to send messages.
The only real solution here is patience. You will need to wait for any restrictions to be lifted before you can send messages again.
Your Message Has Sent but Is in Their Archives
A commonly reported issue is messages that have definitely been sent but have supposedly not been received by the recipient.
In this case, the chances are that your message has been sent but has ended up in an Archive folder that the recipient doesn’t regularly check.
NOTE: If you are sending a message to someone who isn’t your friend on Facebook, messages could also end up in ‘Message Requests’ as opposed to their standard inbox.
To check both the Message Requests folder and the Archive folder for missing messages, users need to open the Messenger app and then select the three horizontal lines Menu button in the top left hand corner. Here you will find ‘Message Requests’ and ‘Archive’ alongside a Marketplace inbox and classic inbox.
Your Connection Is Bad
If you have a message typed out and ready to send, but find that it won’t leave your Outbox, then it could simply be that your connection is not strong enough to package up and send the message.
If this is the case, then you will likely simply need to wait for better signal in order to send your message. And don’t forget that the recipient also needs to have good signal in order to receive your message. If they don’t, then the message will send but will not be delivered to them until they have enough connection of their own.
Your App Is Outdated
Finally, don’t forget the importance of keeping your Facebook and Messenger apps up to date!
If you allow your apps to become outdated, then you will find that certain features and actions start to slow down or stop working completely. The solution to this is to regularly download the latest and updated versions of all your social apps, so you never miss a message or a new feature.
All of these are potential reasons why a message may not send via Facebook Messenger – and are all proof that a user doesn’t have to have blocked you for a message to have trouble sending.
We hope this helps and eases your worries about being blocked! It’s not just a friend block that causes certain features to stop working.
