On 1.83, a Contact will show as many phone numbers as I entered for it.
But on 2.3.4, if one of the numbers is non-standard, like "*82-1-800-555-1212" (entered without the hyphens, of course), it doesn't show up under that contact. It still stores it, but I can't use it, can't dial with it, etc...
Is there any way around this bug?
Edit: It shows up okay, if it's the *only* number for that Contact. But if there's another one (formatted normally), the non standard one doesn't show.
Can anyone duplicate this issue?
Here's how you can test it...
Try making a contact like this (obviously, don't enter the hyphens):
Phone1: 1-800-555-1212
Phone2: *82-1-800-555-1212
Now, try and look at that contact. You'll see the number in standard format, but not the other.
And for what it's worth, my contacts are created as part of the Google group, not the Motorola.
I can confirm that a phone number like your second example isn't displayed in the list of numbers for the contact, though it's still present if you select Edit.
Hmm...
OP, are you using a custom ROM or stock? I'm using piCRUST v0.6 and under Contacts > Display Options > Choose contacts to display > Google, I have three checkboxes, and one of them is not labeled. Also, when I first checked this area, none of these checkboxes were checked, but all my contacts were still being displayed - except for the test contact I created to investigate the bug you reported.
Thank you for confirming that I'm not the only one seeing this!
To answer your question, it's a Fruitcake build.
And while this is definitely a bug that did not exist in 1.83, I just saw a Motorola rep point out that there is an acceptably easy workaround, which is to add a pause (comma) between the star code and the phone number (e.g. *82,1-800-555-1212)
I can confirm that that works. Whew!
Thanks again for confirming this for me.
Anyway, back to your question... try inserting a Pause or Wait after the initial (carrier and country code) digits in your second example. This will make the number appear in the list of numbers for the contact.
Haphim said:
I just saw a Motorola rep point out that there is an acceptably easy workaround, which is to add a pause (comma) between the star code and the phone number (e.g. *82,1-800-555-1212)
I can confirm that that works. Whew!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you beat me to it.
Here's another oddity with Contacts - actually, definitely a bug: numbers that include * or # (e.g. USSD numbers for getting billing info, etc.) will have those characters stripped out when you do an Import from a previously Exported .vcf file. This bug is present in both Froyo and Gingerbread (stock) and has nothing to do with custom ROMs.
AndyPhreak said:
Here's another oddity with Contacts - actually, definitely a bug: numbers that include * or # (e.g. USSD numbers for getting billing info, etc.) will have those characters stripped out when you do an Import from a previously Exported .vcf file. This bug is present in both Froyo and Gingerbread (stock) and has nothing to do with custom ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fortunately, I don't need to work with vcf's - but that's really good to know. Thanks!
Here's a problem - adding the comma as a pause lets the number show up - but the phone won't dial it properly. It simply stops at the comma, so if we are dialing *82,1-800-555-1212, the phone will only dial *82.
I've seen numerous questions regarding problems merging sms messsages after being restored from databases, applications, social networks or ported from different operating systems, etc all of which seem to relate to compatibility issues. My issue is, on the face of it, much more simple but I have yet to find a solution.
One of my contacts recently changed telephone numbers resulting in subsequent texts being listed in a different thread. After adding the new number to the existing contact I now have two sms threads under the same person's name. I'd like to merge these and delete the old number but I can't find a way to do that. This means that if I want to keep a name for the old sms thread then I have to keep the old number in my contacts. Seems a bit daft to me.
I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy GT-I9000 with 2.34 firmware but unless I'm missing something WM, iPhone, etc have the same issue. Does anyone know if merging texts in the way I've mentioned can be done?
I don't know if apps like GO SMS and Handcent address this problem but even if they did its like taking a sledgehammer to a minor inconvenience.
Thanks
I'm having exactly the same problem for more than a year now. I really hope someone will come up with a solution for this! Thanks
I have been also trying for a solution but nothing
(Hope I'm not resurrecting a too old thread...)
I successfully merged SMS threads by creating a backup using SMS Backup & Restore.
Just open the created .xml file in e.g. Notepad++, then replace your contact's old number in the "address" field with the new one. Now load the altered backup file back onto your phone, delete your messages from within the app, and restore your newly created backup file.
Although it worked fine for me on the first try, I recommend keeping your initial backup file, and save your editing to a copy - just in case.
Using this method, I also fixed some splitted threads, where one contact with one number got split up in several threads, because of an incorrect number restore from backups when switching phones.
Hope this helps.
Thanks to pucksen for resurrecting this old thread. I got here by google.
My problem was a bit different - I had multiple conversation threads from the same number from the same contact (in both stock SMS app and Go SMS Pro). It started after using Pure Messenger, and only affected my two contacts with iphones. It seemed random which messages ended up where.
Looking in the XML backup file from SMS Backup & Restore, I noticed why I was having this problem, the address field sometimes had random space characters appended to the end of the numbers! For example:
address="4165555555"
address="4165555555 "
Removed the spaces after the affected messages and voila, all is well.
No idea how or why this happened, or if im going to have to export/fix/reimport my messages often to keep my conversations readable... but at least there's a way to fix it.
Now if only I knew how to write an app that could automate this for me...
epexegenesis said:
Thanks to pucksen for resurrecting this old thread. I got here by google.
My problem was a bit different - I had multiple conversation threads from the same number from the same contact (in both stock SMS app and Go SMS Pro). It started after using Pure Messenger, and only affected my two contacts with iphones. It seemed random which messages ended up where.
Looking in the XML backup file from SMS Backup & Restore, I noticed why I was having this problem, the address field sometimes had random space characters appended to the end of the numbers! For example:
address="4165555555"
address="4165555555 "
Removed the spaces after the affected messages and voila, all is well.
No idea how or why this happened, or if im going to have to export/fix/reimport my messages often to keep my conversations readable... but at least there's a way to fix it.
Now if only I knew how to write an app that could automate this for me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thread re-resurrected! Not sure if you've solved this, but I imagine the process could be expedited by using the Find/Replace feature in Notepad++ (or practically anything else) by searching for " with a space in front of it and replacing it with " with no space.
As for the thread's OP, I agree that Android needs to have this functionality built-in. Especially considering how many users have alternate Google Voice numbers.
This is the one thing that WebOS actually got right. Never believed I'd ever actually miss something from that terrible phone.
Thanks patthew, that makes it a bit quicker - it is still a pain though. And unfortunately the problem also has gotten bigger....now I've got this:
address="4165555555"
address="+14165555555"
So up to 4 threads with each contact.
This is ridiculous.
I also can't believe how many people there are with the same problem and no fix. From page 1 google search:
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1262261
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1397030
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1192736
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1124902
http://android.stackexchange.com/qu...-creates-multiple-threads-for-the-same-number
http://www.droidxforums.com/forum/d...t-creating-multiple-threads-same-contact.html
hello all,
I am also having this problem, i confirm that not even with handcent sms it doesn't work if a contact has several numbers it opens a new thread by phone number.
the manual edition of the xml file seems the only workaround is the edition of the backup file which is of course prone to error.
anyway thanks for the tips i hadn't thought of editing the sms backup and restore xml.
kind regards
Mario
Before doing this BACK UP YOUR SMS/MMS!!! If you screw something up and lose everything don't come crying to me, back your crap up!
Now, here is how I did it. This merged 2 different phone numbers/threads into 1 SMS thread and moved all MMS (Pictures/Media) as well.
In my XML file I found these 4 formats for the number I was changing, why the numbers are all different formats I have no idea. Make sure you don't have even more.
(555) 444-7777
5554447777
+15554447777
+1 555-444-7777
And here is a small sample from the XML file with the numbers changed to the 555 crap or X'd out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<threads count="7" xmlns="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX">
<thread address="+15554447777">
<sms msgBox="inbox" date="2012-07-30T21:40:43.522Z" locked="false" seen="true" read="true" serviceCenter="+1XXXXXXXXXX" address="+15554447777" encoding="plain">Hello World!</sms>
<sms msgBox="inbox" date="2012-07-30T21:41:13.522Z" locked="false" seen="true" read="true" serviceCenter="+1XXXXXXXXXX" address="+15554447777" encoding="plain">Hello World AGAIN!</sms>
<mms msgBox="sent" version="1.2" type="sendReq" contentType="application/vnd.wap.multipart.related" date="2012-09-08T02:30:19.000Z" locked="false" seen="true" read="true" subject="">
<addresses>
<address type="from">insert-address-token</address>
<address type="to">5554447777</address>
</addresses>
<part contentType="application/smil" contentId="<smil>" contentLocation="smil.xml" encoding="plain"><smil><head><layout><root-layout width="1230px" height="720px"/><region id="Image" left="0" top="0" width="1230px" height="648px" fit="meet"/></layout></head><body><par dur="5000ms"><img src="IMG_20120907_212958.jpg" region="Image"/></par></body></smil></part>
<part contentType="image/jpeg" order="0" contentId="<IMG_20120907_212958>" contentLocation="IMG_20120907_212958.jpg" encoding="base64">/9j/4ABAAD/2wBDAAIBAQEBAQIBAQECAgICAgQDAgICAgUEBAMEB</part>
</mms>
</thread>
</threads>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First off, I used Titanium Backup Pro to dump SMS/MMS to XML (It's under Options/Backup data to XML) I have no idea if the standard Titanium Backup has this or not.
Titanium Backup Pro stores the messages with all SMS first, then all MMS after for that thread. What I did was a search/replace for all 4 different number formats listed above to the new phone number, then I cut/pasted all of the SMS from the new number thread the old number thread right under the last SMS message in that thread, then I cut/pasted the MMS from the new number thread to the old number thread at the end of the MMS section. In short, I moved the SMS and MMS from one thread to the other to their corresponding areas. I moved the "new" number to the old number thread because there were only a handful of messages in the new thread so I went that route. And because I did it this way, all the messages were in order by date.
After I had emptied out the thread (nothing between <thread address="XXXXXXXXXX"> and </thread>) I deleted the thread.
Then I updated the threads count to "6" because I was merging 2 threads and of course taking one thread away from the 7 threads = 6, saved it, and then restored it using Titanium Backup and BAM, 2 threads were now 1 with all of my texts and pictures intact.
Now, I have no idea if the cut/pasting is necessary or if Titanium and Android can magically figure out the two threads belong together after changing all the numbers but I didn't feel like messing with it. I just made it a nice neat XML file like I figured it should be and went with that.
For the XML editor I used XMLSpy 30 day trial (it's expensive to buy but I figured I would only be doing this once so what the heck, trial it is) but I'm sure anything that edits XML properly
would do just fine.
Initially I tried merging the two threads using Sqlite3 update commands on mmssms.db and succeeded in merging the 2 SMS threads but found that MMS didn't follow and decided that I'd rather mess with XML. Eh...
Also, if for some reason (like me) you can't see the XML backup file in Windows I wound up just using adb to pull/push the file from/to the phone.
Anyway, hope this helps those of you trying to do this. Good luck!
Good method but UNconceivably hard to perform on 9000 text messages, when more than 2 or 3 are seperated into multiple threads
But i did it (at least for the contacts i sms the most)
It cannot be that difficult for an average IT student to write a simple script to do what android should be doing on its own.
Anyway.
Just try and find the contacts whose conversations have been split. Note them down and open the xml from sms backup and restore through Notepad++ or a simple kate (if you are in a linux environment)
Search for your contact using some of the characters of its name. For example if the conversations of Smith John have been split, then try first to look for smith (disable case matching)
When you find the line that corresponds to the first message of Smith, copy every single character in address.
ie
Code:
address='"SMITH JOHN" <693123458>'
Here you HAVE to copy everything after the = until the gt;'
DO NOT include the =, nor any character after the last ' , NOT EVEN the space that comes right after.
Paste
Code:
'"SMITH JOHN" <693123458>'
in the find and replace dialogue.
For the replace part, include only the phone number between ""
Code:
Replace with
"693123458"
Replace all.
Now try again searching for smith. Sometimes we change little things in our contacts and over time conversations split for that reason. You might find that you once upon a time you had saved the contact as Smith Johny. So search again. Then search using the phone number if your phone has the bad habit of spliting up the numbers like
123-1234-123 or something
Try looking for -123 or space123
Replace everything with the phone number alone surrounded by "".
This way when your contacts are in place there will be only one thread for each contact.
SO many hours of sleep lost
epexegenesis said:
Thanks to pucksen for resurrecting this old thread. I got here by google.
My problem was a bit different - I had multiple conversation threads from the same number from the same contact (in both stock SMS app and Go SMS Pro). It started after using Pure Messenger, and only affected my two contacts with iphones. It seemed random which messages ended up where.
Looking in the XML backup file from SMS Backup & Restore, I noticed why I was having this problem, the address field sometimes had random space characters appended to the end of the numbers! For example:
address="4165555555"
address="4165555555 "
Removed the spaces after the affected messages and voila, all is well.
No idea how or why this happened, or if im going to have to export/fix/reimport my messages often to keep my conversations readable... but at least there's a way to fix it.
Now if only I knew how to write an app that could automate this for me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Learn how to code & do that in a handful of lines of code
Indirect Solution but this might come handy for most people in this thread
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=angel.twitch&hl=en
Another workaround
Another workaround would of using hangouts version 10 as an SMS app.
Thread re-resurrected, again. lol
Anyway, Galaxy S21U, Android 11, stock messenger. Added their old number to their contact, but all it did was name both threads after them, not merge them.
When I run SMS Backup & Restore, it doesn't seem to get ALL of the messages from the new number's thread. It did seem to get all of them from the prior thread though. SEEM being I'm not entirely sure whether it retrieved all of both theirs and my messages, without further investigation.
If it did not retrieve ALL of the messages, how would I go about making it do so? Settings, a different app/method?
Using Notepad++ was a breeze to find/replace all of the old numbers to the new one though.
If I were to restore my edited backup, without deleting any of the messages that are currently there, what happens?
Does it overwrite what's currently there, deleting the current set of messages, or does it just add back all of the messages to the specified thread, resulting in double messages that would need to be deleted?
Thanks for any help with this. Didn't anticipate this issue. Didn't think this person was going to change their number, or how seemingly difficult this problem actually is.
I am developing an app that sends a text to a group of people (my fellow firefighters) when we get a call. I have everything working but I have to hard code the phone numbers in.
What I want to do is to be able to hit menu and then 'select contacts' or whatever. In the new screen, I just want a simple contact selection with a checkbox so I can select/deselect people and the rest of the program runs with that list so I don't have to hard code the phone number, export, move apk to my phone, install, etc. every time I have to change something.
I have googled for about 3 days using many various terms and can only find guides to a single contact selection. None of them allow you to select multiple contacts.
Does anyone know a way to make this happen? I am pretty new to java so I don't know much about it.
Eclipse with the android base 2.2 (SDK v. 8)
Any help is appreciated.
Any help please? I am quickly coming up to this part of my project and it's the last thing I need to do.
[Q] Old SMS "simbackup.dsb" from early android, need to read them, no idea which app!
Long ago (2008 ish) I got my first android, a T-Mobile/Google/HTC G1 "Dream", I think. It had a sim backup function, or maybe an app I downloaded that did SIM backups, can't remember which. It may have been an integrated function within Android, from memory, accessed via import/export. But that's a very vague memory, quite possibly wrong.
I just now found some old contacts weren't ever moved to my current phone. I'm pretty sure the phone numbers were originally from messages I received at that time, so the sim backup files I have from those days (10 of them dated 2008 - 2009) should contain either the contact details, or SIM messages originally containing the phone numbers.
But does anyone have an idea what app might have created these, or what app might be able to read them? I have no idea the format used, it seems to be not plain text but I can't tell anything else.
A quick google search suggests "Sim Manager" but apparently that was on Windows Mobile only, and I've only ever had Android.
Hello everyone, and sorry for my bad English. I apologize if I repeat the same request that I posted last night in the thread related to the rom in question, but probably this section is the most appropriate.
First of all a thank you to Deepflex for its immense work, which allowed us to use the latest versions of android on our smartphones. For work reasons I have always preferred stock versions, usually more stable than custom ones, but lately I decided to try this LineageOS.
I noticed some gaps, rather than real bugs, and I could not find solutions looking for them in the forums. So I thought to ask you directly if you can advise me how to meet my needs:
- First of all, compared to previous versions I used so far, in the management of storage space there is no option to tell Android to use the microSD as the default mass storage. Is there an app that can activate the same option (or at least allow me to change the default destination path for downloads, documents, phone records, email attachments, etc)?!?
- Among the applications installed by default there is no "Backup & Restore" for telephone contacts, and the contact manager of LineageOS has limits in the export of contacts (maximum 1000 contacts, and only save on file or import from files without possibility of pass them from one account to another).
- If the screen lock with PIN is activated in the security section, when the screen is in power saving and a notification is received, pressing the power button directly displays the keypad for entering the PIN instead of showing the status bar with notifications received and not yet read: to be able to see them, it is therefore mandatory to unlock the screen by entering the PIN each time.
Thanks to everyone right now for the tips you can give me.