There was discussion under another thread on how to get the Australian Phone Number formatting working on the iPhone. Some of it changed with the arrival of FW 1.1.1, and so some of the directions under that thread are now a mish mash of up-to-date and out-of-date information (e.g. the ABPhoneFormats.plist is now called the UIPhoneFormats.plist). So, having got mine sorted tonight, I thought I’d start a new thread with some more detailed explanation for those who (like me) are less capable of sorting it all out (I had help. Thanks David!). This didn’t brick my phone. Your mileage may vary!

These directions assume the following:

• iPhone with FW 1.1.1 and OpenSSH (or similar) installed (which in turn requires BSD Subsystem installed).
• a Mac with the Terminal app (found in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder)

Open Terminal App.
Go to File > Connect to Server, and select SFTP; select your iPhone on the right; type “root” in the username, and select “SFTP (Automatic)”. Click Connect.

If you are using OpenSSH with 1.1.1 the default password for root is “alpine” (Before 1.1.1, the password was “dottie”). (You should change your password asap! use the passwd command)

In the SFTP console window, type:
# get /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/PhoneFormats/UIPhoneFormats.plist .

Then (to backup the file, just in case) type:
put UIPhoneFormats.plist /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/PhoneFormats/UIPhoneFormats.plist.backup

If you have Property List Editor installed from the xcode package from your install media, open the plist file with that.
Otherwise, use the converter at http://140.124.181.188/%7Ekhchung/cgi-bin/plutil.cgi to convert it to ascii text, then open it in TextEdit.

In the file you'll see a series of phone number formats tagged by a two-letter country code. At the top of the file, you'll see the AU setting (third one down). Copy everything between the and tags and paste it into the US setting down at the bottom of the file. That list is fairly limited though, and won’t format mobile numbers etc, so better still, I pasted in the following custom set of masks that I assembled from various forum posts:

04## ### ###
#### ####
(03) #### ####
(02) #### ####
(07) #### ####
(08) #### ####
+61 # #### ####
+61 4## ### ###
(61) (0#) #### ####
1300 ### ###
1800 ### ###
13# ###
0011 $

Now that the file is ready (and the iPhone can read the converted ascii file, so no need to try and convert it back), you need to upload it back to the phone.

In the SFTP console window, type:
# put UIPhoneFormats.plist /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/PhoneFormats/UIPhoneFormats.plist

All done.

Reboot the iPhone, and check in your contacts to see if things look right!

If you are likely to travel to the USA and might want to be able to switch between US and Aussie formats when traveling, there is a solution. Install the program “Enable International Menu” on your iPhone (Installer>Unlocking Tools>Enable International Menu). That will put a “International” menu under the General Settings, which you can use to switch between Australian Region and USA or various others. If you are doing that, and you want the more comprehensive set of format masks shown above, then follow the direction above with one variation. Instead of pasting the masks into the section, paste them into the section.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, all this only affects the way phone numbers look on your display. It doesn’t sort the issue of the iPhone caller id not recognising people if their number comes through with an international prefix when they are in your address book without one, or vice versa. That’s a separate issue, and to fix this you have to persuade your iPhone to only take note of the last eight digits. The instructions on how to do that can be found here.

Hope some of all that is helpful to someone!

Cheers,

Nathan

Nice guide, this is exactly what I did and I can confirm it works perfectly (I even changed the array to suit my personal preference of how some numbers appear)

Has anyone looked into this?

http://iphone.unlock.no/#number-formating

Note the update for 1.1.1

Add http://i.unlock.no to the installer.app

Open the Unlocking tools folder and install the International Settings application.

Now on the phone go to settings/General/International and set the number formatting to Australia.

Easy way of doing this.

I did this yesterday. It removed the US formatting, by removing brackets. It did not do what the old "replace ABphoneformats.plist" did. I've yet to see how it will work.

Thanks Nathan.

For leopard users, note that "File > Connect to Server" is now "Shell > New Remote Connection".

This works, but the list of Australian format masks it draws on is quite limited - only four items. It formats standard landline numbers fine, but it leaves mobile numbers as a continuous block of ten numbers. Mobile numbers with an international prefix are formatted to look like landline numbers.

I am using the International settings application, so I can revert to US settings when travelling, but after adding the additional masks, the Aussie results were a lot better.

Cheers,

Nathan

Hi there Nathan,

I can't find my iphone when I use the terminal application. Any advice?

very simple solution..thanks for this

Provided you've got OpenSSH installed on your iPhone, and your phone is plugged into your computer, it should appear when you choose "Connect to Server" from Terminal's "File" menu and then select either SFTP or SSH.

If it doesn't, then you've exhausted my knowledge base and you'll have to hope someone else offers an answer.

Cheers,

Nathan

hey guys

ive got the number fix all working fine!

only problem is when i receive messages it displays

Text from +61 4 3456 7890

but when you go to your messages it shows the sender, right? Like Jack Sprat or whatever? Mine does after I followed the i.unlock instructions. The numbers arent bracketed but it seems my phone doesnt care. if the person is in my book, it knows who they are

nope, in my SMS section it shows the number same as above

+61 4 3456 7890

Now the question is whether you are complaining about the formatting, or the fact that it didn't recognise and identify the person it came from? Or both?

If the formatting is the problem, then the next question is which method did you use to fix the number format? If you used either the "International Menu" app or the paste the existing settings into the settings, then you will get the result described, because the number format masks it uses only put things into that landline format you've reported or, if there is no international prefix then as a ten digit block, eg. 0434567890. If you paste in the more comprehensive set of masks, then it should format properly, eg. +61 434 567 890.

If the problem is the lack of caller identification, then to fix this you have to persuade your iPhone to only take note of the last eight digits when matching to your address book. The instructions on how to do that can be found here.

And if you've already done all those things (since they were described in the first post in this thread) and it still doesn't work, then you've exhausted my limited knoweldge base and hopefully someone else can help you.

Cheers,

Nathan

Apologies if it's been covered before, but does this apply to 1.1.2 as well?

I searched and read up on i.unlock.no, but couldn't find anything that mentioned number formatting on 1.1.2.

Cheers
- Febs.