iPhone 3G won't display own number

None of the AT&T store personnel knows how to do this. I've checked with a couple of place, brought the iPhone there and all they can say is contact Apple. I gave them the suggestion and all of them said that nots possible. Who trains these guys? Unfortunately I don't have a phone to use to make this change... so the search goes on.

SuperSizeIt wrote:
None of the AT&T store personnel knows how to do this. I've checked with a couple of place, brought the iPhone there and all they can say is contact Apple. I gave them the suggestion and all of them said that nots possible. Who trains these guys? Unfortunately I don't have a phone to use to make this change... so the search goes on.

Don't go to the store. They don't know how to do this.
You have to CALL AT&T customer service.

Customer Support: 1-800-331-0500
For hearing or speech impaired: 1-866-241-6567

When you get on the phone with them tell them "My phone is not showing my 'own number,' and I don't think it got programmed in to the SIM properly. Can you try to send the "OTA" (over the air) to the SIM to try to re-program it?"

They'll send what they have referred to it in the past to me as an "over the air package" (package of data) which re-programs the SIM. It should include your phone number, I believe.
Specifically tell them it's your own number which seems to be missing from the SIM.

The other option is this:
Go to a store and get a new SIM. When you get the new SIM they'll move your phone number/account over to the new SIM. They will have to OTA program it, and it may get programmed properly with your own number this time.

Ahh clever. Great suggestion. I will try these steps. Appreciate the advice, thanks.

Hey,

Some wireless carriers don't write phone number to the SIM.
This article provides more information: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2232

Jason

Some wireless carriers don't write phone number to the SIM.

You're absolutely right. I have both the original iPhone and the 3G from Orange/France, and using the same exact SIM card in either iPhone, my Orange number never shows.

However, when I took my (legally unlocked) original iPhone to Asia in June, I was very surprised to see my Asian mobile number displayed on it, a first time ever, which led me to conclude that it was tied to the SIM card in question.

Upon my return to Paris, I put my German Vodafone SIM card into the same iPhone - no number, either.

I just might try programming the numbers onto the SIM cards using a non-iPhone mobile as has been suggested here and see what happens, since the... RAM in my head seems only large enough for one number!

Grant Davies wrote,

IIRC you have to remove you sim card and place it in a phone that allows you to store your own numbers, I used an old Nokia I had. I did this for my Iphone and it worked, it also shows up at the top of my contacts list in my 3G.

I followed these instructions and programmed my own number onto the SIM card while using a Motorola RAZR V3, and sure enough my own number now shows up on my iPhone.

Consequently this would seem the quickest way to solve this issue (if you have another handset which allows this), without a call or a trip to your carrier.

Thanks, Grant Davies, for this excellent suggestion.

I noticed mine showed back up when I stopped using Mobile Me to push my contacts over. Once I started syncing manually with iTunes again, my number showed up in contacts above the search bar.

Tyler

I used Grants' trick and sure enough own number now displays under phone/contacts...good stuff

Well okay, but my wife phone which used to be mine doesn't display the number that was ported over from Verizon to AT&T. We had gone to the AT&T store, they replaced the SIM with a new one and told me to activate it again at home in iTunes. Same thing, no number displayed in iTunes, Contacts List from the Phone section nor in the Settings section for Phone. So this is an AT&T carrier.

I have had similar issues with 'my number' not displaying on my iPhone 3G within Phone-Contacts and Settings-Phone; also the number was non displayed in iTunes. I tried Grant's trick of trying to added the number to the SIM card using another phone (Razr) but I could not get it to work. I also called AT&T and tried the OTA re-program of the SIM and that also did not work.

I ended up going to the my local AT&T store and showing them the actual issue. They confirmed the number should be displayed, they took a look at their display iPhone's in the store. They ended up programming me a new SIM (same phone #) and now everything is displaying as it should. The one difference this time is when they installed the new SIM, they connected it up to iTunes in the store which properly activated it. When I got my original SIM they plugged it in the iPhone and sent me out the door. The phone activated and was useable, but 'my number' was not displayed.

Not sure if this is the fix for everyone, but make sure they activate the new SIM for your iPhone with iTunes before you leave the store. This worked for me finally, the second time around.

Lucky for you that your ATT people are smart enough to figure it out. Both places I went just gave me a blank stare. Even when I pointed out these threads, fixes, workarounds. One even gave me a new SIM and I had to go back home and activate it since she insisted thats going to fix this. I'll have to find another ATT store to do this for me.

I've had several iPhone 3G devices and two of them exhibited the same missing 'my number' display while the others worked fine. When I swapped SIMs between one displaying the number and one not displaying the number, the problem followed the SIM card.

For one of them, the OTA update executed by AT&T fixed the display problem in a matter of minutes. For the other one, the OTA update did not work even after several tries. What did work was getting a blank SIM from AT&T (which I just happen to have), providing the ICCID number to AT&T and having them configure the account of the current phone number to the new SIM, installing it in the phone, and then connecting it to iTunes. Although the phone was fuctional after the new SIM was in place, it still did not diplay the phone number until it synched with iTunes (not restored, just synched).

I noticed this as well. Using advice found here I plugged the SIM into my old RAZR and under Settings I saw that there was no number programmed into the phone (other than the implicit association with the SIM itself through the carrier). Typing in the number and swapping the SIM back into the iPhone now causes the number to show up in Phone/Contacts (note: not just Contacts) and Settings/Phone.

can somebody explains to me why they want their number that bad in "Contacts"??
can't u memorise it?? or do why exactly all that about it?? 😟
i am serious, coz here we do not have this thing!!

This problem is easily fixed. As said above, call ATT, speak to a rep, and tell them that you need an over the air update to re-program your sim card. Then turn the phone off and back on, and the problem is fixed! Remember, your phone number does not show in the contacts app on the home screen, only shows up when you click on phone, then contacts in the phone app.