2
  • iPhoneXs
  • iOS 13.4 (also affected 13.3.x)
  • Carrier: AT&T
  • e-SIM (no physical SIM)

On a recent trip out of the U.S. I added a 2nd SIM card and a local calling plan (Turkcell) so I could use my phone without incurring roaming charges. All was fine.

PROBLEM: When I returned, I deactivated that plan, and removed the SIM card from the phone. However, the iPhone retained the incorrect phone number formatting on the dialpad screen. See screenshot below for example:

dialpad

This might seem like a frivolous detail, but it actually slows me down when dialing numbers "manually" since it always looks like I've entered the number incorrectly, skipped a digit or added an extra one, etc. I just want to get it back to the correct format.

Once I hit the green Dial button, the number is correctly formatted, so it's just doing this on the pre-dial screen. See below:

dialing

Thing's I've tried:

  • Soft resetting the phone (Vol+, Vol-, then press+hold Power until it reboots)
  • Changing Language under Settings > Language & Region e.g. from English U.S. to something else and then back again
  • Adding / removing additional keyboards
  • Turning Roaming on/off
  • Turning Cellular Data on/off
  • Disabling the cellular line under Settings > Cellular and then re-enabling it
  • Calling AT&T and having them "re-provision" my phone
  • Updating from iOS 13.3 to 13.4

Things I have NOT tried:

  • Going to an Apple Store (they're closed here right now due to COVID-19) 😔
  • Doing a full Backup / Restore of the phone
  • The various "Resets" under Settings > Reset (was afraid to lose my stored passwords/WiFi settings but if anyone thinks that would fix it, I will try...)

Anyone ever see this or know how to fix it?

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

I had the extact same issue. I believe this is an issue with the eSim. I had to put a US SIM in and it corrected the issue with the phone numbers displaying wrong when dialing manually.

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1
  • I was going to actually post an update - I had previously used a Turkish SIM card while traveling and I guess there was a bug in an earlier iOS (12 or 13, can't remember which version) where even after switching back to US/AT&T it retained the foreign dial pattern - even after the SIM was removed/deactivated. A couple of weeks ago I switched from AT&T to Google Fi (eSIM) and during that activation process, the dial pattern problem finally resolved itself. Not really a good solution, since without a 2nd US-based SIM or eSIM to activate, there is really no way to fix this.
    – luckman212
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 21:25
0

I know this is old topic. I just have the same issue and found a solution. it worked for me, you might want to try.

  • Disable the cellular line under Settings
  • Restart iPhone
  • Enable the cellular line under Settings

good luck,

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0

I had this exact same issue. I tried all the things the original poster did above too. I even tried Apple support to no avail. After reading a similar article (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251341824), I think the common thread is the eSIM.

I called T-Mobile and after troubleshooting and trying a few other options, I had them delete/reissue my eSIM. It took a while for them to do this, but it resolved the issue! Hopefully this will help someone else.

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