How to Tell If Straight Talk Is Down

If you think Straight Talk might be having a large-scale outage, try the quick checks for information before you move to troubleshooting your phone.

What to Know

  • The Straight Talk network can certainly experience outages but, often, something’s gone wrong instead with your phone or local connection.Troubleshooting problems on your own can get you connected quickly without having to wait for help.

  • Search Twitter for #StraightTalkdown. Look for tweet timestamps indicating other people are experiencing problems with them like you are. While you’re on Twitter, check the My Straight Talk Twitter page to see if it has any updates.

  • Check the Straight Talk Facebook page for updates. If there’s a large-scale problem occurring, the company might post information about it here.

  • Use a third-party “status checker” website like Downdetector or Outage.Report. These sites provide outage maps and other information to show you exactly where and what problems are occurring in Straight Talk’s network.

  • Outage.Report

What to Do When You Can’t Get Connected to Straight Talk

Troubleshooting your phone means you should look at problems both with your phone physically and its internet or Wi-Fi connections. These tips can help you uncover where the issue might be.

Search Twitter for #StraightTalkdown. Look for tweet timestamps indicating other people are experiencing problems with them like you are. While you’re on Twitter, check the My Straight Talk Twitter page to see if it has any updates.

Check the Straight Talk Facebook page for updates. If there’s a large-scale problem occurring, the company might post information about it here.

Use a third-party “status checker” website like Downdetector or Outage.Report. These sites provide outage maps and other information to show you exactly where and what problems are occurring in Straight Talk’s network.

First, log in at Straight Talk to be sure there’s not some problem with your account.

Check to be sure you’re in a covered service area. Check for signal strength bars in the upper part of the phone screen.

Restart your Android device or restart your iPhone. Sometimes phones lose key connections and restarting them can reconnect those.

Check for SIM card problems.

Did you activate your phone with Straight Talk yet? If your phone is showing a message like ‘Emergency Only’, ‘Unregistered SIM’, ‘No Service’, or ‘SIM card registration failed’, it could be because the phone hasn’t been properly activated.

Verify your phone is not in Airplane mode. That mode disables all networking activities so accidentally turning it on can block you from calls, texting, and internet activities.

On Android phones, swipe down to review the setting menu. If Airplane mode is not active, the icon will be greyed out. If it’s not, tap it to turn it off. You can reset Airplane mode on iPhones from the Control Center.

Check to be sure your Wi-Fi call setting is turned on. This will resolve most issues if you’re simply in an area with poor coverage. You can use Wi-Fi calling on Android phones or make Wi-Fi calls from an iPhone, too.

If your phone seems to be responding too slowly, you might have reduced data speed. This can happen if you have used your high speed data allotment or if you’re in an area not served by 4GLTE.

Check your phone’s network settings. Be sure that Data Roaming is turned on in case your phone has moved between networks and somehow got hung up. Even if it’s turned on, toggle it off and then back on again to reset it.

Confirm that Network Mode is set to the proper Auto setting for your specific phone. Accidentally switching to the wrong setting can create problems so select the highest auto-setting available for your device and plan.

To check yours on Android phones, go to Settings > Connections > Mobile networks to view the Network mode setting. If you need to change the setting, tap Network mode, and make your selection.

If your phone uses a SIM card, check the copper plating for chips or discoloration. If you see anything odd, contact Straight Talk.

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day