• Software

  • iPhone 4 Region/Number formatting

I've just had this very weird problem at work today. One of my colleagues owns a 3GS and she was asking me how to make her phone number display like they do on my iPhone 4 and I thought it was a matter of simple tweaking in the options.

So I go to Settings -> General -> International -> Region Format and find out she had U.S.A selected.

I tried to search for Lebanon but I couldn't find it until I went to Arabic -> Lebanon.

The number formatting now worked, however every date on the phone has turned to Arabic. Calendar, clock.. you name it.

I take a look on my iPhone and find that I have Lebanon showing on the list without having to go to Arabic. I said what the hell, let me try to put my phone to Arabic -> Lebanon and then switching back just to see how the Arabic would display on my screen. And there you go. Lebanon suddenly disappeared from the original list of Region Format and now the only way I can have my calendar/dates/clock in English is to select US/UK or any other English-speaking country at the expense of losing the phone number formatting.

I am not sure how to explain this more, but for me having a number display like XXX-XXXX-X is annoying and I'd rather have it back as XX XXX XXX.

Anyone has encountered this issue or knows how to fix it? I've surfed the internet and always seem to end up on old forum threads that don't help at all.

Thanks!
Nope, its not the same as the original Lebanon format for numbers.
I think Liechtenstein too. No you will not have xx-xxx xxx but it will be one block - and not the annoying big number format like 701 2536 3.
It's correctly formatted if you use +961 and then the number. I have the same issue here, I have no idea how to make them correctly, if someone knows, please tell me.
6 days later
if you are jailbroken, look up for format fix in ispazio repo in cydia
Yep. Done that few days ago and failed to update this thread :)

Works perfectly now.
a month later
Can you please tell us how it exactly works . Because it's not working on my end ??

Thank you.
8 months later
If you want something that always works,

1-Install "iFile" or ssh to your device,
2-then go to "/var/mobile/Library/Preferences" on your device,
3-(Make Sure To Show Hidden Files) if using "iFile",
4-open ".GlobalPreferences.plist" with a text editor or Property List Viewer.
5-go all the way down to "AppleLocale",
6-change the "<string>ar_LB</string>" or whatever is there to "<string>en_LB</string>",
7-save and exit,
8-respring or reboot.

if you backup your device and later on restore this backup to any phone without jailbreak it will still be there, just make sure you don't change the localization by mistake coz you have to do this again.

Good Luck
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After upgrading to ios5 i got the format xx xxx xxx without doing anything
Just add the country code before the number, ex:
+961 3 xxx xxx
+961 70 xxx xxx
+961 71 xxx xxx
+961 76xxxxxx (Yeah I think it is a bug with numbers that start with 76)
+961 1 xxx xxx

Plus this is the only way to have the facetime button show up for the contacts who have a mobile number added. I have an iphone 4 with iOS 4.3.5 and have been using facetime like crazy!
Go to options, select the last country in the list, I think it's Zimbabwe. That uses Lebanon's format.