Some of our readers report that after updating to iOS 12, the Messages App and iMessage aren’t working normally. Users find that their texts are not getting sent and delivered at all! Others tell us that the update changes the way Messages sends texts, sending out messages from email addresses rather than phone numbers.
If your iOS 12 iDevices have issues with Messages, don’t throw in the towel just yet!
Contents
- 1 Quick Tips
- 2 What’s New in Messages for iOS 12?
- 3 Not Receiving iMessages? Is iMessage Down?
- 4 iMessage Sending Texts from Your Email instead of Phone Number?
- 5 Contact Names Missing? Messages Only Show Phone Numbers?
- 6 Signing into iMessage Failing?
- 7 Share an Apple ID With Someone Else and Messages Combining Into a Single Thread? Conversations Grouped?
- 8 Looking To Get Rid of That Annoying Delete Conversation Pop-Up Message?
- 9 Want to Use a Different Apple ID for Messages?
- 10 iMessage Waiting for Activation?
- 11 iMessage Effects Not Working?
- 12 Emoji Not Working in iMessage?
- 13 iPhone Not Sending Texts to Android (SMS)?
- 14 iMessage Conversations Out of Order?
- 15 Not Seeing Back Arrow?
- 16 ‘Service Denied’ text message from ‘Unknown.’
- 17 No Message Notifications or Alerts?
- 18 Lost Your Messages OR accidentally Deleted Them?
- 19 Not Getting Messages on your Mac?
- 20 Can’t Delete Message Content?
- 21 Summary
Quick Tips 
In all our years of iOS updates that cause Message App problems, the following quick tips fix most issues
- When you share an Apple ID all your separate threads now become one potentially very large thread, featuring different people. iOS 12 combines all shared Apple ID Messages into a single conversation thread and into a single grouped notification. That means the only notification or message you see is the last one sent–so you probably miss a lot of texts from those you share your Apple ID with!
- Instead of sharing a single Apple ID, use separate IDs and sign up everyone into a Family Sharing account
- Look for additional tips in the section “Share an Apple ID With Someone Else and Messages Combining Into a Single Thread?”
- Turn off your iPhone or iPad. Remove your SIM card, readjust its seating, and reinsert it
- You may need to replace the SIM card if it’s damaged or if your device doesn’t recognize it
- Some folks tell us that replacing their SIM, even if undamaged, also works to fix iMessage problems
- Restart the Messages app by double tapping the Home button or swiping up the Home Gesture Bar and then swiping up to the app to force quit. Once closed, relaunch the Messages app
- Toggle iMessage off, wait 30 seconds, and toggle back on. Go to Settings > Messages > iMessage
- Toggle Messages in the Cloud off and on. Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > Messages (under apps using iCloud)
- iOS 12 turns Messages in the Cloud on by default, so if you don’t want this feature, keep it off
- Apply sufficient finger pressure to the Message send button (the upward pointing arrow icon to the right of your message.)
- For message effects, press and hold the send button to select an effect from the menu
- Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and make sure your phone number AND Apple ID’s email address (or iCloud email) is present and is checked under “you can receive iMessages to and reply from.”
- If unchecked, tap to check
- If unchecked, tap to check
- Update Contact information. Go to Settings > Messages and toggle ON Show Contact Photos and Filter Unknown Senders
- Restart your iOS device by powering off and then powering back on. Reboots work particularly well if iMessage sends texts from your Apple ID email instead of your phone number.
- If a restart didn’t work, try a forced restart
- 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
- Turn on Airplane Mode and turn off by going to Settings > Airplane Mode or tap the Control Center Airplane Mode toggle
- 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 reset after the update. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size. Adjust it to a smaller size
- Resetting network settings often helps. Simply Tap Settings > General > Reset > choose Reset Network Settings
- Some users stated that turning off WiFi Assist fixes problems. If you want to try this tip, go to Settings > Cellular > and turn off Wi-Fi Assist (scroll all the way down to locate)
- Make sure that the Date and Time setting is chosen “Set Automatically” by going to Settings > General > Date & Time
- Change your DNS settings and see 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 8.8.4.4 and 8.8.8.8 (this is Google’s public DNS)
Related Articles
- Common iOS 12 Problems and How to Fix Them
- How To Share Photos in Messages and iMessage Using iOS 12
- How To Use iMessage Group Chat
- iMessage Contact Names Missing, Shows Number? Fixes
- No Text or Message Notification Alerts or Sounds on iPhone? Fixes
- Error Occurred During Activation for iMessage or FaceTime on Mac? How To Fix
- How To Delete Texts and iMessages From Your Mac
- Apple Watch iMessage Not Working? Fix it Quick
- Want iMessage on Your Windows PC? Tips to Get It
- Save Your iMessage Images as Photos on your iPhone
- iMessage or SMS Texts Disappeared After iOS Update? Fix It Today
What’s New in Messages for iOS 12?
Apple continues to improve its texting service in iOS 12. New this year are some nice additional features, including starting group FaceTime calls directly from a group iMessage conversation.
There’s also a re-designed App Drawer, now called the App Strip, that takes up even less space when you type your messages. It’s an excellent change for folks with smaller iPhones where space is always a premium!
Another neat iOS 12 Message App feature is iMessage Photo Suggestion. Now, when you type a message, you can get photo suggestions based on who you’re messaging and even what you’re talking about. Pretty nice!
Photo Suggestions only appear when iCloud Photos is enabled.
Other improvements include new animoji (and memoji for devices the support Face ID), iMessage support for camera effects and filter, and of course, new emoji!
iMessage Camera Now Saves Photos Taken in the Message App
If you like to snap a picture while texting to send to your friends and family, iOS 12 now saves all photos to the Camera Roll that you take within the Message App.
Previously, those photos were not automatically saved and simply remaining in your text conversations, for you to manually save to the camera roll. But no more!
Some folks are going to love this change and others not so much.
iOS 12’s Message App Strip
The updated App Drawer (called the App Strip or Bar) takes up just a tiny bit of space, just above your keyboard. There’s also a new Photos shortcut for quick access to your photo library–if you want to share a photo with family or friends, tapping Photos in the App Strip is the way to go. 
Don’t Want To See Message’s App Strip? Get Rid of it!
- If you’d rather not see the App Strip ever, open any conversation
- Make sure the keyboard isn’t visible by sliding your finger down from above the Subject and Message entry boxes
- Then, tap the grey App Store icon next to the Message entry field
- The App Strip disappears and only reappears when you touch the grey App Store icon again
If You Want to Minimize the App Strip Temporarily
- Make sure the keyboard is visible by tapping in the Subject or Message Text Entry Box
- Tap the gray App Store icon, and it disappears temporarily–the next time you open that conversation or start another, the app strip reappears
Not Seeing the App Strip?
If you don’t see the App Strip in iMessage, tap the gray App Store icon, and it returns!
Is #images Missing or Not Working From The Message App Strip?
First, make sure that your keyboard is set to a supported language and region. Go to Settings > General and tap Language & Region and verify that it lists a supported nation. 
#images is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, India, Singapore, Philippines, and Japan.
Add or Remove #images from Your Message App Strip Favorites
- From the app strip, swipe all the way left until you get to the More Button
- Tap Edit
- Tap the Plus Sign (+) to add the #images app to your favorites, then tap Done
- If it’s already in your favorites but not working, tap the Minus Sign (-) to delete it from your favorites
- Choose Remove from Favorites
- Once removed, toggle it off
- Tap Done and then tap Done again
- Return to the App Strip and choose the More button again
- Tap Edit
- Toggle on #images–it should automatically appear in your Favorites
- Tap Done and then tap Done again
- See if #images now works!
Sharing Photos in iOS 12 is a Tad Different!
In previous iOS versions (iOS 11 and below), we shared our photos by tapping the camera icon to the left of our typed messages.
But with iOS 12, how we access and share photos changed. Share all your photos using the App Strip’s Photos iMessage app.
How To Share Photos in iMessage (iOS 12)
- Open a conversation in Messages
- Tap on the Photos app icon in the App Strip
- No App Strip? Tap the grey App Store icon
- Select any photos you want to share
- Find Recent Photos or tap All Photos
- To see suggested photos, tap the grey bar just below the App Strip
- Finish your message
- Press send
Taking and sharing a new picture is still the same
Tap the camera icon, hit the take photo button, and tap Messages blue or green arrow to send your photo on its way!
One change: tapping the volume buttons in Messages no longer takes a photo–you must press the on-screen take photo button.
Not Receiving iMessages? Is iMessage Down?
It may not be you!
Sometimes, Apple System Services go down. So before you do anything, check out Apple’s System Status page to see if the problem is happening on their side of the fence.
Specifically, look for iMessage, FaceTime, and iCloud services. If one or more of these lists as down or with issues, suspend any troubleshooting until Apple takes care of these server problems, then try Messages App and iMessage again.
iMessage Sending Texts from Your Email instead of Phone Number?
- Toggle iMessage off, wait 30 seconds, and toggle back on (Settings > Messages > iMessage)
- If that doesn’t help, add a restart in between
- Toggle Messages in the Cloud off and on (Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > Messages)
- Open Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Tap your Apple ID and select Sign Out–see if your phone number displays under Send& Receive. If not, restart your device
- Restart your device or force restart and then ask someone with an iPhone or Apple device to send you an iMessage to your phone number (not your Apple ID email address)
- Untick your email addresses in Settings > Messages > Send & Recieve, so you only check your phone number, then restart your device
- Checkmark your email address back once you confirm your phone number works
- If you still don’t even see your phone number, try a forced restart
- Reset your network’s settings. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
- Delete all of your older message threads and start new ones
- Remove the SIM card and reinsert it
- Turn iMessage off and turn Airplane mode on. Restart your device and turn iMessage back on
- If that doesn’t help, go through the steps again and use a forced restart instead of a regular restart
- Sign out of out of iCloud for all services, restart, and sign back into your Apple ID
Use Multiple Devices Including Mac?
If problems continue, you may need to reactivate iMessage on all your Apple devices.
Turn off iMessage on all the devices signed in with the same Apple ID first. Then, one by one toggle iMessage back on to reactivate.
From what we gather, it seems that the update to iOS 12 deactivates your phone number. So you may not be able to start conversations nor reply to conversations until you reactivate your phone number with Apple iMessage Servers.
Contact Names Missing? Messages Only Show Phone Numbers?
If you discover that all your messages lack the sender(s) name, it’s a pretty frustrating problem. How many of us know anyone’s phone number? So it’s hard to match numbers with people. 
If your device shows these symptoms, help is on the way!
Try these quick tips first
- Close the message app by double pressing home or swiping up the home gesture bar and then swiping up, off the top of the screen, the message app preview
- Toggle iMessage off, wait 20-30 seconds, and toggle it back on
- Reset your network’s settings
If those don’t do the trick, the problem is pervasive enough that it requires its own unique article. So check out this article for more in-depth steps on how to fix when names don’t show up on your messages.
Signing into iMessage Failing?
Some folks tell us that after updating, their devices show a message asking to if they want to use their current Apple ID or sign in to another Apple ID for iMessage. When they choose Sign In (with current Apple ID), it doesn’t work!
If you see this error, try the option to use another Apple ID. Then add in your usual Apple ID credentials. 
If you share an Apple ID with someone else or with multiple people (like your spouse/partner and children,) iOS 12 makes things difficult–most commonly, combining all messages into a single thread. 
This issue occurs because Apple thinks all the devices linked to that single Apple ID are a single person’s multiple iDevices. Consequently, it merges all messages into one group.
With iOS 12, Apple now organizes all your iDevice (and Mac) contacts by Apple IDs, so if you share an Apple ID with family members, friends, or even co-workers, all those various messages are sent and shared with everyone who uses that same Apple ID.
While earlier versions of iOS used to separate texts and iMessage from different emails or phone numbers associated with a single Apple ID, in iOS 12 your device automatically detects if a phone number or email address is linked to a single Apple ID, and if so, keeps all texts and messages from those emails and numbers in the same conversation thread.
If facing this problem, your best bet is to set up everyone with their own and unique Apple ID and create a family sharing account to share purchased apps and media, share iCloud storage, and swap photos using the shared family album.
With iOS 12, when you share an Apple ID with others, they can see all of the following information:
- Everyone’s text messages
- All photos and videos
- Everyone’s calendar events, reminders, contacts, and notes
- Everyone’s personal health data
- Virtually every password
- All of the websites each person visits
- Everyone’s phone calls
However, if you want to maintain sharing a single Apple ID, here are some tips suggested by readers
- Turn of Messages in iCloud on ALL Devices sharing that Apple ID
- Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Messages and toggle it off
- Find a way to unlink multiple iCloud email addresses from your shared Apple ID and iCloud account. Visit the Apple ID Site and change the phone numbers and emails associated with Reachable At
- When texting members who share an Apple ID, try using the area code in front of the phone number
- Reader Veronica discovered that when started a new text message & typed in the phone number with the area code, she could see message threads by themselves (instead of merged)
- Uncheck the Apple ID’s email from the Message App Settings for Send & Receive
- Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and uncheck email address, leaving only the phone number for both “You Can Receive iMessages To and Reply From” an “Start New Conversations From.”
- Create a new Apple ID for iMessage (and FaceTime) only
- Sign out of the shared Apple ID from iMessage by tapping Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Tap Apple ID > Sign Out
- Sign back into iMessage with that new Apple ID
- Follow the same steps for FaceTime by going to Settings > FaceTime > Apple ID > Sign Out
- Continue using that shared Apple ID for all other services. But make sure to untick Messages in each device’s iCloud Settings
- Turn off iMessage completely and send all texts as SMS and MMS (green bubbles)
- Go to Settings > Messages > iMessage and toggle it off
- Check that Send as SMS and MMS Messaging are toggled ON. If not, enable those two settings
- Restart your device and try sending a message. It should show up as a green bubble indicating that iMessage is off and your messages are no longer going through Apple’s Servers
- Do the same for FaceTime. Go to Settings > FaceTime and toggle it off
- Create separate Apple IDs for each person and use this Apple ID with iMessage, FaceTime, etc. under Settings > Apple ID > iCloud. But use the shared Apple ID for iTunes & App Stores to share purchases (Settings > Apple ID Profile > iTunes & App Stores)
Looking To Get Rid of That Annoying Delete Conversation Pop-Up Message?
In iOS 11.3 with the release of Messages in the Cloud, Apple added a confirmation process for deleting texts and message conversations. Despite user feedback, this approval message remains in iOS 12. 
It’s a three-step process to delete every message (swipe, tap delete, then confirm.)
Currently, there is no way to go back to the simple way of removing messages and texts. Even if you turn off or don’t use Messages in the Cloud, you still get an on-screen notice asking “would you like to delete this conversation?”
Consider letting Apple know via its product feedback site if you’d like to see the return of a simple, one-step deletion process.
Want to Use a Different Apple ID for Messages?
- Open Settings > Messages > Send & Receive
- Tap your Apple ID
- Select Sign Out
- Optional: Restart
- Tap Use your Apple ID for iMessage
- Select Use Other Apple ID
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 turns 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
Check out this article for more tips on problems with iMessage activation.
iMessage 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 using Apple products AND running the same iOS version.
When devices run unsupported iOS versions or run a different operating system (like Android), the animations get sent as static images or not at all.
Remember, iMessages are blue, and SMS/MMS Texts are green.
Effects only work on iMessage texts–the blue ones.
Effects Still Not Working?
- Check that you are pressing the on-screen buttons sufficiently. Effects only appear when you do a long press on the send button (the upward pointing arrow icon to the right of your message)
- Turn off Reduce Motion. Go to General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Off
Emoji Not Working in iMessage?
Of course, iOS 12 brings along with it some new emoji–over 70 new ones! These come with your update to iOS 12.1. We’ve got some good representation here for humans–from redheads and grayheads to curly hair and finally bald looks too!
And there’s a bunch of other new characters including some great emotive smiley faces and additional emoji representing animals, sports and food.
So it’s not fun when our emoji stop showing up
- Check that you installed the emoji keyboard. Go to Settings > General > Keyboards > Keyboards
- If it’s listed, press Edit
- Tap on the red minus sign and select Delete
- Restart your device
- Reinstall emoji by selecting Add a New Keyboard
Update to iOS 12.0 (First Release) and No Emoji?
Sadly for folks who updated to the first public release of iOS 12 starting September 17, 2018, these new emoji appears to be missing in action! It looks like Apple will place them in a future iOS 12 update sometime before the end of 2018.
Historically, Apple releases its new emoji in the .1 or .2 minor updates–so stay tuned!
Sorry folks (especially all your redheads, curlies, and dragon fans!)
Emoji Showing Up as Blank or Black Lines?
If you or your friends aren’t seeing the emoji you send (or you receive from them), the chances are that someone is not updated to the latest iOS software (or current macOS software upgrade) on the iDevice or Mac.
Once updated, all emoji should be visible to all parties!
Fix Predictive Emoji Not Showing
At times, iMessage users experience issues with predictive emoji not showing up. When this occurs, 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 >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
iPhone Not Sending Texts to Android (SMS)?
Several readers tell us that their iPhones are not sending text messages to their Android friends and family.
First, 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. 
A reader discovered this solution
- Turn off both WiFi and Cellular Data via Settings Menu.
- Text that person with these off. After repeated attempts, iMessage gives you the message “not delivered” Turn your WiFi and Cellular Data back ON and tap that little icon next to “not delivered.”
- Choose to send as a text message and the message gets delivered as a text message
- Rinse and repeat for each Android friend
iMessage Conversations Out of Order?
- Check that the Date&Time on each of your iDevices and Macs are the exact same. 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 town that’s in the same time zone. If that’s not an option, press the Date and select 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
Not Seeing Back Arrow?
- Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size
- Reduce the size of your font using the slider
‘Service Denied’ text message from ‘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
No Message Notifications or Alerts?
Not receiving any alerts that you have new messages? Please make sure they aren’t stacked in iOS 12’s new Group Notifications. 
If it’s not a grouping issue, check out this article for some tips on how to get your notifications back!
Lost Your Messages OR accidentally Deleted Them?
If you routinely back up via iCloud or iTunes, those messages may be in your backups! Check out this article on how to retrieve those deleted Messages from backups.
Not Getting Messages on your Mac?
- On your iDevice, 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 asked, tap Use your Apple ID for iMessage
- Open the Messages app on your Mac and go to 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 you add any emails, restart the Messages App on each device
Can’t Delete Message Content?
How-To delete information from within the individual conversation thread
- Open the message conversation
- 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
How-To delete information from multiple conversation threads
- Go to Settings > General > iPhone (or iPad, iPod touch) Storage > Messages
- Locate the section Documents & Data
- Look through the 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
- If empty (Zero KB) you are using Messages in the Cloud s all data is kept in iCloud not on your device
Summary
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.
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In my ipad a Grey Circle with Tick suddenly appeared at the mail INBOX and will NOT Delete.
I tried a recommendation to open Multitask bar, hold an icon until all jiggle, then press the TOP UPPER LEFT CORNER of the Mail Icon in then MULTITASK BAR . Close. It did not work. The grey circle remains.
I understand Home button, icons etc but i am not certain that i actually had the correct Multitask Bar. It wasnt clearly defined and largely did not have my most used and recent icons. Where should i have found the Multitask Bar ?
Can you please tell me how to get rid of that Grey Circle at the Inbox ?
Hi Peter,
I am not sure what symbol you see in your Mail app. Could you send a screenshot to [email protected] and list the subject as Mail app strange symbol?
I think that you might be in the Mail apps Edit mode, if so at the top of the Mail app do you see Select All and Cancel buttons? If so, tap Cancel. That should send your Mail app back to regular Inbox view.
To close apps, double press your iPad’s home button and then locate the tile for the Mail app. Swipe that tile off the top of your iPad’s screen to close it.
All of a sudden while I’m composing a chat message in Messenger if I pause to think about what I’m going to say next and stop typing, my chat box will automatically refresh and the cursor will go back to the beginning of my message.
This is so annoying!
I have to go back and find where I was in the conversation and sometimes I lose track of what I was trying to say.
Also, if I want to go back and edit a letter in a word, I can’t put the cursor on the place where it needs editing.
It will only go to the end of the word, then I have to delete up to that part in a word before I can edit part of it.
It never used to do this. Please tell me how I can fix these problems back the way they used to be.
I’m using an iPad Mini, and it is up to date. Thanks.
Hi Marianne,
Just to confirm is this issue occurring in the Apple Messages app or the Facebook Messenger app?
It’s possible that memory is an issue, so let’s close all your open apps and restart your device.
To close, double press the home button to open the app switcher. Swipe each app preview tile off the top of your screen and repeat these steps for each app preview until none remain open in the app switcher. Then restart.
The test Messages/Messenger again
Hi…..new iphone11.
in messages, i get the tick box on the left side for everything when i touch a photo.. When i touch a photo to expand or send, the check mark comes on and the photo freezes. “Delete all” comes on in the upper left corner . i hit clear, but the same thing happens. Also the pop up menu will come up with that more button, which seems to be permemntly on.(i have a new ipad 7 generation as well). Thanks
Go to app store and upload GIG text. Awesome app
Hi,
Messenger is making me relaunch the app. It gives me a confirmation code. When I go to put in the code that consists of all letters the keypad appears but doesn’t give me the option on the bottom left of it, to switch from numbers to letters therefore I cannot enter the code. Suggestions?
I have a iphone 8 ver. 12.4 and i would like to know how to remove emails from my phone but not the server? I have read some ways to do it but the screens and step don’t match what i see on my phone. Any help would be great.
Thanks
Hi Joe,
This particular article is for the Messages (iMessage) app and not the mail app–that’s why it doesn’t look right.
First, you need to set up your iPhone’s email as a POP3 account, not an IMAP (that’s the default.) We suggest you review support documents on your email provider’s website to find out how you can set up your account as a POP3 on your iPhone.
Look for a setting called Delete from Server–not all email providers have this setting but some do.
Go to iPhone Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Tap your email account > Advanced > INCOMING SETTINGS > for Delete from server, check NEVER
Elizabeth thanks for the info I will work on it.
Wow, that fixed the problem.
I had to get a 2nd iPhone and a new phone number.
My new phone would not send all the messages.
It seemed to pick and choose to whom to send the message. Super frustrating!
I had to change the number selected, in send & receive, to the new number and that did the trick!
Thank you so much
Help!
I’m using iOS 12.2 and pictures sent to me as iMessage with pic type HEIC do not download.
I have tried all the suggested fixes that I can find.
I can send images which are received by the individual but when they send in return they don’t come through. This only seems to have started at the beginning of April. Pictures sent through a couple of days beforehand came through without any problem.
Any ideas on how to get this sorted?
Hi Cathy,
This may sound too basic, but have you closed the iMessage app and then restarted your device?
To close iMessage, double press the home button or swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen for iPhones with no home.
Then swipe left or right to locate iMessage’s app preview.
Swipe up off the top of your screen on the iMessage app’s preview to close the app
Then restart
After restart, launch iMessage and see if you can see those images AND run another test of sending images with the another iPhone user
WAY WAY WAY WAY TLDR!! Break it up…separate web pages per topic!!!
Text to another iPhone and it says “not delivered” but it has actually gone through
Hi Christie,
That’s an interesting issue!
Check if for some reason you have that person on your blocked list. Open Settings > Messages > Blocked.
It’s also a good idea to check that person’s contact card, just in case
Using iOS 12.1.4 and #images in iMessage says “could not load”.
I have tried all the suggested fixes.
I have rebooted the router, reset iPad to factory settings, gone through all the ideas submitted in this forum.
I can use all the emojis, photos from albums, etc., but #images a total bust.
Any ideas on how to get this feature to work in my iMessages?
Hi NP,
First, make sure that your keyboard is set to a supported language and region. Go to Settings > General > Language & Region and verify that it shows one of these supported countries/regions: #images is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, India, Singapore, Philippines, and Japan.
Have you tried removing #images from the App Shelf as a favorite and then adding it back in?
Open Messages and tap to compose a new message.
In the App Shelf, swipe all the way to the end of the options until you see the More Button (Three Dots …)
Tap on the More Button (…)
Choose Edit
Tap the Minus symbol next to #images
Choose Remove from Favorites
Tap Done
Now, close the Message App by double pressing Home or swiping up the Gesture Bar and then swiping up off the top of your screen the app preview for the Message App–close any other apps if desired. Then, restart your device by powering off, waiting 20-30 seconds, and powering back on.
Once your iPad is back on, open Messages again
Compose a new message again
Locate and tap open the More Button
Tap Edit
This time, scroll the list of More Apps and locate #images
Toggle it off, wait a few seconds, and toggle it on–it should add back into your favorites automatically
Tap Done, then tap Done again
Cancel that new Message
Now try composing another new message and tap #images from the App Shelf
See if it works!
Let us know if this helps (or not…)
Liz
NP – are you also having trouble with embedded link preview for youtube and FB? E.g. -every time you send a link in imessage it defaults to a generic safari link.
Since the lstest software update, messages to android phones fail to send. I have tried multiple remedies, including those listed here, with no success. I use an iPhone 8, pirchased from Verizon last April. How do I fix this issue?
I had multiple problems with Messages app – to the point that the nice people at Apple thought it might be a hardware problem.
In the end, the remedy was a factory reset and NOT restoring from backup (don’t forget to see all your photos and music before doing this).
Over the past few weeks iMessage in particular has become very laggy, buggy…it’s slow to respond when switching between the keyboard and the emoji pages, has moments of utter confusion, where the message box completely disappears.
The other night it crashed completely causing me to restarting my phone!
I’m running on an iPhone X with IOS 12.1.3
Since latest update 12.1.2 my texts are arranged by date, not by contact. What can I do to fix this? I’ve turned off my phone for 10 minutes, that was all I could think of to do
Helpful, but doesn’t explain the method for deleting a specific photo from a specific thread/conversation with iOS 12.1.1.
As of 12/6/2018, some really annoying overall changes took place and there’s nothing out there on this specific issue.
Maybe quit “fixing” what isn’t actually broken…or maybe make the architect of these truly personal preferences (through which the rest of us suffer) provide useful information on how to navigate said changes…?
C’mon, seriously…?
Hi Jon,
To delete a specific photo from a conversation, follow these steps:
1. Tap the conversation that has the photo you want to remove
2. Locate the photo and press it until a menu appears with the options: Copy, Save, More…
3. Select More…
4. Verify that the image you want to delete is check marked
5. Select any additional photos, texts, or other items you want to delete at the same time
6. Once you choose all the items you want to delete, press the trash can in the lower left corner
Sam
On my 2018 IPad Pro 12.9, WIFI, I am not able to send or receive messages to people with Android phones. In Settings/Messages, there does not seem to be anywhere to accept SMS messages. I have tried turning off Messages, Wifi, ICloud, and shutting down the IPad but nothing seems to work.
Did you manage to fix this as I am having the same problem?
My text tone is not playing when I receive a text message
Josh, Have you checked the tips on this article around notification alerts?
So what seemed to work for me was to completely remove my SIM card for about a minute and reinstalled both while the phone is turned on and then restart your phone and try sending out your SMS text again.
The App Store was stuck in my iMessage app and I couldn’t send or receive texts. Tried everything, so frustrating. After finding this website page and shutting off and on phone and then following sms instructions, my texting now works. Thanks to whoever made this page.
I would have been really pissed if I had been out and about and couldn’t send or receive texts. Luckily I discovered while home.
Terrible bug, and glad this doesn’t happen often with Apple. Reminds me of when I used a Windows PC.
I updated to iOS 12.1 three days ago and now have a problem with texting. With one, and only one, recipient (the one I text with most frequently), I cannot scroll back through texts beyond the previous day. The texts are there, and searchable, if I know what keyword to search, but I am unable to just scroll back through at will. What is the fix or patch that I need to complete to get the scrolling function back?
Hi Annie,
Sorry to hear about your problems with the Message App following the recent iOS 12.1 updates.
If you haven’t already tried closing all apps and then restarting or force restarting, give that a go. To close apps, swipe up the Home Gesture Bar or double press the Home Button, then swipe up off the top of your screen all open apps. Once all app previews close and all you see is your Home Screen, restart or force restart your device.
If that doesn’t help, try toggling iMessage off, wait a couple of minutes, and then turn it back on again.
If the issue persists, please contact Apple Support directly or set-up an appointment with an Apple Store Genius.
Sam
I have a WiFi only iPad and an android phone.
My friend has an iPad and an iPhone.
When I text her from my phone or iPad they both go into her iMessage inbox.
Sometimes when she tries to send me a message or reply to a message they go to the wrong device on my end.
For example, she wants to text me to my phone but it ends up going to my iPad and I don’t see it right away because I am not near WiFi ?
How do we solve this issue so that the messages go to the correct device?
When I am home and on WiFi I try to use iMessage in my iPad to chat with her.
It is easy for me since my devices are different.
But it really annoys me that we can’t figure out how to get her messages to me to go to the right device.
Hi Shannon,
The problem is that your iPad only works with iMessage, while your phone only works with SMS texts.
Your iPad cannot receive SMS text messages and your Android phone cannot receive iMessages.
That’s why you see those problems.
There are a few things you can do:
1. Always send your texts as group texts including both your Android phone number and your iPad’s Apple ID email–that way, when your friends respond it always goes to both devices. The major disadvantage of this method is that your friends also need to put in both your phone number AND your Apple ID email on all new text message conversations to you
2. Try using a third-party messaging app instead. Instead of texting via your phone number or iMessage, use a third-party texting app like Facebook Messenger Viber, even Skype or Slack. The downside is that you need the app on both your devices and all your friends’ devices need to install the app as well.
Your problem is quite common and causes a lot of frustration. Apple wants its customers to remain in its own ecosystem, and for that reason, iMessage is only available on Apple products.
Sam
Thank you Sam.
I didn’t really think there would be a fix for it.
She always gets my messages so I guess I will have to remind her that sometimes her messages go to my iPad and sometimes her messages go to my phone so if she doesn’t get an answer I am not ignoring her I just didn’t see it right away because my iPad is WiFi only.
My Text replacement shortcuts are not working… anyone find out why or a fix?
Hi Carlos,
Give this method a try:
1. Go to Settings > General > Keyboard
2. Turn off Auto-Capitalization, Auto-Correction and “.” Shortcut
3. Power off your device and wait 30 seconds to 1 minute, then power up your device
4. Return to Settings > General > Keyboard
5. Toggle these back on Auto-Capitalization, Auto-Correction and “.” Shortcut
6. Wait another 30 seconds to a minute (don’t do anything with your device–just let it sync)
7. After about 1 minute, tap on Settings > General . Keyboard >Text Replacement and check if your text replacement shortcuts are there!
Let us know if this works for you!
Sam
This didn’t work for me.
I have tried a dozen ‘fixes’ and no luck on ant of my devices:
iphone7 Plus iPad Air Or iPad mini
Anyone else having continued issues despite all the ‘ fixes ‘?
I’ve just upgraded to iOS 12.01 and none of the hyperlinks from emails take me to safari. I now have to copy and past them into safari. Even when I hold down on the link and get the option to “open” nothing happens when I click open.
Anyone else experiencing this?
My partner’s 7 plus doesn’t let her type punctuation especially periods at the end of sentences while is texting. She’s running iOS 12. Restarting doesn’t help. I didn’t this problem above but sounds like all hell is breaking loose with iOS 12 texting. Too bad since a lot of people like my partner use it constantly. I’m the IT expert in the family but this has me stumped.
I’m using iphone 7s with ios 12.01 and the option to delete a picture from within a text message simply is not there (even under more)!
There’s a ton of options to do things with your pictures but delete is not one of them!
This sucks because I don’t want to delete my entire conversation just to delete one or two photos!
And I don’t want to have to save all of their pictures in the conversation in the process either. This worked on earlier versions! This stinks big time! Get your act together!
HI David,
There is a way to remove/delete pictures from text conversations. First, locate the text thread that has an image you want to delete. Tap on it to open. Then locate that image and deep press to open a menu that says Copy, Save, or More…
Tap the More… and checkmark any image (or text) that you want to delete. After everything is marked with a check, tap the trash button on the lower left-corner.
Sam
I have just updated and now I cannot open any hyperlinks from any text messages both new and old. I have gone back to an old message and a link that previously worked won’t work now.
Hi Sarah,
Sorry to hear about that problem with links in your iMessage not working.
There was a bug in iOS 11 that caused links to not display if the message included some specific words like dollars, the $ symbol, and other references to money (for any country/region.) This was fixed with iOS 11.3–but it sounds like it may be resurfacing for folks.
Unfortunately, this is a problem that users cannot fix on their own–Apple needs to address it in an update. For now, what we got are workarounds!
Workarounds
One workaround is to delete/remove any specific message with money references and the links should work again. If possible, you could try just removing the word or symbol ($) and see if the links return as active.
Readers also tell us that adding an additional space before the link seems to help too (so instead of one blank space, there’s two or more)
Another workaround is to add a dash or another character directly following the use of one of these monetary words or symbols–so for example, $- or instead of $ 10, use $10 (don’t add space between them)
We’ll look more into this.
In the meantime, if these solutions don’t help, please contact Apple Support and see if they have any additional solutions for this problem. If so, let us know!
Tap here to submit a Bug Report to Apple so they can correct this.
Sam
Since the iOS 12 update and my purchase of an XS happened about the same time, I’ve tried to fix the iMessage problem with all your suggestions but I am still not sharing iMessages across all my devices.
Messages from my contacts are shared but if my dentist or Best Buy messages me – you know those six number ids – the messages are not shared with my iPads.
Very frustrating – any help would be appreciated.
Hi CJ,
Please make sure that you enabled Messages in iCloud on all connected devices. Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > Messages and toggle this on (for all devices.) If it’s already on, toggle it off, wait 20 seconds, and toggle it back on. Do this process for every device.
Next, Since you mention that specific messages aren’t coming through, check that the settings for Settings > Messages > Send and Receive match across all your devices–so what’s listed with a checkmark on one device is also on the others.
One your iPhone, check Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and toggle on each device you want to receive SMS and MMS texts forwarded to. Please note that if your iPhone is off, it cannot forward SMS/MMS texts to any devices.
The last step is none of these worked thus far, is toggling off iMessage on all devices, one by one. After all devices are disconnected from iMessage, start re-enabling them.
With the latest update, Hide Alerts in the Message App isn’t working. It doesn’t silence alerts any more.
After iOS 12 download, when I go to message and try to attach a photo by clicking the camera icon it only opens the camera. Don’t get the option of camera or photo. However, I did find a workaround by going to the strip aps (down below subject line) and clicking on the photo icon. Seems like an extra step but it works. Just in case others are having this problem.
Hi Bob,
Yes, this is a change in iOS 12–not welcome by many.
For iPhones, there is a small photos icon in the top-left corner to access photos via the camera app–like earlier versions of iOS. This icon does not appear on iPads–not sure why. But that’s it.
Thanks for catching this and letting us know your options.
Sam
We have iphones – connected on the family plan – we are having our texts go to the wrong person – when click on the person’s name it is right but when we send the text it goes to another person. It has started happening on all our phones since downloading IOS 12. Any help?
Hi Charles
Sorry to learn that your family is having problems with texting after iOS 12 updates. Try changing iMessage’s Send & Receive and Start New Conversations from so ONLY the phone number is ticked–not an email. Do this for each device then restart all devices. See if that helps.
Another reader suggestion is to add the area code to everyone’s phone numbers when texting. For reader Veronica, that seemed to do the trick!
Sam
I downloaded iOS 12 when it was first available in September.
For a week, I had the same frustrating problem with myself and my teenage daughter. Our iMessage threads were merged into one under my Apple ID with my Apple ID icon.
So everything I had texted to myself was showing up in that conversation.
It was extremely annoying and I thought about setting up family sharing with an Apple ID for my daughter, but she did not want to do that because she did not want to lose her data with her apps.
So, after many different ways to try to solve this including generating a new text message & typing her contact name in, which would show her in the contact and then as soon as I sent the message it would merge it again, I found a solution.
I started a new text message & typed in her phone number with the area code, and ever since then, I was able to retrieve her thread by itself with all of our pre-existing iMessages intact. Now I can go to iMessages and click on her thread as usual, and it will only be sent it to her phone.
Veronica,
Awesome catch! Thanks for sharing your tip.
Sam
My family’s messages are all lumped into one thread as well. It’s so incredibly annoying when I need to text something to my daughter, but it goes to my husband. There are days when I can’t even get one text to go through to her!
I tried all the tips above and this (area code trick) didn’t work for me either. I’m so frustrated. When will actually Apple fix this instead of just trying to put a Band Aid on it??? Are they even working on it?
In the meantime, my solution is Snapchat. That’s the only way I can send messages to my family because iMessage is a ridiculous waste of my time right now.
i updated last night and my texts are not sending, they are stuck with the blue line up top showing its about 3/4 way sent….. i have checked all settings.
After my update when I text my son and my husband it switches to whoever last texted me. If I delete the threads I can start a new thread. Once they reply I am stuck again. I have given everyone new apple id’s as we shared before this. Ive checked the message send and receive options. My husband and son don’t have this problem. What can I do??? So frustrated!
Did you ever get a solution to your problem of texting your son and the text goes to your husband? I am having the same problem and can not fix it.
Thanks!
HI, Karen (and Jessica),
Make sure that everyone is using a different Apple ID–and that each of those Apple IDs associates with a different email address.
Sam
I understand Apple calls this a feature, I call it a bug.
I have no intention of creating multiple ID’s.
Why should I have to change how I use and set up my phone just because of a software update.
This has turned my phone into dead weight, since I can no longer communicate using iMessage.
I plan to downgrade my software to ios11 until this is fixed. Really disappointed with this change… WELCOMED AT ALL!
Hi SK,
I really do appreciate implementation of a confirmation dialog, to delete an entire Message conversation.
Have discussed this earlier, and it’s congruous with how Apple implements ‘Delete’
I’ve lost many a conversation, because of accidental swipes or my nephew playing with my phone.
There was just no way of getting those SMS Messages back – say, like in Notes, Photos – which nest in a deleted folder for 30 days.
Also noteworthy – a single thread deletion, has always involved a pressing down, then More, then Delete after a confirmation pop up. So, an entire conversation shouldn’t be just swiped away into oblivion.
Thanks for the input Sandeep.
Personally, I also like the deletion confirmation–especially now that messages sync on all my device.
But we get a lot of emails and feedback from folks who are really annoyed by this confirmation.
Cheers,
SK
The new iMessage effects are now working for me. There is a new star like icon with moving effects and they are all frozen when I incorporate them into a message. Tried the motion off thing and didn’t work.
I’m having a problem with the pictures and bitmojis I send through text. They all appear a lot smaller than before I updated to iOS 12.
Hi Tony,
go to Settings > Messages and scroll all the way down–see if low-quality image mode is on. IF so, toggle it off.
If not, try toggling it off and on again then restart your phone.
Followed the directions for emojis in ios12. I still do not have emojis.
Hi Lisa,
It appears that Apple did not yet release the iOS 12 emojis with the update from 9.17.2018.
We’re not sure what’s going on and why that is. We’ve reached out to Apple and other folks we know, but so far no response.
Consider leaving Apple your feedback via this link or via their Twitter feed @AppleSupport.
Sam