Some of our readers are reporting Messages and iMessage Problems in iOS 11. Specifically, at times texts don’t appear to work at all–and texts are not getting sent and delivered! So if your iDevices are running iOS 11 or higher and you’re having issues with Messages, don’t give up! We have some great tips here to troubleshoot these types of problems.
iOS 10 brought us a major iMessage overhaul, and we loved it! With iOS 11, things are a bit tamer. Even so, there are some really sweet new features to check-out including a few new screen effect (Echo and Spotlight) and a new, simplified App Drawer.
iOS 11’s Message App Drawer
We really like the new App Drawer! Sitting at the bottom of your Message screen, it’s a heck of a lot easier to access apps, emoji, games, stickers, and even Apple Pay in iOS 11. Just swipe and tap–that’s it.
Don’t Want To See Message’s App Drawer?
If you’re using a small-screen iPhone, like the SE or 5S, you might want that screen real estate typing your messages rather than showing the app drawer. Or maybe you just don’t want to see this feature. Whatever the reason, there is a trick that makes the app drawer disappear. And it’s easy.
Once you start or continue a message conversation, press and hold the gray App Store icon next to the text entry field. Keep holding for a few seconds and release—your app drawer is gone. But only temporarily. The next time you open that conversation or start another message, the app drawer returns.
Peer-to-Peer Payments
With your Apple Pay Messages app, sending and receiving money using Apple Pay and a connected debit or credit card is super simple. Of course, receiving is ALWAYS better than sending!
Send money in Messages with your Touch ID. Receive any peer-to-peer cash in Apple’s new Pay Cash Card in your Wallet app. Use this same Pay Cash Card for any Apple Pay purchases or transfer it to your linked bank account. Of course, sending money using Messages requires an Apple Pay-compatible device. But that’s a long list now, including iPhone SE, iPhone 6 models or later, all iPad Pro models, the iPad 5th generation, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3 or later, and your Apple Watches.
The Not-So-Great News?
Message Peer-to-Peer payments are for the US residents only…for now.
But the biggest iOS 11 Update for Messages is Storage Management
Okay, it’s not sexy and it’s probably not a lot of fun. But managing your iPhone’s, iPad’s, or iPod’s Storage is IMPORTANT. Especially for those of us with those 16GB phones, who know the pain of those ominous “Storage Almost Full” or “Cannot Take Photo” messages.
Gone are the days of agony and hello ecstasy! With OS 11, you can manually delete all those unwanted message attachments, including Conversations, Photos, Videos, GIFs, Stickers, and Others (like pdfs, audio files, and so forth.) To learn how to do it, see our article on Save iPhone Space By Getting Rid of Message Attachments.
Looking To Get Rid of The Delete Message Confirmation?
With the release of iOS 11.3, Apple added a new approval process for deleting texts and message conversations. Instead of simply swiping to delete, you now need to confirm your deletion requests. So now it’s a three step process to delete every message (swipe, tap delete, then confirm.)
Unfortunately, right now there is no way to go back to the old way of deleting messages and texts. So if you are one of the folks that really dislike this change, consider letting Apple know via its product feedback site.
We speculate that adding this confirmation is in preparation for the release of Messages in the Cloud.
Not Receiving iMessages? Is iMessage Down?
So sometimes it really is not YOU, it’s me (me=Apple, not AppleToolBox)! Periodically, Apple System Services go down. That includes a bunch of stuff, from the App Store to Apple Music to iCloud to iBooks AND of course, iMessage. So before you go to a lot of trouble, check out Apple’s System Status page to see if the problem is happening on their side of the fence.
iMessage Not Working on iPad or iPhone? Review the Basics!
In all our years of iOS updates and associated texting and Message App problems, the following ten tips fix most issues! So let’s start SIMPLE.
Quick Tips
Restart the Messages app by double tapping the Home button then swipe to the app to force quit. This action force quits the Messages app. Don’t worry you will not lose any data or messages. Then relaunch the Messages app
For iPhone X, close the Messages app by swiping up from the Gesture Bar until you see your app preview cards, then pause your finger or force touch until you see a red minus sign in the corners of the app cards. Then tap that minus sign or swipe up on the preview to close. Yeah it’s confusing!
For more instructions on closing apps on your iPhone X, read this article.
Make sure you are applying sufficient finger or stylus pressure to the Message send button (the upward pointing arrow icon to the right of your message.) And that you are holding that touch longer than usual to allow the send with effects menu to appear.
For iFolks with 3D Touch, a light touch is all you need
For iFolks without 3D Touch, a firm and long touch is what you need
Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and make sure your phone number AND Apple ID (or iCloud email) is present and has a checkmark next to it. This often fixes things immediately
Update Contact information. Go to Settings > Messages and toggle ON Show Contact Photos and Filter Unknown Senders
Restart your iOS device by pressing and holding the off/on button until you see the slider. Then slide the slider to turn off your device
Turn on Airplane Mode and turn off by going to Settings > Airplane Mode or with the Control Center Airplane Mode toggle
Turn off and on iMessage by going to Settings > Messages
Check that SMS and MMS are toggled on. Go to Settings > Messages and turn ON Send as SMS and MMS Messaging
Check your font size to see if it was reset after the update. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size. Adjust it to a smaller size
It is likely that a connection problem may cause this issue. Resetting network settings may fix this. Simply Tap Settings > General > Reset > choose Reset Network Settings
Some users stated that turning off WiFi Assist fixes this problem. If you want to try this tip, go to Settings > Cellular > and turn off Wi-Fi Assist
Make sure that the Date and Time setting is chosen “Set Automatically” by going to Settings > General > Date & Time
You may try to change your DNS settings and try again if this solves your iMessage problem. To do this, tap Settings > Wi-Fi. Locate your wireless connection then tap the (i) button. Now touch the DNS field and enter 8.8.8.8 (this is Google’s public DNS)
Try a Forced Restart
How-To Perform a Forced Restart on iPhone models
On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
On an iPhone X or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
Not Able to Use a Different Apple ID for Messages?
One major under-the-roof change in iOS 11 is that you are no longer able to sign in to iMessage using a different Apple ID. Messages now defaults to the primary iCloud Apple ID—the one that’s listed in Settings > Apple ID Profile.
So if you need to log into a separate Apple ID for Messages versus iCloud, here’s the workaround. First, sign out of iCloud by going to Settings > Apple ID Profile > Sign Out (scroll down to see this option.) Apple asks you for your password and confirms that you are signing out of Find My iPhone (iPad.)
Once fully signed out of iCloud, go back to your iMessage Settings and sign in with your other Apple ID. When iMessage activates, open your Message App and send/receive a few texts to confirm it’s working.
Once confirmed, go back to Settings and sign back into iCloud with your regular Apple ID.
Yes, what a pain indeed!!
iMessage Waiting for Activation?
Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage
Disable Facetime
Sign out of your Apple ID
Go to the Settings > iTunes & App Store > Tap Apple ID > Sign Out
Turn on Airplane mode
Wifi is turned OFF automatically.
Turn on Wifi
Return to Settings > Messages and turn on iMessage
Enter your Apple ID and password
Go to Settings and turn OFF Airplane mode
If you see a notification that says ‘Your carrier may charge for SMS’ – Tap OK
If not, go to Messages, turn OFF iMessage and then turn it ON again.
Give it a few minutes, and your iMessage should activate
Learn more tips on problems with iMessage activation in this article.
iMessage Problems: Effects Not Working
One of the most common complaints we hear is that your iMessage effects are not working. If your message effects aren’t working, check that both you (the sender) and the message recipient are running iOS 11. The full effects of iMessage only work when all receiving devices are running the latest iOS. If not, then most of these animations get sent as static images.
Is iMessage not working for one person?
If so, ensure that you are sending your messages via iMessage and not as SMS Text Messages. The quick and easy way to tell is iMessages are blue, and SMS/MMS Texts are green. Effects only work on iMessage texts–the blue ones.
And remember, iMessage effects only work on people with iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products. So if your friend or co-workers have an Android phone, effects do not go through. Yup, this is an easy one to forget.
Effects Still Not Working?
Check that you are pressing the on-screen buttons sufficiently. Remember, effects only appear when you do a long press on the send button (the upward pointing arrow icon to the right of your message.)
The first thing to verify is that Reduce Motion is OFF. Check General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Off
Emoji Not Working in iMessage?
Of course, iOS 11 brings along with it some new emoji. Included this year are a male yogi, an Elf, a Genie, a Zombie, a woman breastfeeding, a new zebra, a bearded person, a new dinosaur, and a woman wearing a hijab (headscarf.) And there’s a bunch of new yellow face emoji too–like star-struck and head-exploding. What fun, every year we get more and more emoji icons to express our feelings moment to moment, all without actually using words. Yes, a picture is worth a million words indeed.
Fix Predictive Emoji Not Showing
Sometimes, iMessage users experience issues with predictive emoji not showing up. Often, the predictive text bar fails to display a corresponding emoji, so users are forced to find them manually.
Go to Settings> General > Keyboard > Predictive. Toggle this ON and OFF a couple of times, ending up with it ON (green)
Go to Settings> General > Reset. Tap Reset Keyboard Dictionary. Enter your passcode if requested and tap Reset Dictionary again. Once Dictionary resets, return to Settings > General > Keyboards. And tap Edit and Delete the Emoji Keyboard. Once deleted, select Add New Keyboard and select the Emoji Keyboard
For those that have multiple keyboards installed, long press the globe icon and select the Emoji keyboard. Predictive emoji DOES NOT work in the Gboard Keyboard and other third-party keyboards. Currently, Gboard offers emoji suggestions in the keyboard’s top bar, right next to Google’s icon.
No Time? Check out our video for predictive emoji
Delayed Messages
If you are not receiving messages until several hours after they’re sent or messages from you are sitting in your sent messages, the problem is often how you set-up your FaceTime app. You may even receive a ‘delivered’ notice, but messages do not arrive promptly. Usually, this means your phone number does not show a check mark next to it in the FaceTime app.
To solve these ‘delayed message’ problems, change your phone’s settings. Go to Settings > FaceTime. Turn FaceTime off, then back on. You see a message that it’s waiting for activation. If asked, tap ‘use Apple ID for FaceTime.’ You know it’s ready when your phone number shows a check mark. Use iMessage and confirm it’s working properly.
If that didn’t work, sometimes a simple reboot can fix the issue with delayed messages. If still experiencing problems, sign out of every Messages and FaceTime accounts on every device and then re-sign into each one again. Some users also report problems with delayed messages when using a VPN.
Not Sending SMS Texts?
Are you having issues sending regular texts from your iPhone or cellular iPad following your update to the latest iOS? If so, check Settings > Messages > and check that both Send as SMS and MMS Messaging are ON. If they’re already on, try and toggle them off and then back on again.
Didn’t help? Try and toggle it off and restart or force restart. Once your device starts up, return to Message Settings and turn Send as SMS back on.
iPhone Not Sending Texts to Android?
Several readers tell us that their iPhones are not sending text messages to their Android friends and family. Fortunately, one reader found a solution that worked for them. First, before you send a text to that Android user, turn off both WiFi and Cellular Data via Settings Menu. Then, text that person with these off. After repeated attempts, iMessage gives you the message “not delivered.” Now, instead of frustration, turn your WiFi and Cellular Data back ON and tap that little icon next to “not delivered.” Now, send as a text message and the message gets delivered as a text message!!!
You need to do this procedure for each person—but only ONCE.
This workaround allowed me to send text messages to my friends and family members on Android. Hopes this helps you too!
iMessage Repeating Messages (sends the same message multiple times) or Alerts
When sending a Message to your friends, for some reason that message ends up being delivered two or three times. If you have this problem, try some of the fixes outlined above. This includes turning your iDevice on and off, restarting it, and resetting to factory settings.
If these steps still don’t solve the problem, try resetting your phone’s network settings by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Then turn iMessage off and then back on.
Reboot Your Message Notifications
Settings > Notifications > Messages, turn off Allow Notifications
Settings > Messages, turn off iMessage
Restart
Turn Message notifications back on, then turn iMessage back on, in that order
Set Alerts to Never
Settings> Notifications > Messages> Repeat Alerts > Never
If messages still repeat, contact Apple Support for additional solutions.
Are Your iMessage Conversations Out of Order?
This one is quite annoying and troublesome with messages not appearing in the order they are received or sent–making reading and following messages a nightmare! Unfortunately, quite a few readers report they have problems with their texts showing up in the wrong conversational order, requiring them to try and sort everything out so the text thread makes sense. While there isn’t one single fix that works for everyone, here’s a list of things that worked for our readers.
Fixes for when text messages show up out of order
For folks that own more than one Apple device that’s connected to the same Apple ID, check that the Date&Time on each device is the exact same. If not, update each device so they show the same information. Set manually if the feature Set Automatically isn’t mirroring the same time per each device. Setting the exact same time on all Apple ID connected devices helps to correct the timestamps on your messages
On a Mac, deselect “Set date and time automatically,” click today’s date on the calendar, drag the clock’s hands to show the correct time (or enter the time) then click Save
On iDevices, toggle off Set Automatically and tap Time Zone and enter the name of the city one letter at a time with the time zone that you want and press Search. If iOS cannot identify your city, choose a nearby city that’s in the same time zone. If that’s not an option, press the Date and choose your current time using the selection tool
Turn off automatic time and day by going to Settings > General > Date&Time and toggling off Set Automatically. Then restart your device and turn Set Automatically back on
Force restart ALL your Apple ID connected iDevices
On an iPhone X, iPhone 8, or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
On an iPhone 6s and earlier, iPad, or iPod touch: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
For Macs, reset your timestamp by going to System Preferences > Date & Time. Under the tab for Date & Time, deselect “Set date and time automatically,” click today’s date on the calendar, drag the clock’s hands to show the correct time (or enter the time), then click Save. Then, go back and turn back on “Set date and time automatically,” and choose the Apple network time server for your current (or desired) location
Not Seeing Back Arrow?
Several readers report that they are not seeing the back arrow to return to Message conversations after typing and sending a message. The only way to get back and see all messages is by closing and then opening the Message App–not at all efficient! Luckily, one reader, Jen, shared a great tip that worked for her: changing font size. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size. And reduce the size of your font. See if that makes a difference.
Also, please update to the latest iOS 11 release–we’ve gotten several reports that updating to the next minor update of iOS 11 fixed this particular and peculiar problem. To check if there’s an update go to Settings > General > Software Update.
Crashing While Trying to Type a Message
Some users have this very annoying problem. iMessage frequently crashes while using. One tip that works is turn off the following Keyboard Settings: Auto Cap, AutoCorrect, Predictive and Check Spelling. Go to Settings > General > Keyboards and turn these features OFF. This is more of a workaround, but it does work and mitigates the crashing problem.
‘Service Denied’ text message from ‘Unknown.’
Are you receiving a ‘Service Denied’ text message from sender ‘Unknown?’ Try toggling Cellular Data OFF and then back ON (Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data.) If that didn’t do the trick, report the message to your cellular company. The problem is likely your mobile phone carrier and not your Apple iDevice/iPhone.
One reader discovered that she didn’t get a message tone if a conversation is open. When she closed her open conversation threads, so only the headers are visible, her iPhone sounded text tones! Another tip is iPad users is to keep a New Message open so that existing conversations aren’t visible.
Lost Your Messages OR accidentally Deleted Them?
That’s the beauty of backing up! So if you routinely back up via iCloud or iTunes, don’t worry! Most likely, those messages are in your backups! Check out this article on how to retrieve those deleted Messages from backups.
Not Getting Messages on your Mac?
First, check Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and verify that your Apple ID, phone number, and all your email addresses (including iCloud email address) are checked. If requested, tap Use your Apple ID for iMessage. Next, launch the Messages app on your Mac and open Preferences via the top menu Messages > Preferences. Select Accounts, and verify that your email addresses are all listed. If not, select Add Email.
Once everything is verified and any emails are added, restart the Messages App on each device and see if everything works as expected!
Can’t Delete Message Content?
iOS 11 changes how we edit information and clear out things like attachments and photos inside our texts. There are now two ways of deleting things from message threads.
To delete information from within the individual conversation thread, open it and deep press on one item and choose “More…” from the pop-up menu. This option opens up tick boxes next to every item in your message thread. Check them to delete, uncheck to keep.
Additionally, we can now delete information from more than a single thread using the Settings App. Go to Settings > General > iPhone (or iPad, iPod touch) Storage > Messages setting. Navigate to this setting and look for the section Documents & Data. There you find 5 categories: Conversations, Photos, Videos, GIFs and Stickers, and Other. Tap on each to see what’s stored in your Messages and swipe to delete.
Yes, it’s not intuitive! And we’re not sure why Apple made this change–not very good user experience at all.
Group Message Issues?
A lot of folks using iOS 11 report problems messaging people that are in groups. In particular, when you type in a single contact’s name, iOS shows you all the groups that contain that contact first instead of just that individual contact. Only by scrolling down do you find that one person you’re looking for. And it appears the same happens when searching in conversations for a contact, iOS shows you all the group messages first.
And it’s super annoying! Unfortunately, the only workaround is to go to log into iCloud’s website from your Mac or PC. Then click on the iCloud Contact App. In left side menu at the bottom, click on the gear and choose refresh Contacts. Our reader Willie reports that this works–but only temporarily. So you need to refresh your iCloud Contacts on the iCloud website frequently.
Since we don’t have permanent a fix for this behavior, we encourage you to submit a report to Apple via their feedback site. Let Apple know what’s going on and hopefully, with enough voices sharing the same complaint, changes are made in the next minor iOS 11 updates.
To learn more about iOS 11’s Group Messaging, please check out Apple’s whitepaper.
Pictures Not Sending With Group Messages?
If you’re trying to send attachments, like photos or videos, via a group message and finding that it’s not working or is instead sending out individual texts to each person, check that your sending as iMessage and not SMS. Group SMS messages do not support multimedia attachments. All responses in a Group SMS are sent as individual text messages and the recipients can’t see the other responses from the group.
Not Sending OR Receiving Group Texts After iOS Update?
Some readers also report that they do not receive group messages from their Android friends! First, check that both MMS Messaging AND Group Messaging are ON by going to Settings > Messages > Group Messaging & MMS Messaging. Then try sending a group text or ask a friend to send a group text to you.
If that doesn’t work, leave your group conversation(s) and then start new ones.
Open your Messages app and select a group message thread
Tap on the “i” or “Details” button in the top-right corner
Scroll down and tap Leave this Conversation
Summary
Who doesn’t love sending text messages? And Apple’s Messages app makes it a lot more fun with all its special effects, iMessage games, and all that fun stuff!
But if you’re one of the unlucky who experiences problems, I hope these tips help you fix Messages and iMessage problems in iOS11. AND get your iMessage game back ON! If not, please share any tips with us in the comments below, so we add them as folks get to know iOS 11’s version of iMessage. Remember that tip (or tips) that work for you helps others in the same boat–and returns some good karma back to you! Enjoy the new Messages App and iOS 11!
For most of her professional life, Amanda Elizabeth (Liz for short) trained all sorts of folks on how to use media as a tool to tell their own unique stories. She knows a thing or two about teaching others and creating how-to guides!
Her clients include Edutopia, Scribe Video Center, Third Path Institute, Bracket, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Big Picture Alliance.
Elizabeth received her Master of Fine Arts degree in media making from Temple University, where she also taught undergrads as an adjunct faculty member in their department of Film and Media Arts.
When I use messenger, it will delete the message I am typing when it refreshes to show who is active on the top right hand column. How do I fix this. This only happens on my 7th generation iPad, not on my iPad Air.
The comparative number of hits seems to point that has got to be better practice.
They have long battery life and every bit of the games can be picked
up and lay out on an impulse.
What do I do if some of the App Drawer icons are greyed out (the associated emojis are still there if I click on the app within the drawer), but the icon is just grey – like it’s missing something?
How to turn off the ding notification when someone does or haha to a text message. On my phone every shows up with like. New text message and dings. Very annoying on group texts where 20 people “likes” your text.
Unfortunately, at this time there is no way to turn off message notifications just for likes and other user feedback to messages. The only way is to turn off notifications for all messages including new messages and likes etc.
Why in a group message if someone likes, loved, laughed etc etc…..the message shows up again with this person loved , liked, laughed….is this really necessary and I can I stop it. Very Annoying……
When I SEND text to people they are not getting notification alerts. They are from other people but not from my phone. I have checked with a few different people and they have each told me the same thing. How do I fix that?
This is very unusual behavior. You should not be able to control notifications for other people’s devices–only your own.
Is it possible you’ve blocked your number from showing via your carrier caller ID blocking features? Check with your mobile phone company and ask them if there is anything like this on your account.
Depending on your carrier, you may find a setting called Show My Caller ID on your phone–go to Settings > Phone > Show My Caller ID. If you have this setting, toggle it on.
Other than that, there isn’t some setting to change to allow folks to get notifications from you.
If this behavior continues, do a few more tests with friends or family and verify that notifications are active on their phones. If you can replicate this behavior with multiple people and verify that they are set up to get your notifications, contact Apple Support or better yet, set-up an appointment at your nearby Apple Store and show them this behavior in person.
Keep us posted on this one! I’m very curious about what’s going on with your iPhone.
I was texting a person who I text with iMessage on a daily basis when suddenly my text was not delivering, it did not say “not delivered” it just didnt say delivered. So i held the text and sent it as a text message and since then I have not been able to text her in anyway whatsoever. Normal text messages arent even working anymore and i have tried everything that every website or video has told me to do and nothing has worked.
So I was recently scrolling back through a text message thread I’ve had going with a friend that goes back years and when i got back into 2017 suddenly all her responses and picture were gone and it looked like I had been talking to myself. What made it even more curious is that when I went to info every picture she had sent was there to the beginning of the thread. Has this happened to anyone else or has anyone heard of this happening??
At first I was able to name my group text…now when I send group texts there no longer is the option ‘name your group’…
Did this go away with ios11?
I ve read tips, etc. -.-.Nothing is working for me…HELP please!
Go to Messages > Find a group message and open it > tap the names at the top of the message then tap the “i” info button.
At the top, there should be an option to Enter a Group Name.
Unfortunately, this option doesn’t always appear! You can name only group iMessages, not MMS group messages. So if your group includes a person using an Android or another device, the option to enter a group name doesn’t appear.
Im sure the answer is located somewhere in the extensive blog posted above but I didnt see anything about errors in relation to “Not Delivered” notifications.
I experience this more on the MacBook than on the phone, but trying to send messages from the MacBook is a feat nowadays.
The message is sent, even says read and then immediately not delivered. I have rebooted, I have all devices set to iMessage but yet it keeps happening.
If a solution is located somewhere in the mountain of suggestions above please someone point it out.
Some readers also experience this issue. We’re not sure what exactly is going on, but here are a couple of things to try. Unfortunately, we do not know of a universal solution at this time. So it’s trial and error, I’m afraid.
1. Turn off Text Message Forwarding for all connected devices (Go to your iPhone’s Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and toggle everything off)
2. If your MacBook’s Logic or Motherboard was repaired, it’s possible that your serial number was not re-established. So check that your MacBook has a serial number listed ( Go to Apple Menu > About this Mac > System Report > Hardware Overview.) If the serial is missing, contact Apple or the place the repaired your MacBook
3. Turn on Messages in the Cloud on all devices and your MacBook (if it’s upgraded to High Sierra’s latest version which supports Messages in the Cloud). Alternatively, you can try turning this off for all devices and see if that makes a difference
4. Check that Send & Receive phone numbers and Apple IDs are the same on all your devices (especially the MacBook)
5. Some folks say that updating to the latest version of High Sierra fixed their problems
6. Check that your Date & Time on all devices match. If not, choose Set Automatically–if already on, toggle off, wait a bit, and toggle back on
Why do I receive text notifications from some people but not others. I’ve checked all settings but note that those I don’t receive notifications from are from my most frequently used contacts. Any reason?? I’ve just recently upgraded to IOS 11.4.1.
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My wife and I bought two new iPhone X phones a week ago today from Xfinity Mobile. We kept our numbers, porting them from our old iPhone 6es to the new phones at the Xfinity store. We are of course now using Xfinity Mobile service, taking advantage of their current low introductory rates for even one or two lines with unlimited calling, texting, and data. My new iPhone X has worked great from day one. Hers has not been able to send or receive iMessages, SMS messages, or FaceTime since purchase and activation. The major symptom was that both iMessage and FaceTime showed “waiting for activation” message and her phone number was not showing up in list of “you can be reached by iMessage at” or “you can be reached by FaceTime at” addresses in either the Send & Receive menu of Messages or under FaceTime. The phone number was grayed out and there was a spinning circle, not a check mark, by the phone number.
Over the last week I have probably spent 24 working hours trying to resolve this problem either via my own research and tinkering or via multiple visits and consulting with multiple experts at both the Xfinity store and the Apple Genius Bar. I and they tried all the solutions I’ve seen mentioned here and elsewhere online, to no avail. Xfinity replaced the SIM card twice and even exchanged my wife’s new phone for another new one, but the issue remained, even when all content and settings were removed and the phone was set up as a new phone.
I must give credit to the manager of the Genius Bar at the Old Orchard Apple Store in Skokie, Illinois, for concluding it must be a carrier problem, not a problem with Apple’s device or software. Their investigation systematically eliminated all other possibilities.
But the real Hero here was a second-level (one level up from the frontline support) tech at Xfinity Mobile support named Robert who was able to diagnose and fix the issue from afar within an hour of my case being escalated to him. Turns out in his work he has seen this issue on about 50% of the iPhone X phones where the numbers have been ported over to Xfinity Mobile from other carriers. It seems that when this porting is done, something called “premium message block” or “premium messaging block” comes with the account information that is ported over to Xfinity Mobile. Here is a nice short discussion of what that is: https://2sms1.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202459869-What-is-a-Premium-Messaging-block-
As this discussion indicates, this premium messaging block apparently can block the “ordinary” messaging information used during activation of the iMessage and FaceTime functions by Apple. It also blocks the phone user’s attempt to send and receive iMessages and even SMS messages. It can only be turned on or off on the mobile carrier’s side. There is no menu on the phone to do this. Once this blocking was removed from my account by Robert at Xfinity Mobile, the iMessage and FaceTime functions activated within a few seconds.
Tom, Thank you for this detailed feedback. We are sure this will be helpful to scores of folks who switch carriers and find themselves having issues with iMessage or Facetime.
When anyone on my contact lists sends me a text message it says they are not in my contacts and asks me if I want to report their message as junk? First time I seen this how do I fix it?
Hello i own an iPhone X,using the latest iOS 11.3.1
Today i was trying to send an SMS to one of iPhone friend user ,but i could not switch from the blue iMessage color to the Green SMS color
I need to go to message setting and turn off iMessage before i could send the SMS
Please i need a soluton to this on how i can easily switch from the message box to either sending by iMessage or SMS rather than going to settings all the time
Mind you while i try holding down the Blue iMessage color to see option of send as sms ,it does not appear
My problem is that when I start a new message and start typing someone’s name, the suggestions don’t always list properly. Like I will type in JOE and get Joe’s email addresses but not his phone number which I always use for texts to him. Its not even in the siri suggestion box. Is this normal?
Hello, I recently upgraded to 11.1.2 and shortly after, my texts, when using the microphone to dictate the text, started to really mishear or some other issue I don’t know about, is causing all that I say to text out something with even completely different sounding words, as well as with monosyllabic words are translated in to a word with 2 or 3 syllables.
Example: i’ll speak after I tap the mic symbol at the bottom and the say, “Hi”
My phone would display, “unreliable”
Any suggestions, or just having knowledge of others havin the same problem, would somewhat relieve my nerves.
We have seen several user reports of similar behavior following iOS 11 updates. So you are not alone!
Let’s try to reset dictation and see if that makes a difference. First, make sure your device is connected to your fastest WiFi network.
Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > and scroll to Enable Dictation. Toggle it off and then restart your iPhone. Once it’s back on, return to those same settings and toggle Dictation back on and then test to see if it’s better or if the problem remains.
If that didn’t help, try resetting your network’s settings. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. This removes your stored WiFi passcodes so have those available to re-enter. Once these reset and you connect to WiFi, test again.
when I select a group message thread and tap on the “i” or button in the top-right corner and scroll down, the “Leave this Conversation” does not work as it apperar in a light gray color like if it is disable.
I’m in a group message that another iPhone user started. I can’t see the other phone numbers and I get this message with every text the person sends: “You are receiving GC Message with size more than what MMS can support.” My husband is also in this group message but he can see all of the other people on the group at the top of his screen. When people reply back, it comes as a separate text to me, but to my husband it’s within the group message. What’s going on? I have an iPhone 8 Plus.
On iOS 11.2.5 there is a weird quirk in iMessage where #images in the app drawer will not load image results, even if connected to local Wifi. I tried a variety of recommended fixes and nothing worked. So I fiddled around and discovered that by going into Settings > Cellular and toggling the Phone button off and on again, it somehow resets the #images ability to load images/gifs in iMessage. I hope this helps others out there having issues!
Thanks for sharing your tip about issues with images in Messages. What a strange one. I’m sure this will help a lot of folks AND we’ll add it into the article.
I have an 8 plus with IOS.2.6 and I’m getting random sms messages on my lock screen from people I’m texting. They can only go away after hitting dismiss on my lock screen. However the senders message does not appear in their message thread and they appear different than the normal banner on the lock screen.
If I click on more info it says something about this message may be from a sender that is known to be a scammer or something but some of these messages are from people in my contacts and It doesn’t indicate who the sender is.
Kerry, We have never seen this issue or had people report it to us before. We would suggest that you take screenshots /video of this uniqe problem and reach out to support.apple.com . They may be able to provide additional guidance. Are these texts SMS or are they coming via iMessage? If it’s coming via iMessage, try logging out of your Apple Id and then sign back in and see if it helps. The other thing to do when face with wierd issues is to try Reset All Settings which is under Settings > General > Reset. Please remember that this option will not erase any of your data or photos etc but will reset some setting preferences such as Wi-Fi information and other settings prefereces to default and you may have to set it back again to your preferences. Good Luck and keep us posted. We would love to learn about this one!! A first for us.
Need help please…I can’t silence a text from certain contacts even if the silent switch is on. Anyone have that problem or have an idea what’s going on.
When I RECEIVE a message on iphone 8, see the message on the home screen, and press the messages icon to respond to the message, instead of the newly received message popping up, the last person I SENT a message to (not the person who just sent me a message) is the first image that pops up. In haste, I often answer the new message and send to the wrong contact (that is the last person I had SENT a message to). Any idea why this occurs, and is there a fix?
Game Pigeon Not Working When Someone Sends Me A Game I Click To Play It Says Get In all Store I go It Says Open In AppStore But When I click It It Crashes HELP,
Sorry you’re unable to play Game Pigeon with a friend! Let’s try and sort it out. First, close all your apps by double pressing Home or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar and then swiping up, off the top of your screen, each and every app’s preview.
Once all apps are closed, restart your device.
Then go to Settings > iTunes & App Store and make sure you are signed in with the same Apple ID you use for iMessage.
Now open Messages and press that link again for playing Game Pigeon–see if it shows up this time.
Since updating the message app does not make the swoosh sound when sending but received messages have nit changed. very annoying. Yes i’ve checked sounds on all apps, turned imessage on and off, done everything others with sound probkems have trued and nothing works. Each time i try something i send message to myself and receipt sound always occurs but send sound never does. Only option is to wait to see ‘delivered’ note when sending to others.
iphone 6 updated 11.2.2
Now when I started the iphone I don’t found any message, but if I started my Mac i found messages. These messages don’t appear ever in iphone.
Today my iMessages from my MacBook Pro are sending from an email address of mine, where it used to send from my phone number. This has caused a LOT of confusion for people I message with, and it’s frustrating. I was on chat with Apple and had to be transferred to a supervisor, but I’m unable to talk on the phone now and will be gone until Tuesday. I’ve no idea why this started happening today, but my iPhone and iPad are working just fine. There honestly doesn’t seem to be a fix for it on my end as I’ve tried everything I was told to do, and I tried everything I read online to no avail.
Since updating to the latest version 11.2.2, gifs in iMessager doesn’t show. Only shows “could not load results” from the beginning to the point of when searching as well. What can be done to fix that?
Sorry, you are having trouble with Messages. Your problem sounds like an issue with your Contacts–perhaps duplicate contacts or problems when merging two or more contact lists together. So let’s check your Contact App for any issues.
First, open Messages and take note of the names or numbers associated with the problems mentioned in your comment
Next, open the Contact app and look specifically for those names/numbers–see if there are any duplicates–make sure you look inside each contact for any duplicate information on the contact card as well
Correct any card and/or delete duplicates
After making all your updates, restart your device and see if Messages is now working as expected
My 6s info was downloaded successfully to my iPad Pro successfully except for my texting history and the ID (Name) of the contact I’m texting showing up. Is there a fix for that? AT&T said there were instructions on how to fix that using iTunes somehow but I’m unable to do so. Any help would be appreciated.
I’m also having my replies show up before the last message I sent (so not showing in chronological order). It’s driving me crazy because I’m missing replies. I’m on Tmobile, version 11.2.1.
Yes, we’ve seen quite a few of these reports coming in from our readers. And it’s really confusing to follow a conversation when you receive texts out of order. Here’s a solution that works for some and not for others–but always worth a try!
1. Go to Settings > General > Date&Time > and turn off Set Automatically
2. Change your time zone manually to something other than your current time zone
3. Close the Message App. Double press your home button or swipe up the home gesture bar and locate the Message App Preview. Then swipe up on that preview to close the app
4. Restart your device
5. Open Message App and see if your texts are now in the correct order
6. Return to Settings > General > Date&Time > and turn back on Set Automatically
Some users say that a simplified version also worked for them:
1. Go to Settings > General > Date&Time
2. Toggle off Set Automatically
3. Wait 30 seconds
4. Toggle Set Automatically
Keep us posted on whether these solutions work or don’t work for you.
I have an iphone 8+ running the most recent release of iOS. Recently in iMessage, the word “Maybe” started appearing in front of the person’s name in my contacts. I am using Gmail as my default contacts list in settings. Does anyone have a fix for this issue? Thanks.
Started seeing the word Maybe in front of contacts I sent messages to in iMessage. Does anyone have a solution for this? My default contacts accounts is gmail. Running latest version on iOS on iPhone 8 Plus. Thanks.
This is probably the Siri Suggestion feature. Your iDevice probably received a text or email from a number or email address from a name that you already had in your contacts list–it could be a duplicate, a new email or phone number, or from people who have the same name. Your device’s iOS scans things like email and texts for contact info. If a phone number or email address is not in your Contacts App, it looks to see if that person is in your system and tries to intelligently match them up–that’s why you see a Maybe. Your iDevice is trying to help you identify your callers and email senders.
Try toggling off some Siri settings for contacts by going to Settings > Contacts > Siri & Search > and toggle off Find Contacts in Other Apps.
If that doesn’t help, try the following:
#1
On the thread showing maybe, click on the “i” in the top right corner
3D Touch or long press the Contact Icon > Add to existing Contact > Select contact
On the edit screen > delete the duplicate number added to the contact
Click Update
OR
#2
Go to Settings> Messages > Turn on Group Messaging
Then, go to Settings> General > Reset> Reset network settings (this removes any stored WiFi passcodes)
Finally, toggle iMessage Off, restart your device, and then toggle iMessage back on (go to Settings > Messages > iMessage)
Text messages are no longer appearing in time order. For example, a reply will appear before the question it’s answering. Why is this? How can I fix it? iPhone SE, iOS 11.2.1
The field where I reply to m texts in iMessages disappears chronically on my iPad Pro. Everything else still works fine, I just have to force close iMessage and reopen to get it to come back. I wiped and setup my iPad as a new one, still same problem. I have discussed with Apple support many times, no resolution.
Sometimes while I am typing a reply to an e-mail, the text I am typing gets blocked and cannot correct orthographic mistakes or insert text in the text I have written. It started after upgrading to ios 11. (In iPhone 7).
Any clues on how to fix the problem? Thanks
I’ve had an issue with the Messages application on my Mac where it displays the messages out of order where when I type something and send it, the messages I receive are displayed above the message I just sent. This issue began to occur following the update into High Sierra from El Capitan. I’ve tried restarting the app, resetting timezones but nothing seems to work. I also tried messaging my own iCloud acc and saw that I when I would receive my message, it would give a ‘read receipt’ 5 minutes ahead (approx) for instance, if i sent a message at 1pm, it would read as being read at 1:05pm when it would still be 1pm.
I’ve also seen people have this similar/exact issue on their iPhones (such as on this forum), but not with people who own macs. As this issue arose from an update, I presume it can only be fixed with an update as nothing I’ve tried has worked.
Is there a way to keep a thread in but delete the conversation in Messages? I used to be able to do this before the upgrade, but now when I click “delete all,” the entire thread gets deleted.
Do you want to delete part of a conversation or the entire conversation? I’m not exactly clear on what you want to delete and preserve in your message thread.
After the latest update, once I send a text, what I just wrote appears again in the text box, as if I were to rewrite it in a new message. It doesn’t send twice, just automatically appears a second time. Does this make sense? Hard to explain.
Is there a way to delete all the messages but keep the thread? I like to keep the threads of my common contacts so I don’t have to start new groups and such. Since I’ve updated, the thread gets deleted along with the conversation.
Hello I have an Apple I phone 6 and just did my upgrade to 11.1.2 and since then I am not able to go to my Contact, hit “send message: and bring up my keyboard…
It goes right to “messages” of all the other old messages that were sent earlier “( to everyone) . I have to go back to contacts find that friend again, then hit, send message , then maybe it might go to my keyboard to send a message. why do I have to do this step several times?? never used to have to before upgrading
When I am trying to send a text link from a site, and I hit the green text message box, it takes TEN FULL seconds for the window to appear.
What the hell?!
(It just did it when I hit the message box to send a pic from camera roll too!)
Not exaggerating- TEN seconds!
Please help!
My and many other friends IPhones are autocorrecting “it” to “I.T” I tried creating a new shortcut for the word “it” to autocorrect to “it” but software still overrides and changes “it” to “I.T”
Apple released an iOS Update that addresses these issues. Go to Settings > General > Software Update. Remember to backup first before doing any update, even to a minor version.
Additional tips:
settings>general>reset>reset keyboard settings
Turn off auto-correction in your keyboard settings (Settings > General > Keyboard > Auto-Correction)
Turn off shortcuts. General > Keyboards > turn off shortcut
Download Gboard or another third-party keyboard–the problem seems isolated to the native iOS keyboard
Since my phone updated to IOS 11 there is no option for group messages in my Message Settings. I am trying numerous Apps to send messages to more than 10 people who all use Android, yet when the message composes it defaults to Imessage and therefore won’t send. Any Suggestions on this? I need this functionality for work and is very frustrating that it won’t work.
Sorry that you are having such problems with Messages in iOS 11. Let’s first check some Settings. Go to Settings > Messages and make sure these are toggled on: Send as SMS, MMS Messaging, and Group Messaging. If these features are already on, toggle them off, wait a few seconds, and toggle them back on.
It might also be helpful to name your group and then send messages to that group.
Tap a group conversation, then tap the “i”
Tap Enter a Group Name
Enter a name, then tap Done
If you need to create a new group, iOS doesn’t make it easy. The best way to create contact groups is via a Mac or using iCloud’s website. We’re not sure why Apple made it this laborius to create groups for iPhone and iDevices, but for now, it is!
We do have a workaround for email groups, but it’s not at all elegant! Basically, you create a single contact (listed with your group name) and associate multiple emails with it.
Open Contacts
Tap the Add (+) button
Enter the name of the group ( “Family” “Old Friends” or “Office”) in the Last Name field
Scroll down to the Notes section. Add in each mail address bracketed with less than < and greater than symbols > and put a comma between each email address. For example , , and so forth.
Type in all your groups’ email addresses
Once done, tap and hold all the names and select All and copy
Tap Add Email, press and hold and select paste from the menu
Now, you have a contact with a single name but multiple email addresses
Unfortunately, it only works with email addresses, not phone numbers!
Hopefully, Apple makes group messaging a priority moving forward.
Let us know your results. And if you discover a better way.
I have an iPhone 6s Plus and there is a word stuck in my iMessage toolbar every time I go to send a new text message. How do I clear the texting toolbar?
Probably the easiest thing to do is close your Message App to clear its cache. Double press the home button or swipe up on the Home Gesture Bar. Then locate the Message App Preview and swipe up all the way off screen towards the top to close it. Then, restart your phone and open Messages again. It should be clear.
How do I send an iPhone user text messages instead of iMessage? There used to be an option when you press and hold but the new update has the reaction features thingy
There is not an easy way to do this anymore. Here’s what some readers tell us works for them:
First, make sure “Send as SMS” option is turned on under Settings > Messages
When you want to send an SMS Message, type out your message and press the send button. THEN, tap on that same message right after you send it when the message is not yet received. Hold down on the text of that Message and you get a menu with 3 options: Copy, Send as SMS, More. Select Send as SMS.
Readers say this works most of the time but unfortunately NOT all the time.
Hi, several of my longer conversations in iMessage go back a year or more…but I can’t scroll back further than September to view the older messages on my 6s. Scrolling just stops at a certain point. The attachments and photos sent in the conversations are still there, however, so I believe the messages are still there but somehow not viewable. I back up my phone every night. Is this a known bug and does anyone know how to fix it? I have reset settings, turned iMessage off and back on and that has not worked. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Hello! I have a question how do
I update the sticker apps. I’m up to 23 that need to be updated and have yet to get an answer from Apple. Can you help?
Great question. And sadly, there is no one answer. Instead, it’s a process. First, if your stickers are associated with an app, then updating the app via the App Store also updates any associated stickers. If your stickers are stand-alones and NOT associated with an app, then there is no “update” option available within iMessage’s App Store. Instead, you need to delete the sticker pack and reinstall it. To update sticker packs
First, make a list of all your sticker apps needing an update
Open Messages App and start a new conversation
Look at the bottom App Drawer and scroll to the right until you find the “More” option (or the three dots …)
Tap that More button or three dots icon
Select Edit
If the sticker app needing updating is in your favorites, press the red minus sign to remove it from favorites. Do this for all sticker apps needing updating.
Once you remove all sticker app from your favorites, press Done
Now delete each sticker app by swiping on it from right to left
Tap Delete
Do this for each sticker app
Once all are deleted, open the iMessage App Store and reinstall each sticker app (when you reinstall an app, iOS automatically installs the latest version
Sorry it’s such a tedious process. We don’t understand why the iMessage App Store doesn’t have an update function–so this is the very inelegant workaround until it does!
Keep us posted, especially if you find an alternative!
Hi mike ,
I’m using iPhone6 updated to latest iOS version,
I’m not able to send messages to my recent call list and contact list directly.
If I want to send text messages I need to go to message app only but before ios11 I could able text anyone directly from my caller list or contact list directly.
Any solution??
I updated to IOS 11 and ever since i get stuck in messages. Once I’m in a thread of messages, I can’t hit the back button and get out of it. If it hit it over and over and over and over again it will eventually let me out or else I have to close the app totally and come back in. I even removed my screen saver to see if it was blocking the connection to go back. Then I realized that I had another issue. The i (information) button does not work any longer. I starts a new message instead of letting me get to the info for the thread. I was trying to clean out my messages and wanted to see if there were attachments to them before just deleting and couldn’t get to the (i). I’ve done everything that all of the help boards suggest to no avail. Please help.
We’re really sorry that you’re having all this iMessage and Messages App trouble, what a pain! It must feel super frustrating.
If some of these tips are things you’ve already tried or redundant, apologies for that. We want to cover the bases.
iOS 11 changes how we edit information and clear out things like attachments and photos inside our texts. There are now two ways of deleting things from message threads.
To delete information from within the individual conversation thread, open it and deep press on one item and choose “More…” from the pop-up menu. This option open up tick boxes next to every item in your message thread. Check them to delete, uncheck to keep.
Additionally, we can now delete information from more than a single thread using the Settings App. Go to Settings > General > iPhone (or iPad, iPod touch) Storage > Messages setting. Navigate to this setting and look for the section Documents & Data. There you find 5 categories: Conversations, Photos, Videos, GIFs and Stickers, and Other. Tap on each to see what’s stored in your Messages and swipe to delete.
Yes, it’s not intuitive! And we’re not sure why Apple made this change–not very good user experience at all.
For other issues:
Now, check if there is a software update by looking at Settings > General > Software Update. If there is an update available, backup first and then update via iTunes if at all possible. Updating via iTunes often solves these types of problems, so if that option is there, update this way.
Once updated via iTunes, restart your device and open Messages to see if it’s working normally.
If not, continue.
Next, check your font size to see if it was reset after the update. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size. Adjust it to a smaller size. Also make sure Bold Text is toggled off. Restart your device and then check Messages to see if issue is fixed.
If not, continue.
Let’s also check your Message Settings. Go to Settings > Messages and toggle ON Show Contact Photos and Filter Unknown Senders. Restart again. And check the Message app again to see if problem is gone.
I hope this helps out. Let us know what’s working and what’s not.
It’s Mike again. Thanks for responding so quickly to my issue. I tried to Reset my phone and restore from the iTunes backup as you suggested. This did not work.
Oh darn it! The only other thing I can think of is signing out of both iMessage (that’s your main Apple ID) and FaceTime–make sure neither is enabled with your Apple ID. Then try a normal restart and sign back into your main Apple ID (for Messages) and FT. But this process ain’t fun at all since you are required to sign out of iCloud.
Let me reach out to my Apple network and see if anyone has a solution that worked.
This must be incredibly irritating, so I am sorry for that!
I have an iPhone 6S. I was using iOS 11 when this started.
Last Saturday my messages stopped showing up. I’d be texting earlier in the day — no problems. I sent a group message from another app. It went out fine, even got a reply. Then, within an hour or so, the following happened:
1. When I tap on the message icon, it opens, but there is no history. The list is completely blank.
2. When I try to send a text, I add a contact and often (not always) get a “No name” entry in the To: field. I type a message and then try to hit Send, but cannot get the Send function to work. I’ve also tried this with a phone number that I type in manually and get the same result. It won’t send.
3. If I happen to catch an incoming text and press and hold, the text shows up with the history of previous texts. This gives me confidence that my texts are still there somewhere (yay!) but I can also see them and text back IF i catch in the moment. If I don’t catch it, the notification badge shows up on the app icon, but when I tap the icon I get the blank text list (#1 above).
What I’ve tried:
0. I upgraded to iOS 11.1.1. This didn’t fix it.
1. All the steps above (the list of 11 things). None of them worked.
2. Forced Reset options (see below).
3. Tried reset with wiping all the settings. Didn’t work.
4. Tried reset with wiping settings and content. Restored from iCloud backup I made yesterday. Didn’t work.
5. Reset by wiping settings and content. Did not restore from backup. It works. BUT now I have no apps, no settings, and most critically, no history of texts. I need my text history. This was the promise of backup to the cloud. I need you to keep your promise.
I have not tried resetting and restoring from iTunes backup. My thought here is that if the iCloud backup didn’t work, why would the iTunes backup work.
I’m desperate. I’m so frustrated. I fell in love with Apple years ago because in Steve Jobs’ words, “it just works.” It doesn’t just work now. Last week I had the problem with typing the “I” character. I did the workaround and it works. But this problem I can’t lick. I’m angry that i have a smartphone that can’t text. Not just a smart phone, an IPHONE. An iPhone that can’t text.
Wow, you’ve had quite a terrible ride. It must feel overwhelming and so very, very frustrating! We’re super duper sorry this Messages problem is vexing.
Based on your own experience, the erase and set up as new did indeed work–though it’s by no means ideal, it does give some insight. Though you hesitate, I would indeed move forward with using iTunes to reset and restore your device, with the iTunes backup.
iTunes to much more stable than OTA (over the air) for things like updates and backup/restores. So please try iTunes!
And that very annoying typing issue on the letter I has been fixed with iOS 11.1.1.
Give it a go. I know you’ve tried almost everything else but iTunes has some magic!
Great job, here!
Here is my issue. Before upgrading to iOS11, iMessage performed normally, even though I had manually set my internal date/time to be 10 minutes fast (it’s just how I operate my life not to be late so don’t judge!). Since upgrading to iOS11, and in iMessage, texts are now “out of chronological order” a that is, if I send a text and someone responds immediately, their response will appear ABOVE my text vs BELOW. In fact, if the texting conversation happens within a minute, all my texts will appear together and all of the responses will appear together ABOVE my texts.
Frustrating that this change has occurred. – are there any hacks to work around this? (Have tried changing times zones, turning location off etc.). Thanks! Rick
Oh my goodness, what a pain in the (you know what!) Unfortunately, we’ve heard from a lot of readers about this issue–and so far nothing seems to help!
Some folks report this worked for them (but it has not worked for everyone): fully close the Messages App by double pressing Home and swiping up on the Message App Preview, then power down the iDevice and slide off. Wait 20-30 seconds and power back up. Once phone is back on, perform a forced restart–pressing and holding Home and Power until Apple logo appears (for iPhone 7/8/X–see these instructions on how to force restart.)
After the forced restart, open the Messages App and see if the problem is corrected by asking someone to start a conversation thread with you. Make sure you text each other back and forth a few times to ensure things work normally.
Finally, check that you are updated to the latest iOS 11 version–Apple recently released a fix for Message problems that might help–it was geared to people with missing letters or texts showing the wrong letter but there are some reports it helps with the out of order text problem too.
Hi! Since updated to 11.1, I’m not getting my email alerts from my bank. I’ve checked with my bank and all settings are good. This didn’t stop working until I uploaded. How to I correct this issue?
Just so I’m clear, are you not receiving emails from your bank alerting you of recent account transactions and behavior? Or are you not receiving those handy SMS text alerts?
If the problem is email–it’s likely a filter or block within the email account itself. So you need to look at your email account settings and fix the issue directly through the email provider (like Google, Yahoo, Outlook, and so forth.)
If the issue is not receiving those SMS texts from your bank via the Message app, check that Hide Alerts isn’t toggled on for the bank. See this article for tips on changing these settings.
Group texting options are now a nightmare if you want to text an individual. Why would this change so drastically?. If I need to send a quick or God forbit an urgent text to an individual I now have to scroll past groups of people and irrelevant contact suggestions to now reach the person I want to message. Why? It’s madness. This worked well before the IOS 11update.
You hit the head on the nail with your comment–iOS 11 seems to do maddening and unpredictable things with our Messages. So far, we haven’t found that one fix that solves these problems; instead it’s a guessing game as to what might work…and often finding nothing works. So frustrating!
We are super sorry that you’re having these Messaging issues, and you have every right to feel that way you do. And from all the comments we’ve seen, you are amongst a lot of friends!
We’re hoping that Apple patches up these Message bugs soon–very soon. They are definitely not isolated anomalies.
If we learn anything or additional workarounds, we’ll let you know.
When I try to send a message from a contact by clicking the blue bubble or send message, I get directed to the compelte list of messages, instead of that contacts message thread.
Spent hours on the phone with apple, webnt to the store they gave me a new phone And set it up as new phone, still same problem. Please help
Oh my goodness, what a pain! We’re so sorry that you are experiencing these contact issues in Messages. It must feel super frustrating and maddening!
I’m sure you’ve already a zillion things, so rather than repeat what you know already doesn’t work, would you please send us a list of things you previously tried?
We’ve heard a lot of reader feedback on similar problems and unfortunately, right now there doesn’t seem to be one universal one size fits all remedy. So it’s a lot of trial and error.
So if you can, send us what you tried and hopefully we’ll find some additional options to try.
And if we discover anything, we’ll let you know. And I hope you’ll do the same since there are many folks stuck in this same unhappy iOS 11 Message App boat!
Oh wow, that’s not fun at all! I’m so sorry you (and your peers and bosses) are experiencing such inconsistent Message results. That’s beyond unproductive! So you have every right to feel annoyed and more.
First suggestion we have is fairly obvious, but always check if there is a new iOS update out–some of our readers who had this exact issue saw it go away after updating to iOS 11.1. So go to Settings > General > Software Update and check. If an update is available, back up first. And then, if possible update via iTunes–just doing an update on iTunes instead of via that Software Update Over-The-Air update fixes quite a few issues.
Next, check that your Date & Time is set to Set Automatically. If so, toggle it off, wait 20 seconds, and toggle it back on. It may be that for some reason your device’s internal clock is just not accurate and needs a refresh.
If that didn’t help, close your message app by double pressing the home button and swiping up on the app preview to close it. If using an iPhone X, please follow these directions on how to close apps on that device without a Home.
After closing your Message app, restart your device by powering off and then back on. Check and see if Messages is working normally by asking a friend, family member, or colleague to engage in a conversation with you.
What a pain! I’m sorry you’re having this problem with contacts and message conversations.
The delete conversation button should delete that conversation thread–the whole thing. But it should NOT delete your contact. After deleting a conversation, are you able to start a new conversation thread to that contact or is their info now missing entirely from the Contacts app?
I did not see this issue in your table of contents:
IOS11 won’t let me scroll to the bottom of my messages at times. As in, I can’t scroll low enough to even see the text I’m trying to write, which means I can’t send because the send button isn’t stuck down behind my keyboard too.
Sorry to hear about that screen real estate problem in messages. We’ve have had several readers report this same issue. For almost all of them, they had their display zoom setting on, which was blocking out parts of their screen. Can you please take a look and see if you have this setting enabled and if so, toggle it off.
Check in Settings > Display & Brightness > and look in the section called View.
Hope this is the trick that works for you. If not, let us know.
I’m on an iPad Pro 12.9 and after ios11 my sent messages are lumped together, and my received messages are all lumped together too. So a convo will look like this:
Wife:Hi
Wife: How are you?
Wife: Not much, I have the munchies.
Wife: Okay, sounds good.
Me: Hello
Me: Good, what you up to?
Me: Want some left over pizza?
Instead of the usual back and forth. It’s kind of annoying, anyone else having this issue?
Oh man what a pain in the you know what! Sorry you are having this Message mess. Unfortunately, we’ve seen quite a few similar reader reports on this odd behavior. And we don’t have a one fits all fix…yet.
The first thing we recommend checking is your device’s Date & Time. Make sure it’s set to Set Automatically. If it already is, toggle it off, wait 20 seconds, and toggle back on. Alternatively, set it manually. Once done, restart your device by powering off and back on. Then, see if either of these makes a difference by running a test.
I hope that does it. If not, let us know. And we’ll discover more together.
Come on Apple! Are you telling me that you, the world’s wealthiest company, can’t even fix its own products effectively?
11.0.3 on iPad Air 2 is driving me nuts. Message regularly loses its text/menu bar, but the menu bar obscures what I’m trying to write in Notes. Etc etc.
I’ve been with Apple stuff for many years (iMac, iPhone 5, iPad) and have to stay with it because that’s my system. But for the price of this stuff I demand that it works properly, as it always did seamlessly up to a few years ago, in the Steve Jobs era. Now updates are a nightmare – and others have had much worse troubles than I have – and prices of new gear is going through the roof. I’d try the opposition but it won’t be compatible with what I have. ******!!!!
Every time I choose a new contact for iMessage I choose send message and it disappears back to the beginning so I have to go in my contacts find the person and press send message again.
When in my call register list or contacts, if I press on the message icon, it only opens into the message app, before it would directly open to the inbox of the person I wanted to text, do you know the reason for this ??
Reply:
Its a bug with ios 11. If the message app is already started and in memory, it works as before. When it opens into the message app, if you go back to contacts and try again, it will work because messages app is already active. What a bummer!
In ios 11, if you try to send message from contacts page, it will go to the message page and stop. If the messages page is already active, it will go to messages page and fill in name like it did before ios 11 update. Why would apple do this on purpose? Looks like a bug to me.
I’m having trouble with my messages. My phone will die because my battery needs to be serviced but when it comes back on it’ll show that I have new messages. When I launch the message app the messages are not there or in my message history. Please help
First, conduct a test to make sure that you are actually missing messages and that this isn’t just a symptom of your battery problem. Ask a few friends to message you when your phone dies. After charging your phone fully (100%), restart the phone and then open message app. Wait at least 10 minutes for Messages to connect with Apple’s iMessage and your phone carriers servers. If the messages don’t appear, only then is it time to troubleshoot.
Try this test first and if you aren’t getting your messages, follow up and we’ll work on a few things.
If Larger Text is selected, and the font is even 1 “blip” to the right, the “Back arrow” does not perform properly – takes one to the Edit screen if your touch is not perfect. I was told this is a known problem and Apple is working on a fix. I hope it’s rectified sooner than later.
Hello
I am using ios 11.0.3 and suddenly I am receiving messages intended for my wife’s ‘phone. The senders are not even on my contact list.
How can I fix this.
First backup your phone via iCloud or iTunes. Next, open Settings > Messages and toggle OFF iMessage, restart your phone, and then toggle iMessage back on. Once back on, scroll down to the section Send & Receive and make sure these phone numbers and email addresses are yours.
If that didn’t help try signing out of your Apple ID (Settings > Apple ID Profile > Sign Out). Then restart your phone and sign back in using your Apple ID.
Hello after updating the new iOS 11 update. When I open a text message it doesn’t show the bottom of the text. So I can’t see what the person wrote if I scroll up it scrolls back to wher it was. Any way to fix this. If I close the message and open it back up it works. But tired of doing this to every message all day?
I had the message issues too – and the link was lost between contact list I.D. and iMessager – I had a computer tech work on it – he attempted several times without luck – and then suggested I go to an Apple store — on my way home, whatever he did worked and the link was back.
The new glitch is – I put my phone in Airplane mode and now it will not link to any WiFi connection at home or work…. will not take the password and link. HELP!
I just updated to 11.0.3, and now my Messages app doesn’t show the contact bubble(s) at the top of a conversation. I have a 5S, and the contact bubbles were there before I updated. Any ideas on how to fix?
Question:
After the most recent update, when I’m in my text messages, and I’m inside the message reading when I hit the back (to go back to my messages list) it takes me back to the most BUT the list with the ‘select messages to delete’ . Which is scary- accidental deletion could happen when all I wants to do was go back to my list of messages. What is up with that?
I have a brand new iPhone 8—not even a month old. I updated to iOS 11.0.3 and since then a couple of things are happening with text notifications. First, when I receive notification of a text on my home screen (w/ no preview, my preference) I tap on ‘View,’ and an empty text bubble pops up. I have to go into text message app to retrieve it. Second, now this empty text bubble appears on my home screen every time I wake up my phone. Quite annoying. I’ve tried turning off and on the phone with no success.
BTW, thank you Liz for this article. There was another issue I encountered, which is now fixed. I have it bookmarked for future reference.
There have certainly been a lot of iMessage and Message App problems with iOS 11! And you’re not the only one to voice these blank text bubble complaints. Currently, we do not have a fix for this issue.
What you can try is turning off Handoff (Settings > General > Handoff) and also turning off all Notifications for Messages and FaceTime. Then restart your iPhone by powering off and powering back on. Once restarted, go to Settings > Messages and toggle iMessage Off. Do the same for Settings > FaceTime. Wait 30 seconds or more and then toggle them back on. They will ask for activation–this often takes around 30 seconds to a few minutes.
Once iMessage and FaceTime are back ON, return to your Notification Settings and turn Notifications back on for Message–make sure you set your Show Preview Options to Always. After setting your Messages Notifications, do the same for FaceTime.
Leave Handoff off for now. Again, restart your phone.
After that final restart, ask someone to send you a text.
Hopefully that did the trick!
If not, another reader reported that this worked for him: in Setting > Messages changing Message History from “keep forever” to 30 Days (or 1 year) eliminated the Blank message notifications.
Since I went to 11.3, on my text screen the circle i in the upper right corner no longer sends me to the persons information. It now opens a new text message. How do I fix this?
I am on iOS 11.0.3 and I have realized two things;
1- If I start a brand new imessage conversation with only an emoji, the messages application crashes. It still sends the emoji to the recipient but my phone’s screen becomes messed up. I have to quit the Messages application, and re-launch it again, then everything goes back to normal.
I can start a brand new iMessage Conversation with normal text, or picture with no problem. This happens only when I start a brand new iMessage, and put only an emoji in the message, nothing else.
However, if I already have an existing conversation with the recipient, then I can send only an emoji with no problems.
2- After the iOS 11 update, when I delete all the messages inside the thread/conversation, my iMessage thread also goes away.. With iOS 10, I was deleting all the messages but my conversation thread was still listed under that person’s name. But the inside was empty.
Hi. When I opened Messages pre-iOS 11, I used to be taken to the thread with latest new message. After iOS 11, it takes me to my last thread. Is there a way to switch that back? I like to be able to respond by just clicking on messages since I don’t use the notifications.
In landscape mode, the keyboard is now missing several keys from IOS 10.x.x and other forums say they are gone and will not return. Specifically the arrow keys and the period and comma keys. Any idea if this was intentional or an oversight?
John
There is a change to the way Messages work in iOS 11 that is annoying to me, but absolutely maddening to my wife: When addressing a message to a single person (and there is NOT already a conversation open with only that person), you begin typing the name of the person in the “To:” field as always, but you have to really hunt and search down a long list before you can find that person by themselves. Instead of first listing just the individual, it shows that person in every group you’ve ever had that included them. Obviously, a workaround would be to always leave a conversation around with just that person, but we always clean up conversations.
Hi after updating my iPhone 6sPlus to the latest iOS system. I send a message to a friend with the same phone who receives the text but the sound for her phone to let her know she has ready a message does not work
Hi Mike,
The problem is with your friend’s iPhone Settings. Most likely, she either has the mute button turned on, doesn’t have notifications and alerts for messages turned on, or has do not disturb turned on accidentally for your Contact card in Messages. We have an article on this exact problem, which happened to a lot of folks when they updated to iOS 11.
Forward this info to your friend and hope it helps!
It certainly seems like there’s a lot of problems with Messages and iOS 11. And a lot of tips here..I wish there was just one tip that fixed them all. But I get it—there’s different things going on and different reasons why. So you all need to cover the bases, so to speak. I get it. But it’s frustrating nonetheless to have so many possibilities. But needing only one outcome—that Messages just works!
When in my call register list or contacts, if I press on the message icon, it only opens into the message app, before it would directly open to the inbox of the person I wanted to text, do you know the reason for this ??
I tried recreating this on my iPhone, but I’m not running into this particular problem. It should work and automatically connect you to a message to that person. I’ll look into it and see if we learn anything. Hopefully, some readers have some tips too.
Hello I was having the problem with not receiving one of my contacts texts in group text. Just giving an update, ok I did everything you suggested and the only thing that worked is going into ICloud account on the computer and refreshing my contacts list. This is not a permanent fix because it seems like every day or so many hours I have to refresh my ICloud contacts for it to work properly. Not sure if narrows down what the problem could be but wanted to give you an update. The only other thing I can think of is to uninstall the IOS 11 until I get an updated phone I’m still using the IPhone 6 maybe not accepting new update well.
Thanks for keeping us posted on what’s going on with your contacts. Wow, that temporary solution is really inconvenient, to say the least! What this tells us is that’s it’s clearly an iCloud problem. I’m wondering if you go into your computer’s iCloud, refresh your contact list, then check your iPhone to see if all the contacts are there. If so, try turning OFF iCloud Contacts and choose to Keep on My iPhone. Then leave iCloud Contact syncing OFF for a few days. And see if your problems return or if they don’t.
Your iPhone 6 is an iOS 11 supported phone, so your model iPhone should not be the issue causing this. To me, the symptoms and solutions you report indicate something going on with iCloud contact syncing. Just not sure exactly what or why–and therefore no definitive cure!
But we’re on the right track! Keep your Sherlock Holmes on and we’ll get to the bottom of this together!
My mom updated her SE, I have 6 plus but have not done the update. When I send her a text, her replies always come up in a separate box under her email address. I got the email part fixed under send and receive options, but don’t know why she still comes up in a separate text box. Any helpful hints? It appears to be driving her nuts.
I don’t really understand what your Mom is seeing. Is she seeing her texts along with your replies to the same message “box?” If that’s the case, she may have Send Read Receipts enabled. Go to Settings > Messages > Send Read Receipts and toggle this off.
I know you looked at the email issue, but another suggestion is to completely remove her email address from iMessage. IN Settings > Messages, tap on Send&Receive. Unticked any email, leaving the phone number as the only way to be reached and start a new conversation from.
If I’m not getting it at all, please send a screenshot of the problem to [email protected].
Using Text2Group and Group Text App. Ever since I have installed the lOS 11, everytime I send a group text on either app, non apple users do not receive the text and all messages are sending as Imessages which means responses are now going to everyone. Have tried deleting and reloading app which means I have to re – add all contacts to the group message everytime.
Is there another Group App that works and I wont have these issues with???
Please make sure the Send as SMS, MMS Messaging, and Group Messaging are all ON in Settings > Messages. Next, check the Settings for each of those apps and look for anything toggled off–verify you want that particular setting off and if not, toggle it on. Then run a test.
If the results are the same as before, go back to Settings > Messages and toggle off iMessage. Run another test. If that works, then we’ve isolated the problem to how iMessage works with those two apps. It’s quite possible that these two apps have not yet released an update for iOS 11 which could explain this particular problem. Go to the App Store and check if there is an update for each of these apps. If so, update. If not, we recommend searching the app store for the highest rated group app and check the version history. Look for one that’s released an update since iOS 11 went public (Sept 19th.)
Hi. I hope you can help me. Since installing iOS 11, I’ve been losing messages received while my phone is off. Previously, if my phone goes off because the battery gets drained, I receive messages when the phone is charged and turns on. I’d get the notifications and see the messages in the message app.
Now, if my phone goes off, I get the notifications (alerts and banners) but the messages don’t show up in the app. They don’t show up in history either. They’re simply gone. You can imagine how frustrating this can be.
Wow, that is a terrible problem! So it appears that somehow your messages are just not syncing with your device(s). If you haven’t already tried this, toggle off iMessage (Settings > Messages > iMessage) and also toggle of MMS and Group. In Message History change that to Forever, if it’s a different setting. For now, leave all these settings off.
Next, toggle off FaceTime (Settings > FaceTime).
Now forced restart your iPhone:
On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
On an iPhone X or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
This sounds redundant, but after the forced restart, perform a regular restart by powering OFF and sliding off. Then power up normally.
Once powered up, go back to Messages and FaceTime and enable all the settings you disabled. Both iMessage and FT need to activate, so that takes a few minutes.
Once everything is up and activated, test and see if you get your Messages.
IOS is without a doubt the worst release ever by Apple. It unbelievable the company could release something so flawed. Unable to SMS, plus a litany of other issues. Grade = F.
When I use messenger, it will delete the message I am typing when it refreshes to show who is active on the top right hand column. How do I fix this. This only happens on my 7th generation iPad, not on my iPad Air.
The comparative number of hits seems to point that has got to be better practice.
They have long battery life and every bit of the games can be picked
up and lay out on an impulse.
Trying to delete video from conversation on text don’t have more to delete don’t understand
What do I do if some of the App Drawer icons are greyed out (the associated emojis are still there if I click on the app within the drawer), but the icon is just grey – like it’s missing something?
can’t retrieve old text beyond a week
My text message alert is set for 3 alerts in 2 minute intervals.
I only receive 1 alert.
How can this be fixed?
Thank you,
Joyce
How to turn off the ding notification when someone does or haha to a text message. On my phone every shows up with like. New text message and dings. Very annoying on group texts where 20 people “likes” your text.
Hi Astrid,
Yes, these dings are pretty annoying.
Unfortunately, at this time there is no way to turn off message notifications just for likes and other user feedback to messages. The only way is to turn off notifications for all messages including new messages and likes etc.
But this is a great idea to send to Apple Developers. Consider submitting your feedback to Apple using this link.
Liz
Why in a group message if someone likes, loved, laughed etc etc…..the message shows up again with this person loved , liked, laughed….is this really necessary and I can I stop it. Very Annoying……
Also my new iphone 8plus did not transfer all contacts from old iphone. Yes old phone was backed up before transfer.
brand new iphone 8plus. When texting to multiple “groups” not every group receives text. `Group is several people at one time.
I get and send group messages with my coworkers.
They are all in my contact list.
Most of the time the messages go through correctly.
However, on a few occasions when I receive them from my coworkers, I am asked if I want to report the messages as junk and I am not able to respond.
I have to turn the phone on and off to be able to respond.
Is there a fix for this problem?
When I SEND text to people they are not getting notification alerts. They are from other people but not from my phone. I have checked with a few different people and they have each told me the same thing. How do I fix that?
Hi Cathy,
This is very unusual behavior. You should not be able to control notifications for other people’s devices–only your own.
Is it possible you’ve blocked your number from showing via your carrier caller ID blocking features? Check with your mobile phone company and ask them if there is anything like this on your account.
Depending on your carrier, you may find a setting called Show My Caller ID on your phone–go to Settings > Phone > Show My Caller ID. If you have this setting, toggle it on.
Other than that, there isn’t some setting to change to allow folks to get notifications from you.
If this behavior continues, do a few more tests with friends or family and verify that notifications are active on their phones. If you can replicate this behavior with multiple people and verify that they are set up to get your notifications, contact Apple Support or better yet, set-up an appointment at your nearby Apple Store and show them this behavior in person.
Keep us posted on this one! I’m very curious about what’s going on with your iPhone.
Cheers,
liz
I was texting a person who I text with iMessage on a daily basis when suddenly my text was not delivering, it did not say “not delivered” it just didnt say delivered. So i held the text and sent it as a text message and since then I have not been able to text her in anyway whatsoever. Normal text messages arent even working anymore and i have tried everything that every website or video has told me to do and nothing has worked.
So I was recently scrolling back through a text message thread I’ve had going with a friend that goes back years and when i got back into 2017 suddenly all her responses and picture were gone and it looked like I had been talking to myself. What made it even more curious is that when I went to info every picture she had sent was there to the beginning of the thread. Has this happened to anyone else or has anyone heard of this happening??
At first I was able to name my group text…now when I send group texts there no longer is the option ‘name your group’…
Did this go away with ios11?
I ve read tips, etc. -.-.Nothing is working for me…HELP please!
Hi Darlene,
Yes, you can name group texts!
Go to Messages > Find a group message and open it > tap the names at the top of the message then tap the “i” info button.
At the top, there should be an option to Enter a Group Name.
Unfortunately, this option doesn’t always appear! You can name only group iMessages, not MMS group messages. So if your group includes a person using an Android or another device, the option to enter a group name doesn’t appear.
Yeah that does not work…….
Im sure the answer is located somewhere in the extensive blog posted above but I didnt see anything about errors in relation to “Not Delivered” notifications.
I experience this more on the MacBook than on the phone, but trying to send messages from the MacBook is a feat nowadays.
The message is sent, even says read and then immediately not delivered. I have rebooted, I have all devices set to iMessage but yet it keeps happening.
If a solution is located somewhere in the mountain of suggestions above please someone point it out.
Hi ML,
Some readers also experience this issue. We’re not sure what exactly is going on, but here are a couple of things to try. Unfortunately, we do not know of a universal solution at this time. So it’s trial and error, I’m afraid.
1. Turn off Text Message Forwarding for all connected devices (Go to your iPhone’s Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and toggle everything off)
2. If your MacBook’s Logic or Motherboard was repaired, it’s possible that your serial number was not re-established. So check that your MacBook has a serial number listed ( Go to Apple Menu > About this Mac > System Report > Hardware Overview.) If the serial is missing, contact Apple or the place the repaired your MacBook
3. Turn on Messages in the Cloud on all devices and your MacBook (if it’s upgraded to High Sierra’s latest version which supports Messages in the Cloud). Alternatively, you can try turning this off for all devices and see if that makes a difference
4. Check that Send & Receive phone numbers and Apple IDs are the same on all your devices (especially the MacBook)
5. Some folks say that updating to the latest version of High Sierra fixed their problems
6. Check that your Date & Time on all devices match. If not, choose Set Automatically–if already on, toggle off, wait a bit, and toggle back on
Sorry we don’t have one simple fix as of yet!
There are certainly a lot of details to take into consideration when troubleshooting iMessage.
I don’t know if best practices have emerged around things like Messages and iMessage but it would be nice.
Why do I receive text notifications from some people but not others. I’ve checked all settings but note that those I don’t receive notifications from are from my most frequently used contacts. Any reason?? I’ve just recently upgraded to IOS 11.4.1.
Nice post. I learn something more challenging on different blogs everyday. It will always be stimulating to read content from other writers and practice a little something from their store. I?d prefer to use some with the content on my blog whether you don?t mind. Natually I?ll give you a link on your web blog. Thanks for sharing.
My wife and I bought two new iPhone X phones a week ago today from Xfinity Mobile. We kept our numbers, porting them from our old iPhone 6es to the new phones at the Xfinity store. We are of course now using Xfinity Mobile service, taking advantage of their current low introductory rates for even one or two lines with unlimited calling, texting, and data. My new iPhone X has worked great from day one. Hers has not been able to send or receive iMessages, SMS messages, or FaceTime since purchase and activation. The major symptom was that both iMessage and FaceTime showed “waiting for activation” message and her phone number was not showing up in list of “you can be reached by iMessage at” or “you can be reached by FaceTime at” addresses in either the Send & Receive menu of Messages or under FaceTime. The phone number was grayed out and there was a spinning circle, not a check mark, by the phone number.
Over the last week I have probably spent 24 working hours trying to resolve this problem either via my own research and tinkering or via multiple visits and consulting with multiple experts at both the Xfinity store and the Apple Genius Bar. I and they tried all the solutions I’ve seen mentioned here and elsewhere online, to no avail. Xfinity replaced the SIM card twice and even exchanged my wife’s new phone for another new one, but the issue remained, even when all content and settings were removed and the phone was set up as a new phone.
I must give credit to the manager of the Genius Bar at the Old Orchard Apple Store in Skokie, Illinois, for concluding it must be a carrier problem, not a problem with Apple’s device or software. Their investigation systematically eliminated all other possibilities.
But the real Hero here was a second-level (one level up from the frontline support) tech at Xfinity Mobile support named Robert who was able to diagnose and fix the issue from afar within an hour of my case being escalated to him. Turns out in his work he has seen this issue on about 50% of the iPhone X phones where the numbers have been ported over to Xfinity Mobile from other carriers. It seems that when this porting is done, something called “premium message block” or “premium messaging block” comes with the account information that is ported over to Xfinity Mobile. Here is a nice short discussion of what that is: https://2sms1.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202459869-What-is-a-Premium-Messaging-block-
As this discussion indicates, this premium messaging block apparently can block the “ordinary” messaging information used during activation of the iMessage and FaceTime functions by Apple. It also blocks the phone user’s attempt to send and receive iMessages and even SMS messages. It can only be turned on or off on the mobile carrier’s side. There is no menu on the phone to do this. Once this blocking was removed from my account by Robert at Xfinity Mobile, the iMessage and FaceTime functions activated within a few seconds.
Tom, Thank you for this detailed feedback. We are sure this will be helpful to scores of folks who switch carriers and find themselves having issues with iMessage or Facetime.
I can no longer receive or send images using messages after recently updating to ios 11.4. Instructions on how to correct please.
When anyone on my contact lists sends me a text message it says they are not in my contacts and asks me if I want to report their message as junk? First time I seen this how do I fix it?
Hello i own an iPhone X,using the latest iOS 11.3.1
Today i was trying to send an SMS to one of iPhone friend user ,but i could not switch from the blue iMessage color to the Green SMS color
I need to go to message setting and turn off iMessage before i could send the SMS
Please i need a soluton to this on how i can easily switch from the message box to either sending by iMessage or SMS rather than going to settings all the time
Mind you while i try holding down the Blue iMessage color to see option of send as sms ,it does not appear
My problem is that when I start a new message and start typing someone’s name, the suggestions don’t always list properly. Like I will type in JOE and get Joe’s email addresses but not his phone number which I always use for texts to him. Its not even in the siri suggestion box. Is this normal?
I am having the exact same issue. Very frustrating! I am on 11.4.1
Hello, I recently upgraded to 11.1.2 and shortly after, my texts, when using the microphone to dictate the text, started to really mishear or some other issue I don’t know about, is causing all that I say to text out something with even completely different sounding words, as well as with monosyllabic words are translated in to a word with 2 or 3 syllables.
Example: i’ll speak after I tap the mic symbol at the bottom and the say, “Hi”
My phone would display, “unreliable”
Any suggestions, or just having knowledge of others havin the same problem, would somewhat relieve my nerves.
Cheers,
René
The text feature types out
Hi Rene,
We have seen several user reports of similar behavior following iOS 11 updates. So you are not alone!
Let’s try to reset dictation and see if that makes a difference. First, make sure your device is connected to your fastest WiFi network.
Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > and scroll to Enable Dictation. Toggle it off and then restart your iPhone. Once it’s back on, return to those same settings and toggle Dictation back on and then test to see if it’s better or if the problem remains.
If that didn’t help, try resetting your network’s settings. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. This removes your stored WiFi passcodes so have those available to re-enter. Once these reset and you connect to WiFi, test again.
Hope this helps!
SK
Can’t create a contact from text message any more.
IPhone 6 just gets slower and slower with every update.
Doesn’t Apple value their customers?
when I select a group message thread and tap on the “i” or button in the top-right corner and scroll down, the “Leave this Conversation” does not work as it apperar in a light gray color like if it is disable.
I’m in a group message that another iPhone user started. I can’t see the other phone numbers and I get this message with every text the person sends: “You are receiving GC Message with size more than what MMS can support.” My husband is also in this group message but he can see all of the other people on the group at the top of his screen. When people reply back, it comes as a separate text to me, but to my husband it’s within the group message. What’s going on? I have an iPhone 8 Plus.
On iOS 11.2.5 there is a weird quirk in iMessage where #images in the app drawer will not load image results, even if connected to local Wifi. I tried a variety of recommended fixes and nothing worked. So I fiddled around and discovered that by going into Settings > Cellular and toggling the Phone button off and on again, it somehow resets the #images ability to load images/gifs in iMessage. I hope this helps others out there having issues!
Hi TK,
Thanks for sharing your tip about issues with images in Messages. What a strange one. I’m sure this will help a lot of folks AND we’ll add it into the article.
Kudos for sharing!
Liz
I have an 8 plus with IOS.2.6 and I’m getting random sms messages on my lock screen from people I’m texting. They can only go away after hitting dismiss on my lock screen. However the senders message does not appear in their message thread and they appear different than the normal banner on the lock screen.
If I click on more info it says something about this message may be from a sender that is known to be a scammer or something but some of these messages are from people in my contacts and It doesn’t indicate who the sender is.
Kerry, We have never seen this issue or had people report it to us before. We would suggest that you take screenshots /video of this uniqe problem and reach out to support.apple.com . They may be able to provide additional guidance. Are these texts SMS or are they coming via iMessage? If it’s coming via iMessage, try logging out of your Apple Id and then sign back in and see if it helps. The other thing to do when face with wierd issues is to try Reset All Settings which is under Settings > General > Reset. Please remember that this option will not erase any of your data or photos etc but will reset some setting preferences such as Wi-Fi information and other settings prefereces to default and you may have to set it back again to your preferences. Good Luck and keep us posted. We would love to learn about this one!! A first for us.
Need help please…I can’t silence a text from certain contacts even if the silent switch is on. Anyone have that problem or have an idea what’s going on.
When I RECEIVE a message on iphone 8, see the message on the home screen, and press the messages icon to respond to the message, instead of the newly received message popping up, the last person I SENT a message to (not the person who just sent me a message) is the first image that pops up. In haste, I often answer the new message and send to the wrong contact (that is the last person I had SENT a message to). Any idea why this occurs, and is there a fix?
In advance, my thanks
After reading a message when I tap the arrow to go back to all messages it does not go back. I have to close out the app and keep trying. Please help
Game Pigeon Not Working When Someone Sends Me A Game I Click To Play It Says Get In all Store I go It Says Open In AppStore But When I click It It Crashes HELP,
Hi Jay,
Sorry you’re unable to play Game Pigeon with a friend! Let’s try and sort it out. First, close all your apps by double pressing Home or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar and then swiping up, off the top of your screen, each and every app’s preview.
Once all apps are closed, restart your device.
Then go to Settings > iTunes & App Store and make sure you are signed in with the same Apple ID you use for iMessage.
Now open Messages and press that link again for playing Game Pigeon–see if it shows up this time.
Let us know if this still isn’t working.
SK
Since updating the message app does not make the swoosh sound when sending but received messages have nit changed. very annoying. Yes i’ve checked sounds on all apps, turned imessage on and off, done everything others with sound probkems have trued and nothing works. Each time i try something i send message to myself and receipt sound always occurs but send sound never does. Only option is to wait to see ‘delivered’ note when sending to others.
iphone 6 updated 11.2.2
Now when I started the iphone I don’t found any message, but if I started my Mac i found messages. These messages don’t appear ever in iphone.
Today my iMessages from my MacBook Pro are sending from an email address of mine, where it used to send from my phone number. This has caused a LOT of confusion for people I message with, and it’s frustrating. I was on chat with Apple and had to be transferred to a supervisor, but I’m unable to talk on the phone now and will be gone until Tuesday. I’ve no idea why this started happening today, but my iPhone and iPad are working just fine. There honestly doesn’t seem to be a fix for it on my end as I’ve tried everything I was told to do, and I tried everything I read online to no avail.
Since updating to the latest version 11.2.2, gifs in iMessager doesn’t show. Only shows “could not load results” from the beginning to the point of when searching as well. What can be done to fix that?
Different name display on the message with same number almost on all messages. What am i gonna do to fix this?
HI Hanna,
Sorry, you are having trouble with Messages. Your problem sounds like an issue with your Contacts–perhaps duplicate contacts or problems when merging two or more contact lists together. So let’s check your Contact App for any issues.
First, open Messages and take note of the names or numbers associated with the problems mentioned in your comment
Next, open the Contact app and look specifically for those names/numbers–see if there are any duplicates–make sure you look inside each contact for any duplicate information on the contact card as well
Correct any card and/or delete duplicates
After making all your updates, restart your device and see if Messages is now working as expected
Keep us posted,
SK
Different name display on message after sending conversation
My 6s info was downloaded successfully to my iPad Pro successfully except for my texting history and the ID (Name) of the contact I’m texting showing up. Is there a fix for that? AT&T said there were instructions on how to fix that using iTunes somehow but I’m unable to do so. Any help would be appreciated.
I’m also having my replies show up before the last message I sent (so not showing in chronological order). It’s driving me crazy because I’m missing replies. I’m on Tmobile, version 11.2.1.
I would appreciate any advice!
Hi Jo,
Yes, we’ve seen quite a few of these reports coming in from our readers. And it’s really confusing to follow a conversation when you receive texts out of order. Here’s a solution that works for some and not for others–but always worth a try!
1. Go to Settings > General > Date&Time > and turn off Set Automatically
2. Change your time zone manually to something other than your current time zone
3. Close the Message App. Double press your home button or swipe up the home gesture bar and locate the Message App Preview. Then swipe up on that preview to close the app
4. Restart your device
5. Open Message App and see if your texts are now in the correct order
6. Return to Settings > General > Date&Time > and turn back on Set Automatically
Some users say that a simplified version also worked for them:
1. Go to Settings > General > Date&Time
2. Toggle off Set Automatically
3. Wait 30 seconds
4. Toggle Set Automatically
Keep us posted on whether these solutions work or don’t work for you.
Good luck,
SK
I have an iphone 8+ running the most recent release of iOS. Recently in iMessage, the word “Maybe” started appearing in front of the person’s name in my contacts. I am using Gmail as my default contacts list in settings. Does anyone have a fix for this issue? Thanks.
Started seeing the word Maybe in front of contacts I sent messages to in iMessage. Does anyone have a solution for this? My default contacts accounts is gmail. Running latest version on iOS on iPhone 8 Plus. Thanks.
Hi GLK,
This is probably the Siri Suggestion feature. Your iDevice probably received a text or email from a number or email address from a name that you already had in your contacts list–it could be a duplicate, a new email or phone number, or from people who have the same name. Your device’s iOS scans things like email and texts for contact info. If a phone number or email address is not in your Contacts App, it looks to see if that person is in your system and tries to intelligently match them up–that’s why you see a Maybe. Your iDevice is trying to help you identify your callers and email senders.
Try toggling off some Siri settings for contacts by going to Settings > Contacts > Siri & Search > and toggle off Find Contacts in Other Apps.
If that doesn’t help, try the following:
#1
On the thread showing maybe, click on the “i” in the top right corner
3D Touch or long press the Contact Icon > Add to existing Contact > Select contact
On the edit screen > delete the duplicate number added to the contact
Click Update
OR
#2
Go to Settings> Messages > Turn on Group Messaging
Then, go to Settings> General > Reset> Reset network settings (this removes any stored WiFi passcodes)
Finally, toggle iMessage Off, restart your device, and then toggle iMessage back on (go to Settings > Messages > iMessage)
Let us know if these help or don’t…
Good Luck,
SK
Text messages are no longer appearing in time order. For example, a reply will appear before the question it’s answering. Why is this? How can I fix it? iPhone SE, iOS 11.2.1
Can’t send messages from my MAC- all setting seem correct. Have forced quit of messages and relaunched, no success.
The field where I reply to m texts in iMessages disappears chronically on my iPad Pro. Everything else still works fine, I just have to force close iMessage and reopen to get it to come back. I wiped and setup my iPad as a new one, still same problem. I have discussed with Apple support many times, no resolution.
Sometimes while I am typing a reply to an e-mail, the text I am typing gets blocked and cannot correct orthographic mistakes or insert text in the text I have written. It started after upgrading to ios 11. (In iPhone 7).
Any clues on how to fix the problem? Thanks
Hi,
I’ve had an issue with the Messages application on my Mac where it displays the messages out of order where when I type something and send it, the messages I receive are displayed above the message I just sent. This issue began to occur following the update into High Sierra from El Capitan. I’ve tried restarting the app, resetting timezones but nothing seems to work. I also tried messaging my own iCloud acc and saw that I when I would receive my message, it would give a ‘read receipt’ 5 minutes ahead (approx) for instance, if i sent a message at 1pm, it would read as being read at 1:05pm when it would still be 1pm.
I’ve also seen people have this similar/exact issue on their iPhones (such as on this forum), but not with people who own macs. As this issue arose from an update, I presume it can only be fixed with an update as nothing I’ve tried has worked.
Is there a way to keep a thread in but delete the conversation in Messages? I used to be able to do this before the upgrade, but now when I click “delete all,” the entire thread gets deleted.
HI Jessi,
Do you want to delete part of a conversation or the entire conversation? I’m not exactly clear on what you want to delete and preserve in your message thread.
Liz
After the latest update, once I send a text, what I just wrote appears again in the text box, as if I were to rewrite it in a new message. It doesn’t send twice, just automatically appears a second time. Does this make sense? Hard to explain.
Is there a way to delete all the messages but keep the thread? I like to keep the threads of my common contacts so I don’t have to start new groups and such. Since I’ve updated, the thread gets deleted along with the conversation.
Hello I have an Apple I phone 6 and just did my upgrade to 11.1.2 and since then I am not able to go to my Contact, hit “send message: and bring up my keyboard…
It goes right to “messages” of all the other old messages that were sent earlier “( to everyone) . I have to go back to contacts find that friend again, then hit, send message , then maybe it might go to my keyboard to send a message. why do I have to do this step several times?? never used to have to before upgrading
Having problem with the back arrow button while using text messaging on iPhone X
It works sporadically but often doesn’t even after repeated attempts.
When I am trying to send a text link from a site, and I hit the green text message box, it takes TEN FULL seconds for the window to appear.
What the hell?!
(It just did it when I hit the message box to send a pic from camera roll too!)
Not exaggerating- TEN seconds!
Please help!
My biggest problem is this:
When I hit the message forward icon when on safari – it takes FOREVER before the window opens to send it.
My and many other friends IPhones are autocorrecting “it” to “I.T” I tried creating a new shortcut for the word “it” to autocorrect to “it” but software still overrides and changes “it” to “I.T”
Hi Anthony,
Apple released an iOS Update that addresses these issues. Go to Settings > General > Software Update. Remember to backup first before doing any update, even to a minor version.
Additional tips:
settings>general>reset>reset keyboard settings
Turn off auto-correction in your keyboard settings (Settings > General > Keyboard > Auto-Correction)
Turn off shortcuts. General > Keyboards > turn off shortcut
Download Gboard or another third-party keyboard–the problem seems isolated to the native iOS keyboard
Hope something here helps. Let us know.
Cheers,
SK
Since my phone updated to IOS 11 there is no option for group messages in my Message Settings. I am trying numerous Apps to send messages to more than 10 people who all use Android, yet when the message composes it defaults to Imessage and therefore won’t send. Any Suggestions on this? I need this functionality for work and is very frustrating that it won’t work.
Thanks
Hi Rob,
Sorry that you are having such problems with Messages in iOS 11. Let’s first check some Settings. Go to Settings > Messages and make sure these are toggled on: Send as SMS, MMS Messaging, and Group Messaging. If these features are already on, toggle them off, wait a few seconds, and toggle them back on.
It might also be helpful to name your group and then send messages to that group.
Tap a group conversation, then tap the “i”
Tap Enter a Group Name
Enter a name, then tap Done
If you need to create a new group, iOS doesn’t make it easy. The best way to create contact groups is via a Mac or using iCloud’s website. We’re not sure why Apple made it this laborius to create groups for iPhone and iDevices, but for now, it is!
We do have a workaround for email groups, but it’s not at all elegant! Basically, you create a single contact (listed with your group name) and associate multiple emails with it.
Open Contacts, , and so forth.
Tap the Add (+) button
Enter the name of the group ( “Family” “Old Friends” or “Office”) in the Last Name field
Scroll down to the Notes section. Add in each mail address bracketed with less than < and greater than symbols > and put a comma between each email address. For example
Type in all your groups’ email addresses
Once done, tap and hold all the names and select All and copy
Tap Add Email, press and hold and select paste from the menu
Now, you have a contact with a single name but multiple email addresses
Unfortunately, it only works with email addresses, not phone numbers!
Hopefully, Apple makes group messaging a priority moving forward.
Let us know your results. And if you discover a better way.
Cheers,
SK
I have an iPhone 6s Plus and there is a word stuck in my iMessage toolbar every time I go to send a new text message. How do I clear the texting toolbar?
Hi Schae,
Probably the easiest thing to do is close your Message App to clear its cache. Double press the home button or swipe up on the Home Gesture Bar. Then locate the Message App Preview and swipe up all the way off screen towards the top to close it. Then, restart your phone and open Messages again. It should be clear.
If not, let us know
SK
How do I send an iPhone user text messages instead of iMessage? There used to be an option when you press and hold but the new update has the reaction features thingy
Hi Bernice,
There is not an easy way to do this anymore. Here’s what some readers tell us works for them:
First, make sure “Send as SMS” option is turned on under Settings > Messages
When you want to send an SMS Message, type out your message and press the send button. THEN, tap on that same message right after you send it when the message is not yet received. Hold down on the text of that Message and you get a menu with 3 options: Copy, Send as SMS, More. Select Send as SMS.
Readers say this works most of the time but unfortunately NOT all the time.
Let us know your results,
SK
Hi, several of my longer conversations in iMessage go back a year or more…but I can’t scroll back further than September to view the older messages on my 6s. Scrolling just stops at a certain point. The attachments and photos sent in the conversations are still there, however, so I believe the messages are still there but somehow not viewable. I back up my phone every night. Is this a known bug and does anyone know how to fix it? I have reset settings, turned iMessage off and back on and that has not worked. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Hello! I have a question how do
I update the sticker apps. I’m up to 23 that need to be updated and have yet to get an answer from Apple. Can you help?
Hi Carolina,
Great question. And sadly, there is no one answer. Instead, it’s a process. First, if your stickers are associated with an app, then updating the app via the App Store also updates any associated stickers. If your stickers are stand-alones and NOT associated with an app, then there is no “update” option available within iMessage’s App Store. Instead, you need to delete the sticker pack and reinstall it.
To update sticker packs
First, make a list of all your sticker apps needing an update
Open Messages App and start a new conversation
Look at the bottom App Drawer and scroll to the right until you find the “More” option (or the three dots …)
Tap that More button or three dots icon
Select Edit
If the sticker app needing updating is in your favorites, press the red minus sign to remove it from favorites. Do this for all sticker apps needing updating.
Once you remove all sticker app from your favorites, press Done
Now delete each sticker app by swiping on it from right to left
Tap Delete
Do this for each sticker app
Once all are deleted, open the iMessage App Store and reinstall each sticker app (when you reinstall an app, iOS automatically installs the latest version
Sorry it’s such a tedious process. We don’t understand why the iMessage App Store doesn’t have an update function–so this is the very inelegant workaround until it does!
Keep us posted, especially if you find an alternative!
Good Luck Carolina.
SK
Hi mike ,
I’m using iPhone6 updated to latest iOS version,
I’m not able to send messages to my recent call list and contact list directly.
If I want to send text messages I need to go to message app only but before ios11 I could able text anyone directly from my caller list or contact list directly.
Any solution??
I cannot make messages to any directly from my contact list or recent caller list.
Any solution??
I updated to IOS 11 and ever since i get stuck in messages. Once I’m in a thread of messages, I can’t hit the back button and get out of it. If it hit it over and over and over and over again it will eventually let me out or else I have to close the app totally and come back in. I even removed my screen saver to see if it was blocking the connection to go back. Then I realized that I had another issue. The i (information) button does not work any longer. I starts a new message instead of letting me get to the info for the thread. I was trying to clean out my messages and wanted to see if there were attachments to them before just deleting and couldn’t get to the (i). I’ve done everything that all of the help boards suggest to no avail. Please help.
Hi Lori,
We’re really sorry that you’re having all this iMessage and Messages App trouble, what a pain! It must feel super frustrating.
If some of these tips are things you’ve already tried or redundant, apologies for that. We want to cover the bases.
iOS 11 changes how we edit information and clear out things like attachments and photos inside our texts. There are now two ways of deleting things from message threads.
To delete information from within the individual conversation thread, open it and deep press on one item and choose “More…” from the pop-up menu. This option open up tick boxes next to every item in your message thread. Check them to delete, uncheck to keep.
Additionally, we can now delete information from more than a single thread using the Settings App. Go to Settings > General > iPhone (or iPad, iPod touch) Storage > Messages setting. Navigate to this setting and look for the section Documents & Data. There you find 5 categories: Conversations, Photos, Videos, GIFs and Stickers, and Other. Tap on each to see what’s stored in your Messages and swipe to delete.
Yes, it’s not intuitive! And we’re not sure why Apple made this change–not very good user experience at all.
For other issues:
Now, check if there is a software update by looking at Settings > General > Software Update. If there is an update available, backup first and then update via iTunes if at all possible. Updating via iTunes often solves these types of problems, so if that option is there, update this way.
Once updated via iTunes, restart your device and open Messages to see if it’s working normally.
If not, continue.
Next, check your font size to see if it was reset after the update. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size. Adjust it to a smaller size. Also make sure Bold Text is toggled off. Restart your device and then check Messages to see if issue is fixed.
If not, continue.
Let’s also check your Message Settings. Go to Settings > Messages and toggle ON Show Contact Photos and Filter Unknown Senders. Restart again. And check the Message app again to see if problem is gone.
I hope this helps out. Let us know what’s working and what’s not.
SK
It’s Mike again. Thanks for responding so quickly to my issue. I tried to Reset my phone and restore from the iTunes backup as you suggested. This did not work.
Other suggestions?
Hi Mike,
Oh darn it! The only other thing I can think of is signing out of both iMessage (that’s your main Apple ID) and FaceTime–make sure neither is enabled with your Apple ID. Then try a normal restart and sign back into your main Apple ID (for Messages) and FT. But this process ain’t fun at all since you are required to sign out of iCloud.
Let me reach out to my Apple network and see if anyone has a solution that worked.
This must be incredibly irritating, so I am sorry for that!
SK
HELP!
I have an iPhone 6S. I was using iOS 11 when this started.
Last Saturday my messages stopped showing up. I’d be texting earlier in the day — no problems. I sent a group message from another app. It went out fine, even got a reply. Then, within an hour or so, the following happened:
1. When I tap on the message icon, it opens, but there is no history. The list is completely blank.
2. When I try to send a text, I add a contact and often (not always) get a “No name” entry in the To: field. I type a message and then try to hit Send, but cannot get the Send function to work. I’ve also tried this with a phone number that I type in manually and get the same result. It won’t send.
3. If I happen to catch an incoming text and press and hold, the text shows up with the history of previous texts. This gives me confidence that my texts are still there somewhere (yay!) but I can also see them and text back IF i catch in the moment. If I don’t catch it, the notification badge shows up on the app icon, but when I tap the icon I get the blank text list (#1 above).
What I’ve tried:
0. I upgraded to iOS 11.1.1. This didn’t fix it.
1. All the steps above (the list of 11 things). None of them worked.
2. Forced Reset options (see below).
3. Tried reset with wiping all the settings. Didn’t work.
4. Tried reset with wiping settings and content. Restored from iCloud backup I made yesterday. Didn’t work.
5. Reset by wiping settings and content. Did not restore from backup. It works. BUT now I have no apps, no settings, and most critically, no history of texts. I need my text history. This was the promise of backup to the cloud. I need you to keep your promise.
I have not tried resetting and restoring from iTunes backup. My thought here is that if the iCloud backup didn’t work, why would the iTunes backup work.
I’m desperate. I’m so frustrated. I fell in love with Apple years ago because in Steve Jobs’ words, “it just works.” It doesn’t just work now. Last week I had the problem with typing the “I” character. I did the workaround and it works. But this problem I can’t lick. I’m angry that i have a smartphone that can’t text. Not just a smart phone, an IPHONE. An iPhone that can’t text.
Please help me.
–Mike
Hi Mike,
Wow, you’ve had quite a terrible ride. It must feel overwhelming and so very, very frustrating! We’re super duper sorry this Messages problem is vexing.
Based on your own experience, the erase and set up as new did indeed work–though it’s by no means ideal, it does give some insight. Though you hesitate, I would indeed move forward with using iTunes to reset and restore your device, with the iTunes backup.
iTunes to much more stable than OTA (over the air) for things like updates and backup/restores. So please try iTunes!
And that very annoying typing issue on the letter I has been fixed with iOS 11.1.1.
Give it a go. I know you’ve tried almost everything else but iTunes has some magic!
SK
Great job, here!
Here is my issue. Before upgrading to iOS11, iMessage performed normally, even though I had manually set my internal date/time to be 10 minutes fast (it’s just how I operate my life not to be late so don’t judge!). Since upgrading to iOS11, and in iMessage, texts are now “out of chronological order” a that is, if I send a text and someone responds immediately, their response will appear ABOVE my text vs BELOW. In fact, if the texting conversation happens within a minute, all my texts will appear together and all of the responses will appear together ABOVE my texts.
Frustrating that this change has occurred. – are there any hacks to work around this? (Have tried changing times zones, turning location off etc.). Thanks! Rick
Hi Rick,
Oh my goodness, what a pain in the (you know what!) Unfortunately, we’ve heard from a lot of readers about this issue–and so far nothing seems to help!
Some folks report this worked for them (but it has not worked for everyone): fully close the Messages App by double pressing Home and swiping up on the Message App Preview, then power down the iDevice and slide off. Wait 20-30 seconds and power back up. Once phone is back on, perform a forced restart–pressing and holding Home and Power until Apple logo appears (for iPhone 7/8/X–see these instructions on how to force restart.)
After the forced restart, open the Messages App and see if the problem is corrected by asking someone to start a conversation thread with you. Make sure you text each other back and forth a few times to ensure things work normally.
Finally, check that you are updated to the latest iOS 11 version–Apple recently released a fix for Message problems that might help–it was geared to people with missing letters or texts showing the wrong letter but there are some reports it helps with the out of order text problem too.
Keep us posted,
SK
yes hopefully the texting issue is fixed soon! So irritating.
Hi! Since updated to 11.1, I’m not getting my email alerts from my bank. I’ve checked with my bank and all settings are good. This didn’t stop working until I uploaded. How to I correct this issue?
Thanks!
Hi Karrie,
Just so I’m clear, are you not receiving emails from your bank alerting you of recent account transactions and behavior? Or are you not receiving those handy SMS text alerts?
If the problem is email–it’s likely a filter or block within the email account itself. So you need to look at your email account settings and fix the issue directly through the email provider (like Google, Yahoo, Outlook, and so forth.)
If the issue is not receiving those SMS texts from your bank via the Message app, check that Hide Alerts isn’t toggled on for the bank. See this article for tips on changing these settings.
Hope these help you out. Keep us posted.
SK
Group texting options are now a nightmare if you want to text an individual. Why would this change so drastically?. If I need to send a quick or God forbit an urgent text to an individual I now have to scroll past groups of people and irrelevant contact suggestions to now reach the person I want to message. Why? It’s madness. This worked well before the IOS 11update.
Hi Lee,
You hit the head on the nail with your comment–iOS 11 seems to do maddening and unpredictable things with our Messages. So far, we haven’t found that one fix that solves these problems; instead it’s a guessing game as to what might work…and often finding nothing works. So frustrating!
We are super sorry that you’re having these Messaging issues, and you have every right to feel that way you do. And from all the comments we’ve seen, you are amongst a lot of friends!
We’re hoping that Apple patches up these Message bugs soon–very soon. They are definitely not isolated anomalies.
If we learn anything or additional workarounds, we’ll let you know.
Feeling the pain,
Liz
When I try to send a message from a contact by clicking the blue bubble or send message, I get directed to the compelte list of messages, instead of that contacts message thread.
Spent hours on the phone with apple, webnt to the store they gave me a new phone And set it up as new phone, still same problem. Please help
Hi Norman,
Oh my goodness, what a pain! We’re so sorry that you are experiencing these contact issues in Messages. It must feel super frustrating and maddening!
I’m sure you’ve already a zillion things, so rather than repeat what you know already doesn’t work, would you please send us a list of things you previously tried?
We’ve heard a lot of reader feedback on similar problems and unfortunately, right now there doesn’t seem to be one universal one size fits all remedy. So it’s a lot of trial and error.
So if you can, send us what you tried and hopefully we’ll find some additional options to try.
And if we discover anything, we’ll let you know. And I hope you’ll do the same since there are many folks stuck in this same unhappy iOS 11 Message App boat!
Try to keep smiling through it all,
Liz
I am having same problem with chris (posted nov.2-9:31pm)all my messages are all lumped too.please fix this,It’s really bugging me!
Boss: Did you finished the report?
Boss:Did you email it already?
Me:Done with the report ,Ma’am.
Me:Emailed it already.
Hi Valerie,
Oh wow, that’s not fun at all! I’m so sorry you (and your peers and bosses) are experiencing such inconsistent Message results. That’s beyond unproductive! So you have every right to feel annoyed and more.
First suggestion we have is fairly obvious, but always check if there is a new iOS update out–some of our readers who had this exact issue saw it go away after updating to iOS 11.1. So go to Settings > General > Software Update and check. If an update is available, back up first. And then, if possible update via iTunes–just doing an update on iTunes instead of via that Software Update Over-The-Air update fixes quite a few issues.
Next, check that your Date & Time is set to Set Automatically. If so, toggle it off, wait 20 seconds, and toggle it back on. It may be that for some reason your device’s internal clock is just not accurate and needs a refresh.
If that didn’t help, close your message app by double pressing the home button and swiping up on the app preview to close it. If using an iPhone X, please follow these directions on how to close apps on that device without a Home.
After closing your Message app, restart your device by powering off and then back on. Check and see if Messages is working normally by asking a friend, family member, or colleague to engage in a conversation with you.
If that didn’t work, please follow up with us,
Liz
Does the button “delete conversation “ no longer apply? Used before and it left contact in and now it deletes contact and messaging
Hi Linda,
What a pain! I’m sorry you’re having this problem with contacts and message conversations.
The delete conversation button should delete that conversation thread–the whole thing. But it should NOT delete your contact. After deleting a conversation, are you able to start a new conversation thread to that contact or is their info now missing entirely from the Contacts app?
SK
I did not see this issue in your table of contents:
IOS11 won’t let me scroll to the bottom of my messages at times. As in, I can’t scroll low enough to even see the text I’m trying to write, which means I can’t send because the send button isn’t stuck down behind my keyboard too.
HI Jonathan,
Sorry to hear about that screen real estate problem in messages. We’ve have had several readers report this same issue. For almost all of them, they had their display zoom setting on, which was blocking out parts of their screen. Can you please take a look and see if you have this setting enabled and if so, toggle it off.
Check in Settings > Display & Brightness > and look in the section called View.
Hope this is the trick that works for you. If not, let us know.
SK
I’m on an iPad Pro 12.9 and after ios11 my sent messages are lumped together, and my received messages are all lumped together too. So a convo will look like this:
Wife:Hi
Wife: How are you?
Wife: Not much, I have the munchies.
Wife: Okay, sounds good.
Me: Hello
Me: Good, what you up to?
Me: Want some left over pizza?
Instead of the usual back and forth. It’s kind of annoying, anyone else having this issue?
Hi Chris,
Oh man what a pain in the you know what! Sorry you are having this Message mess. Unfortunately, we’ve seen quite a few similar reader reports on this odd behavior. And we don’t have a one fits all fix…yet.
The first thing we recommend checking is your device’s Date & Time. Make sure it’s set to Set Automatically. If it already is, toggle it off, wait 20 seconds, and toggle back on. Alternatively, set it manually. Once done, restart your device by powering off and back on. Then, see if either of these makes a difference by running a test.
I hope that does it. If not, let us know. And we’ll discover more together.
SK
Come on Apple! Are you telling me that you, the world’s wealthiest company, can’t even fix its own products effectively?
11.0.3 on iPad Air 2 is driving me nuts. Message regularly loses its text/menu bar, but the menu bar obscures what I’m trying to write in Notes. Etc etc.
I’ve been with Apple stuff for many years (iMac, iPhone 5, iPad) and have to stay with it because that’s my system. But for the price of this stuff I demand that it works properly, as it always did seamlessly up to a few years ago, in the Steve Jobs era. Now updates are a nightmare – and others have had much worse troubles than I have – and prices of new gear is going through the roof. I’d try the opposition but it won’t be compatible with what I have. ******!!!!
Every time I choose a new contact for iMessage I choose send message and it disappears back to the beginning so I have to go in my contacts find the person and press send message again.
replying to this question:
Dan says
October 13, 2017 at 4:36 AM
When in my call register list or contacts, if I press on the message icon, it only opens into the message app, before it would directly open to the inbox of the person I wanted to text, do you know the reason for this ??
Reply:
Its a bug with ios 11. If the message app is already started and in memory, it works as before. When it opens into the message app, if you go back to contacts and try again, it will work because messages app is already active. What a bummer!
In ios 11, if you try to send message from contacts page, it will go to the message page and stop. If the messages page is already active, it will go to messages page and fill in name like it did before ios 11 update. Why would apple do this on purpose? Looks like a bug to me.
hi i have i os 11 and always i received text message delay 32 min so i can make a good conversation please help
I’m having trouble with my messages. My phone will die because my battery needs to be serviced but when it comes back on it’ll show that I have new messages. When I launch the message app the messages are not there or in my message history. Please help
Hi Gabbie,
First, conduct a test to make sure that you are actually missing messages and that this isn’t just a symptom of your battery problem. Ask a few friends to message you when your phone dies. After charging your phone fully (100%), restart the phone and then open message app. Wait at least 10 minutes for Messages to connect with Apple’s iMessage and your phone carriers servers. If the messages don’t appear, only then is it time to troubleshoot.
Try this test first and if you aren’t getting your messages, follow up and we’ll work on a few things.
Liz
If Larger Text is selected, and the font is even 1 “blip” to the right, the “Back arrow” does not perform properly – takes one to the Edit screen if your touch is not perfect. I was told this is a known problem and Apple is working on a fix. I hope it’s rectified sooner than later.
Hi Larry,
Thanks for sharing this insight. Very helpful, especially with all the reports of problems since iOS 11 updates.
Cheers,
Liz
Hello
I am using ios 11.0.3 and suddenly I am receiving messages intended for my wife’s ‘phone. The senders are not even on my contact list.
How can I fix this.
Hi Clive,
First backup your phone via iCloud or iTunes. Next, open Settings > Messages and toggle OFF iMessage, restart your phone, and then toggle iMessage back on. Once back on, scroll down to the section Send & Receive and make sure these phone numbers and email addresses are yours.
If that didn’t help try signing out of your Apple ID (Settings > Apple ID Profile > Sign Out). Then restart your phone and sign back in using your Apple ID.
Hope one of those tips works,
Liz
Hello after updating the new iOS 11 update. When I open a text message it doesn’t show the bottom of the text. So I can’t see what the person wrote if I scroll up it scrolls back to wher it was. Any way to fix this. If I close the message and open it back up it works. But tired of doing this to every message all day?
I had the message issues too – and the link was lost between contact list I.D. and iMessager – I had a computer tech work on it – he attempted several times without luck – and then suggested I go to an Apple store — on my way home, whatever he did worked and the link was back.
The new glitch is – I put my phone in Airplane mode and now it will not link to any WiFi connection at home or work…. will not take the password and link. HELP!
I just updated to 11.0.3, and now my Messages app doesn’t show the contact bubble(s) at the top of a conversation. I have a 5S, and the contact bubbles were there before I updated. Any ideas on how to fix?
Question:
After the most recent update, when I’m in my text messages, and I’m inside the message reading when I hit the back (to go back to my messages list) it takes me back to the most BUT the list with the ‘select messages to delete’ . Which is scary- accidental deletion could happen when all I wants to do was go back to my list of messages. What is up with that?
Hi Liz,
I have a brand new iPhone 8—not even a month old. I updated to iOS 11.0.3 and since then a couple of things are happening with text notifications. First, when I receive notification of a text on my home screen (w/ no preview, my preference) I tap on ‘View,’ and an empty text bubble pops up. I have to go into text message app to retrieve it. Second, now this empty text bubble appears on my home screen every time I wake up my phone. Quite annoying. I’ve tried turning off and on the phone with no success.
BTW, thank you Liz for this article. There was another issue I encountered, which is now fixed. I have it bookmarked for future reference.
HI Gloria,
There have certainly been a lot of iMessage and Message App problems with iOS 11! And you’re not the only one to voice these blank text bubble complaints. Currently, we do not have a fix for this issue.
What you can try is turning off Handoff (Settings > General > Handoff) and also turning off all Notifications for Messages and FaceTime. Then restart your iPhone by powering off and powering back on. Once restarted, go to Settings > Messages and toggle iMessage Off. Do the same for Settings > FaceTime. Wait 30 seconds or more and then toggle them back on. They will ask for activation–this often takes around 30 seconds to a few minutes.
Once iMessage and FaceTime are back ON, return to your Notification Settings and turn Notifications back on for Message–make sure you set your Show Preview Options to Always. After setting your Messages Notifications, do the same for FaceTime.
Leave Handoff off for now. Again, restart your phone.
After that final restart, ask someone to send you a text.
Hopefully that did the trick!
If not, another reader reported that this worked for him: in Setting > Messages changing Message History from “keep forever” to 30 Days (or 1 year) eliminated the Blank message notifications.
Liz
Since I went to 11.3, on my text screen the circle i in the upper right corner no longer sends me to the persons information. It now opens a new text message. How do I fix this?
Hi Lori,
Instead of pressing the “i” in the upper right, press the person’s name in the center circle. This opens their contact card.
Cheers,
Liz
I am on iOS 11.0.3 and I have realized two things;
1- If I start a brand new imessage conversation with only an emoji, the messages application crashes. It still sends the emoji to the recipient but my phone’s screen becomes messed up. I have to quit the Messages application, and re-launch it again, then everything goes back to normal.
I can start a brand new iMessage Conversation with normal text, or picture with no problem. This happens only when I start a brand new iMessage, and put only an emoji in the message, nothing else.
However, if I already have an existing conversation with the recipient, then I can send only an emoji with no problems.
2- After the iOS 11 update, when I delete all the messages inside the thread/conversation, my iMessage thread also goes away.. With iOS 10, I was deleting all the messages but my conversation thread was still listed under that person’s name. But the inside was empty.
Hi. When I opened Messages pre-iOS 11, I used to be taken to the thread with latest new message. After iOS 11, it takes me to my last thread. Is there a way to switch that back? I like to be able to respond by just clicking on messages since I don’t use the notifications.
Hi Anand,
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to change these defaults in Messages.
Liz
In landscape mode, the keyboard is now missing several keys from IOS 10.x.x and other forums say they are gone and will not return. Specifically the arrow keys and the period and comma keys. Any idea if this was intentional or an oversight?
John
HI John,
Unfortunately, it’s the new iOS 11 design. We’ve got some info about it in this article.
Cheers,
Liz
There is a change to the way Messages work in iOS 11 that is annoying to me, but absolutely maddening to my wife: When addressing a message to a single person (and there is NOT already a conversation open with only that person), you begin typing the name of the person in the “To:” field as always, but you have to really hunt and search down a long list before you can find that person by themselves. Instead of first listing just the individual, it shows that person in every group you’ve ever had that included them. Obviously, a workaround would be to always leave a conversation around with just that person, but we always clean up conversations.
Hi after updating my iPhone 6sPlus to the latest iOS system. I send a message to a friend with the same phone who receives the text but the sound for her phone to let her know she has ready a message does not work
Hi Mike,
The problem is with your friend’s iPhone Settings. Most likely, she either has the mute button turned on, doesn’t have notifications and alerts for messages turned on, or has do not disturb turned on accidentally for your Contact card in Messages. We have an article on this exact problem, which happened to a lot of folks when they updated to iOS 11.
Forward this info to your friend and hope it helps!
cheers,
Liz
It certainly seems like there’s a lot of problems with Messages and iOS 11. And a lot of tips here..I wish there was just one tip that fixed them all. But I get it—there’s different things going on and different reasons why. So you all need to cover the bases, so to speak. I get it. But it’s frustrating nonetheless to have so many possibilities. But needing only one outcome—that Messages just works!
When in my call register list or contacts, if I press on the message icon, it only opens into the message app, before it would directly open to the inbox of the person I wanted to text, do you know the reason for this ??
Hi Dan,
I tried recreating this on my iPhone, but I’m not running into this particular problem. It should work and automatically connect you to a message to that person. I’ll look into it and see if we learn anything. Hopefully, some readers have some tips too.
Liz
I can’t send pictures since I upgraded to iOS 11.3
Liz,
Hello I was having the problem with not receiving one of my contacts texts in group text. Just giving an update, ok I did everything you suggested and the only thing that worked is going into ICloud account on the computer and refreshing my contacts list. This is not a permanent fix because it seems like every day or so many hours I have to refresh my ICloud contacts for it to work properly. Not sure if narrows down what the problem could be but wanted to give you an update. The only other thing I can think of is to uninstall the IOS 11 until I get an updated phone I’m still using the IPhone 6 maybe not accepting new update well.
HI Willie,
Thanks for keeping us posted on what’s going on with your contacts. Wow, that temporary solution is really inconvenient, to say the least! What this tells us is that’s it’s clearly an iCloud problem. I’m wondering if you go into your computer’s iCloud, refresh your contact list, then check your iPhone to see if all the contacts are there. If so, try turning OFF iCloud Contacts and choose to Keep on My iPhone. Then leave iCloud Contact syncing OFF for a few days. And see if your problems return or if they don’t.
Your iPhone 6 is an iOS 11 supported phone, so your model iPhone should not be the issue causing this. To me, the symptoms and solutions you report indicate something going on with iCloud contact syncing. Just not sure exactly what or why–and therefore no definitive cure!
But we’re on the right track! Keep your Sherlock Holmes on and we’ll get to the bottom of this together!
Cheers,
Liz
My mom updated her SE, I have 6 plus but have not done the update. When I send her a text, her replies always come up in a separate box under her email address. I got the email part fixed under send and receive options, but don’t know why she still comes up in a separate text box. Any helpful hints? It appears to be driving her nuts.
HI Victoria,
I don’t really understand what your Mom is seeing. Is she seeing her texts along with your replies to the same message “box?” If that’s the case, she may have Send Read Receipts enabled. Go to Settings > Messages > Send Read Receipts and toggle this off.
I know you looked at the email issue, but another suggestion is to completely remove her email address from iMessage. IN Settings > Messages, tap on Send&Receive. Unticked any email, leaving the phone number as the only way to be reached and start a new conversation from.
If I’m not getting it at all, please send a screenshot of the problem to [email protected].
Cheers,
Liz
HELP PLEASE!
Using Text2Group and Group Text App. Ever since I have installed the lOS 11, everytime I send a group text on either app, non apple users do not receive the text and all messages are sending as Imessages which means responses are now going to everyone. Have tried deleting and reloading app which means I have to re – add all contacts to the group message everytime.
Is there another Group App that works and I wont have these issues with???
Hi Rachel,
Please make sure the Send as SMS, MMS Messaging, and Group Messaging are all ON in Settings > Messages. Next, check the Settings for each of those apps and look for anything toggled off–verify you want that particular setting off and if not, toggle it on. Then run a test.
If the results are the same as before, go back to Settings > Messages and toggle off iMessage. Run another test. If that works, then we’ve isolated the problem to how iMessage works with those two apps. It’s quite possible that these two apps have not yet released an update for iOS 11 which could explain this particular problem. Go to the App Store and check if there is an update for each of these apps. If so, update. If not, we recommend searching the app store for the highest rated group app and check the version history. Look for one that’s released an update since iOS 11 went public (Sept 19th.)
Hope this helps ya out!
Keep us posted,
Liz
Hi. I hope you can help me. Since installing iOS 11, I’ve been losing messages received while my phone is off. Previously, if my phone goes off because the battery gets drained, I receive messages when the phone is charged and turns on. I’d get the notifications and see the messages in the message app.
Now, if my phone goes off, I get the notifications (alerts and banners) but the messages don’t show up in the app. They don’t show up in history either. They’re simply gone. You can imagine how frustrating this can be.
Please help.
Thanks!
Hi Isabel,
Wow, that is a terrible problem! So it appears that somehow your messages are just not syncing with your device(s). If you haven’t already tried this, toggle off iMessage (Settings > Messages > iMessage) and also toggle of MMS and Group. In Message History change that to Forever, if it’s a different setting. For now, leave all these settings off.
Next, toggle off FaceTime (Settings > FaceTime).
Now forced restart your iPhone:
On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
On an iPhone X or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
This sounds redundant, but after the forced restart, perform a regular restart by powering OFF and sliding off. Then power up normally.
Once powered up, go back to Messages and FaceTime and enable all the settings you disabled. Both iMessage and FT need to activate, so that takes a few minutes.
Once everything is up and activated, test and see if you get your Messages.
Never heard of this one before!
Keep us posted and best of luck,
Liz
IOS is without a doubt the worst release ever by Apple. It unbelievable the company could release something so flawed. Unable to SMS, plus a litany of other issues. Grade = F.