Phone Number format

[spoonet]

I know this is not important...but this is the general forum...so I think here is the best place. Sorry if it is off-topic but anyone know how to get rid of the ( ) in the dialing number format?
iPhone uses x(xxx)xxx-xx but I want only xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[wunderbaren]

Yes this is very interesting..

[iMichael]

I also concern about that, waiting for the solution

[chinaet]

modify
/System/Library/Framework/AddressBookUI.framework/ABPhoneFormats.plist

in <key>us</key> section,modify it

[Wez]

Thats giving me a load of Code rubbish nothing i can edit. Anyone made one without the brackets they can upload for us?

Cheers!

[chinaet]

u must convert plist to readable format using this website http://140.124.181.188/~khchung/cgi-bin/plutil.cgi before u edit it.

[Wez]

Nice one cheers ill check it out...

[Wez]

Done! Thanks Chinaet...

[Tabula]

@ chinaet
You've written modify "us".. But in what? Does it know all countries? "de" for example for germany? Or what do you mean?

[FinalCut62]

Good tips - works! The plist shows a lot of local notation forms. Wonder where the locality is defined however, because I had to change the US locality format to change it.

And by the way: included in the Mac OS is a plutil that does the conversion from binary to xml and vice versa

[nanni85]

nice! works fine thanks

[spoonet]

Thanks chinaet!
Worked like a charm.

[chinaet]

@ chinaet
You've written modify "us".. But in what? Does it know all countries? "de" for example for germany? Or what do you mean?

only us section work,maybe a bug in apple software

[balibalopro]

i copy french setting and past in us setting i reboot the iphone the format is ok but the probleme i enter all my phone number in international mode with +33 for fr and when i receive a call the id of caller is recognize
someone can help me

[jacoch]

i copy french setting and past in us setting i reboot the iphone the format is ok but the probleme i enter all my phone number in international mode with +33 for fr and when i receive a call the id of caller is recognize
someone can help me

I suppose it's because this trick just change the way the iphone display US numbers. The best would be to change the iphone regional settings and international prefix, so that local phone numbers are correctly interpreted by the iphone. If someone knows where this settings is located, it would be great.

[iMags]

modify
/System/Library/Framework/AddressBookUI.framework/ABPhoneFormats.plist

in <key>us</key> section,modify it

I'm in Norway. Should I use <key>no</key> instead?
nm :)

[pendalf]

i thingh here must be an easier way to mod. the format.
we need to find the file which define all the countrys...

so may be we can activate a switsh, like us on of no on off...

[balibalopro]

copy no setting in place of us setting and let us but replace the other setting reboot after the format is correct

[jkenzo]

i found an interesting article :http://www.wireless4bmw.com/info/CingularATT_iphone.pdf

scroll down..

[davidfischer]

ive changed the format from us to xxxxxxx however since all my contact numbers are stored in an internation +xxxxxxxx format when i receive a call from a local number xxxxxxxxxx without the + then caller id does not attach this to a contact name... any way to fix this???

[pendalf]

i found an interesting article :http://www.wireless4bmw.com/info/CingularATT_iphone.pdf

scroll down..

thats it
international:
011 then the country code!
like: 011 49 germany...

works

[jkenzo]

pendalf, does it work for you? it still wont work for me :(

[sandmonster]

applescript to change the numberformats in adressbook:
http://www.andare.ch/data/Vorwahl_aendern.scpt.zip

[chinaet]

find u country section like <key>cn</key> ,copy all strings in this section ,then replace string in <key>us</key> section , reboot,

[jkenzo]

I have done this a few times!! but with no luck because I have this format:

+41 ## #######

if I use this ### ####### it works.. but I like to use international number format.. please help me out :)

[agmiller]

This is one of the last hurdles to make a lot of people happy.

Many people travel and must have +country code in the phone book numbers, it is not practical otherwise.
Of course even if we use the alternate dial plan strings as shown in this thread and place them in the US section, caller ID it will not work for local incoming calls since local incoming calls wont have the local +country code in front of them and as such they wont match to the phone book entry.
You just see the incoming number and not who owns that number.

This is an important issue to solve and someone needs to start exploring and above all supplying suitable replacement files since the website used to convert to XML is down much of the time and as such we can not rely on it.

[linc]

I'm having much the same problem - if i store contacts as +61 xxx incoming SMS is recognised properly, however calls (which caller ID doesnt prefix) don't. However, if I store them without the international prefix, incoming calls are recognised fine, but not the incoming SMS notification (which have +61). Funnily enough though, once I go into the SMS app itself it is smart enough to figure it out - just not on the notification screen. Anyone have any magic ideas?

[pendalf]

pendalf, does it work for you? it still wont work for me :(

yes it works:
you have to change the format under us...

but i thing here could be a beter solution
didn´t find it yet :(

[pendalf]

@jkenzo:
what he´s saing works for me...

find u country section like <key>cn</key> ,copy all strings in this section ,then replace string in <key>us</key> section , reboot,

ps.: grützi in die schweiz
:)

[nutdhanai]

I'm having much the same problem - if i store contacts as +61 xxx incoming SMS is recognised properly, however calls (which caller ID doesnt prefix) don't. However, if I store them without the international prefix, incoming calls are recognised fine, but not the incoming SMS notification (which have +61). Funnily enough though, once I go into the SMS app itself it is smart enough to figure it out - just not on the notification screen. Anyone have any magic ideas?

BUMP!

Please can someone with the know how help us out..

Im having the exact problem as above and its really annoying not knowing whos calling

thanks in advance
NR

[jkenzo]

@pendalf

I have tried a lot of things out, finally i changed all numbers with this automation tool posted here! thx again

@nutdhanai

just make backup of your contacts, then change all numbers with the tool here! and till somebody worked it out you dont have to be anoied :)

[nutdhanai]

BUMP!

sorry but this is such an important feature (for me hehehe.. and a lot of other i guess) im probably gonna bump this everyday until someone comes up with the magic

[BiOsS]

guys look for this file /var/root/library/preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist

u shld c somthing like this :

<key>AppleLanguages</key>
<array>
<string>en</string>
<string>ja</string>
<string>fr</string>
<string>de</string>
<string>es</string>
<string>it</string>
<string>no</string>
<string>pl</string>
<string>ru</string>
<string>sv</string>
<string>da</string>
<string>fi</string>
<string>pt</string>
<string>pt_PO</string>
<string>zh_CN</string>
<string>zh_TW</string>
<string>ko</string>
</array>
<key>AppleLocale</key>
<string>en_US</string>

i changed "en_US" to "fr" just for the sake of trying it restart and the "slide to unlock" date changed to the corr. lang
also calendar language changed im not sure if it changed the # formatting

the only thing is i couldn't change it back to "en_US" for some reason but i had to restore my phone any ways ... so TAYOR

[jacoch]

I have also played with some pref files. Unfortunately, I can't find were the iPhone store the information on how it should change a local phone number to an international one.

I also noticed two problems with the current state (sorry if it was already posted, I have not read everything). In Switzerland, local number are like 0xx xxx xx xx. The international format for the same number is +41 xx xxx xx xx. So the first 0 of the local number is dropped. But the iphone doesn't drop the first number. When a call comes in, it receives the local number (ie 079 123 45 67). To change it to international format, it just add +1 at the beginning. So if I store the number as +1 079 123 45 67 in my contact, it finds it.

So currently, they are 2 settings to change on the iphone. We must be able to tell it that the local phone number should be prefixed with +41 (in my case) and that the leading 0 of the local phone number should be removed.

Hope we could find something.

[sado]

first sorry for my english and coming mistakes
if you use iphone in usa and somebody calls you but he/she is not under your contacts you see the us phone nummer and which city and state on your iphone display
if somebody can fix it for other countries it will be mega super
thanks

[RVN84]

guys, related problem, my iphone refuses to find the contact's names from the address book...

here in brazil, due to stupid legislation, we need to dial in the following format:

xxxx-xxxx (local numbers 8 digits)
0-YY-DD-XXXX-XXXX (long distance, the YY is the "carrier" you wanna use which needs to be chosen per call, and the DD is the city code, and Xs are the 8 digit phone numbers)

is there anyway for the iphone to recognize this?? I usually store all my phone numbers with the carrier in them (so something 041-11-3333-3333 as opposed to 3333-3333), and when i'm roaming i dont need to do anything else, but when i recieve the call, it shows 3333-3333 but the iphone isnt smart enough to match that... has anyone found a workaround for the iphone to match from the right, for example (just like 99% of phones)?

[jacoch]

guys, related problem, my iphone refuses to find the contact's names from the address book...

here in brazil, due to stupid legislation, we need to dial in the following format:

xxxx-xxxx (local numbers 8 digits)
0-YY-DD-XXXX-XXXX (long distance, the YY is the "carrier" you wanna use which needs to be chosen per call, and the DD is the city code, and Xs are the 8 digit phone numbers)

is there anyway for the iphone to recognize this?? I usually store all my phone numbers with the carrier in them (so something 041-11-3333-3333 as opposed to 3333-3333), and when i'm roaming i dont need to do anything else, but when i recieve the call, it shows 3333-3333 but the iphone isnt smart enough to match that... has anyone found a workaround for the iphone to match from the right, for example (just like 99% of phones)?

IMO, the problem is not the iPhone. It's the hack. The iPhone, with turbo sim or silver hacks, still think he's "talking" to an ATT sim. It gets IMSI and ICCID corresponding to the ATT card. And the ATT card tells the iPhone that it's an US card. So the iphone use the US prefix. Logical. So unless we find in the iphone how to change the rules for US numbers, I'm afraid there's no chance to get this fixed.

[Cy-]

Oh thank you very much for this solution.

[RVN84]

IMO, the problem is not the iPhone. It's the hack. The iPhone, with turbo sim or silver hacks, still think he's "talking" to an ATT sim. It gets IMSI and ICCID corresponding to the ATT card. And the ATT card tells the iPhone that it's an US card. So the iphone use the US prefix. Logical. So unless we find in the iphone how to change the rules for US numbers, I'm afraid there's no chance to get this fixed.

What you say does make lots of sense... I would have thought that maybe the phone number format plist would be used... does anyone really know the format of that? I guess # matches a digit, 0-9 match themselves as does -().... and $ matches multiple numbers? and it will try to fit in in order of the strings, top to bottom... I wonder if there is anything else we can put there...

there is a file ABInternationalCodes that lists all country codes and all US area codes. I wonder if that will help.... I'm going try changing that a bit.....

[jacoch]

What you say does make lots of sense... I would have thought that maybe the phone number format plist would be used... does anyone really know the format of that? I guess # matches a digit, 0-9 match themselves as does -().... and $ matches multiple numbers? and it will try to fit in in order of the strings, top to bottom... I wonder if there is anything else we can put there...

there is a file ABInternationalCodes that lists all country codes and all US area codes. I wonder if that will help.... I'm going try changing that a bit.....

I also tried playing with these files. No luck at the moment. Will be interesting to see how the iphone acts with a true unlock.

[RVN84]

yeah, no luck so far... i tried everything, changed internationalcodes, changed mobile codes so that it would see 310 as BR instead of us, but it seems like it isnt using that particular plist for that....

its weird...

I guess i'll have to edit my numbers in outlook and re-synch...

[jacoch]

It seems that the sim is finally not the reason. I have now an unlocked phone running with my Orange swiss card. And the iphone still add the US prefix to incoming calls. There should be a param somewhere. I can't believe Apple hardcoded this.

[veeve]

I tried to modify the format in <key>us</key> and it works like a charm.
I lived in Hong Kong, so my format is vary from other country.

Original us format;
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>(###) ###-####</string>
<string>###-####</string>
<string>011 $</string>

Modified HK format
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+852 ##########</string>
<string>852 ##########</string>
<string>##########</string>
<string>########</string>
<string>001 $</string>

Everything seems to work, I can have correct call display now.

[Tabula]

I tried to modify the format in <key>us</key> and it works like a charm.
I lived in Hong Kong, so my format is vary from other country.

Original us format;
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>(###) ###-####</string>
<string>###-####</string>
<string>011 $</string>

Modified HK format
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+852 ##########</string>
<string>852 ##########</string>
<string>##########</string>
<string>########</string>
<string>001 $</string>

Everything seems to work, I can have correct call display now.

Great Work!

Two Questions: on the original there is <string>011 $</string>, on your version <string>001 $</string>. For what is this string?
+82 is ne international dial for your country?

[jyavenard]

011 is the prefix for dialling internationally in the US

[Tabula]

011 is the prefix for dialling internationally in the US

hm, ok. Problem is, Germany don't have something like that.. Just dial the country prefix and number.. Should germans leave it blank?

[jyavenard]

Don't you dial 00 in Germany before the country code?

[jyavenard]

Hi

The more I've played with this plist, the more I am convinced that it has nothing to do with phone number pattern matching for incoming or outgoing calls and caller ID.

It only ever match properly with US numbers (like it will match +1 1234567890 and 234567890) but that is it.

It will not match: 001 1 1234567890 even though it would get to the same number.

This seems to be only used for formatting the phone number in the Phone keypad properly.


Jean-Yves

[jacoch]

Hi

The more I've played with this plist, the more I am convinced that it has nothing to do with phone number pattern matching for incoming or outgoing calls and caller ID.

It only ever match properly with US numbers (like it will match +1 1234567890 and 234567890) but that is it.

It will not match: 001 1 1234567890 even though it would get to the same number.

This seems to be only used for formatting the phone number in the Phone keypad properly.


Jean-Yves

I have the same feeling. By changing this plist, you will have your phone number formatted correctly. But it won't change anything in finding the corresponding contact. Currently, the only solution is to change all contacts to local phone numbers. Not a big problem with some scripting in Outlook. But not a good solution for people travelling.

[peloche]

Hi all,

Before Turbosimming my iPhone I saw within Settings -Phone an option 'International Assist to add the correct prefix to U.S. numbers, and after Turbosimmed this option has disappeared from Settings - Phone , but it is still onto the iPhone User Guide page 42


"Set iPhone to add the correct prefix to U.S. numbers when dialing from abroad
m From the Home screen choose Settings > Phone, then turn International Assist on or
off. By default, International Assist is on."

So imho something happened with the Turbo Sim patch,

Peloche,

[jacoch]

It may also mean that the iPhone detects a non US sim card. So a setting to add US prefix to contact numbers is not useful anymore.

[peloche]

It may also mean that the iPhone detects a non US sim card. So a setting to add US prefix to contact numbers is not useful anymore.

Hi,

Not exactly, this option is done for when you are out of the US, it disappeared from the menu but it remains "on" and this is the problem, better was to desactivate it before adding the Menu "SIM Applications", perhaps the number of items within the menu "Phone" is limited ?

Peloche

[ghostzip]

turning that option on or off (international assistance) doesn't do anything in the matter of detecting the correct number in the phonebook.

the .plist has anything to do with the finding the numbers in the address book. you can verify this by deleting all the nodes in the plist. the numbers in the address book don't have any visual formating (neither in the keypad), but if you save a number with +1 and type only the number (without the +1) in the keypad, it finds that number correctly.

so it has to be in other place...

someone said that they have an unlocked phone and that didn't do anything, so the iphone doesn't care about your number international code...

someone in irc was talking about the locale.. maybe changing the locale would change that setting, but no go either. i have my locale set to my country and it's the same effect.

[jacoch]

The more we talk about this, the more I'm sure it's a bug (or lake of feature). A lot of people have tried to get something. But in all cases, iPhone add the US prefix to incoming calls. And in all previous phones I had, I never had to set something for the phone to know my international prefix. The phone probably gets this information from the sim. The iPhone seems to be unable to do the same.

[ghostzip]

i think they tried to be smart, alltough the better practice for this is to be pratical. the most rapid way of matching the phone numbers would be to search for a substring in the ending number.
My nokia 8310 does that in that way...
for example, i add a contact with the number +5854684 555555555 (note the last nine 5). If i dial 555555555 the phone finds that address book. that means the phone just looks for the last numbers in the entire phonebook and if one matches that's the address book entry displayed.
in iPhone, i think apple wanted to do this the smart way... so it only looks for +1 XXXXXX and not a substring of the entire address book number.....

[jacoch]

The old nokia was just using a solution that won't take ages to get a result. But the iPhone has all contacts in a SQLlite db and is driven by a 620MHz processor. So I think it should be able to search correctly for a contact. But the iphone does two errors. First, it always add the US prefix. Then, it doesn't take local formating into consideration. In Switzerland, local phone are store as 0xx xxx xx xx. To get the international format, the first 0 has to be removed and the swiss prefix added (I think it's the same in France). So the international version is not +41 0xx xxx xx xx, but +41 xx xxx xx xx. And all my previous phones were able to do this automatically. Never had to set a parameters, even with some home cooked HTC roms.

[nasatech]

Well.... looks like it's coded for US only. In the TelephonyUI file ther's references to both 011 (out of USA) and +1. Tried to HEX edit it but it did not help :-(

[jacoch]

Great. Hardcoded in the app. It seams Apple will have some work before reaching european market (and I don't talk about keyboard, mms and 3g) :-)

[themagicman00]

is there a way to change plist files using windows?
thanks

[nofearl]

http://140.124.181.188/~khchung/cgi-bin/plutil.cgi

[staticfish]

It seems that if you use Geohot's hardware unlocking method, the full international number appears when someone calls.

Check out this photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchiphone/1243649437/in/set-72157601654424606/

[jacoch]

It seems that if you use Geohot's hardware unlocking method, the full international number appears when someone calls.

Check out this photo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchiphone/1243649437/in/set-72157601654424606/

Not really. I did it and still get the local phone number. That's why I asked in that thread (the one you mention) if the calling number format received by the phone could depend on operator choices.

[staticfish]

Not really. I did it and still get the local phone number. That's why I asked in that thread (the one you mention) if the calling number format received by the phone could depend on operator choices.

Oh I see what you mean now. My apologies.

Anyway whether it relies on the operators choice or not is slightly irrelevant. All phones I have ever used are able to truncate the international section intelligently through software or some other means.

[jacoch]

Oh I see what you mean now. My apologies.

Anyway whether it relies on the operators choice or not is slightly irrelevant. All phones I have ever used are able to truncate the international section intelligently through software or some other means.

Sure. Mine too. That's the first unable to do that. But it was just to know. Why does this user have incoming call displayed with international format when it's in local format on mine. And I tried 3 different operators here in Switzerland.

[Raxin]

http://140.124.181.188/~khchung/cgi-bin/plutil.cgi

I had to apologize i ask this question , i have tried a lot method to convert the".plist" to a Ascii/Text file (even you guys provide upon , i use WinXP) , but it still not work !! :confused: i press the "Browse" buttom to choose the oringinal ".plist" file and press convert. it shows a lot of mess , but no file comes out and no words i can read. Can anybody help ... it mess me up serveral days ... :eek:

[StefanM]

What Do I have to do that my iPhone recognizes Caller ID when all my Phone nUmbers in my contacts are in this format : +49 172847577 for example?!

I don´t want to edit all my contacts, so there must be a solution.
Do i have to edit the pslist?

How do I have to edit it?

[spoonet]

What Do I have to do that my iPhone recognizes Caller ID when all my Phone nUmbers in my contacts are in this format : +49 172847577 for example?!

I don´t want to edit all my contacts, so there must be a solution.
Do i have to edit the pslist?

How do I have to edit it?

As far as I know, you will either have to call your Carrier and see if they can send the caller ID using the format you have, or you will have to edit your contacts.

[RVN84]

No one has found a way to do it yet.... I've looked all over, others have too, but yet no one has found it...

[jyavenard]

It seems that if you use Geohot's hardware unlocking method, the full international number appears when someone calls.


That will depend of the coutry your in.
I've noticed that in France the caller ID is in international format.
Here in Australia, incoming number always show as local number...

So the iPhone will not match a name from the address book :(

Jean-Yves

[StefanM]

In germany calls come in in the international format like +49 17227436 for example.

So is there then a problem for me, if i have all contacts in that format?

[RVN84]

Nope, you should be ok!

If you have exactly the same thing on your caller id and your phonebook it is no problem, the problem is when you have different numbers like:

Phonebook: +49 1234567
Callerid: 1234567

it wont work...

[yakuphan]

I live in Germany. In my Phonebook the Numbers are like:
+491771234567
so + stands for 00
49 = for germany
177 = mobilephone provider (Eplus)
1234567 = the number

So which file do i have to edit and how do i have to edit that i see the saved Name when some one calls me. i just see The Phonenumbers when someone calls me.
What i could figure out was, when i save the number without +49 i mean like this:
01771234567 then it works, but i can't call someone then when i'm outside Germany :(

Someone knows what i can do to make this work ???
thx

[obivan]

I live in Germany. In my Phonebook the Numbers are like:
+491771234567
so + stands for 00
49 = for germany
177 = mobilephone provider (Eplus)
1234567 = the number

So which file do i have to edit and how do i have to edit that i see the saved Name when some one calls me. i just see The Phonenumbers when someone calls me.
What i could figure out was, when i save the number without +49 i mean like this:
01771234567 then it works, but i can't call someone then when i'm outside Germany :(

Someone knows what i can do to make this work ???
thx

I discussed this topic several times in the iPhone cannel on IRC...
Looks like everybody has this problem!

My personal midterm result is: a good DEV need to look at this to change the behavior the phone lookup the caller-id OR to make the phone realize it's not in the US, cause in ABPhoneFormats.plist the other countries are allready in there...
...we NEED a fix here otherwise it makes the phone more or less useless for power use!

[Brpakito]

So does anyone have an update about this?

[Children Of Doom]

modify
/System/Library/Framework/AddressBookUI.framework/ABPhoneFormats.plist

in <key>us</key> section,modify it
no wrong
you have to change the ID of your country code to "us" so the phone think to use "us" number format.
to easely edit the .plist file you have to install apple xcode

[bence8810]

Hi

I am in Hungary, and we have a special service here, called +0 (plus nulla we call it) and it gives you better international rates. Now why do I say it?

I have all my international contacts stored with plus nulla in order to call them cheaper from Hungary, but when I travel, this plus nulla wont work, as its only supported by my carrier, Pannon GSM.

So, to give you a better example:

Lets say I have a Czech contact I call often, but I also travel there much, so I need to call from within the Czech Republic as well.

The international number is like this

+420xxyyyyyyy

+ stands for 00 (international prefix)
420 is Czech Rep
xx is carrier
yyyyyyy is number

If I want to call this same number from Hungary cheaper, I dial

+0420xxyyyyyyy

When I use this number from overseas it completely refuses to connect. So my solution was to have every contact with 2 numbers, one with plus nulla and one the ordinary way.

My point is the following:

Can we just use 2 Numbers for each contact until there is a solution?

Lets say I put my wife

+3620yyyyyyy (int format)
0620yyyyyyy (local format) (06 is prefix from within Hungary, 20 is carrier)

With the +3620 I can call from abroad and from Hungary as well, so that takes care of calling, and for incoming calls it would also pick up the local format

This of course is only valid, if iPhone supports multiple numbers per contacts, which I suppose it does.

Cheers

Ben

p.s. I dont have the phone yet, still 3-4 days to go for me, just thinking ahead, as I travel half the times around Europe, and I need to have this working.

[joe_hensonn]

pardon my ignorance but do i need to convert back to binary from ascii once i have edited a plist file?? i'm using winxp obviously. thanks

[jacoch]

No. It's not necessary.

[joe_hensonn]

No. It's not necessary.

thanks for the quick response.

[bence8810]

Can someone verify if you add 2 numbers for a contact, a local and an internationally formatted one, then incoming calls would display the correct name and outgoing would still work abroad?

Thanks

Ben

[joe_hensonn]

I tried to modify the format in <key>us</key> and it works like a charm.
I lived in Hong Kong, so my format is vary from other country.

Original us format;
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>(###) ###-####</string>
<string>###-####</string>
<string>011 $</string>

Modified HK format
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+852 ##########</string>
<string>852 ##########</string>
<string>##########</string>
<string>########</string>
<string>001 $</string>

Everything seems to work, I can have correct call display now.

this works for me too... although i'm not in hong kong so i used 65 instead of 852.

but this plist file only gets rid of the brackets and dashes and crap on the displayed iphone's numbers. so this plist only applies formatting to the number that the network sends (CID).

it's poor that this phone doesn't match the last 6 digits of the network reported CID with phonebook/contacts (as nokia do) to show up contact name... piss weak effort.

i'll have a play with some files and see what else i can come up with.

[joe_hensonn]

Can someone verify if you add 2 numbers for a contact, a local and an internationally formatted one, then incoming calls would display the correct name and outgoing would still work abroad?

Thanks

Ben

why the fuck don't you get off your lard ass and verify it yourself?? too busy with something??

[docomar]

Could anyone please tell me step by step how to modify the ABPhoneFormats.plist
in a supersim iphone with FW 1.02 in a windows PC .
I really would appreciate your help
Many many many THANKS in advance.

[Snowbird]

docomar, the answer to your question is to be found above. The process is extremely simple once you know how to recover the .plist file, edit it and then put it back in the right place -- don't forget to backup your current .plist in the event that). Please note, however, that it is vital to copy and paste your country's number format (as it appears in the .plist) into the <key>us</key> array, since the iPhone v. american, will only consider the US array. Yes, I know, there are places that you can change the country settings of the iPhone (2 to be precise), but as we have all discovered, the number format don't change, whereas other things do like the ical features, etc., but it's not possible to switch this back in the event that you don't like what its done without a full restore.

[bence8810]

why the fuck don't you get off your lard ass and verify it yourself?? too busy with something??

Would you relax and read? I don't have my phone yet. Talk only if you have a reason to.

Anyone else? I think its a possible work around until the locales are hacked

Ben

[docomar]

Thanks Snowbird, I only forgot how to recover any .plist file;
and once edited, maybe a stupid question : can I use ibrickr to put it back at the right place by uploading it ? Or am I obliged to go, through iphoneinterface and type putfile ....
Thanks a lot for your answers

[Snowbird]

Thanks Snowbird, I only forgot how to recover any .plist file;
and once edited, maybe a stupid question : can I use ibrickr to put it back at the right place by uploading it ? Or am I obliged to go, through iphoneinterface and type putfile ....
Thanks a lot for your answers


The process is simple (even after a bottle of wine....),

1. jailbrack your phone
2. Install SSH on your phone via AppTapp/Installer
3. install winscp if your PC or fugu if your Mac
4. SCP the .plist file to your PC/Mac
5. Make a copy of this file.
6. Use the website mentioned above to convert to a readable file
7. Find your country and then copy the contents and paste the information to the US section and save the file.
8. SCP back the file to the orginal location - listed above
9. The changes will take effect without reloading

Et voila......

[joe_hensonn]

this works for me too... although i'm not in hong kong so i used 65 instead of 852.

but this plist file only gets rid of the brackets and dashes and crap on the displayed iphone's numbers. so this plist only applies formatting to the number that the network sends (CID).

it's poor that this phone doesn't match the last 6 digits of the network reported CID with phonebook/contacts (as nokia do) to show up contact name... piss weak effort.

i'll have a play with some files and see what else i can come up with.

this works by changing the number format for the us.. because the phone thinks it's still in the us. so you're giving the phone a new format for the us, including your own country code.

the ABPhoneFormats.plist file will also force the format for all countries that are included in that file. so if you want all your numbers to be consistent you need to edit the file the same way for all those countries.

if the country code of a number that i use or receive calls from is NOT in this plist file then my phone will default to no format (ie no spaces, no dashes, no brackets) because either it defaults to my new 'us' format (no spaces, dashes or brackets) or because it is defaulting to something else... but i can't find anything else so i think it's defaulting to my home/us settings

[joe_hensonn]

Would you relax and read? I don't have my phone yet. Talk only if you have a reason to.

Anyone else? I think its a possible work around until the locales are hacked

Ben

i think putting 2 numbers into your phone is the only work around at this stage.....

somewhere there will be a script or app that checks the incoming CID and compares this with all phonebook entries and if there's a match it will show a name. this needs to be re-written to use last 6 digits of CID (per nokia method).

i haven't found this yet.

[bence8810]

i think putting 2 numbers into your phone is the only work around at this stage.....

somewhere there will be a script or app that checks the incoming CID and compares this with all phonebook entries and if there's a match it will show a name. this needs to be re-written to use last 6 digits of CID (per nokia method).

i haven't found this yet.


That script would be great. Meantime the two number format should be fairly easy to implement, I have done it once already in the past.

Do you know a fast way to accomplish this? I have several hundred contacts. Maybe an export to Excel and some formula?

Thanks

Ben

[jacoch]

Using only small format works fine. The only problem is the sms notification dialog. It shows the number. But when you tap View, the contact is found and SMS app link the sms to the right contact. So it avoids 2 numbers. Incoming calls are displayed correctly. But I don't think searching contact like Nokia is a good idea. Last 6 digits are not always different (I'm talking about swiss numbers. we are using 10 numbers. The 3 first for the zone. so there may be same numbers in different zones). Contacts are in a sqllite database. When a phone comes in, the iPhone just have to find the short and long version and do a query in the db. All phones are able to do that now, without cutting the phone number. Nokia did this because the phone, at that time, was not powerful enough to do long queries.

[joe_hensonn]

Using only small format works fine. The only problem is the sms notification dialog. It shows the number. But when you tap View, the contact is found and SMS app link the sms to the right contact. So it avoids 2 numbers. Incoming calls are displayed correctly. But I don't think searching contact like Nokia is a good idea. Last 6 digits are not always different (I'm talking about swiss numbers. we are using 10 numbers. The 3 first for the zone. so there may be same numbers in different zones). Contacts are in a sqllite database. When a phone comes in, the iPhone just have to find the short and long version and do a query in the db. All phones are able to do that now, without cutting the phone number. Nokia did this because the phone, at that time, was not powerful enough to do long queries.

LAST (ie trailing) 6 digits won't even involve area codes... what are you talking about???

and there is literally a 1 in 1,000,000 chance that someone else ringing you is going to incorrectly match an entry in your phone book... even so what's the problem if it does happen??

[Dell]

Just changed the format to Australian. Thanks alot! :D

[Supamoochu]

Just changed the format to Australian. Thanks alot! :D

Hey mate can you tell me what you did to do this? and if they show correctly for both calls and when you rcv. sms?

[jacoch]

LAST (ie trailing) 6 digits won't even involve area codes... what are you talking about???

and there is literally a 1 in 1,000,000 chance that someone else ringing you is going to incorrectly match an entry in your phone book... even so what's the problem if it does happen??

I'm saying here the phone format is xxx yyy yy yy. xxx is the area. So if you check only the 6 last digits, you may miss numbers. Sure chances are quite small to have two in the address book. But if something needs to be written, why use a workaround used by Nokia some years ago because of phones with slow processors and capacity, when our iphone stores contacts in a sqllite db that could be queried very quickly and searching for the phone numbers without cutting it.

[RVN84]

it should be ok for sms but no workaround for calls yet

[bence8810]

it should be ok for sms but no workaround for calls yet

For calls you just need to put every number twice, once with +internationalprefix-local and once only local.

Cheers

Ben

[docomar]

I have tried hard to edit a plist file with Windows without any success. Even with the website provided from Chinaet, I still don't understand how to do it .

Anyone can help, pleeeeeeease.
Many, Many Thanks in advance.

[joe_hensonn]

I'm saying here the phone format is xxx yyy yy yy. xxx is the area. So if you check only the 6 last digits, you may miss numbers. Sure chances are quite small to have two in the address book. But if something needs to be written, why use a workaround used by Nokia some years ago because of phones with slow processors and capacity, when our iphone stores contacts in a sqllite db that could be queried very quickly and searching for the phone numbers without cutting it.

i think 8 digits would be fine.. remember it's a factor of 10 for each additional digit.

anyway i think you miss my point slightly.

the algo would roughly be:

1. read CID from incoming call
2. truncate string to LAST 8 digits
3. look for truncated string in phone book
4. if found, display name
5. if not found, display CID only.

the only fault of this method would be if someone NOT in your phonebook calls you and the 8 digits of their number matches someone in your address book. i think this is a pretty remote chance.

i played around with my nokia some time ago and i found that if you have 2 numbers recorded with same last 6 digits it will display the first one you created.

in any case someone needs to find and reverse eng the application on the iphone to use this or any method. you would also have to program that app to deal with the wide range of number formats in the plist files.

[jacoch]

Don't get the factore of 10. Doing SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE (mobile = 'shortnum') OR (mobile = 'longnum') won't be much longer than searching for a single num that have been cut to 8 chars. And you're sure you find exactly what you are searching for.

[shadowmatt]

Has anyone figured this out for the UK?

[ricochet]

I worked around this issue by writing an applescript which would find any contacts with ONLY an international, or ONLY a local formatted number, and add the other.

End result is that every contact of mine now has two versions of every number, the internationally prefixed one and the local version. Now when I receive SMS (which seem to come through as international) the contact shows up, and also when I receive a call (which seem to come as the local number) that works fine too :)

It's still not the ideal workaround, as it's not perfect to store two numbers for everybody, but when someone figures it out then it's very simple to write another script to remove the non-international numbers.

[mbht]

You want to share maybe? :P

[Revell]

Yea Share it !!

[mcraiem]

I Export All my contacts to Microsoft Excel and do the Find and Replace, add the 11 to the numbers and import the excel in Outlook Again!. Does Works perfect!


Sorry for my poor English

[thorntonp]

Australia worked out

As we have only 2 types of numbers (mobiles & land lines) the strings needed are:

04## ### ###
0# #### ####

You can add brackets for area code and dashes if you wish. I left the international 0011 $ string in...

[iphonehome]

Australia worked out

As we have only 2 types of numbers (mobiles & land lines) the strings needed are:

04## ### ###
0# #### ####

You can add brackets for area code and dashes if you wish. I left the international 0011 $ string in...

Yes, this worked for me too with mobiles, but when I dial land lines I usually don't put the prefix in front of it, i.e 02.

We also have 1XX XX format numbers (i.e 124 567) and 1XXX XXX XXX numbers as well (i.e. 1300 123 123).

I've tried adding a string for these but whenever I type 1 first it always reverts to the us brackets. Do I have to delete the reference to those US formats altogether?

I'm only really trying to get the brackets off the screen, all my contatcts seem to show up when someone calls.

[iMags]

Still no fix for the incomming calls?
mine only shows me the phonenumer even though I have it in my addressbook (with+47, for norway)

[sgi]

I tried to modify the format in <key>us</key> and it works like a charm.
I lived in Hong Kong, so my format is vary from other country.

Original us format;
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>1 (###) ###-####</string>
<string>(###) ###-####</string>
<string>###-####</string>
<string>011 $</string>

Modified HK format
<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+852 ##########</string>
<string>852 ##########</string>
<string>##########</string>
<string>########</string>
<string>001 $</string>

Everything seems to work, I can have correct call display now.

Well done! :p

Question is... seems my provider ignore the +852 in the caller ID. All my contacts with phone number look like +852xxxxxxxx, the contact name will not show from the incoming call. I have to remove all the +852 prefix! :confused:

[thebeej]

Is there a proper fix for this problem? My incoming smss are displayed with the + while incoming calls are displayed with 0. It would really be appreciated if someone could post a step by step tutorial to fix this. Thanks

[nofearl]

I have edited my outlook contacts to start with 0
when I receive sms, the small alert window doesn't show the name but when I open it it shows the name..

[ASenna04]

I noticed something strange today. I am on Vodafone UK and have edited the US formats to display the numbers correctly for UK.

Today I called from the office number and it showed as incoming call from +44....... I was very surprised. I checked and the Name was not shown because the number was not in the contacts. So I added the number as +44......... I tried again, but this time it showed incoming call from 01932.......... It agaid and it showed the Name the number was saved under. I did not understand why. But I have tried again a number of times and it only shows as 01932. The name is no longer showing. But it did do it twice as +44.... and the Name display.

Can anyone explain?

ASenna04

[ASenna04]

Bump. Anyone found a solution to this?

ASenna04

[DarkDim]

Its a known bug in iphone....search the forum. Add two entries for contacts, one with +44 and one with 0... then SMS & calls will show the contact. Its hoped the bug will be fixed in the next firmware release.

[ricochet]

I've posted an Applescript I wrote which will automatically parse through your address book and add the international prefixed version, or the local version to all existing numbers which only have one of the above.

See this thread:
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?p=57084

Until there's a software fix for the iPhone, I think your best bet is double-entry of mobile numbers for each contact. You can easily remove one of them later when it gets fixed :)

g/luck!

[Spook75]

I've posted an Applescript I wrote which will automatically parse through your address book and add the international prefixed version, or the local version to all existing numbers which only have one of the above.

See this thread:
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?p=57084

Until there's a software fix for the iPhone, I think your best bet is double-entry of mobile numbers for each contact. You can easily remove one of them later when it gets fixed :)

g/luck!

Solution: Go here:
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7547

[simplyjustken]

this works for me too... although i'm not in hong kong so i used 65 instead of 852.

but this plist file only gets rid of the brackets and dashes and crap on the displayed iphone's numbers. so this plist only applies formatting to the number that the network sends (CID).

it's poor that this phone doesn't match the last 6 digits of the network reported CID with phonebook/contacts (as nokia do) to show up contact name... piss weak effort.

i'll have a play with some files and see what else i can come up with.

hey pal,
u use 65, u are from singapore??
im still waiting for my iphone, so doing my research on unlocking n stuff..
mind if u can post wat u edit for the format?? im from singapore too. thanks alot pal..

[ashraf@samawi.com]

Solution: Go here:
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7547

thank you... worked great and saved me tons of time

[ASenna04]

Finally a solution!

The 9 digit worked for me in the UK.

Have a look:

http://hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7736

ASenna04

[smoothy]

Well i changed both the ABPhoneFormats.plist and ABAddressFormats.plist. The ABPhoneFormats has a line for UK numbers in international format +44 xxxxxxxxxxx, but when receiving a text the pop up still does not display the contact name! Rather annoying really. Why does the pop up not show the name and yet the message list does.

[Draken]

http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7736

fix was found/

[maxtor]

It works wonderfully here in mexico!! now I have my correct display of phone numbers!
Thank you guys!

[Insane Devil]

Hi all, from India here.

So i just opened the file, and replaced "US" with "IN" and vise versa. :) works like a charm! thanks a lot for the help guyz!

[peu]

Here is the modified entry for Argentina (testeado en CTI)


<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+54 ## #### ####</string>
<string>+1 (###) ### ####</string>
<string>0 ### ### ####</string>
<string>+549 ## #### ####</string>
<string>+54 9 11 #### ####</string>
<string>## #### ####</string>
<string>4### ####</string>
<string>5### ####</string>
<string>6### ####</string>
<string>3### ####</string>
<string>00 $</string>
<string>18 ### $ </string>
</array>



:D

[ssingleton]

Anyone have a premade entry for australia?

[kyin]

if you are using firmware 1.1.1, you can just go to setting->General->International and select your country from region list.

[ssingleton]

running 1.1.1 but no international section.

[bence8810]

running 1.1.1 but no international section.

You need to edit your

/System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/M68AP.plist

file with a plist editor. There is one for mac that works great:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14363

There you enable the International feature, then reboot your phone, and voila
Cheers

Ben

[gab555]

Here is the modified entry for Argentina (testeado en CTI)


<key>us</key>
<array>
<string>+54 ## #### ####</string>
<string>+1 (###) ### ####</string>
<string>0 ### ### ####</string>
<string>+549 ## #### ####</string>
<string>+54 9 11 #### ####</string>
<string>## #### ####</string>
<string>4### ####</string>
<string>5### ####</string>
<string>6### ####</string>
<string>3### ####</string>
<string>00 $</string>
<string>18 ### $ </string>
</array>



:D

Excellent work, thank you Peu. I used this in 1.1.1 to replace the <key>ar</key> section and it works great. I only added a 0 232# ### ### format.

[googs]

How can I make this work for Australia? I tried the 8 digit file and it never worked. I have the Intl keyboard running but it is still not working.

[TheG33k]

I used this in 1.1.1 to replace the <key>ar</key> section and it works great.

I have tried to copy a 1.0.2 ABPhoneFormats.plist to /System/Library/Frameworks/AddressBookUI.framework (firmware 1.1.1) but nothing happens -.-

How can I change the Numberformating in 1.1.1 ? Where is the ABPhoneFormats.plist ? (International menu is enabled)