Last updated: 13/12/2013
Today, at random, the built-in messaging on my Lumia 920 stopped working!
Throughout the day, all I got was a “Can’t connect to chat” message.
I engaged with both Optus (my mobile service provider) and Windows Phone Support on Twitter.
Since all my other data dependent apps and features were working on the phone, it was immediately clear that this wasn’t an Optus issue.
Windows Phone Support was very helpful and suggested a few things and I tried a few things as well. Peter Murphy (of AusWinPhone) also tried to help and it was during the course of our conversation that I was able to find a solution. Thanks Peter 🙂
A factory reset was not an option and I was not going to try it unless I was left with no other choice.
Here are some of the things I tried before I hit the jackpot 🙂
On Windows Phone, under messaging settings, set chat status to “offline” and then back to “available”
This is the first thing to try and usually works, but not this time.
DID NOT WORK
On Windows Phone, turn off “Use Facebook Chat”
DID NOT WORK
On Windows Phone, remove Facebook account from under email+accounts
I did this and even restarted the phone before adding the Facebook account back on the phone.
DID NOT WORK
On your PC, visit profile.live.com and remove Facebook account, then setup Facebook on Windows Phone
Go to https://account.live.com/Permissions and select “Manage other accounts”.
Select Facebook and then click on “Remove this connection completely” and follow instructions.
NOTE: If you previously removed your account from the Phone and didn’t add it back, you will not see this option. In my situation, I didn’t have to do this step.
DID NOT ATTEMPT
On Windows Phone, remove Facebook account, enable Airplane mode on and WiFi (no 3G/data connection) and then add Facebook account
Enabled Airplane mode under Settings. Enabled WiFi. Restarted phone and added Facebook account.
DID NOT WORK
Remove Facebook account on Phone, soft reset and add Facebook account.
I removed the account and then soft reset my Lumia 920 (press and hold volume button down + start button for about 10 seconds).
Added Facebook account after restart.
DID NOT WORK
On Windows Phone, remove SIM and check messaging with WiFI enabled
DID NOT WORK
Remove Facebook on Windows Phone, change FB password, add Facebook to Microsoft account, add Facebook on Windows Phone
Removed Facebook from the phone.
Then, changed Facebook password through Facebook website.
Visited https://account.live.com/Permissions and added Facebook through add accounts option.
Added Facebook on Windows Phone.
DID NOT WORK
Enable Battery Saver on Windows Phone. Restart.
I searched the Internet and came across this post on answers.microsoft.com
With nothing else to lose, I tried what Khalid Anzar suggested and it worked!
All credit to Khalid for this one. Thank you!
WORKED
Thanks to Jeff (@jepoymanzanillo) for this tip.
Enable battery saver then, uninstall Skype, Facebook App, and delete Facebook from emails + accounts. Then restart the phone, add Facebook account and it connects!
WORKED
Thanks to Rianmos (see comments) for this tip.
Uninstall Skype.
WORKED
Thanks to Juliano Henriquez (see comments) for this tip.
Don’t use an alias as your primary account. Your primary account on your phone and outlook.com have to match. Either format your phone and change the alias to your primary account, or Go to Outlook.com > Your Account Icon (Top Right Corner) > Account Settings > Add or Change Aliases > Make Primary (On the account which is primary on your phone). Wait around 20 minutes and it should login correctly.
WORKED
Thanks to Vivek Garg (see comments) for this tip.
No need to delete Facebook from emails+accounts and restart. Just uninstall Skype and Facebook app. And then set status to available and it should connect.
WORKED
Thanks to Himanshu Gupta (see comments) for this tip.
Make sure the battery saver option is off before you try this.
- Turn of Facebook Chat.
- Set Chat status to Offline.
- Go to Battery Saver option in settings.
- Turn on Battery saver.
- Go to Advanced Settings inside Battery Saver.
- Tap on each of the three options there from bottom to top one after another.
- Come back and turn off the Battery Saver.
- Go back to messaging and turn on Facebook Chat.
- Now set chat status to available. It should get connected.
WORKED
So, if you ever face this issue, these are some of the steps you can try.
Thanks for reading.
Thank Sri 🙂
I always have battery saver enabled. That is puzzling fix though as to why that worked! Thanks though!
Yes, I was surprised too. Only thing I can think of is that something is disabled/switched off when battery saver is enabled, in a different way from the airplane mode. Don’t know. Just glad I got it working again 🙂
not working for my lumia 720. Not a single solution
Hi Saurabh, did you try all the steps listed here? Is it still not working for you?
Am using nokia lumia 520
am getting a problem i can chat with Facebook friends but at same time i can’t receive Facebook friends message. But sometimes received message
what can i do
Have you tried disconnecting your Live account from Facebook, removing it from Windows Phone and then reconnecting on your Windows Phone?
I tried all the above ways,but nothing seems to work.what to do?
Are you still having trouble with this?
tried almost all the above still same problem
You said almost all of the above. What have you not tried?
I am using Nokia Lumia 620 from approx 6 Months tried almost all the above still same problem
Hey had the same issues.. was skype apparently… uninstall it and try.. should work!!
Thanks for the tip 🙂
i tried enabling battery saver, but it failed…
i tried enabling battery saver then, uninstall skype, facebook app, and delete facebook on EMAILS + ACCOUNTS. then after that, restart phone, add facebook account to phone.. it connects
Thanks for that Jeff. I’ll add the process you followed as another option.
Maybe you guys are using an alias as your primary MS account on your phone. Your primary account on your phone and outlook.com have to match. Either format your phone and change the alias to your primary account, or Go to Outlook.com > Your Account Icon (Top Right Corner) > Account Settings > Add or Change Aliases > Make Primary (On the account which is primary on your phone). Wait around 20 minutes and it should login correctly.
Hey Juliano, I can’t speak for the others but in my case, I was using the primary account, not an alias.
It worked for me. Thank you
Good to hear 🙂
Thank you SO much….I tried all the other options without success, but I DID recently create an alias and when I made the old one primary it hooked right up
Glad to hear it’s all sorted for you Chris!
and poof… its gone this morning… sorry…. i’m disappointed.
Hi! Any of these steps won’t work on my Lumia 620. Before the problem happened to my phone, I was not logged in on the FB App for a few days, do you think it has to do with being not able to connect on facebook IM?
When you log into your PC, does Facebook IM work?
You Rock the last one is Working…!!!
Enable battery saver then, uninstall Skype, Facebook App, and delete Facebook from emails + accounts. Then restart the phone, add Facebook account and it connects!
Glad you got it working 🙂
Hi Srinair,
No need to delete Facebook from emails+accounts and restart.
Just uninstall skype and facebook app. And then set status to available.
Mine connected this way.
Thanks for your suggestion to uninstall skype and fb app 🙂
Vivek
Thanks for that Vivek.
Had the same issue with lumia 920, My battery saver was on so i just turned it on and then restarted the phone , it worked , Thanx a billion for ur tips
Glad you got it sorted 🙂
Thanks Brother SRINAIR . Had the same issue with my Lumia 720, Cant connect to Facebook Chat.
Enable battery saver then, uninstall Skype, Facebook App, and delete Facebook from emails + accounts. Then restart the phone, add Facebook account and it connects!.
its really works. No need to reset your phone.
Glad to hear it worked for you Israr 🙂
I did all the above except using WiFi .. Still it shows can’t connect to chat.
Hi Balaji, what phone do you have?
Hello… I dnt have Skype and Facebook apps in my Lumia 520 and I face the prob of Facebook chat still pls help me
What steps have you tried?
Uninstalling Skype and then resetting password in fb account really works
i have been searching for the solution for months, its like trying to find big foot, the solution was illusive, and what worked for others didnt work for me most of the time. But today i have found my solution was to simply remove the facebook app.
I tried all possible ways,wen i uninstalled the skype nd FB app, it worked bt next once again chat disconnected !!
Solve plz
I had the same problem with my Lumia 720, removing facebook account from email+accounts and restart, and then add facebook account. This works for me..
i did all the things that you said but still no use i can’t connect to chat….
no skype and fb app is installed in my phone..
I tried uninstalling facebook app, skype and deleting it from the accounts menu in settings, everything while having the battery saver on, and then restart it (actually tried both soft restart and just turning the phone off and on again) and it still doesnt work for me. I have a lumia 920 which is running amber. Any suggestions?
Sorry Borislav, I didn’t see your comment. Did you get this working eventually? What was the issue?
I’ve searching google for solution about half an hour but I was still getting “Can’t connect” message.
So, now I’ve found what was causing the problem. The only problem was the Skype app. I’ve deleted it and now is working just perfectly.
Glad you got it working 🙂
I hava lumia 520,i tried all the above except using wi-fi,but still i have face the prblm.what can i do?
Now working,but i did only i set the chat status available in message hub not all linked in one…
Glad to hear it’s working now 🙂
Hey i tried to follow the last procedure uninstall skype and battery mode ensbled and delete facebook account and did restart the phone but it didnt work for me after restart i added facebook sccount but no response could yoju tell me anything might hsve wrong ??
Apoorv, have you tried any of the other steps?
i have tried every thing but still the same problem and when i tried connecting facebook after removing there was an error which says need attention with a code 83CF1104. i am using 925
Hi Bhanu, it seems like this is a bug that Microsoft is trying to fix. http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/7/5078644/facebook-windows-phone-83CF1104-error
Tried every single thing. After uninstalling skype my phone started showing no one is online after that i deleted my fb account from email+account battery saver on restarted my phone and guess what again cant connect to chat….pleaae help my piece of crap lumia 720
Hi Kanav, are you aware that Microsoft is trying to resolve a bug relating to Facebook (http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/7/5078644/facebook-windows-phone-83CF1104-error)? Are you saying that your 720 is a “piece of crap” just because os this bad experience?
It happend suddenly. It wasnt like that
Hi Kanav, is everything working OK now?
Try the following steps as it is mentioned below. Make sure the battery saver option is off before you try this.
1) Turn of Facebook Chat.
2) Set Chat status to Offline.
3) Go to Battery Saver option in settings.
4) Turn on Battery saver.
5) Go to Advanced Settings inside Battery Saver.
6) Tap on each of the three options there from bottom to top one after another.
7) Come back and turn off the Battery Saver.
8) Go back to messaging and turn on Facebook Chat.
9) Now set chat status to available. It should get connected.
Thanks Himanshu!
Thanks himanshu , i tried everything but doesn’t worked, now i tried the way u said and it works for me……thanks alot
Thanks Himanshu Gupta for your 9 steps. it worked for my Lumia 520. thanks again
Thank you very much
Your solution, it works lika a charm! 🙂
I follow your procedure but can’t connected facebook chat….@himanshu
Did you go through each of the combinations listed? Also, the comments section have some listed by other users.
my lumia 625 not connect whit facebbok what can i doooo
Hi Keval,
What have you tried so far? Have you tried the steps in this post?
Thanks,
Sri
I have tried all of the above mentioned steps, but still i am not able to connect to Facebook chat. !! 🙁 🙁
plz help me guys !!
Hi Sarthak,
What phone do you have?
Did you try all the steps listed?
Perhaps a soft reset?
Thanks.
Sri
Do you have facebook app installed in phone. If so, uninstall and check.
Thanks for the input Vishal 🙂
the last soultions works just fine on lumia 520. but i want to ask will downloading skype and facebook app trigger the problem again?
Hi Onur,
I cannot say because I haven’t tried using the Skype app in a while. Besides, I am running the Developer preview of Windows Phone 8.
Sri
Yes Onur. Installing the facebook app will trigger the problem again. Not sure with skyoe though
I tried all the methods but i am unable to connect with chat can any one help me
Hi Ramesh, have you tried a soft reset?
Hi to All
Finally following all steps given by srinair…my Lumia 620 returned from the ashes lol….
This is the best bet
Thanx srinair
Glad it’s working again Kevin 🙂
Turn off battery saver then restart worked for me 😀
Good to hear Dean 🙂
For me the issue was with Facebook app being installed. Uninstalling the app, now connects to the chat.
Thank you very much for this, Srinair. It was very nice of you to compile the steps that worked and those that didn’t work. The last one worked for me. I own a Lumia 520 and I almost do a hard reset if I have not stumbled upon your post. Now I get the chat always online and still keep my settings and files. Keep up the good work! Thanks again.
Glad it helped you 🙂
I had the same issue about facebook chat for almost a month. After seeing the options here, i deleted facebook account from email+accounts options, uninstalled skype, and then added facebook account back again.
It worked…..!!!!
Now there is no problem The chat is conecting fine
Glad you got it resolved Sudarshan 🙂
Thanks bro..this tip helped me….but i want to know whether the problem will occur again or no?? And what is the reason behind this problem??
yes it really worked. i uninstalled fb and skype and then made the status to online and it worked. Thank you so much
Hello Srinair,
I have a different type of problem. I am being able to connect to chat, but it says that no one is online, even though my brother is online on his Lumia 620. When I first got my 920, we both could chat through the messenger. I also had the option to invite people. Now i’m not being able to chat with him, and neither do I have the option to invite people. My brother has the options to invite people, but is not being able to invite people.
How do I chat with windows phone users in the messaging. Tried all the above options, but none helped me. I also tried logging to my outlook account and tried chatting from there, it only works through Skype and not through the typical messenger.
Hi,
I hv tried all the steps but failed but i made a new thing dat i uninstalled the Skype and loged out face book and made a soft reset it connected to chat
uninstalling Skype helped….thanks
sorry …not working.. it worked initially..then after a while …same again…even after uninstalling Skype, deleting FB account and creating new again…
Hey im using Lumia 520 & faces the same bug
none of your solutns worked for me pls help guys
What error message are you getting? There are a few solutions listed here and it’s surprising that none of them have worked. Did you try them in order?
Thanks for theses tips…i m delete my fb application and im is work …thnks for it ..happy nee year
Glad to hear that. Happy new year to you too!
Awsum i tried batter saver on thenadvanced settings all 3 options once clcked then battery saver off thn my i saw my chat is conected thanks a lot
Glad to hear it worked for you 🙂
Hey..thank you…it works…!! Cant connect to IM was a usual problem with ma lumia 520..then i uninstalled skype as u said and now it is working…Thanks a lot….:)
Glad to hear that 🙂
I had to remove fb accnt,restart phone and follow your worked option 6 amd yaaay it got connected 🙂 but the attachment option has only location enabled. Is there any settings available wherein i can enable attach photos/videos etc with the chat message?
Hi Angela, glad you got it connected. The attachment options doesn’t have a separate setting. Try switching (arrows) to text mobile or Messenger and you’ll get those options as Facebook chat doesn’t support any attachments, which is what you have currently selected.
thank u so much this really helped me:)
That’s great Zak 🙂
It was very helpful…thanks a ton…..its working…
You’re very welcome 🙂
Uninstalling Skype did it for me on my Lumia 1020 🙂
Glad to hear it 🙂
hi sri
im using nokia lumia 520 i have the same problem cant connect to IM i have tried all the above options bt it didnt work out pl help me
Hi Sheena, you could attempt a soft reset and see if that helps?
i tried the last option, didnt work. so uninstalled FB app, and its working fine now.
thanks alot……. its work for me
Thanx bub,its nw working in my phone dnt knw why it happened or how it worked but stll thnx
Hey guys, I had same probs with L-520. Tried below steps and now it’s working…. 🙂
Try the following steps as it is mentioned below. Make sure the battery saver option is off before you try this.
1) Turn of Facebook Chat.
2) Set Chat status to Offline.
3) Go to Battery Saver option in settings.
4) Turn on Battery saver.
5) Go to Advanced Settings inside Battery Saver.
6) Tap on each of the three options there from bottom to top one after another.
7) Come back and turn off the Battery Saver.
8) Go back to messaging and turn on Facebook Chat.
9) Now set chat status to available. It should get connected.
Thank you 4r giving this good advice this helps me a lot
Glad to hear 🙂
Thank you very much. It worked.
That’s great Sumi 🙂
not working in lumia 520.plz help
What have you tried and in what order?
Nothing works for me. Please help. Anyways, thanks for these tips.
Have you tried a soft reset? No data loss risk. Worth a try.
Hi,
When iam using mobile data connection its not working..but if i connect wifi..its automatically chat is working..
Please give a solution for this chat.Im using Nokia 520
Shagul, are you able to browse the Internet when you enable your mobile data connection (without WiFi)?
Thank you so much. Now it works. Just deleted Skype and Facebook Application and then it works. But actually i still confused. Can you tell me what happened? I already had Skype and Facebook Apps installed before and i had no problem till since a few days ago. Now Skype and Facebook Apps make avoid to connect chat and messenger. Do they crash? Or any bug in them or battery saver?
Hi Aji, not sure why it happens. Does seem to be a bug of some sort.
SOLUTION…
The culprit is aliases in Outlook.com. Go to Outlook Settings. Aliases. And make the primary alias, the one that
is primary on the Phone. To check that on phone go to Settings->email+accounts and see the very first Windows Live account. Make that account primary account in Outlook.com and Voila. Facebook Chat works again. A reboot maybe required.
note: This is for the default messaging hub facebook support and not the facebook chat in the Facebook App.
Thanks for that Azhar.
The solution above Azhar (thanks).This worked for me, I deleted my non Microsoft primary alias at accounts.live.com and reset my primary alias to my outlook.com email account, via the web on a PC. Then my phone connected to chat without doing anything more on the phone. 🙂
Glad that worked for you Dave!
thanks azhar,
none of the above worked for me.
then i found your comment.
changed my microsoft primary alias to the one i used in the phone. and voila! worked even without having to reboot.
🙂
Hey guyz!! This solutions are shit. I found the real problem and solutin. This problem surely creates with your windows account. Do you remember it ask your permission to connect facebook accountvand windows accont together to enable the chat. Srinair s some steps are not working with some windows phone. Because of thats are not the right solutions for the problem. My solution is moves with any windows phone i tried it
Janod,
To say that the solutions that myself and many others have suggested, that has worked for a number of people, “are shit”, is an insult. To suggest a phone reset, which is a last resort move, is the most painful and time consuming of all steps. I don’t know whether you tried all the steps or how closely you followed the instructions but don’t diss stuff without due cause.
Sri
Nokia Lumia: 925 and Windows Phone 8
I found that my phone had set it’s time and date to a date significantly in the past, on correcting this within settings Chat connected correctly.