Weird international SMS problem

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Level 1

9 points

Weird international SMS problem

I have a Verizon iPhone 6 plus. I bought and used it in the USA for a few months. I'm now in Israel, so I popped in a local SIM card. Calls and data work fine. The problem is with texting.

I have some Israeli contacts and I keep the numbers in the standard international format: +972-xx-xxxxxxx. While in the USA I've texted them and everything was fine. Now that I'm in Israel, it's not working. I get messages from them but I cannot send them.

What's the problem? The iPhone insists on sending messages to 011-972-xx-xxxxxxx. That was fine in the USA, but outside the USA, 011 means nothing so my texts don't go through. (What's interesting is that this only happens with numbers that I've texted to while in the USA - somehow 011 got stuck to those numbers. However, Israeli numbers that I haven't texted to while in the USA work fine).

I've tried deleting those contacts, deleting recent calls and texts, turning off dial-assist, resetting carrier settings, restarting the iPhone. Nothing works. This is very annoying.

Any ideas?

Posted on Apr 1, 2015 3:16 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 1, 2015 4:42 AM in response to bTaryag

dont know if this will work but you can try

Settings/Phone/Dial Assist

and setting it to off - the text on the option says:

Dial Assist Automatically determines the correct International or local Prefix when dialing

another Option may be to set

Settings/General/Language and Region

to

Israel

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Answer 2

bTaryag Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 1, 2015 10:21 AM in response to needleman_mark

There's no option for dial assist. My local carrier must not support it. However, I put back my Verizon SIM, disabled dial assist, and put back in the local SIM and I still have this problem.

Changing region also did not help.....

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Answer 3

Apr 1, 2015 10:29 AM in response to bTaryag

sorry - those were all my ideas - you might try the Israeli phone company you are using - although at in the US i have found the phone companies pretty unhelpful

maybe some else will respond with a better idea

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Answer 4

bTaryag Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 1, 2015 11:45 AM in response to needleman_mark

Thanks. I also find phone companies unhelpful when it comes to anything more than a simple question, that's why I turned to these forums for help instead!!!

Thanks for your help.

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Answer 5

Apr 1, 2015 12:19 PM in response to bTaryag

The correct region settings should eliminate all stray 011's floating around.

011 isn't supposed to be used for Messaging... it is the international outbound calling prefix from the USA.

Have you tried resetting all settings? And/or doing a erase, set up as new, test, then restore?

Does this happen with all +972 numbers you send SMS to or just a handful in your contacts?

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Answer 6

Jun 15, 2015 10:24 PM in response to bTaryag

HI Taryag,

i know I'm coming in here pretty late and I don't really have a solution but had a question and in my google search this is the only thread that was even close to finding my answer. I'm going to Israel shortly and I'm renting a SIM card for my iPhone's. I wanted to know what happens if I dial my American contacts from Israel and I have dial assist on. What prefix will it add? Because the SIM card rental company requires that I only dial the 001 prefix when calling the U.S. and I don't want to need to do that manuallY each time. I would like to be able to just dial from my contacts. Any ideas? Do you know what apples dial assist will put as prefix? i hope you will respond! Thanks Layla tov 🙂

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Answer 7

Jun 16, 2015 12:45 PM in response to Israel Dude

Talk to the SIM rental place as dialing 001 is not the right practice unless it's a landline connection.

As long as your contact has a number in the proper format of +1 (555) 222-4545 then the call should be routed accordingly. Otherwise, your carrier needs to fix the issue.

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Answer 8

Jun 16, 2015 6:00 PM in response to chattphotos

Hi chattphotos!

Thanks so much for responding! The SIM rental place tells me I must dial 001 before dialing out of Israel to the US. Here is the link (see the 2nd to last FAQ on the page): http://unlimitedisrael.net/help-information/#phones

Most of my contacts are in this format: 1 (123) 123-4567. Some are in the +1 (123) 123-4567 format and some in the (123) 123-4567 format. Will the phone know to put in 001 and get rid of the 1 or +1 I put before the are code?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this...

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Answer 9

Jun 16, 2015 8:30 PM in response to Israel Dude

They really should be on the +X standard for all international numbers, so contact the support team about that.

The region settings on the phone determine the default country code, so turning on dial assist may make USA calling a headache since your provider is not routing +1.

Because if you dial 001 (123) 123-4567 it might append a +972 to the front (+972 001....) when you hit call, so it will probably fail.

Hopefully the SIM profile will override the regional setting and let you call out, otherwise, talk to your carrier.

Also, without the +1, that will mess with SMS and maybe iMessage as well.

In saying all that, you may just have to double the contact numbers with one formatted for voice and one for text.

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