Polaris Mobile Carriers in patron record & Modern SMS sending solution

Polaris
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We’ve had some good discussion lately around mobile carrier data in Polaris on Discord now that many libraries are using MessageBee (or similar) instead of Polaris’s old email-to-SMS functionality, which has been broken for several years. Sharing a summary here on the forum in case it helps others.

Do we still need accurate specific mobile carrier options?

Short answer: no, but you probably need at least ONE generic one.

Several libraries noted that:

  • Carrier data becomes outdated quickly (roughly 12–15% of U.S. residents change carriers each year). So there is likely very little value in trying to maintain it if your current SMS system doesn’t need it.

  • Polaris’s built-in email-to-SMS feature hasn’t been used in years at many sites.

  • MessageBee and most other current providers don’t rely on knowing the patron’s actual carrier.

Common approach: one generic carrier

A pattern that’s working well:

  • Keep one generic carrier or rename the Get Patron Mobile Carrier Info one (e.g., “Any Mobile Carrier”, “Yes” or similar).

  • Bulk-update all patrons who receive text messages to that carrier.

  • Remove or suppress all other carrier options.

The “undefined / negative ID” carrier hack

One library shared another workaround:

  • Polaris has an “Undefined Carrier” with a weird negative CarrierID.

  • That carrier must exist, or Polaris behaves badly.

  • Instead of fighting it, they repurposed it:

    • Set its gateway to the MessageBee domain (e.g., @librarymsg.messagebee.com).

    • Changed the carrier display text to something user-friendly like “Yes”.

    • Updated PAC/LEAP wording to: “Would you like to receive text messages from the library?” and then present the “Yes” option in the drop down.

Result:

  • Patrons who select Yes get texts.

  • Patrons who leave it unchanged get nothing.

  • All patrons using SMS were bulk-updated via SQL to that single carrier.

  • All other carriers were removed from the dropdown.

Important gotchas

  • Double check with your new provider just to make sure they don’t need carrier specific entries before making any changes.

  • Do not delete the undefined/negative-ID carrier. Things break.

  • If a carrier option is suppressed, Polaris may reassign patrons to Carrier: None.

  • Carrier = None will likely NOT export SMS data to MessageBee (confirmed by multiple libraries).

    • Innovative/MessageBee implementations sometimes incorrectly state that “None” is fine — it isn’t.

    • Patrons must be tied to some carrier record, even a fake/generic one.

Bulk updates

  • Polaris Client/LEAP does not support bulk carrier changes.

  • Options libraries have used:

    • SQL (if you have access).

    • Ticket to have Innovative apply the bulk change.

Upgrade vigilance (older issue, but worth noting)

If you make this change and then upgrade from an older version of Polaris:

  • Watch carrier lists during Polaris upgrades.

  • Occasionally new carriers would appear and be auto-enabled.

This seems less common now, but still worth a quick check post-upgrade.

If others have found different approaches (especially cleaner ones), it’d be great to hear how you’re handling carriers with MessageBee or Innovative SMS.

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