HTC

[thehighyeast]

I'm having an intermittent inability to receive SMS messages from (seemingly) just one number on Virgin.

I have spoken to Vodafone who initially said that they thought the Messaging provisioning on my account was set-up wrong. This didn't fix it.

Then they sent me out a replacement SIM card, which also did nothing.

My girlfriend also has a HTC Magic with Vodafone. When I get the sender to forward the texts to her phone, they come through ok.

When I put my SIM card into another handset, they come through ok.

So I'm thinking that there must be a fault with my handset.

The problem with this as a concept is that I don't want to be hastily told to do a factory reset, exchange the handset, send it off to be looked-at etc. I can't explain what an enormous investment of time, effort, and care I've invested in my Magic, downloading tons of apps and tweaking the settings and configuration just how I want it. For me, doing an unecessary reset is not something I want to consider unless all else has tried and failed.

The only other difference between my Vodafone account and my girlfriends is that her number was issued by Vodafone, whereas I have ported mine from O2>T-mobile>Virgin>O2>Vodafone. At the time I left Virgin for O2 there was an issue with Virgin not fully releasing me to O2, so I didn't fully port over properly - which resulted in an MMS message issue from senders on Virgin. I had to battle with O2 to get it resolved. I sometimes wonder whether porting around the networks so much ends-up creating problems for your number? Anyone got any info about this?

So now I find myself with my fingers crossed, hoping against my suispicions that Vodafone will release an update for the Magic which will fix this bug. I've read enough on here to know that there's lots of bugs in 1.6.

Anybody had the same problem and fixed it?

Any good ideas/suggestions?

I appreciate any info/kmowledge about this, and apologies for the essay!

thehighyeast

[Dave]

Hi thehighyeast,

It's certainly strange that it's only happening with the one number - as it's sent from another provider, we're limited into what SMS details we can see, and it certainly sounds like you've tried the main checks so far..

Is there any pattern to when the messages are - or are as the case may be - being received? Are you or your partner in the same location when the failing SMS being received, for example, or does it happen at a certain time of day, anything like that?

Similarly, is your girlfriend always using the same contacts link when sending or is she typing the number in on occasion as well? If the latter, or if she is using two separate links, is she doing this when the messages fail? If so, it may be a difference between the local and international dialling code versions.

With the firmware issue, we do not have any timescale information beyond that in the announcement here, as we're not involved beyond the flash screen and the settings, only Google and HTC.

One reset you can try which won't require a restore afterwards is a hard reset:

- Switch the handset on
- Whilst powered up, remove the SIM card and battery
- Put the battery back in and switch on
- Wait a couple of minutes, then remove the battery again
- Replace the SIM and battery and switch back on

Let us know how you get on with this!

DaveN

eForum Team

[iwinter]

Anybody had the same problem and fixed it?

Any good ideas/suggestions?

What format is the number you are sending in? If you have the contact's number stored as (this is just an example number):

07123 456 789

Try changing it to:

+447123 456 789

That is, replace the leading 0 with +44 (the UK STD code). This seems to sometimes cause problems on some networks in that they prefer numbers to be entered in the international dialling format, even if you're not actually dialling internationally. It can of course give the symptoms you're seeing - that is, if you have most numbers entered into your phone in the +44 format, but the number you're having problems with is in the leading 0 format then that number may not work- to further complicate things it can be network specific too, so a leading 0 might work on one network, but not another. I generally find it's good practice to enter numbers in the +44 format anyway.

If that doesn't solve it then honestly, I've no idea what the problem is- it would almost certainly be a network issue.

[thehighyeast]

Thanks for your time DaveN and Xefan.

Think there might be a slight misunderstanding. Just to clarify, it is me who is having trouble receiving SMS from my mum. I have no issues that I am aware of with sending texts.

DaveN, I have asked my mum to send a failed text to my girlfriend, minutes after I have been unable to receive it. This has been with my girlfriend and I in the same room, and they always come through fine.

I have also performed a hard reset you described, and done one on my mums handset.

Xefan, being a bit of a geek, I insist on having ALL my numbers stored in the +44 format!

The only other thing I can think of is the messaging app I'm using - SMS PopUp
It shouldn't make a difference because it is also running on my girlfriends Magic.
I have disabled it and installed Handcent instead though, just in desparation really - although its seems lush so far!

Any thoughts regarding the numerous network ports being a cause? It was Virgin I had trouble receiving from before

Thanks

thehighyeast

[George]

Hi thehighyeast,

Thanks for your reply, this definitely sounds like quite a strange issue . I wouldn't have thought the issue would lie with the messaging app that you're using, however it may be worth disabling it temporarily just for testing purposes.

To be honest, I'd say the best thing to do would be to ask your Mum to contact Virgin as they'll be able to check her SMS log and will see why these messages are failing. That'll at least give you a clearer picture of exactly what's happening here.

George
eForum Team

[thehighyeast]

Hi George, thanks for your reply.

I had trouble with the Hancent SMS app - I sent a group text and the recipients just got sqaures, or other corrupt nonsense. So I have uninstalled all SMS apps and am now just using the stock Android messaging app.

I called Virgin on my mums behalf, the chap I spoke to said he would send an email to technical support team, who would get back to us. That was the last we heard of that!

Would it be possible for you to check-out the things you mentioned on my Vodafone account. When I attempted to have this looked into over the phone, I didn't feel confident that the people I spoke to had much of an understanding of the problem, let alone the things to investigate. It would just be good to know that all was as it should be with my account set-up.

Thanks

thehighyeast

[George]

Hi thehighyeast,

Thanks for your reply. I'm fairly certain that there aren't any issues on your account, otherwise this issue would be happening with every SMS that's sent to you, not just ones from your Mum.

My assumption as to what's happening is that your number might be part of range that is either missing from or corrupt on the Virgin message centre that's handling your Mum's SMS. The problem is, that if I loaded up a log of your received SMS, the only ones I'd see would be from other Vodafone numbers so I wouldn't be able to see any of your Mum's failure reasons. I know you've spoken to them already, however the only people who can check on this would be Virgin so I'd definitely recommend chasing this up with them. Once they've established the cause of the issue then they'll be able to investigate it further.

George
eForum Team

[thehighyeast]

Hmmm...sounds like a plausible explanation. The only thorn in its side is that I WAS able to receive texts with no problem from my mum when I inserted my sim card into my old Nokia 6233. This does rather suggest that the fault sits with the Magic. Unless you can think of a logical explanation?

[Trev]

Hi thehighyeast

I'd still recommend speaking to Virgin.

They should be able to give the reason why the SMS is failing. This may be a number range issue, or a handset issue, as you suspect, but the failure reason they give, will bring disclosure to the cause, if not the actual issue.

If you can post the reason they give you, we will then be able to move foward, and get this issue resolved.

Regards

Trev
eForum Team