Phone settings displaying wrong number

[bigstilton]

My old number transferred ok and works fine but the new SMARTY SIM number is still displayed in my iPhone settings against the installed SIM which is confusing. That’s the number actually printed on the SIM and I confirmed that it’s not related to my phone now and anyone trying to call it gets a number not recognised messaged.

Is this a known issue? Should I have only put the SIM in the phone after the number was transferred? How can I tidy this up on the phone settings because it can’t simply be edited in the iPhone settings app?

[bigstilton · Accepted solution]

Thank you MSF, this is now working. Whilst I'm an experience software engineer and user (42 years of it with Microsoft stack) and iPhone and IOS dev too since 2009, I missed a couple of important nuances in the instructions:

The critical point was in the instruction to reset network settings which is embedded in the settings section
Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone
 Reset
 Erase All Content and Settings

I was massively reluctant to tap reset because the context is Reset Phone. Also, in this UI there is no indication on that Reset option that there will be further UI options and that it won’t immediately do something destructive.

Anyway I took a risk and tapped it and guess what - yes more options (it didn’t just dive into a full blown reset - phew). The options then were:

 Reset All Settings

 Reset Network Settings

 Reset Keyboard Dictionary

 Reset Home Screen Layout

 Reset Location & Privacy

 Cancel

So I was safe to tap Reset Network Settings and that did its work and then initiated a reboot of the phone and all worked then.

In the "Microsoft World” user interfaces, any button differentiates actions that won’t just launch the action but will give further opportunities to select or back out of an action with a … suffix which has become muscle memory in my user experience. In that sense, had the text displayed were "Reset …" I would not have hesitated to tap it and then tap Reset Network Settings.

Instead I was expecting to see an option called Reset Network Settings in the first screen.

Maybe that convention isn’t universal and is specific to Microsoft and Linux.

This has been an interesting learning though. I hope my input helps you assess and refine your descriptions for all anticipated audiences but I do appreciate your timely and patient responses which got me there in the end.

All the best,

bigstilton

[MSF]

@bigstilton It is a known issue. The phone 'remembers' the first number on the sim. You can change the number in your Settings then sign out of FaceTime and iMessage and sign back in again.

Full details here: https://help.smarty.co.uk/en/articles/7019273-keeping-your-number

[bigstilton]

Where you say you can change the number in your setting could you explain where and how? I’m confused because the number is displayed in each of this apps listed in settings but only as a ticked or not ticked item in a list of available identies to send or receive with. There’s an email address of mine in that list alongside the original sim number. All I can do is tick it or untick it but not delete or modify it. Does that make sense?

[MSF]

@bigstilton  This was all contained in the help article - did you see it?

My iPhone is displaying the wrong number when texting/calling

1. Go to Settings > Phone > My Number, and make sure the right number is showing. If it isn't, please update the number.

2. Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and tick/untick the correct number

   The same process is for Facetime.

3. Go to General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

4. Restart your device.

[bigstilton]

Apologies, but I can’t see that content at the link you sent. However you describe if the right number isn’t showing I should update the number but like I say, I can only tick or untick the only number present in the list and that number is the original number as printed on the SIM and not the number that has been ported. There’s isn’t a way to add a number into the list because the list includes only SIM items and email accounts and there isn’t an option to update the existing installed SIM’s number. 

what do you reckon?

[MSF]

@bigstilton  If you follow the steps in my last reply, there should not be a list, just one number, and that can be changed.

[bigstilton · Accepted solution]

Thank you MSF, this is now working. Whilst I'm an experience software engineer and user (42 years of it with Microsoft stack) and iPhone and IOS dev too since 2009, I missed a couple of important nuances in the instructions:

The critical point was in the instruction to reset network settings which is embedded in the settings section
Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone
 Reset
 Erase All Content and Settings

I was massively reluctant to tap reset because the context is Reset Phone. Also, in this UI there is no indication on that Reset option that there will be further UI options and that it won’t immediately do something destructive.

Anyway I took a risk and tapped it and guess what - yes more options (it didn’t just dive into a full blown reset - phew). The options then were:

 Reset All Settings

 Reset Network Settings

 Reset Keyboard Dictionary

 Reset Home Screen Layout

 Reset Location & Privacy

 Cancel

So I was safe to tap Reset Network Settings and that did its work and then initiated a reboot of the phone and all worked then.

In the "Microsoft World” user interfaces, any button differentiates actions that won’t just launch the action but will give further opportunities to select or back out of an action with a … suffix which has become muscle memory in my user experience. In that sense, had the text displayed were "Reset …" I would not have hesitated to tap it and then tap Reset Network Settings.

Instead I was expecting to see an option called Reset Network Settings in the first screen.

Maybe that convention isn’t universal and is specific to Microsoft and Linux.

This has been an interesting learning though. I hope my input helps you assess and refine your descriptions for all anticipated audiences but I do appreciate your timely and patient responses which got me there in the end.

All the best,

bigstilton

[MSF · Accepted solution]

@bigstilton  Just to clarify the position, the only Smarty employees here are the moderators.

The rest of us are just volunteers who try to help out our fellow forum members. For that reason, I won't have any input in assessing and refining descriptions for all anticipated audiences.

I have been an Apple-oholic for many years now and so rarely need to make any changes to Settings; when changes are necessary, I am fairly used to the architecture and so would never think of my old Microsoft days (thankfully! 🤣)