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User profile for user: melfromwalker
melfromwalker Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

why do strange characters appear in the recipient field of a text after I have sent the text

I am getting a strange error when I send text messages.

I make sure I have the correct name of the recipient in the "to" field, but when I have sent the message it shows up as their contact number with weird characters in the number and no longer shows their name.

Can anyone offer a suggestion as to why this happens.

In addition, when they reply to my message, it comes back as a brand new message and not a follow on from my original message.

iPhone 5c, iOS 8

Posted on Oct 8, 2014 5:13 AM

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11 replies
User profile for user: wffls
wffls
User level: Level 1
5 points

Oct 28, 2014 12:25 PM in response to melfromwalker

I have experienced this too; it's not all contacts that it happens to, but about 10% of my address book in iCloud. The phone number is correct in the Contacts list, however when I start a new conversation or reply to a conversation where the contact information is listed correctly, a new thread appears with the phone number as a heading with symbols injected between them.


The format looks like this:

123 456-7890


When this happens, the person never gets the message I've sent, and even though this person has iMessage, because of the formatting it goes from the blue messages color to green.


I verified the Language and Region are set correctly in my settings on the phone.


I tried looking this up online but haven't been able to find any solutions. This is the first thread I've found that discusses it.


Running iOS 8.1 currently.

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User profile for user: melfromwalker
melfromwalker Author
User level: Level 1
7 points

Oct 28, 2014 12:31 PM in response to wffls

You describe my problem exactly and I get the same format as you have posted.

I have been in contact with Apple support via live chat and their suggestion was to back up my iPhone through iTunes, then reformat my phone and then re install everything back to my phone through iTunes.

Completed this but to no avail. I am still getting the problem with some of my contacts.


Don't know what the next step will be but hopefully someone else will read this and are able to offer a solution to our problem.

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why do strange characters appear in the recipient field of a text after I have sent the text

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