phone number format in Mountain Lion

There IS a problem, UK and some other numbers cannot be formatted correctly. The facility to do so was removed in Mountain Lion, and the default (as supplied by the OS) is incorrect.

The + in front of a number does not correct the formatting, also even if this was a fix, I'd have to do it on a couple of thousand contacts! It's a pointless endeavour.

I agree with Nathan Jones2, there IS a problem and it has not been solved by Apple yet.

I use international standard format, but it is displayed incorrect for some cities in Chile where I live.

Few months ago, Santiago (capital) added one digit to its numbers... The problem with that is bigger than an incorrect formatting (all numbers toghether). In my iPhone, Siri does not call to these numbers, I have to call manually.

Chile is changing format (adding one number) to all area codes and Apple is not supporting these changes (nor MacOs nor iOs).

Nathan Jones2 wrote:

There IS a problem, UK and some other numbers cannot be formatted correctly. The facility to do so was removed in Mountain Lion, and the default (as supplied by the OS) is incorrect.

The + in front of a number does not correct the formatting, also even if this was a fix, I'd have to do it on a couple of thousand contacts! It's a pointless endeavour.

Sure it does.

I'm sure there are some Apple scripts that will correct your phone numbers.

The phone mumbers are not at fault, the way the are displayed by Mountain Lion is. Try a mobile number, they are all wrong on ML, but correct on Lion and iCloud. It is a Mountain Lion issue. It can't be fixed by manually (or via script) because the built in format is incorrect. If you manually set the format, ML changes this on save to the 'wrong' format.

Nathan is correct. Until Lion, we could set the format manually if we wanted, or we could use the default setting that is now mandatory: Apple's "inteligence" on this, which is obviously not so clever.

etresoft,

this works, ok.

but not all carries worldwide let you dial like this.

it doesn't in Brazil, for one.

now, there is another problem: Contacts assume you are in the UK so all your numbers are UK's.

Now try to put a US number, in a US format in you Contacts, because you are smart and when you travel to the US you use a US SIM Card, and therefore need to dial it like the locals do:

put, say, 305-555-1212 and see how it looks... this is how it looks on mine, since it thinks I am in Brazil and then all my numbers are brazilian (forgot about globalization?)

now, i don't know if you put +1 305-555-1212 it will work out of the US, but here it doesn't on local numbers.

why not lt users decide?

fabiolr wrote:

now, there is another problem: Contacts assume you are in the UK so all your numbers are UK's.

Now try to put a US number, in a US format in you Contacts, because you are smart and when you travel to the US you use a US SIM Card, and therefore need to dial it like the locals do:

I am actually in Canada. Mountain Lion formats numbers according to the + country code I enter.

I don't know about Brazil, but even ten years ago in Europe I could call local numbers with a +33 country code with no problem from my cell phone.

Humor me and try this:

On your cell phone, you should be able to call this number. I'm not aware of any landline integration with Mountain Lion so the coutry code shouldn't be an issue there.

This is an off topic discussion, but whilst we are on it, it is an interesting point. I had this issue in the US - and had to change phone numbers to NOT have the international code on them. However, bringin US and Southern Hemisphere numbers to the UK proved no problem in the international format. My understanding is that this is a network oparator issue, and how it handles the phone number format supplied.

However… the display issue of this topic has nothing to do with that, but simply that Mountain Lion cannot display a UK (and other) phone numbers properly. I have added feedback - the day I installed ML. It makes it look rather cheap I think, and is poor design, as well as, clearly, oversight in excluding the perfectly functioning facility of Tiger (and earlier?) to Lion.

etresoft,

My 305-555-1212 example was actually for a US number.

But let's use a Brazilian example.

I am in São Paulo, area code 11, and I want to call Rio de Janeiro, area code 21, say number 5555-4444 (yes, they have eight digit, cell phone have nine in SP)

If I Dial +55 21 5555-4444 from my cell phone, it does not work.

That is because I have to choose a carrier for my long distance call. This is a two-digit code I chosse and place before the 2-dgit area code.

So I have to dial 0 12 21 5555-4444. The 12 is my choice of a carrier.

I know, it is absurd. But my argument is that if Apple is selling iPhones and MACs here, it is relevant.

So, for my local numbers, I am all good.

Now, say you come to brazil a lot, and you want to have your local friend's numbers on your iPhone so when you get here you can call them.

Try putting these numbers on yours and see how they look.

In the US, with a US SIM Card, can you dial like this +1-305-555-1212 ?

I have an AppleScript that I wrote that puts +55 before all my numbers that doesn;t have + yet. It checks if the area code is there, if it is not, it assumes it is 11 (my town), otherwise it uses the one that is there. I can share is anyone is intrested. Needs minor changes for other countries.

I ran it and had all my contacts international style. Then they came up with this carried code thing and it didn't work anymore. I wrote another script to undo it. I also had problems with Called ID, but I am sure this was fixed now since it improved a lot since iOS 5.

PS: the carrier code thing really *****, if I put an international # and want to dial and text from here, I need two entries: one to dial and one for text, since iMessage will not understand and match the number with the carrier code...

Brazil is not the only country with the per-call carrier selection scheme, but I really wish it would work with, say, a default pre-chosen one if you skip this burden.

I cannot get those numbers to display like that. I get the following:

If I add +55, then things look much nicer. Have you tried calling +55 0 12 21 5555-4444 ?

It seems the problem is for some countries and not others.

I have phone numbers from many countriues among my contacts, and all of US, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and all European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Turkey...) have correct number format with the Auto-format option.

Now, all contacts I have from Panama, Costa Rica, and Venezuela only get the country code separated... but the rest of the number remains unformatted, wich is a pain if you are reading the number from the contact sheet or dialing on another phone.

I must give credit to etresoft now.

Although I still think Apple should offer the option to let us format the numbers as we wish, like before ML, I must say I solved this the way etresoft suggested.

I had tried this before and the operator would not allow to dial with the international notation ( + country code and number..)

But now I tested again and it does! Finally the operator behaves logically...

So I ran an Applescript that changed all my contacts to the full international number, and now I am happy.

Thanks!

All,

Please provide feedback to push software developers to re-add the phone field feature when Mavericks is released. That will solve everyone's issues. With over 200 new features, it won't kill Apple to make it 201.

Leave feedback:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Thanks.

Thank you FCBLA. I just filled out the form.

All,

Please provide feedback to push software developers to re-add the phone field feature when Mavericks is released. That will solve everyone's issues. With over 200 new features, it won't kill Apple to make it 201.

Leave feedback:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html