Can't load large group into messages

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Can't load large group into messages

Hi all

I have a large number of clients that are best reached via sms. I have been using various group apps for years which have all more or less done the job they were designed to do. However, over the past 6 months or so, I have found that when any app tries to load the whole client group into the 'To' field, it times out and cancels the operation. I have worked out a (tedious) way of doing this manually, by exporting contacts from Outlook, creating a comma separated list in Excel, then emailing to myself and copying and pasting the list of numbers from the email into the 'To' field on the iPhone but the same thing happens.

To reduce the workload, I have also tried splitting the group in half and then into quarters but no success. In the end, I have figured out that the magic number is 250. I simply cannot load more than 250 numbers into the messages app be it manually or via a third party app and neither can any of our consultants.

Is this an iPhone setting? Is there any way around it? Cheers 🙂

iPhone 5s, iOS 7.1.2, Zenbook with Windows 8.1

Posted on Apr 21, 2015 7:33 PM

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Answer 1

dylebob Author

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Apr 21, 2015 7:37 PM in response to dylebob

P.S. iOS 8.3 (not 7.1.2) and Windows 8.1 Pro

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Answer 2

Apr 24, 2015 2:21 PM in response to dylebob

I am having the same issue as above and would love some support to help sort this issue out.

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Answer 3

dylebob Author

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May 11, 2015 6:55 PM in response to nicolafromcairns

Ok, I can see a few people have checked this out since posting so I'll let everyone know where I'm up to.

I have been in contact with support for the last few weeks. Initially, they had no idea this couldn't be done so it was escalated. The next person was a very helpful (and curious) senior advisor who really wanted to get some answers for me. It was put to various factions and eventually went to the engineers themselves who, after some serious experimentation, discovered that there is no restriction in place, the iPhone just does not have sufficient resources (i.e. RAM) to handle such a large operation. I thought this may be due to trying to retrieve each individual mobile number's full profile from the address book as it is entered into the to field so I tried a raw data list. This involved wiping my address book so there was no info to retrieve, then pasting the list of numbers direct into the messages app.

Craaash...

So the result is that, at this stage, it can't be done. Why it can't be done when it was a simple proceedure 6 months to a year ago may be due to the extra RAM required to operate iOS 8 and the various updates installed since. A possible way around this is controlling the iPhone remotely using your laptop, thus utilising the computer's RAM to load the full list into the app but this is not currently possible with a pc/iPhone combo. The Continuity feature on OS X Yosemite sounds like the solution if you have an extra couple of grand to buy a Mac... Otherwise, it looks like we'll have to wait until Apple approves an application that allows a pc to control an iPhone.

Good luck everyone, I'll let you know if there are any developments.

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