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maclook

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
1,146
40
I'm about to go overseas and will bring my iPhone with me, but it will be in airplane mode during the whole trip to avoid roaming charges. I'm wondering if I will receive any texts that were sent to the device once I come back and disable airplane mode.
 
I believe you should. You may have a ton waiting.

My 4s got an iMessage from my bro while it was at home and my sim was in my 4.... I thought it was kinda funny as the "text" didn't go through on my 4 but was waiting on my 4s.
 
Depends on how long you are away. Texts and retained by the short message service centre for a period defined by that centre so it's somewhat dependent on what your service provider has chosen. It could be as little as 24 hours. It could be as much as a week.
 
I'm about to go overseas and will bring my iPhone with me, but it will be in airplane mode during the whole trip to avoid roaming charges. I'm wondering if I will receive any texts that were sent to the device once I come back and disable airplane mode.

Or you could just go into Settings>>general>>network>>and shut off Data Roaming, that way I believe you could keep your phones airplane mode off and still receive text messages...although the text messages might cost a pretty penny being over seas, but at least you won't be charged for roaming fees.

Please someone correct me if I happen to be wrong...hope that helps.
 
Or you could just go into Settings>>general>>network>>and shut off Data Roaming, that way I believe you could keep your phones airplane mode off and still receive text messages...although the text messages might cost a pretty penny being over seas, but at least you won't be charged for roaming fees.

Please someone correct me if I happen to be wrong...hope that helps.

I'd do this. AT&T, at least, offers an international texting package that you can use overseas. It's $30/month (you can cancel when you return) for 200 texts sent from outside the country, and $50 for 500. I think receiving texts overseas costs $0.25/message.
 
I went to Cuba this summer and left my phone turned off at home. When I got home I got 12 texts as soon as I turned on the phone but several friends told me they texted me too but I never received those texts when I turned my phone on again. (I did have an auto-reply saying that I was out for the week which worked even though the phone was off)

So it seems like some texts you may get but it's not guaranteed. I'm from Canada though, maybe it works differently with other carriers
 
Doesn't really help the OP but Google Voice is handy for situations like this. Whether or not my device receives a particular message, all messages are in my GV account. GV account is accessible from any internet-connected PC and I can send/reply to SMS via the GV site.

If airplane mode is disabled and re-enabled then the GV app can just sync up to the GV account when data is available.

So it seems like some texts you may get but it's not guaranteed. I'm from Canada though, maybe it works differently with other carriers
See post #3 in this thread.
 
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