If you are seeing text messages coming in from the year 2016 and thinking this is a total WTF (mate?!), put down the phone. There is no need to break the phone. It’s fine. Nearly all WM phones are experiencing this right now. I repeat, there is no need to break the phone! There is a fix for this that requires maybe five minutes of your time.
DISCLAIMER: You do this on your own terms. I am in no way liable if you follow these instructions and damage or render useless anything at all including but not limited to your phone. You accept that you are 100% liable for any actions you take based on this or any reference from or to this posting. In other words, you can’t hold me accountable if you screw up your phone which I know you love and cherish. This hack worked for me. YMMV. Are you still reading this part? Move along now…nothing to see here.
I was pointed to this post on twitter today when I complained about it being 2016 all of a sudden (thanks @thines01!): http://www.wmexperts.com/y2016-sms-bug
Seems a new bug has afflicted our phones today: text messages come dated six years from now.
So unless something really weird happened last night, we're seeing a nasty bug in our little gizmos. Here's what we know as of now:
- Messages received after 1/1/2010 may be dated as 2016
- Effects WM6.1, WM6.5 and even non-Windows Mobile phones
- It is ROM independent, meaning switching won't help
All Some carriers seem to be experiencing this bug, but T-Mobile seems fine - HTC and LG are aware, but no official response yet
The fix is actually really simple. You will need a registry editor (or you can just install the cab from the site in the link above – I’ve heard it’s also on PPCGeeks).
1. Find this key: HKLM\Software\OEM\SMS
2. Add a new DWord Value named RecvTimeStamp with a Decimal value of 1.
3. Add a new String Value named Language with a value of 100. NOTE: Unsure if this is required or not. Try it without first.
4. Close the registry editor.
5. Wait.
6. Wait for a new SMS message to come in.
7. Look at that…nice. Now what to do about those other ones that are showing ABOVE the new messages? That’s for you to figure out.
There you go. I actually said the same in less than 140 characters as well. Good luck!