Garoga's dashboard

i also have problems my network is vodafone pt. My confirmation code isnt't sent could't someone validate my phone number please.
my twitter username is thewor

for me, i can't even send updates via text!!! it stopped abruptly on Saturday!!
i don't think its my provider's problem because they show that the message has been sent!!

Bravo! You couldn't have said it any better !
"A lot of us would be a lot happier if Twitter could get the ON command to work from the Web." – eyes, on May 26, 2008 12:36

Haha! Yes, "faq-answer" is my tag. I didn't realize someone else had noticed it. I use it to quickly find threads that have replies that I know I'll need to link to in the future, when new users come in asking the same questions. 8-) – mdy, on May 24, 2008 13:23

Thanks, mdy! - hope my scrapings from trawling around endless topics on this issue will help a few users decide what to try and when they should just give up. - Someone has kindly tagged this topic (and a few others) "faq-answer", which should help in finding it. – Eridanus, on May 24, 2008 13:09

Fantastic summary! – mdy, on May 24, 2008 12:53

Thanks, Crystal and Jack!

Your *interim* reply is the most comprehensive and useful explanation I've discovered so far - though there is clearly still work for you all before SMS updates work as reliably as the various national providers permit.

As I currently understand it:

1. SMS updates are very easy to turn OFF, from wherever you like (Web, phone, ...).

2. Twitter automatically turns SMS updates OFF whenever one of their their SMS fails to trigger a prompt confirmation of delivery from your phone network, for any reason at all. Your mobile service provider may have a temporary problem, your phone's battery needs charging, your phone can't get a signal, it's busy reorganising its memory, or whatever.

3. When Twitter goes down, SMS updates will probably go OFF too - and may very occasionally (though more probably not) go back ON when Twitter returns.

4. The only way to turn SMS updates ON is to send a classical SMS from your phone to the relevant Twitter No. (the international No. +447624801423 in my case) - quite expensive for some people. I'm certainly not going to do THAT 30 times a month! Using a 3rd. party app. running on your phone isn't enough: Twitter wants a "genuine" SMS to confirm SMS is working for your phone.

This classical SMS needn't be an ON message: a normal 140-character update will tell Twitter that SMS is working on your phone and turn SMS updates ON (until the next hiccough turns it back OFF).

For what it's worth:
I sent ON (to +447624801423) yesterday, immediately received Twitter's SMS confirmation, and received all 9 expected SMS updates over the next few hours.
Today, however, I've received nothing (should have been 2 SMS so far) - result of last night's downtime? Or were SMS updates affected by this? :-

"Given an overflow of IM traffic, we're going to shut off IM services for the night while things recover. We'll keep you updated!"
[blog link: http://blog.twitter.com/2008/05/too-m...

5. For some people even this classical SMS isn't enough: they have to delete & re-register their phone to persuade SMS updates to work again for a few hours. This is risky, because sometimes a deleted phone won't re-register.

6. *** A lot of us would be a lot happier if Twitter could get the ON command to work from the Web. ***

7. Twitter could wait longer (e.g. two successive non-confirmations of delivery) before automatically turning SMS updates OFF. (Might be cumbersome to implement, though: introducing an extra database of pending c-of-d's with a counter for each user).

8. I'd really like to recommend Twitter to my friends - but at present this SMS problem makes Twitter just too fiddly for non-geeks to be bothered with.

ok, ill do it. thanks.

I suggest you log an issue directly with Twitter support at http://twitter.com/help and provide as much info as you can, including your country, your phone carrier, whether or not this is a recent problem or if you've never received an sms notification on your phone before... and so on. – mdy, on May 15, 2008 15:23

Nop, I don't.

When you send ON or HELP or STATS via sms to Twitter, do you get a response back? – mdy, on May 15, 2008 07:29

I have the same problem ._.
I can send updates, and they show on twitter ok but I cannot recieve notifications.

I've tried sending ON and checking my settings to be on and all.. but nope, it still not working

I have the same problem ._.
I can send updates, and they show on twitter ok but I cannot recieve notifications.

I've tried sending ON and checking my settings to be on and all.. but nope, it still not working