Embodiments of this application provide a communication method and a related device. The method includes: sending, by an access network node, a first message to a terminal; receiving, by the terminal, the first message from the access network node; processing, by the terminal, first information based on the first message, where the first information includes information that needs to be stored in the terminal and a core network node; and/or processing first data based on the first message, where the first data includes data sent to the access network node before the first message from the access network node is received. By using embodiments of this application, a terminal receives paging from a last cell that served the terminal stored in the terminal, and it is ensured that data sent by the terminal to a network side can be successfully sent.