Not so much computer as a phone issue

[Newportnobby]

I was using it to send pics back to Australia both times we met up, Mick

Therein lies a problem, cos my Galaxy A12 puts 0044 in front of every contact I have in Whatsapp.
Therefore if, for example, I want to send a message/pic to George his contact number is +61.......... but when my phone puts 0044 in front the number becomes nonsensical and nothing goes through

[zwilnik]

I was using it to send pics back to Australia both times we met up, Mick

Therein lies a problem, cos my Galaxy A12 puts 0044 in front of every contact I have in Whatsapp.
Therefore if, for example, I want to send a message/pic to George his contact number is +61.......... but when my phone puts 0044 in front the number becomes nonsensical and nothing goes through

Just a guess, but if you have George in your contacts list, try checking that his country is set for his address (rather than just in his phone number). It might be it's trying to be 'clever' and assumes he's in the UK, so 'cleverly' corrects the number you use.

[Bealman]

I didn't have any success sending you stuff either, Mick, but that was a while back. I'll have another shot at it.

[Newportnobby]

I was using it to send pics back to Australia both times we met up, Mick

Therein lies a problem, cos my Galaxy A12 puts 0044 in front of every contact I have in Whatsapp.
Therefore if, for example, I want to send a message/pic to George his contact number is +61.......... but when my phone puts 0044 in front the number becomes nonsensical and nothing goes through

Just a guess, but if you have George in your contacts list, try checking that his country is set for his address (rather than just in his phone number). It might be it's trying to be 'clever' and assumes he's in the UK, so 'cleverly' corrects the number you use.

Just tried that but it failed again. Thanks anyway

[Bealman]

Nah, it's solvable. I love a problem!

[zwilnik]

Found this Reddit post after a search.  Looks like you have to create 2 numbers in your contacts
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsapp/comments/camb41/whatsapp_is_automatically_adding_the_wrong/

[Newportnobby]

Not sure I'm following that
They seem to be someone from abroad who visited the UK and during their stay Whatsapp put +44 in front of the numbers of all their contacts, which they can manually correct although a PITA

[Trainfish]

Hopefully not stating the obvious but you have removed the first 0 haven't you? So if George's number was 07123456789 it should be entered as +617123456789

[zwilnik]

Not sure I'm following that
They seem to be someone from abroad who visited the UK and during their stay Whatsapp put +44 in front of the numbers of all their contacts, which they can manually correct although a PITA

Yes, I think the gist of it is once you start putting the country code in front (or it decides yours is +44 for instance) it automatically drops that in front of anything starting in 0 as it assumes you're in the same country. So the 'fix' is to create 2 numbers for each contact, one with and one without their country code.

As Trainfish suggested though, it's worth checking the numbers haven't been entered with a leading 0.

[Newportnobby]

Hopefully not stating the obvious but you have removed the first 0 haven't you? So if George's number was 07123456789 it should be entered as +617123456789

Nah. After the +61 the number begins with '2'

[kelstonlad]

Yes, I think the gist of it is once you start putting the country code in front (or it decides yours is +44 for instance) it automatically drops that in front of anything starting in 0 as it assumes you're in the same country. So the 'fix' is to create 2 numbers for each contact, one with and one without their country code.

I used to do a lot of international travel, and used the same solution mentioned above. A PITA, but it did work. This was for regular phone calls and SMS though, so not sure if Whatsapp is just picking up the phone's numbers from some central db, or just obeying its own rules.

[Newportnobby]

So the 'fix' is to create 2 numbers for each contact, one with and one without their country code.

I fail to see how that would work. If, for example, George's number is +61 2 123456789 and my phone sticks 0044 in front it becomes 0044 +61 2 123456789 and we know that doesn't work.
If I alter his number to just 2 123456789 and my phone sticks 0044 in front it becomes 0044 2 123456789 and, Shirley, that is a nonsense UK number rather than a pukka Aussie one?

[Nbodger]

Mick,

Try it as 0061 instead of +61,  that is how international calls are stored in my address book, just a thought

[zwilnik]

So the 'fix' is to create 2 numbers for each contact, one with and one without their country code.

I fail to see how that would work. If, for example, George's number is +61 2 123456789 and my phone sticks 0044 in front it becomes 0044 +61 2 123456789 and we know that doesn't work.
If I alter his number to just 2 123456789 and my phone sticks 0044 in front it becomes 0044 2 123456789 and, Shirley, that is a nonsense UK number rather than a pukka Aussie one?

it's down to how the bug in WhatsApp is interpreting the numbers. It may be recognising it correctly if the length with the international code on is correct in one copy vs a shorter version in another. WhatsApp isn't the best bit of programming in the world so it's likely whatever causes it, is some weird and strange bug that requires weird and strange workarounds.

[Newportnobby]

Mick,

Try it as 0061 instead of +61,  that is how international calls are stored in my address book, just a thought

That's how I first had it, Mike. I changed it to +61 as a friend's missus said she had no problem using hers that way.