Phone numbers not formatting properly

I purchased a new iPhone 4S today as well, and restored it from a backup of my iPhone 4. I am having exactly the same issue. Improperly formatted numbers, Call History and Messaging not showing Contact Names, etc. In addition to upgrading from a 4 to 4S, I also switched from AT&T to Verizon. Does the carrier file have anything to do with number formatting in iOS?

I've gone through several iterations of doing resets and restores. Nothing seems to work.

The only way I've been able to get the number to appear formatted correctly is by adding +1 before it. Example: If a number were 4805551234 in my contact list, I could change it to +14805551234 and the phone would properly format the number as: +1 (480) 555 1234. However, I do not want to do this for all of my contacts.

Any fix for this would be greatly appreciated.

I found the solution on an outside forum: http://forums.tipb.com/iphone-4s-forum/221242-iphone-4s-contacts.html

This seems to only affect Verizon devices. If you are not using Verizon, this fix will not work for you.

Here is the summary of the steps I took to correct the issue:

1) Open the Phone and dial *228. This is a Verizon over-the-air programming number.

2) When the system answer press 1 for "Program or activate your phone"

3) Wait for the call to disconnect. You should get a prompt stating something like, "Settings updated."

4) Open the Task Manager and kill the Phone, Message, and Contacts Applications

5) Wait a few minutes (I waited 3 just to be extra safe)

6) Open the Message App to verify the fix.

If you are still broken, kill the Message App again, then reboot your phone.

This worked for me. I also tried restoring a second phone with the same problem, but this approach is much quicker.

On both phones we found International Assist was on, but shouldn't have been. That helped fix an outgoing call problem from the Contacts list, but not the caller ID problem. Details on the outgoing call problem are at:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3391588

Thanks!

Would that have been resolved with an over-the-air update? Hoping for one that fixes the wifi auto updating problem.

Lawrence

Thank you so much!! I went to the Apple Store today to get this fixed and their solution did not work. Your solution worked! I just reset my phone and the names were back with the numbers. Thanks again, this was driving me insane.

Thanks worked for me too!

This worked for me too. Thank you!

Thank you. It worked. I tried for hours to figure out what was wrong. I now can use Siri to make calls.

Awesome! Thanks for the fix. That worked for me!

I found the *228 solution to work WITHOUT doing anything else in task manager at all. It took about 30 seconds total. Thanks! GDH

I have the same probelm but I live in Yemen, is there any general solution for this problem.

I restored my iphone and restored my backup as well but i didnt work??

Call your service carrier's helpdesk and they can fix it. It's some setting on their end. You'll need to call from another phone though since you'll need to do a reset along the way.

This worked to restore the names in my phone, but not in my message program. Actually, before I resolved the contact issue in the phone program, my texts were all listed correctly, by name. After doing the reprogramming method listeda bove, my phone recognizes the numbers in my contacts, but my message program does not. I reprogrammed the iphone a few days ago (back when my message contacts were messed up) and this fixed it temporarily, until I reprogrammed the phone today. Does anyone have a solution?

My carrier is Verizon. The *228 solution worked completely for me.