Does SMS have the hiccups? Are the Clouds leaking? Pictures are being sent on their own, watch for it!

I have not researched this phenomena online, it could be this is already a known issue that I only just discovered myself. Rather than bias myself, I'm just going to share my experience because I think anyone who takes pictures with their phones and sends them via SMS might want to know that those pictures (and potentially others that weren't sent) are being automatically re-sent 3-5 days later. Your participation sending the second message is not required.

It started for me in August. My sister uses an iPhone and texts almost exclusively with SMS (not Messenger). On August 11, 2016 she sent me a picture at 9:21 pm. Then, 3 days later, almost to the minute, August 14 at 9:17 pm, I received the picture again. I brushed it off as her just sending it again by mistake, I didn't really think about it.

However, earlier that day, August 14 at 1:57 pm, she sent another picture with the definition of the Mandala Effect on it. On August 17 at 1:46 pm, I got that picture again. I figured it was because I hadn't commented on it from her previous text and, like a dog with a bone, she was gonna get my opinion on it one way or another! And it would be just like my sister to send that particular picture a second time because of the double-meaning and all that.

I still didn't understand that she wasn't actually sending it the second time. It wasn't until the third time it happened that I questioned her on it and she didn't know what I was talking about. I let it go because I was starting to get concerned that she actually was forgetting things and that made me nervous. I knew if I told her, she might get paranoid too as Parkinson's runs in our family on our Mother's side and I didn't want to get her upset. It did create a desire in me to pay closer attention, just in case.

Here are the remaining glitched messages from my sister:

August 25, 10:05 pm second time August 28 10:01 pm (2d23h56m)
August 26, 8:42 pm second time August 29, 8:30 pm (2d23h48m)
August 26, 8:45 pm second time August 29, 8:31 pm (2d23h46m)
August 26, 8:45 pm second time August 29, 8:31 pm (2d23h46m)
September 5, 4:06 pm second time September 8 4:00 pm (2d23h54m)
October 16, 9:08 pm second time October 19, 9:02 pm (2d23h54m)
October 16, 9:09 pm second time October 19, 9:02 pm (2d23h53m)
October 20, 10:04 pm second time October 23, 10:01 pm (2d23h57m)
October 20, 10:06 pm second time October 23, 10:02 pm (2d23h56m)

All ~3 days

It was during the October ones that I fully realized it was a glitch connected to her phone that I assumed must be iPhone related because it only ever happened with her. I rarely SMS anymore, usually just close friends and relatives have my phone number, so my sample is admittedly small.

A friend who travels with us to work also has an iPhone, so I asked her if she'd been experiencing anything like that with her phone. And she told me that she had sent a picture to someone and they received 30 additional pictures along with it, many of which had been deleted off of her phone before she sent him the picture. Now that's disturbing and has the potential to manifest all kinds of worms!!! It's also what led me to wonder if the Clouds might be leaking somehow on Apple's end.

On October 27 at 6:58 am, my niece snapped a selfie of us and sent it to me via SMS on her iPhone so I could have it too. Lo and behold, I got that message a second time on October 30 at 6:16 pm. The lag time for this one jumped half a day to 3d11h42m. I definitely noticed the time lag difference here, it's also what prompted me to look a little closer at the lag time for my sister's texts. I assumed that it might be due to my niece being in a different time zone and a different country but it is curious that it's half a day longer, that's a fairly large difference compared to my sister. It leads me to believe there may be more than one thing contributing to this strange technological behaviour.

On October 31 at 7:30 am I ran a test. I was still thinking it had something to do with Apple somehow, so I asked our travel friend to send both my husband and I a picture to see if it gets re-sent to us later. It was partly to help her too, it's upsetting to think your phone is sending messages of any kind without your knowing it. I get that.

So this picture finally returns this morning and it gets a little weirder. Firstly, only my phone got the second resend, hubby's phone didn't get it. (She used SMS to send them to both of us). Secondly, I heard the notification ding on my phone around 7:45 am this morning (November 4) but when I looked at the message, it says it was sent last night, November 3 at 7:16 pm. If I go by the time stamp on the phone, it took 3d11h44m, similar to my niece, but the time I actually got it was 4 days later. Another half day got in there somehow... And I have no way of tracking that difference on any of the previous texts if the notification and time-stamp are that far off. I will pay closer attention now though.

At this point, I was starting to accept the possibility that it was my phone because I did get a new Nexus 6P back at the end of July. This is likely related to the issue somehow given that my hubby didn't get the second resend (not yet anyway) and we use the same carrier and we both have Androids (his phone is an LG). However, when I got to work and discussed it with a co-worker, he whips out his phone because it happened to him a couple of weeks ago! He sent someone a picture and three days later he got a text from the guy wanting to know why he sent the picture again. To which he replied that he didn't and a small argument erupted. LOL He was pretty excited to find out he did indeed send that picture! The thing is, he uses a Blackberry (yes, they still exist apparently, that's nice. Go CANADA!!!), not an iPhone.

Upon further discussion amongst a few of us regarding the implications (both funny and maybe not so funny, depends), another co-worker suggested it may be SMS related. Perhaps some faulty old programming in a network all the major carriers use that is only getting noticed by the newer phones like mine, for whatever reason?

I don't know what could be causing it, I'm no technological expert. I am an engineer though and when I use technology, I expect it to work and I notice when things are not working as intended. It's a symptom of a system in desperate need of a major upgrade, that much is certain. We're seeing that in lots of systems lately, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise. This really smells of a systemic core programming issue that isn't able to keep up. Or perhaps it's something as simple as one clock somewhere being out of sync with another one.

Recalibrating instruments is always one of the first tasks eliminated to save money so it stands to reason, based on the reality of costs, policies and procedures (also in need of massive recalibration, I might add) over the past 2-3 decades, that not maintaining those things can cause bigger headaches down the road than the cost to maintain them now. I believe what we're seeing is the long term result of this type of corporate behaviour. I'm happy the shareholders had a good ride though, they earned it. But it might be time to shut down for a while and do some maintenance.

In the meantime, I'm going to share this with my friends so they are aware of the glitch. It may even settle some arguments based on nothing! And that's always a good thing.

Blessings all!

EDIT: All times listed are AST, northern hemisphere