iMessages Being Truncated on iPhone But Not Other Devices

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Level 2

210 points

iMessages Being Truncated on iPhone But Not Other Devices

I recently discovered a bug where iMessages are being truncated on the iPhone. I had been messaging my friend using iMessage on my Mac. Everything was fine until my friend told me that my messages were being cut off on his iPhone. We verified that the messages were going through as iMessages, not SMS, and also verified that the messages were showing up correctly if he viewed them on his iPad. I went and checked my other devices are sure enough, the messages I sent were fine on my Mac and iPad but when I viewed my own messages on my iPhone, they too were truncated. Interestingly, if you copy and past the truncated message on the iPhone, the entire message is actually pasted so clearly this is a display problem, not a problem with the device actually receiving a truncated message.

I've never had this problem before but have only recently started using my Mac to send a lot of iMessages. It could be something with the way the Mac sends them and the iPhone receives them that is causing the problem, or that could be completely unrelated. I do know, however, that I've never received a complaint about a truncated message if I was sending a message from either my iPhone or iPad, only my Mac.

It's clearly a bug of some sort. Anyone else having this problem?

iPhone 4S, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 21, 2012 5:59 AM

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Answer 1

ffaubert

Level 1

5 points

Oct 21, 2012 5:05 PM in response to Eric D.

Yes, I am having the exact same problem. Some messages that I send from Messages on my mac are appearing to be truncated on the iPhone client. Tried your copy-and-paste trick and that did reveal the whole message. Definitely a display bug on the iPhone 5.

For the record, everyone that has complained to me that my messages have been truncated has an iPhone 5. Are you seeing this on the iPhone 5, or on older models too?

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Answer 2

Eric D. Author

Level 2

210 points

Oct 21, 2012 5:06 PM in response to ffaubert

I have seen this on the iPhone 4s so it's not an iPhone 5 problem. More likely something in iOS 6.

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Answer 3

Eric D. Author

Level 2

210 points

Nov 18, 2012 1:58 PM in response to Eric D.

This is a still a problem. Very frustrating. You have no idea if the message you send from your Mac will be cut off or not. Some long ones go through, other's don't. Impossible to tell what the other person received. I hope this is on Apple's fix list!

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Answer 4

IrmaNods

Level 1

0 points

Dec 7, 2012 6:34 PM in response to Eric D.

For the record, that happens to me when a friend is iMessaging me from a desktop and I'm reading it on a iPod Touch 4th Gen.

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Answer 5

Eric D. Author

Level 2

210 points

Dec 8, 2012 6:42 AM in response to IrmaNods

So it seems to be a problem on the small devices then because the messages show up correctly on the iPad. Whatever the problem, I hope they fix it soon. It's very frustrating not knowing if someone is receiving the full message or not. And it doesn't seem to be based on the number of characters. Sometimes long message go through, sometimes they don't.

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Answer 6

Dec 21, 2012 6:56 PM in response to Eric D.

I've made a more detailed report of it here. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4615350. At least for me, it's a recreatable bug.

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Answer 7

Vi8

Level 1

0 points

Jan 8, 2013 7:53 PM in response to Eric D.

This was just brought to my attention -- the last one or two words of my text messages are truncated on the receiver's iphone. The message were sent using Messages on Mountain Lion and received on iPhone 4 running 6.0.2.

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Answer 8

Eric D. Author

Level 2

210 points

Jan 28, 2013 3:07 PM in response to Mazzlefizz

Has anyone noticed if this problem is fixed in iOS 6.1?

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Answer 9

ffaubert

Level 1

5 points

Jan 29, 2013 6:17 AM in response to Eric D.

So far this is looking like it is fixed in iOS 6.1 to me.

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Answer 10

Jan 29, 2013 6:51 AM in response to ffaubert

ffaubert, have you tried those test messages I have posted in that other thread?

This problem is totally repeatable (the same messages are always truncated every time for everybody), so it should be easy to test on 6.1 if you have it installed. For example, try these messages (typed in exactly, sent from a Mac to an iphone):

"You watching the game? We're coming back!"

"man, why are you here? Two are in testing places"

"That's funny that you though I was joking when I said I was debugging. Why is that so weird?"

(note that the last message has "thought" mispelled as "though")

I'd be thrilled to hear that the bug is gone. I don't have 6.1 installed to test, though.

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Answer 11

ffaubert

Level 1

5 points

Jan 29, 2013 6:55 AM in response to Mazzlefizz

Yes, I tried all three of those sent from my iMac and viewed on my iPhone using iOS 6.1 and they all display correctly. So either its fixed, or it gets triggered by different test cases now. I'm hoping for fixed because man that bug was super annoying.

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Answer 12

Jan 29, 2013 8:41 AM in response to ffaubert

Oh, that's great to hear.

I do wish it was fixed on the Mac side, though, since I know a lot of people don't update their phone iOS regularly. I'm more concerned with people properlygetting the messages that I send from my computer, since I use my computer a lot to chat with, than me getting untruncate messages. Good news nonetheless. 🙂

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