topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Thursday March 28, 2024, 6:31 pm
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: Droid Texting - Fail!  (Read 12166 times)

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Droid Texting - Fail!
« on: May 10, 2011, 10:21 PM »
Okay, so I'm on record as detesting most of the things that smart phones are for...But I ended up with one anyway. I've no good explanation for why, it just happened.

I got one on the new HTC Arrive Windows Phones, and despite all attempts at hating it...I just can't. It has a straight forward intuitive interface that makes things easy to do, even when I'm intent on being thick.

The wife on the other hand, got a Droid, specifically a Samsung Elite ... I considered setting it on fire earlier this evening, but wasn't entirely sure it would burn... :) I actually had to wait several hours before making this post to calm down to avoid breaking the record for most profanity ever used on a single page on the internet.


Anyhow... It all started with a Text Message, or rather an attempt at sending a text message. Texting, it seems, requires a 10 digit number. Okay fine. The droid however flatly refuses to to save and reuse said prerequisite 10 digit number (which is the one and only number in the contact list) for reasons which completely escape me. Here's a couple of test scenarios I went through, in the process of going ballistic.

Sent wife text from Windows phone (works fine)
Try responding to text from wife's Droid (it says no 10 digit number/bite me/Fail!)

Edit contact on phone, and then log into Gmail to make sure that all traces of number format 123-4567 are gone.
Delete text message history for contact me, because otherwise I'm not allowed to change the target number.
Once again confirm that number for contact Me is on the required 666-123-456 format.
Purge all history so there is no other alternative other that to read the number given in the contact info...

Open messaging on the droid, and pick me from the list.
Top of message windows says: My Name <123-4567>, ... WTF?!?
But it is, at this point, editable, Sort of. Correcting the number is (best I can tell) impossible. Best I can do is back it out entirely, and then it will give a drop down where I can (Believe it Or Not) select the correct number. And! successfully send a text.
Sent a few messages back and forth. All is fine... Kinda...

I close the message window.
I go to contacts, pick me, and pick send message.
Fail! Broken phantom number <123-4567> hath returned.
Not to mention I can't change/correct it any longer. I have to start over at step 1 with deleting the complete message history...To get the blasted thing to ASK me for the Freaking ~CorrecT~ number which it has in the contact list but completely refuses to use. Because apparently it's far more fun for the phone to bust my balls over a number that IT Decided to Truncate!

Factoid: There were 35 expletives in the last two sentences when I said them just now in my head.

<I'm going to step out for a cigarette...>
 :D
<Much better now...>

Additional Observations:
Texting to any long distance (/out of local area code) number, works fine. Contact info is uses as it is stored.
Texting to any local number, even if all 10 digits (666-123-4567 -or- 66612345767) are stored. Fails.
Pulling the battery to force a reboot does not affect the aforementioned ill behavior.


Why this is happening, I've not a clue. The Windows phone, also on the same carrier...performs flawlessly. I can only hope that someone recognizes this behavior, and knows of a fix for it...That they will share...Before the phone meets a tragic end.

Thank you.

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2011, 10:40 PM »
I don't use SMS, or extremely rarely. Even with a keyboard, with my big thumbs, I'm exactly that -- all thumbs.

But I can sympathize. I've encountered things like that before. Localization/globalization issues can drive you far beyond the wall of sleep and deep into the mountains of madness. I'd be rich if I had a dime for every profanity I've uttered over issues like that. If volume were factored in, I'd be getting $100 bills. (On more than 1 occasion I've been driven to insanely screaming like an absolute idiot.)

I try to not let it bother me anymore. I'm resigned to the fact that anything I want to do will only be 80% supported by the tools that purport to do them.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2011, 10:59 PM »
So... What you're telling me is this kind of horse shit is normal?!? Christ no wonder I avoided these things for so long.

I'd think from all the hype that the Google/Android phones would be just dandy at all this Social Networking crap. Simple Message Service my ass!

I'd hoped it was a setting that was off but could be fixed. But I guess I'll have to get her switched to a Windows phone because her office is insisting on her being able to text the doctor.

Hell my Windows phone came with Office Mobile and connects to our Exchange server just fine. The VP got a Droid (same as the wife's) and it locks up daily. I thought they were supposed to be great phones...?

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2011, 11:32 PM »
So... What you're telling me is this kind of horse shit is normal?!? Christ no wonder I avoided these things for so long.

I'd think from all the hype that the Google/Android phones would be just dandy at all this Social Networking crap. Simple Message Service my ass!

I'd hoped it was a setting that was off but could be fixed. But I guess I'll have to get her switched to a Windows phone because her office is insisting on her being able to text the doctor.

Hell my Windows phone came with Office Mobile and connects to our Exchange server just fine. The VP got a Droid (same as the wife's) and it locks up daily. I thought they were supposed to be great phones...?
-Stoic Joker (May 10, 2011, 10:59 PM)

Oh -- I didn't mean that it happens normally on Android -- I was speaking about any technology or service or product or anything in general... i.e. Less than promised...

My HTC Desire HD certainly isn't perfect. But it's ok. My next phone will be Windows Mobile though. That way I can easily program what I want for it quickly. I'm finding that anything I want to do on iOS is simply mind-numbingly horrid. I've not done enough on Android yet to say much though. Microsoft simply produces better tools to get things done. I had no problems a few years ago doing stuff on Windows CE/2003 or whatever it was. I forget now.

As for SNS stuff and all that... Ready to lose your last threads of sanity? Check out the documentation for some of the popular SNS SDKs/APIs.

e.g. http://developers.facebook.com/docs/

WTF? It's a bloody maze. Where is the documentation? Huh?

http://developers.fa...reference/api/photo/

Now it's starting to look like documentation, but how it relates to anything isn't obvious.

So, the whole social networking service stuff still seems to be very much in its infancy. Mobile is still in its infancy as well, and I think that the fast paced world of Wall Street is pushing things out the door prior to them being prime-time ready.

Compound that with flaky network infrastructure and dubious providers, and you've got 80%. :)

I recently went through my HTC and ripped out a bunch of software as it was bogging things down.

Well... go figure. Once you run something, it's always in memory. Want to close an app? Guess what? CTRL+ALT+DEL and kill it. Well, the mobile equivalent anyways. Or you can reboot... Reboot to close an app? Ummm... Yeah... It's THAT bad.

Try it -- Start an app, close it. Next, Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Running. You'll see a complete horror story there.

Some applications behave properly, but it doesn't seem like many do.

I suppose that's part of the price of having an open platform as opposed to a closed one.

Apple's polish vs. freedom? I'm hoping that Windows Mobile 8 comes screaming out of the gates, guns blazing, and addresses those issues.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Deozaan

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Points: 1
  • Posts: 9,747
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2011, 02:01 AM »
I never had that problem on my HTC G1.

But I've always been in the habit of storing contact's phone numbers as 11 digit (1-234-567-8901). Even so, there have been a few times that numbers were stored in my phone in 10 or 7 digit format and they always worked fine.

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2011, 07:01 AM »
Oh -- I didn't mean that it happens normally on Android -- I was speaking about any technology or service or product or anything in general... i.e. Less than promised...

Understood ... I wasn't Uber rational last night, so I was having to try really hard to filter my thoughts to avoid ranting like a rabid ape... :)

Over promising is a common sales tactic that has driven my hatred for sales people all my life. I'm used to it. But, to my way of thinking, protocols used after connection be damned ... This phone is quite simply failing to dial a phone number correctly. Solely do to it mangling the phone number. That's not really a new technology, as phones have been around since the 1800s. After the number is dialed it can screw up anything it wants to...I'll understand...That part is new. But it damn well better dial the :)ing number as it's told, when it's told ... Or I start fantasizing about claw hammers and stuff... :)

Perhaps I'm still not quite entirely calm just yet.  :-\

I never had that problem on my HTC G1.

But I've always been in the habit of storing contact's phone numbers as 11 digit (1-234-567-8901). Even so, there have been a few times that numbers were stored in my phone in 10 or 7 digit format and they always worked fine.

This is why I was kind of hoping it was a setting somewhere...the behavior is really just too weird (to me). I tried every number format I could think of, especially the ones that Google seemed to be using and/or the one the phone uses when it creates a new contact from the phone logs. No Dice... Texting = Phantom Busted Number Fail. *Shrug*

skwire

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,286
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2011, 07:07 AM »
FWIW, I've had no problems texting on my Droid X.

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2011, 07:41 AM »
FWIW, I've had no problems texting on my Droid X.

Neither has the sales manager with any of the half dozen Droids he's had, or the VP with the same (exact) model & carrier. *Shrug* Apparently it's just my luck to get the only defectoid in the bunch for the wife's very first smart phone ... Right before she goes out of town to visit our granddaughter (e.g. If this friggin thing doesn't fly straight I'll never hear the end of it).


I'd so hoped it was just a simple setting ... But now, I'm convinced...It's a Demonic Possession!  :o

 :D

phitsc

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 1,198
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2011, 07:44 AM »
I've never had a problem texting on my Android phone either. Although I have switched to free alternatives (GTalk and WhatsApp) with almost all of my friends, except the few obstinate Windows Mobile friends :P , and my mother maybe ;)

4wd

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 5,641
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2011, 02:10 PM »
Same here, SMS on the Huawei IDEOS 8150, (Android 2.2.1), works fine.

However, I enter all my contact numbers as full international numbers, eg: +441234123456

JavaJones

  • Review 2.0 Designer
  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 2,739
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2011, 03:00 PM »
I have the same problem sometimes on my Samsung Epic (oo, a common thread!) and even more so now that I've upgraded to 2.2. While the issues with using the full 10 digit number do seem to be with Android (and I'm not sure how to fix them), the inability to recognize a user account's local area code and just use/assume it's from there when not specified seems more like a carrier issue and might explain why more people don't experience this. What carrier are you with? I'm on Sprint...

- Oshyan

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #11 on: May 11, 2011, 03:08 PM »
I have the same problem sometimes on my Samsung Epic (oo, a common thread!) and even more so now that I've upgraded to 2.2. While the issues with using the full 10 digit number do seem to be with Android (and I'm not sure how to fix them), the inability to recognize a user account's local area code and just use/assume it's from there when not specified seems more like a carrier issue and might explain why more people don't experience this. What carrier are you with? I'm on Sprint...

- Oshyan

(Sprint yes) Me too. And I'd of loved to jump on the carrier issue band wagon. But the wife and I got our phones at the same time. And both of which are through the same newly created company account. My Windows phone works flawlessly ... The Droid, not so much. If it was a carrier issue both should be failing. Non of the rest of the staff has complained *Shrug* So I gues they're working.

JavaJones

  • Review 2.0 Designer
  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 2,739
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #12 on: May 11, 2011, 04:08 PM »
Well, what I meant was that while android may be handling phone number issues incorrectly, that may be unnoticed by users on other networks if the network has features to figure out if the text is intended to be within the user's home area code. WinMo is obviously handling this correctly, which also shows no issues regardless of carrier. So yes android is doing something wrong, but Sprint may also be.

- Oshyan

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #13 on: May 11, 2011, 05:12 PM »
Well, what I meant was that while android may be handling phone number issues incorrectly, that may be unnoticed by users on other networks if the network has features to figure out if the text is intended to be within the user's home area code. WinMo is obviously handling this correctly, which also shows no issues regardless of carrier. So yes android is doing something wrong, but Sprint may also be.

- Oshyan

Ah! A shared fault ... Nice.

Hm... So I guess the question is; does SMS actually require a 10 digit number at the protocol level? Or rather do text messages follow the exact same PSTN route, or do they have a more central (clearing house) point to go through that would/does require the area code?

And yours got worse when you updated the OS, yes? ...I'll have to see what version the wife's is running.

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #14 on: May 11, 2011, 05:37 PM »
Let's see how closely we match:
Phone: Samsung Elite
Model #:SPH-D700
Carrier: Sprint
Firmware: v2.2.1
Baseband Ver: S:D700.0.55.EC05
Kernel: v2.6.32.9
Build Num: FROYO.EC05
Hardware Ver: D700.0.5

JavaJones

  • Review 2.0 Designer
  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 2,739
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #15 on: May 11, 2011, 05:53 PM »
Précis! EC05. It looks like she's on an Epic too. Is it called Elite where you are or something?

- Oshyan

Carol Haynes

  • Waffles for England (patent pending)
  • Global Moderator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 8,066
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #16 on: May 11, 2011, 06:05 PM »
Interesting question - when I was in Canada recently I received texts from a friend in Toronto but couldn't return them. We had identical Blackberry 9700 Bold phones - SMS just wouldn't work on mine they got bounced back. The only difference - mine was on a UK carrier (via Rogers) and he was on Rogers as a customer. You would have thought that since we were both connecting via Rogers it wouldn't be a problem but obviously my text winging back and forth across the big pond got tired and just cam home to complain!

The other odd thing was that standing side by side at the top of the CN Tower his phone was on 3G but mine could only get EDGE. I called Rogers and my UK teco - both said I should get 3G and neither could work out why I couldn't. I get 3G in the UK in appropriate locations.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2011, 06:07 PM by Carol Haynes »

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2011, 07:39 PM »
Précis! EC05. It looks like she's on an Epic too. Is it called Elite where you are or something?

- Oshyan

Oops, sorry (I'm an idiot) It is a Epic.

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #18 on: May 12, 2011, 07:32 AM »
Interesting question - when I was in Canada recently I received texts from a friend in Toronto but couldn't return them. We had identical Blackberry 9700 Bold phones - SMS just wouldn't work on mine they got bounced back. The only difference - mine was on a UK carrier (via Rogers) and he was on Rogers as a customer. You would have thought that since we were both connecting via Rogers it wouldn't be a problem but obviously my text winging back and forth across the big pond got tired and just cam home to complain!

The other odd thing was that standing side by side at the top of the CN Tower his phone was on 3G but mine could only get EDGE. I called Rogers and my UK teco - both said I should get 3G and neither could work out why I couldn't. I get 3G in the UK in appropriate locations.
-Carol Haynes (May 11, 2011, 06:05 PM)

Hm... this reminds me of something the production manager ran into awhile back.

He lived right down the street from a cell tower...but got lousy reception at his house. He switched carriers several times most of which claimed to have access to said tower, but...) to no avail. On the last switch he told the sales drone flat out; if this think ain't got solid signal at my house, I'll come back here and throw it at you. It didn't. However...

Being inspired by the eminent risk of personal injury ... The sales drone decided to call the branch of tech support that didn't have or need flow charts. They did an update on the phone that changed how the phone logged/listed/analyzed/interacted with the towers (I forget the details). It seems apparently, as these clowns buy and sell each-other every 5 minutes...That the phones don't (or can't) actually keep up with what is or is not their network. So they occasionally need to be given an updated list of what's who's where and why. *Shrug* I always assumed that they polled actively for that kind of stuff. But apparently the list of stuff they have to actively poll for changes.

Anyhow after the update, the PM's phone accepted the tower's existence and he hasn't had a dropped call there since. So if you were traveling at the time, maybe your phone just didn't have the updated info for that tower.

Carol Haynes

  • Waffles for England (patent pending)
  • Global Moderator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 8,066
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #19 on: May 12, 2011, 12:26 PM »
Can't see why a UK Phone would have any info for Canadian towers (or any other country for that matter). Surely it just looks at what is there? When I visited Niagara it jumped on to Bell and my carrier doesn't even have an arrangement with Bell!

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Droid Texting - Fail!
« Reply #20 on: May 12, 2011, 05:42 PM »
Can't see why a UK Phone would have any info for Canadian towers (or any other country for that matter). Surely it just looks at what is there? When I visited Niagara it jumped on to Bell and my carrier doesn't even have an arrangement with Bell!
-Carol Haynes (May 12, 2011, 12:26 PM)

Me either, but before the update the PM's phone completely ignored the tower's existence, after the update it was wide open running. *Shrug* So it just one of those things I mentally file away to try and verify later.