smirza
Level 1 (12 points)
iPad

Q: Why is my iPhone 5 number listed as "unknown" and unlisted in iMessage and FaceTime?

I am a StraightTalk customer. Originally, I had a CDMA iPhone 5 purchased directly from that company. After three years, the battery swelled, and I walked out of the Apple Store on Thursday with a replacement. After inserting a Straight Talk SIM card into the device and setting it up, I can make calls, send text messages, use cellular data, etc.

 

However, my phone number in Settings is listed as "unknown," and it is not listed at the top of the contacts screen. I cannot send messages in iMessage from my phone number, as it isn't even listed as an option. Ditto for FaceTime. After several hours on the phone with Straight Talk, they've determined that my phone service is provisioned correctly, and it is a phone issue.

 

Does anyone have a solution for this? It's incredibly frustrating as the iPhone 5 does every single thing I need it to do, and I'd rather keep my $75 replacement phone for another three years before moving to an iPhone SE.

iPhone 5, iOS 9.3.4

Posted on Aug 21, 2016 5:28 PM

by smirza,Solvedanswer
smirza smirza
Level 1 (12 points)
iPad
A:

And the saga ends. After five separate calls to Apple Tech Support, I spent 40 minutes on the phone with a senior engineer this morning. He had me downgrade to 9.3.5 then send a diagnostic report to Apple. After five minutes of looking over the report, he concluded that my phone is defective. I'll be going to the Apple Store on Saturday to demand a replacement.

Posted on Aug 25, 2016 1:16 PM

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smirza

Q: Why is my iPhone 5 number listed as "unknown" and unlisted in iMessage and FaceTime?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by alex_oz,Helpful

    alex_oz alex_oz Aug 22, 2016 12:06 PM in response to smirza
    Community Specialists
    Aug 22, 2016 12:06 PM in response to smirza

    Hello, smirza!

     

    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!  From what I understand in your post, you've gotten a replacement iPhone 5, and have found that your phone number isn't listed in Settings > Phone and iMessages/FaceTime.  Your number should definitely be in all of those places, so I'm glad you came here so we can help figure out what's going on together.  Checking with your wireless carrier was a great first step.  I have some other suggestions for you as well:

     

    1. It looks like you already have the latest version of iOS (9.3.4), but let's also make sure your carrier settings are up-to-date:  iOS: Updating your carrier settings
    2. If you haven't already done so, back up your iPhone to iCloud or iTunes:  How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
    3. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Contacts > My Info and make sure your personal contact card (with your iPhone's phone number) is selected.
    4. Go to Settings > Phone > My Number and see if you are able to manually type in your number and save it.
    5. If none of those steps work, try restoring your phone from the backup you just made:  Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup
    6. If you're still not seeing your number, try restoring your phone as new and seeing if your number is there:  Use iTunes on your Mac or PC to restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to factory settings

     

    Have a fantastic week!

  • by javaliga,Helpful

    javaliga javaliga Aug 22, 2016 12:06 PM in response to smirza
    Level 4 (3,279 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 22, 2016 12:06 PM in response to smirza

    For what it's worth, I too had an "unknown" phone number appearing in my new iPhone from Verizon.  Everything else seemed OK (although I didn't check Facetime & iMessage).  My wife's identical phone (which we bought at the same time from the same Verizon store & salesperson) was OK.  I went back to Verizon and restored the phone as new while the salesperson watched me.  No joy.  He then replaced the SIM and my phone number then showed up.  I don't know if the problem was indeed with the SIM or if they just didn't set mine up properly to begin with.  In either case, that's my experience.

  • by smirza,

    smirza smirza Aug 22, 2016 12:05 PM in response to javaliga
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPad
    Aug 22, 2016 12:05 PM in response to javaliga

    Interesting. If restoring the phone as new doesn't work, I might try requesting a new SIM card from Straight Talk.

  • by smirza,

    smirza smirza Aug 22, 2016 12:43 PM in response to alex_oz
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPad
    Aug 22, 2016 12:43 PM in response to alex_oz

    I'm going to give one more shot to restoring the iPhone from scratch. Hopefully that does the trick. Otherwise, I'll have to look at other options.

  • by KiltedTim,

    KiltedTim KiltedTim Aug 22, 2016 1:11 PM in response to smirza
    Level 9 (54,882 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 22, 2016 1:11 PM in response to smirza

    Since StraightTalk is a CDMA carrier, activation may require direct action on their part. Have you contacted them to make sure they have the new phone activated in their system? They will need the new MEID # for that phone to activate it on their CDMA network.

  • by smirza,

    smirza smirza Aug 23, 2016 11:21 AM in response to KiltedTim
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPad
    Aug 23, 2016 11:21 AM in response to KiltedTim

    I hopped on a call with an Apple technician and hashed it out. Apparently, the culprit was two-step verification on my Apple ID. He had me disable that then hard reset my phone. When it powered back on, I received a pop-up saying my iPhone had been activated. Weird.

  • by smirza,Solvedanswer

    smirza smirza Aug 25, 2016 1:16 PM in response to smirza
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPad
    Aug 25, 2016 1:16 PM in response to smirza

    And the saga ends. After five separate calls to Apple Tech Support, I spent 40 minutes on the phone with a senior engineer this morning. He had me downgrade to 9.3.5 then send a diagnostic report to Apple. After five minutes of looking over the report, he concluded that my phone is defective. I'll be going to the Apple Store on Saturday to demand a replacement.

  • by smirza,

    smirza smirza Aug 29, 2016 2:11 PM in response to javaliga
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPad
    Aug 29, 2016 2:11 PM in response to javaliga

    Hmm. I just got my replacement phone on Sunday and I'm still having the same issue, so I think this might be my last resort. I ordered a new SIM card for $.99 and will receive it on Thursday. I'll let you know if the SIM was the issue. Straight Talk refuses to address it, so I'm guessing if I didn't activate the SIM properly there's nothing tech support can do on their end. It must be why they keep dancing around the issue when I call.