Scrambled and blank texts - Droid 2

[imamakeupaddict]

I've been having this issue with my Droid 2 for a while now. At random times, texts I send to contacts will either arrive blank or jumbled - with either random characters breaking up the letters or upside down question marks. This has happened with Blackberry, iPhone and other smartphone users.

When I went to the Verizon store, the employees said they never heard of it happening. The best solution they could suggest was turning off my phone and removing the battery once a week. I tried this, but the problem still occurs shortly after doing this.

I also read some posts that it can occur with long (more than 160 character) texts are sent, so I tried sending shorter texts. My one contact (the one with a smartphone) still received blank texts.

I'm posting this because although I've seen other complains about this (glad I'm not alone!) I have yet to find a real solution. Any ideas? Thanks for reading my ramble.

 

[Lenagainster]

Having the same issue on my Droid 2. Noticed when composing a certain text and watching the number of characters, the count indicated that I was sending three texts, when it was actually one. My son received three scrambled texts on his iPhone and took a screen shot and sent it back to me. The next couple of single texts to him were scrambled. Then I sent one to a friend on Sprint, it took 15 minutes, but arrived intact. Then I powered down and restarted, and all texts from then on were clear. I found this thread on a Google search, trying to determine if it was a network issue or the Droid. I guess it's the Droid.

UPDATE: 12/8/10 Went to a Verizon store yesterday to show techs the screen shot of my scrambled texts. Of course, no one there ever heard of the problem. The tech asked to forward the screen shot to her email so she could examine it further. Since that initial batch of scrambled texts, all the rest have been fine. Just wondering about the possibility that I hit a weird combination of keys, like ALT, SHIFT, SYM when typing. But the text showed up correctly on the screen before it was sent out. I later forwarded the "scrambled" text that my son received to another phone, and it came out clear.

 

[redrider56]

Scrambled and Blank texts droid 2

So I was having the same problem with my droid 2. My brother would get three blank texts and my mom would get either all squares or triangles. I narrowed the problem down to being the quick select of the suggested words as you are typing. I send the same message to my brother twice, one I used the quick select to enter "what's" and the second I sent the exact same message only I typed out "what's" on the keyboard. The second one that was all typed went through fine. While the first gave him three blank texts. This also proved to be the case with my mom's phone. Both my mother and brother have LG Envy's on the same family plan as me. Then I did the same test with a friend who has a droid x and both texts came through fine. So you might give that a try.

 

[sheilajc]

I have a Droid 2 through Verizon and the same problems...lol...yet none of tech or customer service has ever heard of it before. Here's what I know:

• Problem never occurred prior to use of Droid or Droid 2
• Problem doesn’t occur all the time, just several times a day.
• The texts can be read on the senders phone but not on the recipients phone.
• The recipients of the bad texts are spread across different carriers – not just one.
• The recipients of the bad texts are spread across a spectrum of phone types.
• The chance of a bad text being received increases when the text message is a long one.
• The chance of a bad text showing up as being “blank” increase if the recipients phone is older.
• The chance of a bad text showing up as being “symbols” increases if the recipients phone is newer.
• The Droid 2 phone in question was replaced with a second brand new Droid 2 and the problem continues to happen.
• The Droid 2 phones have been checked out with Verizon Wireless Tech Support who says there is no problem (Ha!).
• Verizon Wireless has stated that they know of no network issue or phone issue which could be causing this to happen.
• Verizon Wireless Tech has stated there is no user setting in place which would cause this to happen.
• I have rebooted the phone and it doesn't help this issue

 

[Lenagainster]

So I was having the same problem with my droid 2..................

Thanks for that info. I know for a fact that a text I sent yesterday, that came out as all boxes on the recipient's phone (Verizon, LG Cosmos), was one that I had pasted a suggested word into the text. It doesn't happen with all texts that I use suggested words, but I'll refrain from using them to determine if the scrambling ever happens again for some other reason.

Update: Another thought: could there be any connection with receiving a text while composing a new text, and the new one goes out scrambled? I know that while I was composing the text I sent out that was received scrambled, another text came in from the same person. I did not get the notification chime, but the new text was indicated in the notification bar. It then appeared prior to the one I composed and sent, since it arrived before I hit the send button.
We know that the software for composing texts is AFU. Select a suggested word and a space is automatically added after the word. Put a period and it is automatically shifted to the left, behind the word. That's o.k. But add another symbol after a word and a space, and it, too, is shifted immediately behind the word. So try to type "this costs $5" and it will show up as "this costs$ 5". Try putting two spaces after the word 'costs' and it will automatically add a period and show up as "this costs. $5". Maybe the next system upgrade will fix these issues.

Update 1/7/11; another thing I will try is going to the settings, language and keyboard, multi-touch kb and device kb, and unchecking every setting like auto-suggest, auto cap, auto correct, etc. At least now, if I want to type "it costs $5", as long as I put two spaces after 'costs' the $ stays put and no period appears after costs Who needs all this auto correction on a text message anyway?

 

[sheilajc]

Still having problem...

I'm still having the problem...people think that I'm randomly sending them blank texts and just don't say anything to me (thinking it's accidental). Has Verizon provided anyone with concrete answers to fix this problem or do we all have $500 phones that send people blank texts at random?

 

[Lenagainster]

I'm still having the problem...?

I switched to Handcent, and so far the problem hasn't repeated itself, as far as I know.
Re-enabled the Auto capitalization, Auto suggest, etc. Been texting a lot more, sending texts to multiple addresses, not deleting as often, cannot replicate the problem I had before using the standard texting app.
UPDATE: 2/23/11. Did it again. This is the first time someone told me they received scrambled texts since I switched to Handcent and enabled all the Auto-cap, Auto-suggest, Auto-punctuate, etc. I sent one text and distinctly remember using a suggested word rather than type it out (don't). The text was definitely shorter than 160 characters, and there were no smilies or other abnormal characters in the text. What I sent is what I see in my log. But the recipient, (iPhone on ATT) replied that she got three texts that looked like all "Chinese" characters. Haven't a clue what to do now except delete Auto suggest, delete old threads and power cycle the phone.

 

[Lenagainster]

Handcent got an update today. Something relative to compatibility with the iPhone. Think this will help alleviate the scrambled text issue? v 3.7.9

 

[EastBay580]

I have just started having this issue with D1. Just started a few days ago. Thought maybe it was because I was rooted but maybe not. So it sounds like as if there is no solution yet?

 

[Lenagainster]

Just stumbled across this thread:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/te...stions/27989-sending-blank-text-messages.html
where they seemed to have narrowed the problem down to using the word "don't" (and other contractions). I'd guess the best thing to do is not using Auto Suggest. Turn that feature off. Don't use it if it still pops up when correcting spelling mistakes.

 

[hschoenhoff]

Blank Texts

I was having trouble with some users receiving blank texts from my Droid.
I went to my messages page and into Settings, then Input Mode.
I changed it from Unicode characters to GSM alphabet and now they can see my messages.