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OrangeCuse44

macrumors 65832
Original poster
Oct 25, 2006
1,504
2
Whenever I receive a long SMS from somebody that should be split in to 2 messages, I just receive one and it is cut off. What is up with this?
 

abijnk

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2007
3,287
5
Los Angeles, CA
I have that problem sending. I go over 160 characters and the person never gets the second half. I wonder if it is a carrier specific thing?
 

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,923
17,399
I have that problem sending. I go over 160 characters and the person never gets the second half. I wonder if it is a carrier specific thing?

I'm pretty sure it's a problem with how SMS is implemented.

This happened to me when I was on an old Cingular 8125 PDAphone that ran Windows Mobile. When it went over 160 characters, the rest came in on a second SMS message. If the one I was sending exceeded 160 characters, it sent the rest in a separate message.

So this may be a bug. Which firmware was this on, and did it happen in previous versions?

BL.
 

OrangeCuse44

macrumors 65832
Original poster
Oct 25, 2006
1,504
2
So this may be a bug. Which firmware was this on, and did it happen in previous versions?

BL.

I got my iPhone on Nov 6 and I believe 2 days later Apple released the newest firmware upgrade which I obviously installed. I can only say it has happened on the newest software.
 

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,923
17,399
I got my iPhone on Nov 6 and I believe 2 days later Apple released the newest firmware upgrade which I obviously installed. I can only say it has happened on the newest software.

So this at least happens on 2.2. If it did not happened on 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, or 2.1, then there is definitely a bug in the latest update.

BL.
 

pkagel

macrumors regular
Aug 5, 2008
177
6
SoCal ExPat
Never happened to me but then I'm texting ATT to ATT though my GF doesn't have an iPhone she does get the whole thing.
 

abijnk

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2007
3,287
5
Los Angeles, CA
I'm texting AT&T to Verizon when this happens.

OP, are you trying ot receive from multiple carriers when this happens or just from AT&T, etc?
 

OrangeCuse44

macrumors 65832
Original poster
Oct 25, 2006
1,504
2
I'm texting AT&T to Verizon when this happens.

OP, are you trying ot receive from multiple carriers when this happens or just from AT&T, etc?

When I receive a long text from anyone. Verizon, AT&T, doesn't matter.
 

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,923
17,399
When I receive a long text from anyone. Verizon, AT&T, doesn't matter.

Same was with me on the WinMobile phone, and that was to ATT, TMobile, Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone.

So there seems to be a 160 character limit across the board. The problem is if those characters after that are received or not.

BL.
 

Warbrain

macrumors 603
Jun 28, 2004
5,702
293
Chicago, IL
It's definitely a carrier issue. Many people I know who have at&t have had issues receiving texts, them being cut off, making calls...

The network has gotten ****** of late.
 

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,923
17,399
It's definitely a carrier issue. Many people I know who have at&t have had issues receiving texts, them being cut off, making calls...

The network has gotten ****** of late.

If it is a carrier thing, then I seriously doubt it has anything to do with ATT, but in fact all carriers, which is why I mentioned that it may have to do with how SMS is handled throughout any given network.

Beforehand, I would have said it was something with ATT, but that aforementioned message to a friend on Optus in Australia. They visited here (Sacramento) last year, and if I hadn't been sitting next to them sending them a text message that was some 230something characters, saw it get split in two and sent as two messages, and had an equal sized reply sent back as two separate messages, I would have said that it had to do with ATT (that was who I was with at the time).

It isn't just ATT, everyone. This happens across the board on every network, or should be. My point is that if this worked in previous firmware releases (getting them split into two messages) and it doesn't now, there is a bug in the current firmware for the iPhone. So before blaming the network, let's see if it is the iPhone first.

BL.
 

ilfn143

macrumors 6502a
Aug 27, 2008
520
96
Enron by the Sea
it's the sms standard
SMS as used on modern handsets was originally defined as part of the GSM series of standards in 1985[1] as a means of sending messages of up to 160 characters (including spaces), to and from GSM mobile handsets.[2] Since then, support for the service has expanded to include alternative mobile standards such as ANSI CDMA networks and Digital AMPS, as well as satellite and landline networks.[citation needed] Most SMS messages are mobile-to-mobile text messages, though the standard supports other types of broadcast messaging as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service
 

jarjarblinks

macrumors 6502
Nov 15, 2008
336
0
Very oddly, my gf's iPhone 3G (2.2) cant send sms's >160 characters to BB's. only BB's. All other mobile devices can receive the full sms, be it in a single or multiple receipt. Did a restore and re-sync multiple times but the problem persisted. We did not roll back to 2.1 or 2.0.X though to try it out. She exchanged the iPhone, and presto the problem no longer occured.
 

moniquetx

macrumors member
Sep 25, 2008
56
1
Dallas, TX
Thanks for the link.

So there you have it. So now the question is, is the OP's second half of the message coming in? If not, bug in 2.2. Are they coming in on non-firmware 2.2 iPhones? If so, bug in 2.2.

BL.

It happens to me all the time and I am still running firmware 2.1 so my guess is that it's a carrier thing.
 

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,923
17,399
It happens to me all the time and I am still running firmware 2.1. I guess it must be carrier specific.

Which part: the text message being cut off and not getting the second half of it, or being able to get both parts of the message in 2.1?

BL.
 

moniquetx

macrumors member
Sep 25, 2008
56
1
Dallas, TX
Which part: the text message being cut off and not getting the second half of it, or being able to get both parts of the message in 2.1?

BL.

I'm getting both parts alright. Sometimes time-reversed :confused:
And when I'm sending a long SMS the receiver gets it split. Always no matter who the carrier is.
 

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,923
17,399
I'm getting both parts alright. Sometimes time-reversed :confused:
And when I'm sending a long SMS the receiver gets it split. Always no matter who the carrier is.

Okay.. This makes me think that in 2.1, you're getting both texts if the entire message is longer than 160 characters. So we go back to if we are getting both texts in 2.2. If we aren't, there's the bug.

BL.
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
I would imagine that it's the sender's phone or carrier that has to split up the message.
 

bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,923
17,399
For the record, I just received a few SMS messages from Optus last night, with two of them over 160 characters. They were split into two messages, and I received both.

This is on Firmware 2.2.

BL.
 
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