Sometimes emoji's show up as square boxes

Question

Level 1

4 points

Sometimes emoji's show up as square boxes

Hi community,

I seem to have quite a rare problem, as I cannot find others with an identical problem.

I bought a legit iPhone in the Apple Store in China, an iPhone SE 64GB.

Since it came with iOS 9.x.x, it has had the problem of showing certain emoji's as blank square boxes, shown in the pictures. I already updated to 10.1.1 and then did a fresh install (Restore > configure as new iPhone) to 10.2.

When I add the same persons to an old iPhone 5 to test whether the emoji in the status shows up, it does show up on my old iPhone 5.

The emoji's are not even new, so far 2 of my contacts had the 'dog' emoji and another the 'rose flower' emoji.

However, when I let my girlfriend change her status to a rose flower emoji, it DOES show up normally on my iPhone SE. It's rather a strange problem. Anyone has a clue what it could be?

iPhone SE, iOS 10.2

Posted on Jan 20, 2017 2:21 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jan 20, 2017 2:32 AM in response to Captainpatje

It means the emoji is not currently available on your device from memory. It's the same as when letters aren't in a computer's dictionary, they just show as a box because the character cannot be found on your device.

The sender may have the emoji, but if you dont, you won't see it because emojis are classed as text 'characters' not flat images.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 20, 2017 2:47 AM in response to Captainpatje

It could also be the iOS version, they add new emojis quite often in updates; but if you have the latest update you should have them.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 20, 2017 2:45 AM in response to Captainpatje

If it's missing characters from your phone's library then not that I'm aware of. Although there might be a third party app that could give you those emojis for use in your messages on the App Store, some of the emoji apps I've seen on there have hundreds of emojis for use in messages.

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 20, 2017 3:04 AM in response to Captainpatje

I'm not entirely sure to be honest, if the emoji shows up fine on one iphone but not another then perhaps it's worth having a chat to Apple Support or booking an appointment at a Genius Bar about? They should be able to help you figure out what the problem is.

Reply

Answer 5

Captainpatje Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 20, 2017 2:40 AM in response to Peter Miller

So there is nothing that can be done about it?

Reply

Answer 6

Captainpatje Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 20, 2017 2:55 AM in response to Peter Miller

Yeah it's like I said, the missing emoji's are just the dog and rose flower, which were included when emoji's were found.

Reply

Answer 7

Captainpatje Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 20, 2017 3:14 AM in response to Peter Miller

I will do that. Thanks for your help!

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 21, 2017 9:06 PM in response to Captainpatje

Hope you can get it sorted soon.

Reply

Answer 9

Captainpatje Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2017 2:23 AM in response to Peter Miller

I started a chat with Apple Support. The adviser said he had never seen this before. Suggested I'd go to the nearest Store to get it checked out, and he'd report it as a software bug.

Reply

Answer 10

Jul 20, 2017 4:10 AM in response to Captainpatje

HI! I am running into the same problem. Did it get resolved?

Reply