Numbersync-WiFi Calling

[dsampley]

solodogg, that is a good point I had not thought of. I just checked on line and see the feature number sync on my line. I will call to have that removed. Thanks for pointing that out.

I might leave it on since not having LTE on for voice is not that big a deal for me.

 

[GreyOS]

Does anyone know whether NumbrSync is a proprietary AT&T thing or if it's a generic technology (perhaps branded as NumberSync by AT&T) that may eventually be available for other networks or in other countries? Just trying to find out more about it in the UK.

 

[snsking]

I wanted to add to this with some of my observations so far with numbersync.
It has worked for me so far with an iPad Air 2 and a MacBook Pro without needing the beta software installed on them. The beta is only required on the phone to activate the feature.
Texting isn't available on Apple products yet, the AT&T press release about numbersync called it out as a feature. It just doesn't seem to be active yet. Text message forwarding through the phone still works as before.

The one issue I have been having so far with the devices is that if you have LTE set to voice and data on your iPhone texting stops working after a bit. I am going to ask AT&T about it, it works briefly so I am unsure of the issue. This also affects text messaging when you are using a phone on WiFi mode. Just so this is clear, I am not talking about iMessages. Those work perfectly still. Switching the phone to use LTE as data only does fix the text messages failing, but there is currently no way for texting to work for me currently when using the phone on WiFi while I have number sync enabled. If this is working for someone else please share.

Edit: I guess I should have waited before posting this. I called AT&T support and they informed me that there is a known issue affecting texting on their network right now. So my issues may be unrelated to numbersync.

I thought I was the only one having this issue!!!!!! Its been extremely annoying. It takes 4-5 seconds for the text to send, and it just comes back as "not delivered" a few seconds later.

Your solution worked for me as of right. I set LTE to data only and everything seems to be working again. I originally thought it was a 9.2 bug in the manner in which the iphone is handling network connectivity or something

 

[solodogg]

I thought I was the only one having this issue!!!!!! Its been extremely annoying. It takes 4-5 seconds for the text to send, and it just comes back as "not delivered" a few seconds later.

Your solution worked for me as of right. I set LTE to data only and everything seems to be working again. I originally thought it was a 9.2 bug in the manner in which the iphone is handling network connectivity or something

it won't stay working. that usually allows the first message to go through, then any message reply from the one you sent. Try having someone else send you an SMS, and you probably won't receive it.

I had 3 different people trying to text me all ay long, and even tried sending myself a message from google voice. Switching LTE off on my phone allowed the first message I sent to go through, any other after that point would come back as not delivered, but they did go out. The problem was that nobody could text me until I texted them first. Removing numbersync from the line was the only thing that corrected it.

 

[WolfSnap]

it won't stay working. that usually allows the first message to go through, then any message reply from the one you sent. Try having someone else send you an SMS, and you probably won't receive it.

I had 3 different people trying to text me all ay long, and even tried sending myself a message from google voice. Switching LTE off on my phone allowed the first message I sent to go through, any other after that point would come back as not delivered, but they did go out. The problem was that nobody could text me until I texted them first. Removing numbersync from the line was the only thing that corrected it.

So, I was able to get ahold of AT&T tech support. They said there was a missing cellular profile. They resent the activation codes to the iPhone, and now everything works.

If you're experiencing the issue, have AT&T resend the activation codes. That might help you.

 

[Chambersaj]

I will have to agree with solo on this one. It seems to be related to numbersync. I tried it on a phone that was out of beta. No issues with it at all. It must be a change to profiles on the phone and which endpoints it is supposed to use. The feature as described by AT&T in their press release is supposed to work with text messages. It also says the text messaging is supposed to sync so that if you read it on one device it will update on the other devices so they don't tell you that you have new texts. I think that would mean there is some changes to Apple's software to make that second part work. Which may be why it is just voice calling only in this release. Maybe the activation process tells the phone to start using a different set of servers for the texts that 9.2 isn't really ready to use. My understanding of what is making all this work is that LTE doesn't have a circuit switch voice backend like previous cellular technologies so all the voice is VoIP and the text messaging is using XMPP or SIP messaging. That is why it is so easy to move all the devices to using AT&T infrastructure regardless of what network access technology they use. All the LTE stuff set them up to move their services to an IP backbone and WiFi calling and numbersync are just them reaping the rewards of those upgrades.

 

[Chambersaj]

Does anyone know whether NumbrSync is a proprietary AT&T thing or if it's a generic technology (perhaps branded as NumberSync by AT&T) that may eventually be available for other networks or in other countries? Just trying to find out more about it in the UK.

Numbersync is what AT&T is calling their service to use your primary phone number on other devices. It should be generic enough to work across different operating systems. Like you have an iPhone and you activate the service on an Android tablet. That isn't ready for primetime, yet.

 

[Chambersaj]

So, I was able to get ahold of AT&T tech support. They said there was a missing cellular profile. They resent the activation codes to the iPhone, and now everything works.

If you're experiencing the issue, have AT&T resend the activation codes. That might help you.

That is interesting. Do you mean have them remove the feature and add it again? And everything is 100% working for you now?

I have noticed texting works for a little bit, then something changes and it breaks. I think the numbersync is changing the servers the phone is programed to talk to over AT&Ts network for texting and calling and it isn't communicating properly for the texting. This seems to be confirmed by the way texting from other devices is working. It used to be when I was doing text relay through my iPhone from say my iPad and it failed to send, the iPhone would have the message in the list with the failure icon next to it. It doesn't when I activated numbersync. I suspect that instead of the devices sending the message over iMessage to the phone, then it sending it via text they are sending direct to AT&T and failing just like the phone. So maybe AT&T noticed that and changed the profile they send the phone at activation.

 

[Chambersaj]

So, I was able to get ahold of AT&T tech support. They said there was a missing cellular profile. They resent the activation codes to the iPhone, and now everything works.

If you're experiencing the issue, have AT&T resend the activation codes. That might help you.

Wolf, thanks. It did seem to be the activation profile. I called AT&T and asked them to remove the feature. When I reactivated it pushed the right profile. Everything seems to be working now. I am hoping texting without using my iPhone will be next. Being on an airplane and being able to reach everyone from my normal number instead of google voice sounds like a great thing.

 

[solodogg]

Wolf, thanks. It did seem to be the activation profile. I called AT&T and asked them to remove the feature. When I reactivated it pushed the right profile. Everything seems to be working now. I am hoping texting without using my iPhone will be next. Being on an airplane and being able to reach everyone from my normal number instead of google voice sounds like a great thing.

so...you had them remove numbersync from your line, and added it again via the phone settings menu, and all sms works fine now? interesting...

 

[Chambersaj]

so...you had them remove numbersync from your line, and added it again via the phone settings menu, and all sms works fine now? interesting...

Spoke too soon. It was activated and texting was working for much longer than the previous times. As soon as I started activated my iPad for WiFi calling it broke again. I might be on to a root cause here. My iPad isn't running the beta. I may upgrade to the beta and see what change that may bring. Or leave it deactivated, because when I turned off WiFi Calling on it, texting went back to working. If you can try to replicate, I would appreciate it.

 

[solodogg]

no dice. my iPad is upgraded to the current beta, and still experiencing the issue. Something tells me that numbersync is trying to activate both wifi calling and SMS handling, and the SMS messages are disappearing since they can't be sent to the devices.

*EDIT* updated beta on iPhone, iPad, and rMBP, all exhibit the same issue.

 

[dsampley]

ok,I just activated number sync and started having texting problems again. I turned off wifi calling on my iPad and texting has instantly started working again. I am running the beta on my iPhone but not my iPad. Also wifi calling is not working on my Apple Watch.

Text Messaging continues to work after additional testing. I wonder what it is about activating Wi Fi calling other devices causes texting to break.

 

[gsmornot]

When you guys say texting you're talking about SMS (green) vs iMessage (blue) correct? I will try to test this too if I'm reading you correctly.

Ok, same here. i don't know many people not using iMessage so I hadn't noticed. Hope it gets fixed in one of the updates.

 

[Chambersaj]

When you guys say texting you're talking about SMS (green) vs iMessage (blue) correct? I will try to test this too if I'm reading you correctly.

Yes, green. Not blue.

Update on my end. With the iPad disabled for WiFi Calling my texting problems got much better, but they were still occasionally failing. Seems like something isn't ready. I opened a case with AT&T tech support that they are supposed to get back to me about. I'll update this thread when I hear back.

 

[solodogg]

When you guys say texting you're talking about SMS (green) vs iMessage (blue) correct? I will try to test this too if I'm reading you correctly.

Ok, same here. i don't know many people not using iMessage so I hadn't noticed. Hope it gets fixed in one of the updates.

yep, iMessage works fine, sms and mms messages do not.

 

[WolfSnap]

It wasn't removing then adding the feature that fixed it. I spoke to tech support and they saw that the activation profile was missing some data. They corrected it, had me turn off the phone, resent the activation profile, and when I turned it back on, everything worked. Even number-sync.

Still working.

 

[Chambersaj]

It wasn't removing then adding the feature that fixed it. I spoke to tech support and they saw that the activation profile was missing some data. They corrected it, had me turn off the phone, resent the activation profile, and when I turned it back on, everything worked. Even number-sync.

Still working.

Tech support by dialing 611?

 

[WolfSnap]

Tech support by dialing 611?

Honestly, I called the standard customer service which had me try to set my personal PIN by verifying the temporary PIN I'd receive -- by sending me a text message (uh, yeah.. problem is I can't receive a text message, so, let's make me receive a text message to verify who I am.. Brilliant!)

Anyways, once I got through that nonsense, they offered to connect me to AppleCare. I said, "I want to speak to tech support at AT&T -- not Apple". They sent me to the AT&T tech support people who debugged the network issue. Apart from the initial frustration, the person who solved the issue was a super-star. But, it did take me a few attempts to resolve....

 

[Chambersaj]

Honestly, I called the standard customer service which had me try to set my personal PIN by verifying the temporary PIN I'd receive -- by sending me a text message (uh, yeah.. problem is I can't receive a text message, so, let's make me receive a text message to verify who I am.. Brilliant!)

Anyways, once I got through that nonsense, they offered to connect me to AppleCare. I said, "I want to speak to tech support at AT&T -- not Apple". They sent me to the AT&T tech support people who debugged the network issue. Apart from the initial frustration, the person who solved the issue was a super-star. But, it did take me a few attempts to resolve....

Alright. I guess I will need to wait for my trouble ticket to work its way through the system. I talked to two different tech support people at AT&T. Neither were very helpful. Hopefully the next level of support that contacts me can do the profile thing the one you talked to did.

 

[WolfSnap]

Alright. I guess I will need to wait for my trouble ticket to work its way through the system. I talked to two different tech support people at AT&T. Neither were very helpful. Hopefully the next level of support that contacts me can do the profile thing the one you talked to did.

I wish I had a call back number for the woman who helped me. She was seriously awesome and obviously knew her stuff. But, you can always try to call back and ask them to resend the activation profile to the phone. It might be all that's needed. (And, it's a fairly easy thing for them to do.)

 

[Chambersaj]

I wish I had a call back number for the woman who helped me. She was seriously awesome and obviously knew her stuff. But, you can always try to call back and ask them to resend the activation profile to the phone. It might be all that's needed. (And, it's a fairly easy thing for them to do.)

I said those words. Resend the activation profile back to the phone. The guy had no idea what that meant. Guess I'll wait for the call back from the next higher level of support.

 

[shad0whawk]

Well it's good to know I'm not the only one having this issue. It's been a really frustrating evening trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I was having the same issues everyone here has described. The first time I called AT&T (before I read this thread) they tried everything they could think of to fix it (most of which I already tried). I even restored my phone and setup as a new phone to try it and it still failed--fortunately the restore to my last backup wasn't too bad. The only fix so far was to have AT&T remove NumberSync from my profile--which I got from this thread. That seems to have fixed the issue (fingers crossed). AT&T stated that it's an Apple issue and that they are working on it but there's no ETA at the moment. I guess it wasn't ready for primetime yet so now we wait...

 

[solodogg]

I don't believe this is an apple issue as much as it is an AT&T issue with the numbersync service attempting to handle SMS messages, and not directing them to the devices properly. If it was an Apple issue, disabling WiFi sync on the device would correct the issue, but it doesn't.

 

[dsampley]

I had AT&T resend the activation profile and I am still having the problem with text messaging. The rep in the chat is sending over to technical support and I am waiting for assistance.

According to the rep I am chatting this with. they have received a "high volume" of calls concerning this problem. He has been very helpful and was quick to route me over to technical support for further assistance.