Weird Text Message Receiving Problem

tommygnns · #1 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 01:31 AM

Hey everybody,

I have a very weird text message receiving problem with my VZW TP2:

My girlfriend has an LG Venus (also VZW). Recently when she texted me a message longer than 160 characters, instead of the normal breaking up of the message into multiple messages and adding another text ("Preceding msg modified...."), I would get the messages as a random string of symbols and letters. The "Preceding msg modified..." text would come as normal though. Any messages that are less than 160 characters come through just fine as well...

At first, I thought the problem was with her phone sending the messages, not my phone receiving them. However, my friend with a Droid 2 just texted me and I experienced the same problem. The thing is that during this time period, I've had other people text me the long texts on varying phones (LG Chocolate 2, another person's Droid 2 - both VZW) with no problem.

I had been running the 6/20/10 release of MightyROM since late June, but I just put the 11/13/10 Energy 6.5.3 Cookie 2.0 Final Rom, and I've still experienced the same problem with those two people's texts over 160 characters.... but not everybody's texts over 160 characters.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

**[sammich]** · #2 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 02:08 AM

IIRC, those phones you mentioned have a feature called Enhnaced-SMS. It allows sending smilies and other useless things to other Ehanced-SMS enabled phones. But our phones don't support it. Instead of being setup for universal compatibility, the messages from those phones just break after going over the 160 limit.

I'm fairly sure that's the issue, but I may be wrong.

tommygnns · #3 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 12:26 PM

Thanks for the reply. It could be an issue with the enhanced messaging service.... but the issue I'm having is not that I'm wondering why the messages over 160 characters are being split up. After having the TP2 for over a year now, I'm definitely used to the TP2 breaking up the messages and/or removing those useless smilies and junk... plus tacking on that "Preceding msg modified...." message at the end.

I just remembered that NRG baked in a screencap app. Check out the attached picture to see an example. The attached image is a message from the guy with the Droid 2. I hope the image makes the issue I'm experiencing a little more clear this time.

**[sammich]** · #4 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 01:44 PM

Was that message written using Swype? Try using the hardware keyboard to send the message and see if it comes through well... Apparently Droids have an issue with sending unreadable characters when there's a problem with the Swype installation.

I also did some digging and found that you will have unreadable text messages if you open another window on the Droid while writing a message, then come back and finish the message and send it.

tommygnns · #5 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 01:57 PM

I'm not sure if it was written with swype or if another window was opened... I'll have to ask.

...but regardless if one or both of those things was true, why would the over 160 character messages sent from the LG Venus have the same issue?

I really don't want to... but maybe I should flash to stock and see if I still have the problem.

I appreciate your help, sammich!

**[sammich]** · #6 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 02:08 PM

Gah... forgot about the Venus. But I just found this:

Quote:

Q) Can I send Enhanced Text Messages (160+ characters) to a non-Verizon Wireless Subscriber (Inter-Carrier Messaging-EMS or International Carrier Messaging-EMS)?

A) Yes, with some limitations. When you send Enhanced Text Messages to non-Verizon Wireless subscribers, delivery will be attempted, however, all inserted graphics, emoticons, sounds and text formatting will be deleted and the message will be converted into plain text. In addition, Enhanced Text Messages greater than 160 characters will be delivered as multiple segments (each up to 160 characters). The EMS-capable handset sending the message will be billed for a single message sent.

Note: Intercarrier/International SMS does not support non-ASCI 7 bit characters so if International characters or symbols like ú and ñ are used, they may cause delivery to fail.

Some non-EMS devices may not properly convert an EMS message to an SMS message. The message received by the non-enhanced text messaging device will be unreadable. Both sender and recipient will be charged for unreadable messages.

eric12341 · #7 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 04:54 PM

yea stock 6.1 is good or u can always flash to lead ROM.

00tj00 · #8 (**permalink**) 11-15-2010, 10:46 PM

Actually I would be willing to bet she has some kind of weird thing in her signature. maybe a $ or & or even a ~. Or maybe her text just had that in it. Either way tell her to take it out. For some reason those just dont send right over the VZW network.
Good luck
TJ

tommygnns · #9 (**permalink**) 11-16-2010, 12:05 AM

Thanks for the replies, guys!

My girlfriend (the LG Venus on VZW) and my other friend (Droid 2 on VZW) don't have any sigs in their texts.

I think the weirdest thing about this issue is that it just started happening out of the blue. I had been running MightyROM (6/20/10) since it came out. I didn't install any new cabs or apps recently. I had received plenty of texts that were over 160 characters (and broken up in multiple texts on my end) from her before... All of the sudden, any text longer than 160 and broken up into multiple messages came through as garble.

I was thinking about flashing to a new radio to see if that fixes the problem. I'm currently on 2.23 vzw radio, but I just checked and saw there was 2.35 out as well.

If that doesn't do the trick, I'll probably just end up flashing to stock. If THAT doesn't work, I'll relock the phone and take it back to VZW.

I do have my eyes on a few future phones for VZW.... the HTC Merge... or the HTC 7 Pro if that comes out for VZW eventually. I love my full qwerty keyboards lol Ok now I'm just rambling....

**horndoctor** · #10 (**permalink**) 11-16-2010, 02:47 AM

Wirelessly posted (htc Pocket PC: Opera/9.5 (Microsoft Windows; PPC; Opera Mobi/15954; U; en))

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommygnns

Thanks for the replies, guys!

My girlfriend (the LG Venus on VZW) and my other friend (Droid 2 on VZW) don't have any sigs in their texts.

I think the weirdest thing about this issue is that it just started happening out of the blue. I had been running MightyROM (6/20/10) since it came out. I didn't install any new cabs or apps recently. I had received plenty of texts that were over 160 characters (and broken up in multiple texts on my end) from her before... All of the sudden, any text longer than 160 and broken up into multiple messages came through as garble.

I was thinking about flashing to a new radio to see if that fixes the problem. I'm currently on 2.23 vzw radio, but I just checked and saw there was 2.35 out as well.

If that doesn't do the trick, I'll probably just end up flashing to stock. If THAT doesn't work, I'll relock the phone and take it back to VZW.

I do have my eyes on a few future phones for VZW.... the HTC Merge... or the HTC 7 Pro if that comes out for VZW eventually. I love my full qwerty keyboards lol Ok now I'm just rambling....

I think you have the right idea.
Flash the 6.1 shipped rom and see if you still have this issue. If so, I guess it's replacement time.