iPhone 8 & SUICA Fails

[TAG Manager]

I'm truly annoyed at this point.

I had a number of issues getting SUICA to work properly on my iPhone 8.
After a call to the support center, I got the first issue sorted and it worked fine for weeks!

All the sudden a few days ago, the SUICA app refused to charge my SUICA card.
It kept saying wait for the procedure to finish over two days and it never did.

THEN!!! the card is just dropped form my phone and it refuses to add the card again.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

I've not had time to deal with this but I got super comfortable in using my phone for SUICA stuff.

Anyone else have such problems? Or, is it just me???


I got two bad fortunes at the new year, so maybe this is just a result of that...

 

[Mr Cat]

is the suica thing compatible with iPhone 6s?

 

[TAG Manager]

is the suica thing compatible with iPhone 6s?

I think it was from iPhone 7 onwards...

 

[ShikkokuNoSenshi]

I'm truly annoyed at this point.

I had a number of issues getting SUICA to work properly on my iPhone 8.
After a call to the support center, I got the first issue sorted and it worked fine for weeks!

All the sudden a few days ago, the SUICA app refused to charge my SUICA card.
It kept saying wait for the procedure to finish over two days and it never did.

THEN!!! the card is just dropped form my phone and it refuses to add the card again.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

I've not had time to deal with this but I got super comfortable in using my phone for SUICA stuff.

Anyone else have such problems? Or, is it just me???


I got two bad fortunes at the new year, so maybe this is just a result of that...

Does that iphone suica has real counterpart? Or it generates during registration in app? Because if later then I do not know how now you can confirm to support that it has ever existed.

 

[TAG Manager]

Does that iphone suica has real counterpart? Or it generates during registration in app? Because if later then I do not know how now you can confirm to support that it has ever existed.

You pair an existing SUICA card to the phone and that physical suica card can be turned back in for the deposit. (can't be used again after pairing)
I think you can make a SUICA card form the app, but I didn't do it that way since I had an existing card.

Luckily, I have a separate card for business and my credit card has a built-in SUICA as well, so I have backups... but I liked using my phone.

 

[ur19877]

@TAG Manager - talk about first world problems..hehe (please don't ban me)

Seriously...I'm jealous of the people using Suica from their phone..i researched it before, and rehash my memory, I foundfound an interesting fact...
"Due to Japanese law, all Japanese smartphones must play an audible shutter noise when taking a photo."

and while I link SUICA to my iphone, I could use my apple watch ( if it was series 2 and higher..)

http://timoliver.blog/2016/10/30/using-suica-on-iphone-when-travelling-to-japan/

 

[Maxblack]

"Due to Japanese law, all Japanese smartphones must play an audible shutter noise when taking a photo."

Not actually the law. More of an industry wide agreement to do so for the benefit of society. As enforced by the network carriers, hardware and OS makers, etc.

And I use Suica on my watch. Very “handy”.

 

[Sudsy]

"Due to Japanese law, all Japanese smartphones must play an audible shutter noise when taking a photo."

More of an industry wide agreement to do so for the benefit of society. As enforced by the network carriers, hardware and OS makers, etc.

The carriers and manuifacturers introduced this as a standard back in the 90s fearing that the police would lean on the politicians to implement a ban on devices not so equipped and cost them a fortune in lost sales and lost product.

It was effective, and a law was never enacted.

The reason for the furor in the first place was a proliferation of upskirt shots making it onto the Internet.

 

[Maxblack]

Indeed. I was here for the glorious I-mode days.
Anyone remember pocketbells?

 

[TheScientist]

Indeed. I was here for the glorious I-mode days.

Yeah, yet another reason I want/wanted to stab NTT in its collective face

Anyone remember pocketbells?

Yep. And having to carry multiple phone cards so I'd have enough credits to return pages rather than carrying a few Kg of ¥10 coins with me everywhere.

 

[Maxblack]

I knew several enterprising young gentlemen who kept me well supplied with “reused” phone cards.

 

[TheScientist]

I knew several enterprising young gentlemen who kept me well supplied with “reused” phone cards.

Lemme guess, all of the Persian Persuasion?

 

[Maxblack]

Not gonna lie; my main man was from Iraq and drove a heavily modded white Mitsubishi

 

[TAG Manager]

Not helping my SUICA problem.

 

[TheScientist]

Not helping my SUICA problem.

For what its worth I know people with Galapagos phones which were supposed to have SUICA built in from the start rather than added on later like with the iPhone who never got it right. Might just be another case of "the Japanese are good at hardware but suck at software".

 

[TAG Manager]

For what its worth I know people with Galapagos phones which were supposed to have SUICA built in from the start rather than added on later like with the iPhone who never got it right. Might just be another case of "the Japanese are good at hardware but suck at software".

Well. I tend to believe that the SUICA app is the source of the problem. I can't understand why they just didn't let it work with Apple Pay natively instead of forcing you to use a special SUICA app to to do the charging work. That was a nightmare to setup because I accidently put the wrong day of birth which didn't match my credit card and thus wouldn't allow the credit card to be used. The error wasn't clear and I wound up calling the service center to get that mess straight. I'll build up my patience and call them again to fix this problem, hopefully.

I did start to wonder of the latest iOS fucked up the SUICA app.... 'cause I updated to the latest release and that's about when this shit started happening. It worked flawlessly for weeks... so it sort of makes sense. I've just been too busy to bother to call anyone.

 

[bergmann]

The carriers and manuifacturers introduced this as a standard back in the 90s fearing that the police would lean on the politicians to implement a ban on devices not so equipped and cost them a fortune in lost sales and lost product.

It was effective, and a law was never enacted.

The reason for the furor in the first place was a proliferation of upskirt shots making it onto the Internet.

My current smartphone is a Motorola Moto G4S (or something like that), cheap-ish and SIM free, bought in Japan through normal retail channels, makes merely a discreet shutter sound when taking photos. Not that I feel in any way tempted to use it for upskirt shots.

I've hacked Suica/Pasmo functionality into it by storing the card in the phone case. No hassle with apps, appstores, updates, upgrades, guaranteed to work even when the battery dies.

 

[ShikkokuNoSenshi]

My current smartphone is a Motorola Moto G4S (or something like that), cheap-ish and SIM free, bought in Japan through normal retail channels, makes merely a discreet shutter sound when taking photos. Not that I feel in any way tempted to use it for upskirt shots.

I've hacked Suica/Pasmo functionality into it by storing the card in the phone case. No hassle with apps, appstores, updates, upgrades, guaranteed to work even when the battery dies.

Oh these modern hackers Kappa

 

[MikeH]

Oh these modern hackers Kappa

I am now worried he will hack my profile picture and chase me down.

 

[bergmann]

I have already forensically enhanced the image using a Visual Basic GUI and am running an FBI check on your nose profile.

 

[TheScientist]

I can't understand why they just didn't let it work with Apple Pay natively instead of forcing you to use a special SUICA app to to do the charging work.

you've lived in this country how long?

Remember, this is the land which instead of just accepting TCP/IP tried to setup its own OSI stack based protocols. Nothing can be simple here. Somewhere deep within the Felica subdivision of Sony there was a whole committee of oyajis meeting with the JR SUICA oyajis, all making that tooth sucking sound while pondering how to implement SUICA on iPhone.

 

[TAG Manager]

you've lived in this country how long?

Long enough.

Somewhere deep within the Felica subdivision of Sony there was a whole committee of oyajis meeting with the JR SUICA oyajis, all making that tooth sucking sound while pondering how to implement SUICA on iPhone.

I don't know any of the background on the implementation but I saw some of the backend when they started allowing other IC cards to work across Japan instead of per region or system.

 

[TheScientist]

I saw some of the backend when they started allowing other IC cards to work across Japan instead of per region or system.

EXACTLY the same technology but something like 20 different incompatible implementations nationwide. You have to kind of admire the Japanese for this kind of thing, their dedication to reinventing the wheel over and over and over.

 

[Sudsy]

I did start to wonder of the latest iOS fucked up the SUICA app.... 'cause I updated to the latest release and that's about when this shit started happening. It worked flawlessly for weeks... so it sort of makes sense. I've just been too busy to bother to call anyone.

Honestly, the only issue I've had with Suica was transferring it from my 7 to my 8. That process is not at all intuitive... but it's otherwise worked flawlessly.

If it's refusing to "add" it back, you may need to "transfer" it instead.

 

[Maxblack]

So thread drift but possibly relevant. As with most things in Japan, Docomo had an agreement with the domestic handset makers: keep making (hugely unprofitable) Galapagos handsets (that you can’t sell anywhere else) and we will sell them to our customers, effectively blocking the major global players.
Until the iPhone.
Jobs famously had two meeting in Tokyo. In the AM he met the senior leaders of Docomo who gave him the same requirements they gave every other handset maker: external antenna, docomo logo on the outside, default install of a bunch of docomo only stuff, etc.
Then in the afternoon Jobs met with Son at SoftBank who said “Give me a million iPhones and send me more when I sell them all.”

Needless to say within a very short time the iPhone was the most popular handset in Japan, SoftBank was propelling itself from mediocre JPhone / Vodafone status to a major carrier and technology player, and domestic handset makers were in a panic to compete in the new smartphone space. Which required software and a good OS; something at which domestic hardware makers are traditionally quite bad.

Docomo however continues to dominate the domestic market, and chairs key committees like digital payments integration. iPhone / iWallet / applePay is begrudgingly accepted but ONLY because silly domestic customers are traitors to their native hardware makers.

There is very little incentive to make Suica compatible with applePay, or even better to replace Suica with a more globally accepted digital payments standard.