Strange Behaviour by Apple Messages

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eracode

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#271672 21-May-2020 15:23

Yesterday I was communicating with my brother here in Auckland via Apple Messages and it was working normally. I am using an iPad on Spark Wifi. Then I sent him two separate messages containing links to two websites (one of which was GZ) using Share > Messages.

Even though as usual I clicked on his name in Contacts as recipient, these two messages went to an international number with prefix +351, which is Portugal. I was in Portugal last year and although I don’t remember this number, it may be a number I once had in my phone.

I checked the numbers I have recorded for him in Contacts and they’re fine - and no stray Portugal number. Also I don’t have the Portugal number anywhere else in my Contacts as far as I know.

This morning, if I send him an ordinary message with no link attached, it seems to work fine. But if I try to send him a link, it goes to the overseas number.

I have no idea what is going on and would be grateful for comments/advice.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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#2488783 21-May-2020 15:31

Big patch today...try it.

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eracode

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#2488786 21-May-2020 15:36

Mahon:

Big patch today...try it.

Thanks but would you mind elaborating slightly - is my experience a known issue that has arisen and the update addresses it - or what?

Is this something you know about or you’re guessing or ...

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BlinkyBill

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#2488798 21-May-2020 16:01

Nothing in today’s patch regarding iMessage. Have a look for the Portuguese number in Contacts, and see if/where it is recorded. Is the same number in your call history?

eracode

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#2488804 21-May-2020 16:15

I have now been through all my contacts and there is no Portuguese number in there.

No Portuguese number/s show up in my call history.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Benjip

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#2488809 21-May-2020 16:19

Could it be a rogue App that's posing as "Messages"?

For me, when I click the Share Sheet icon, I get a row of my 4-5 most recent/frequent contacts along the top, and then under that is where all the Apps sit (eg. "AirDrop / Messages / Mail / Notes").

Do you get the same?

eracode

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#2488816 21-May-2020 16:37

Benjip:

Could it be a rogue App that's posing as "Messages"?

For me, when I click the Share Sheet icon, I get a row of my 4-5 most recent/frequent contacts along the top, and then under that is where all the Apps sit (eg. "AirDrop / Messages / Mail / Notes").

Do you get the same?

Yes I do have the same most recent contacts etc. When I sent the messages containing the links, I used my brother’s contact photo icon/thumbnail in the ‘most recent’ row as I usually do - but the messages went to the Portuguese number.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

BlinkyBill

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#2488817 21-May-2020 16:38

Apologies - does the issue only happen when sharing via the share sheet? Or does a standard message in iMessage with a link, sent to your brother, go to the Portuguese number also?

Also, have you tried a power off/on, which sometimes cleans things up for no apparent reason?

Mahon

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#2488890 21-May-2020 19:49

eracode:

Mahon:

Big patch today...try it.

Thanks but would you mind elaborating slightly - is my experience a known issue that has arisen and the update addresses it - or what?

Is this something you know about or you’re guessing or ...

Sometimes installing a major patch will reset systems to normal if they had become broken.

eracode

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#2488909 21-May-2020 20:03

BlinkyBill:

Apologies - does the issue only happen when sharing via the share sheet? Or does a standard message in iMessage with a link, sent to your brother, go to the Portuguese number also?

Also, have you tried a power off/on, which sometimes cleans things up for no apparent reason?

Thanks - I’ll need to do some testing with my brother which I can’t do until tomorrow. Will try various things and report back.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

BlinkyBill

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#2489065 22-May-2020 07:17

Mahon:

Sometimes installing a major patch will reset systems to normal if they had become broken.

if this was a problem that was fixed by a recent patch, more than one person would be reporting the problem. There are no iMessage fixes in the latest patch.

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#2489070 22-May-2020 07:56

BlinkyBill:
if this was a problem that was fixed by a recent patch, more than one person would be reporting the problem. There are no iMessage fixes in the latest patch.

There is this though:

- Addresses an issue in the share sheet where suggestions and actions may not load

eracode

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#2489072 22-May-2020 08:03

Benjip:
BlinkyBill:

if this was a problem that was fixed by a recent patch, more than one person would be reporting the problem. There are no iMessage fixes in the latest patch.

There is this though:

- Addresses an issue in the share sheet where suggestions and actions may not load

Now that really IS interesting. Hmm. My experience doesn’t appear to be widely reported though - in fact I can’t find any reports of it.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

BlinkyBill

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#2489076 22-May-2020 08:09

Benjip:
BlinkyBill:

if this was a problem that was fixed by a recent patch, more than one person would be reporting the problem. There are no iMessage fixes in the latest patch.

There is this though:

- Addresses an issue in the share sheet where suggestions and actions may not load

This is where the share sheet doesn’t load, in which case iMessage (or other suggestions) don’t appear in the share sheet. Eracode’s issue is that the iMessage message is not sent to the correct addressee.

Benjip

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#2489096 22-May-2020 09:12

BlinkyBill:

This is where the share sheet doesn’t load, in which case iMessage (or other suggestions) don’t appear in the share sheet. Eracode’s issue is that the iMessage message is not sent to the correct addressee.

I realise that, and that it doesn't spell out specifically "Fixes an error where iMessages might incorrectly be sent to users in Portugal", but there's a chance that this bug was also fixed as part of the above. I'm fairly sure Apple fixes more than 3-4 small things in each major "point release" of iOS/iPadOS.

I guess the point myself and Mahon were making is that updates often fix weird glitches, even if it's just because it resets some parts of iOS that don't get reset with a reboot :)

BlinkyBill

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#2489194 22-May-2020 10:06

Benjip:

I realise that, and that it doesn't spell out specifically "Fixes an error where iMessages might incorrectly be sent to users in Portugal", but there's a chance that this bug was also fixed as part of the above. I'm fairly sure Apple fixes more than 3-4 small things in each major "point release" of iOS/iPadOS.

I guess the point myself and Mahon were making is that updates often fix weird glitches, even if it's just because it resets some parts of iOS that don't get reset with a reboot :)

I’m guessing you don’t work in IT, debugging problems. The ‘share sheet not loading’ issue is fairly widely reported - it has nothing to do specifically with iMessage, instead it is a share sheet behaviour problem that manifests in the share sheet itself not loading with share options when the share button is pressed.

Eracode is getting iMessage in the share sheet, so his share sheet is loading. Eracodes’s problem is iMessage related; and is not widely reported (as far as I can see, anyway). However, I can believe that the addressee address is not being correctly passed to the iMessage header, via the share sheet action, OR, and more likely there is something in Eracode’s brother’s details that is corrupted in a string, either configuration or memory somewhere.

Getting back to debugging - it is better to work methodically back from most likely to least likely causes. Generally (I apologise, the following is simplistic and stereotypical) the most likely cause of an issue in a mature product is a one-off configuration issue, then edge-case not coded for, before fault/bug. I’m not an expert with IOS memory management, but since share sheet is a relatively new product, I also wouldn’t rule out a memory issue either, hence my suggestion to try a power off/on.

But it’s not helpful to suggest unrelated subjects and then relate that subject to ‘might have fixed’, even if well-meant, since it won’t help us get to the most likely cause.

Interestingly, I *did* find an iMessage fix in iOS 13.5. This is where a message content string caused a system crash; this is for certain languages only, not English, and obviously enough causes the iOS device to crash, which Eracode isn’t experiencing.

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