Help! Disable Amber Alerts?

[Carini33]

You can enable this in the field test on Lumia's - ##3282# -> Settings -> Toggle CMAS RMT (reboot required). I just did last night and it just did some monthly test on my phone. I didn't know what the hell CMAS was until I found this thread.

 

[RumoredNow]

The underlying tech of these Alerts is Cell Broadcasting. Cell Broadcast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I like having the alerts enabled to their maximum usage. Even if your phone is off - or in airplane mode - you will get any un-expired alerts when you come back online. It broadcasts to every capable device within range of the cell. If you move into the cell and the message has not expired, you will get it automatically. Carrier service is not even required (just like you don't have to have a working plan to dial 911).

There are times of natural disaster, weather emergency, civil unrest, etc. where you would absolutely want this feature.

In the OP's case, where the Amber Alert repeated hourly, that must have been a glitch where the message received portion of the alert wasn't coded properly:

A Cell Broadcast message page is composed of 82 octets, which, using the default character set, can encode 93 characters. Up to 15 of these pages may be concatenated to form a Cell Broadcast message. Each page of such a CB message will have the same message identifier (indicating the source of the message), and the same serial number. Using this information, the mobile telephone is able to identify and ignore broadcasts of already received messages.

As for receiving an alert in San Antonio for an event in Dallas, it isn't uncommon for an Amber Alert to have a wide ranging area due to the fact that abductors generally don't stay within the area where the abduction has just taken place.

I've never had a problem with an Alert repeating on me... I also love to stay informed in an emergency.

Outside of configuring for Alerts received - no other issues are due to carrier, OS, device type... Cell Broadcast ignores all those conditions.

 

[retyler]

This does appear on the Lumia 920 with AT&T. I think it comes with the GDR3 update. I received my first Amber Alert today.

 

[Cam Kirmser]

I don't find it Orewellian at all. I actually find it very useful. The alerts aren't spewing out anything close to propaganda and it does have a history of helping find missing persons.

Whatever may be its usefulness, as a Free Citizen, I should be able to CHOOSE to turn it off, presidential or not.

 

[The Jimmy James]

When the damn thing blew me out of my chair as I was listening to music in my JBLs, I knew it had to be disabled.

 

[slothound]

For the Lumia 1020 on AT&T nothing seems to work other than putting the phone in airplane mode or removing the SIM card. I tried changing my emergency alert settings to "Presidential only" Since then I have had the same amber alert interrupt a video that I have been trying to record all afternoon for the FOURTH FREAKING TIME! :angry:

I am all for helping find lost children, being aware of impending disaster and hearing about threats to homeland security but for the love of god if I'm not leaving the house today I should be able to opt out of these alerts without having to put my phone in airplane mode. Unless the carjacker drives through my house, what are the odds that I will see him from my living room? Even if by some miracle he parks in my driveway one alert is enough don't you think?

 

[Tom Snyder]

For the Lumia 1020 on AT&T nothing seems to work other than putting the phone in airplane mode or removing the SIM card. I tried changing my emergency alert settings to "Presidential only" Since then I have had the same amber alert interrupt a video that I have been trying to record all afternoon for the FOURTH FREAKING TIME! :angry:

I am all for helping find lost children, being aware of impending disaster and hearing about threats to homeland security but for the love of god if I'm not leaving the house today I should be able to opt out of these alerts without having to put my phone in airplane mode. Unless the carjacker drives through my house, what are the odds that I will see him from my living room? Even if by some miracle he parks in my driveway one alert is enough don't you think?

Mine has been going off continuously all night, this is crazy.

One alert per hour would not be bad, mine is going off every 10 minutes. This is crazy.

 

[Tom Snyder]

Whatever may be its usefulness, as a Free Citizen, I should be able to CHOOSE to turn it off, presidential or not.

I totally agree with you and California it sucks to think some turn their liberty over to a nanny state mentality.

 

[cunnipa]

Have a Nokia 920 on AT and T. Had to disable it today. Got an amber alert message at 12:30 a.m. for a missing child 50 miles and 2 major metropolitan areas away. I'm not going to find this kid from my bedroom with my eyes closed. I had only gotten a handful of these messages prior to this, all within the last 6 months, and they were all during the daytime.

 

[Szuwarski Ziom]

you are not finding it because you re not swiping from system settings to applications
once you are in settings look at the top system is highlighted but right next to it is ---- wait for it ---- applications and once you are there - you'll find all kind of goodies cortana, messaging, maps, office, phone

once in messaging swipe all the way to emergency alerts and there you can turn it off!

hope you find it !

 

[Madscore1]

I didn't know that was possible to do ...