Follow these quick tips to help with many of the common iMessage problems following an iOS or iPadOS update
Check Apple’s System Status online. If you are not receiving texts or iMessages, Apple’s iMessage Servers just might be down. This site offers real-time information for all of Apple’s services, including iMessage and iCloud
Shared Apple IDs cause a lot of problems. Do not share an Apple ID with anyone else, including your child or spouse. Instead, get a unique Apple ID for everyone and sign up for a family sharing plan
Verify that your device’s date and time are set automatically via Settings > General > Date & Time
Remove and reseat your device’s SIM card (or replace it if damaged or not working properly)
Force close the Message app and relaunch it. To close it, double-tap the Home button or swipe up the Home Gesture Bar and then swipe up to the app to force quit. Then, relaunch the Messages app
Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and make sure your phone number AND Apple ID’s email address is checked under “you can receive iMessages to and reply from”
Toggle AirPlane mode on, wait a few seconds, and toggle back on
Verify that SMS and MMS are toggled on. Go to Settings > Messages and turn on Send as SMS and MMS Messaging
Reset your network settings via Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
Toggle iMessage off via Settings > Messages > iMessage, wait 20 seconds, and toggle it back on
What’s new for iMessage and Messages in iOS13 and iPadOS
Every year, Apple takes our user feedback and makes modifications and improvements to its Messages App. And this year is no different.
Here’s a quick rundown of all the new and updated features for messaging in iOS 13 and iPadOS.
Dual-SIM support for iMessage—you don’t need to choose a number to use with iMessage anymore—both numbers work at the same time!
Quick Action replies for non-3D Touch devices. Tap and hold a text conversation to quickly reply with suggested responses
Better searching in Messages
Create a new user profile and choose to share your name and photo or avatar in your chats with your contacts or people you choose.Or turn this feature off so no one sees your name and/or photo
Newly designed info details section. Tap on the “i” icon at the top of your texts and see all the links, locations, and attachments a conversation shared in one quick snapshot
More Memoji customization options, including makeup, additional hairstyles, hats and headwear, earrings, glasses, and even add piercings to your nose, eyelids, eyebrows, or mouth
Create Memoji in different apps including Contacts!
Announce Messages with Siri, Siri can now read your incoming messages through your AirPods the moment they arrive. And you can reply immediately to that message with your voice and AirPods using Siri. This feature works with Apple’s Message app as well as many third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp. Announce with Siri requires iOS 13.2 or later
Repeat alerts not working for iPhone, Apple Watch, or iPad with iOS 13 and iPadOS? Update to iOS 13.2!
Unfortunately, when users updated to iOS 13, they encountered an unexpected bug–repeat alerts do not work at all, no matter what you set them to repeat for! Since updating, even when users set their repeatalerts to once or up to 10 times, iOS only sends one notification and never repeats at all.
This is an issue that Apple is currently working on. In the meantime, the only workaround is to change your notification banner settings from temporary to persistent.
This issue is now fixed in iOS 13.2, so update your iPhones and iPads to the latest iOS version and you should be good to go!
For folks using older iOS versions, check out these iOS-specific articles for your iMessage problems
Improved search is one of the best new Messages App features for iOS 13 and iPadOS
In the past, looking for something in an older text message was a bit of a stab in the dark. But no more!
With iOS 13 and iPadOS, when you swipe down spotlight search in Messages you now see lists of recent photos, attachments, links, and the most recent people you texted.
All this information before you even type in your search.
And when you type in a search, the Messages app automatically categorizes the results and highlights the search’s matching terms. So finding that message or information just got a heck of a lot easier!
iOS now highlights your search keyword in the Message app search results!
Unfortunately, we still can’t perform a search within an individual message thread—but hopefully, Apple will add this enhanced search function in a later update.
Create animoji or memoji stickers in Messages and almost any app that supports them!
Open Messages or an app that supports stickers
Access your on-screen keyboard
Select the emoji keyboard or tap the Memoji app from Message’s app strip
Look for the three-dot More button (…). You may need to swipe right to see this button under frequently used
Scroll through the options to choose a sticker
Or tap on the + to create a new Memoji (if supported)
iMessage stuck on waiting for activation and won’t activate after updating to iOS 13 or iPadOS?
First, manually toggle iMessage off, wait 20-30 seconds, and toggle it back on. Wait a few minutes and see if iMessage activates.
If iMessage still doesn’t activate, try these steps
Disconnect from all WiFi networks by toggling it off
Toggle off iMessage
Sign out of the iTunes & App Store
Reset network settings
Sign back into iTunes & App Store
Toggle back on iMessage
If that didn’t work, take out your iPhone’s SIM card, wait 20-30 seconds, and put it back in. Then try again activating iMessage again
Does iMessage show a message that it’s indexing? Or not seeing your message photo history?
Apple greatly improved the search capabilities within the Message App for iOS 13 and iPadOS. So the first time you open Messages after updating, you might see a message saying “More suggestions (results) will be shown once Messages finishes indexing.”
All this message means is that your iOS or iPadOS is cataloging your messages for spotlight search and Siri search. It’s just a notice that Messages is performing this indexing after updating.
How long it takes depends on how many messages it needs to index. So if you’re one of those folks that keeps your message conversations forever, this could take some time.
Is your Message app not showing photos and attachments in your message details pane? Seeing a message that says it’s downloading messages at the bottom?
Apple really improves the search function in the Messages app with iOS 13 and iPadOS.
And the details pane, the information that shows up when you hit the “i” info button, has a lot more features.
Your device now organizes your messages links, locations, and attachments shared in your conversations in a quick snapshot.
For folks that just updated, you might find this area temporarily empty
If you click on the “i” icon in an iMessage thread or message conversation and you don’t see any media, photos, or attachments underneath the message contact details, it’s likely that the Message app is still indexing all that information.
The remedy here is time–make sure your device connects to WiFi and power and then wait for the indexing process to complete. Many folks find placing their devices on the charger helped the pictures appear in the info section.
Also, make sure you toggle on Messages in your iCloud account
Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud
Scroll down to Messages
Toggle Messages on and off from your iCloud Settings.
Toggle it on–if it’s already on, toggle it off, wait 20-30 seconds, and toggle it back on
If you’ve already waited several days for your photos and attachments to index, some readers found a restart or force restart solved the problem–and their history reappeared after that. Other readers tried rebuilding their Message app index, and that seemed to work for them.
Force your device to rebuild the Message app index
Go to Settings > Siri & Search >Messages > and toggle everything off
Restart your device
Go back to Settings > Siri & Search >Messages > and toggle everything on
Seeing error message Message in iCloud is currently disabled?
If after updating, there is a small message at the bottom that says “Messages in iCloud is currently disabled. Repair Account,” your iPhone, iPad, or iPod is likely still in that indexing process.
We suggest you wait 24 hours to allow indexing to complete and then see if that message goes away
Still seeing the error message Message in iCloud is currently disabled after 24 hours?
If that error remains after 24 hours, first restart your device by powering it off, waiting for a few minutes, and powering it back on
Try toggling Mesaages off and on in your iCloud Settings. Go to Settings >Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud and turn Messages off and back on. If this toggle is off, turn it on and see if that fixes the issue with the error message
If you continue to see the message, tap on Repair Account
Once chose, your device lets you know that it is repairing you iCloud Account and warns you that it may take a few minutes–our experience tells us that this process often takes a few hours, especially if you store a lot of data in iCloud
iMessages and texts appearing out of order on your iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac?
Toggle iMessage off, wait 20-30 seconds, and then turn iMessage back on to refresh your connection to Apple Servers
Check for a carrier update by going to Settings > General > About. If an update is available, there’s an option to update your carrier settings. Press Update to get those changes applied to your device
Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and toggle off Set Automatically. Then restart your device and turn Set Automatically back on. If you use a Mac too, go to System Preferences > Date & Time and perform the same steps of turning off and on set automatically
If you use the same Apple ID on your devices and Mac, toggle on Messages in iCloud
For iDevices, go to Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud > Messages
For Macs, open the Message App > Preferences > iMessage tab > tick the box for Enable Messages in iCloud
Check that the Date & Time on each of your iDevices and Macs are the exact same. It’s best if you use the feature Set Automatically per each device but if thats not matching, change the time on each device manually. 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
Don’t want to share your name and photo in your texts? Want to turn off the iMessage profile feature?
If you don’t want to automatically share your name and/or your photo when you start a message or respond to a conversation, it’s easy to adjust or turn off this feature
Go to Settings > Message
Scroll down and tap Share Name and Photo
Toggle off Name and Photo Sharing to turn the feature completely off
Other options for name and photo sharing in Messages when toggled on
Choose Contacts only to share with folks in your Contacts App. With this option, all the people in your contacts always see your name and photo
Tap Always Ask to select when and with whom to share your name and photo when texting. With this option, whenever you send a message to someone new, you see a message at the top of your screen asking if you want to share your name and photo with that person. To okay sharing, tap the Share button in this message
Can’t share your name and photo? Seeing a message that sharing name and photo not available?
If you are unable to toggle on Share Name and Photo and see a message about Sharing Name and Photo not available, check that you do the following:
Toggle iMessage on in your Message app settings
Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID–you cannot share your name and photo without signing in
Use the same Apple ID for iMessage and iCloud
Not sharing an Apple ID with any other iPhones
This feature does not work when multiple phone numbers are associated with a single Apple ID. For example, if you and your child or spouse share one Apple ID but have multiple phone numbers, this feature is unavailable.
If possible, remove any additional phone numbers associated with your Apple ID. Remember, Apple recommends everyone in your family have their own, unique Apple ID. You can still share purchases, storage, and locations via an Apple Family Sharing plan.
Remove phone number(s)
On your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive
Select your Apple ID and tap Sign Out
Then go to Settings > FaceTime. Select your Apple ID and tap Sign Out
Sign back into iMessage with your Apple ID
After signing back in, tap Send & Receive and untick any phone numbers and/or emails that you want to remove—ensure that only one phone number is selected (checked)
If the phone number that you want to remove belongs to an iPhone that you can’t access, change your Apple ID password. This removes all phone numbers from your iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.
Messages for any removed numbers won’t appear on your devices anymore
Turn iMessage off and on
If removing phone numbers didn’t work, try toggling off iMessage temporarily, waiting 20-30 seconds, and then toggling it back on.
Then see if you can use the feature to share your name and photo.
Sign out of iCloud
If you still are unable to edit your name and photo in Messages, sometimes you have to sign out of iCloud completely on your device then sign back in.
Go to Settings > Apple ID > Sign Out
Sign out of your Apple ID, and iCloud, then restart your device and try syncing again.
Enter your Apple ID passcode to turn off Find My iPhone
Select the options to keep all your data on this iPhone
Tap Sign Out to confirm
Sign back in with your Apple ID
Choose to turn on Find My iPhone
Remember to use the same Apple ID for both iCloud and iMessage
Can’t click a link in iMessage? Links not working?
Try force closing the Message app
On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button
Swipe right or left to find the Messages app
Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
Open Messages and choose the text message with the link again
Tap the link to see if it now opens
Can’t delete photos and attachments from Messages in iOS 13 and iPadOS?
Open your Messages app
Tap a message thread
Find an image you want to delete and long press on it until a drop-down menu appears
Select More…
Tick the circle next to all the images in the thread you want to delete
Tap the trash can
Confirm you want to delete those images
Another option is to delete message attachments, photos, or links in iMessages via the “i” info details pane
Open a text message thread
Tap the person(s) name or profile photo(s)/icon(s) at the top of the text conversation
Choose the “i” button
Long press the item (photo, link, or attachment) you want to delete and wait for the Quick Action menu to appear
Choose Delete from the quick action menu options
Confirm you want to delete that item(s)
Unfortunately, at this time with iOS 13.1 and iPadOS 13.1, you cannot delete multiple attachments and images at once using this method–tapping on the “i” button. Currently, you can delete images one-by-one using the Quick Action Delete.
How to deleting multiple attachments and images at once in Messages in iOS 13
If you want to delete multiple images, follow the instructions in the above section. As a summary, tap the Message thread and press on an image inside the conversation and choose More to access editing options.
Having problems texting with Android and other non-iMessage folks?
Quite a few iOS 13 and iPadOS users have issues texting and sharing content with friends and family members that use other types of devices, like Android phones, and with people who don’t use iMessage on their Apple devices
Not able to join single or group chats with non iMessage users?
Go to Settings > Phone
Toggle on Send as SMS and MMS Messaging
If SMS and MMS are already on, try and toggle them off and then back on again
If that doesn’t work, try to reset all settings by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings
Choosing to Reset All Settings shouldn’t delete any content from your device.
Use the Message App’s Not Delivered function to resend your texts
Turn off both WiFi and Cellular Data in the Settings app
Text the person(s) with these settings off
After repeated attempts, your Message app should show the message Not Delivered
Now, turn both WiFi and Cellular Data back ON
Tap that exclamation point icon next to not delivered
Choose to Send as a Text Message or tap Try Again and see if the message gets delivered
Rinse and repeat for each person you are having message problems
Can’t text photos or videos via SMS or MMS to Android or folks that don’t or can’t use iMessage?
First, make sure both Send as SMS and MMS Messaging are toggled on in Settings > Phone
Open Settings > Cellular
Tap Cellular Data Options
Make sure DataRoaming is ON
For LTE users, verify that Enable LTE is working for both Voice & Data
Toggle off Low Data Mode
Restart your phone
If that doesn’t work, try a reset all settings by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings.
Announce Messages with Siri not working?
This feature arrives with iOS 13.2. So if you don’t see this feature now, it’s likely still in testing. Here’s a quick preview of what we know about this feature.
One awesome feature for folks that use AirPods 2+ and PowerBeats Pro is that Siri can automatically read all your new texts to you. And it doesn’t just read your iMessages and SMS texts! You can set Siri up to read supported third-party messaging apps too!
If Siri is not reading your texts and iMessages on your AirPods or other headphones, check that you have this setting turned on.
Go to Settings > Notifications
Tap Announce Messages with Siri and toggle it on
Unfortunately, at this time Announce Messages with Siri only works for devices with Apple’s H1 chip. That includes Apple’s AirPods 2 and Beats Pro.
To our huge disappointment, Announce Messages with Siri does not work with AirPods 1 (first generation.)
Additional support for problems with iMessage and the Message app
If your specific problem wasn’t addressed in this article, we have a bunch of additional posts for topic-specific problems. So take a look and see if your problem is listed. And if not, let us know in the comments section and we’ll do our best to help you out!
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.
What iPhone model are you using? We tested on iPhone 11 Pro, XR, and iPhone 7–all on iOS 13.4 and it’s working like normal.
So before anything restart your iPhone. Then try again by opening a message and long-pressing on a photo. Choose the More…button And see if you can select the texts/photos to forward
If that didn’t work, try tapping the info button instead, long-press on the image you want to forward and choose Share from the quick action menu option. Tap the Messages and add in the person you want to share it with.
Here’s the order:
1) Open the message with the image/text you want to forward
2) Tap the name(s) at the top to reveal the menu options
3) Tap the “i” info button
4) Scroll to Photos and long press on the photo you want to forward
5) Choose Share
6) Select a listed contact or choose Messages and add the contact
I have tried all of your suggestions on regards to trying to rebuild iMessage in order to have the photo and link and attachment history show up in the “i” icon in iMessage.
After trying all of the suggestions in this article, I can’t seem to have the photo history come back?
Do you have other suggestions that might’ve help to retrieve all of the photo history in iMessage?
I was also given a message that reads “Messages in iCloud not available as iCloud and iMessage accounts do not match. Messages in iCloud is not available because iCloud and iMessage accounts are different.” What can I do about this?
You see this message when you sign in with one Apple ID for most of your Apple Services in Settings > Apple ID but use a different Apple ID for iMessage and/or FaceTime.
The only solution is to use the same Apple ID for iMessage as you do for your device in Settings > Apple ID.
When I updated all of my photo/attachments were no longer showing when I clicked the “i” in messages. It was completely blank, so I followed the instructions on how to trigger the indexing and it only gave me max 10 photos which was a day ago. Should I try to trigger this again or will it mess something up? I know I have roughly 150k text messages and within those I have maybe 500 photos and videos, but I feel like it’s completely frozen or never going to give me my photo list in the messages. What can I do? It’s extremely frustrating.
You should be able to delete any message, regardless of how many numbers are on the message.
Try closing the Messages app. After closing it, relaunch and swipe left on the message and choose Delete.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
Yes, we’ve had several complaints about repeat alerts not working. Is this happening on a particular app or all apps that have repeat notifications set up?
If a particular app, toggle all notifications off, then restart your device, and toggle the notification settings back on including the repeat alert setting.
If it’s occurring on multiple apps or across the board, try resetting all settings and then set-up your notification settings again.
This option (reset all settings) is a bit drastic and requires time to set everything back up–but for some folks, it was the only thing that worked.
Reset all settings
* This is usually the last resort since it resets all your personalized features back to factory defaults
* Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All
* This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms
* Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
* Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files
I have the same problem with repeat notifications for my text messages not working. I even upgraded to 13.1.2 Did you try Elizabeth’s recommendation to reset all settings, and did it work?
People who still use iOS 12 or earlier versions the repeat alerts are functioning.
It’s the iOS 13 software that’s causing our repeat alerts not to work.
Even the latest iOS 13.1.2 is still full of bugs. Don’t bother to Reset Your Settings.
Many have tried and the repeat alerts still don’t work.
There are a lot of people on the Apple Community message board complaining about the same problem.
Some people who are using the beta version of iOS 13.2 is still experiencing no-repeat alerts. Hopefully, more people will submit a bug report to Apple so they can issue a fix as soon as possible.
Hi, we have the problem that we can‘t share photos anymore with good quality (probably since iOS 13).
Sending pictures made with iPhone 11 or 11pro has bad quality (the setting for low quality is deactivated).
Even worst is sending screenshots which have been saved in photos.
Sending them directly works fine, but if they are saved on iPhone first (files or photos) and then sent using iMessage, they have such a bad quality, that you can’t see anything.
Can no longer send messages via iMessage to android phone users on my iPad since iOS 13.1.1. Installed last night.
Works fine with other messages to other iPhones using WiFi.
IPad tries to deliver – get long green line, but ends up saying ‘Not delivered’.
iMessage working fine on my iPhone XR and its on 13.1.1 too.
Everything looks ok with regard to date/time and Apple ID settings – phone and email address.
Any suggestions?
It’s likely an issue with the settings for SMS text messaging using Apple’s Continuity feature.
On Your XR, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and toggle on your iPad.
Then, on your iPad, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and verify that both your phone number AND your email are check marked. Under Start New Conversations From, choose one option–either your phone number or your email.
Then, run a test.
This feature only works when your iPhone XR is on, as it relays your SMS texts using your iPhone.
Thank you!
I just changed my ‘Start New Conversations From’ to my email address (it was set as my phone number) and it worked. Logical really; not sure why I didn’t think of that
Thanks again.
Yvonne (England)
This problem occurs when texting my friend who has an iPad without a SIM card and an android phone.
When I text his phone number from my iPhone and iPad, the texts go to his iPad.
If I reply to his texts that he sends with his android, my reply goes to his iPad.
This began when I updated to iOS 13.
The only way I’ve found to get a text to his phone is to send the text to his appleID and his phone number. When I provide both options then it will send to both.
I had a similar problem start recently with one friend who has an Android phone and an iPad.
I called Apple and here was the solution for my problem: The person I was sending to had an Android phone and an ipad. She was getting the messages on her ipad but not on her phone because my messages were going out as imessages instead of sms messages. To fix this you need to do the following:
1. Go the the recipient’s entry in your iphone contacts list
2. At the top of the screen, the “messages” bubble is probably blue. For sending to an Android phone, it should be green.
3. Press and hold the bubble and it will give you a choice of which address/phone number to use. Select “mobile”.
4. Text your friend–it should send to their non-Apple phone.
Why did this happen?
My friend has an iPad. She receives my imessages on the iPad but rarely uses it for texting. One day she must have sent me a text from the iPad. When I texted back, my iphone used the incoming address for that message to respond, which was her Apple ID (her email addy). For some reason, that changed the default Messages setting in my Contacts list to her Apple ID. All future texts from my phone used that instead of her Android mobile phone number. To fix it, the Apple rep gave me the solution above. And it worked!!
When I start to type the name of someone I am going to start to send a text message to (in the messages option) I see that name and old contacts I’ve deleted before.
For example, if I deleted Brad, Brian, Ellen, 2 months ago and I want to send a message to Ana I will see their names in my still.
When in reality I have already removed them from my phone and from the icloud contacts options too.
How do I remove old contacts for good? I also see this in the group text option as well.
There are a couple of things that could be in play.
#1: If you updated your iPhone model, the backup you restored was likely older and therefore included these contacts
#2: Those contacts were imported from one of your email accounts that your sync contacts with–to take a look at what accounts sync, go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > tap each account one by one. Check what toggles are on. If contacts are enabled, your device will sync any contacts from that account to your iPhone. If you don’t want that behavior, toggle Contacts off for that account.
Just updated my Iphone XR to IOS 13 , and i can’t send or receive any Imessage, tried to turn off Iphone , turn off and On Imessage in settings ( still on : Waiting for activation )
I am having the same issue with photos not showing up due to still indexing. I have tried all of the tips in this article to get them back and none of them has worked. I have toggled messages on/off thru siri/search, I have turned messages off from my icloud and waited 30 plus seconds and turned it back on. I have turned my phone off several times in between all of these steps as well as letting it sit on the charger while doing all of this. My update was done a week ago and still indexing. Any additional guidance?
hi when i click on the little i in imessage to see my contacts profile the sent photos don’t show up but they are there when i scroll up. how do i fix this to see al the pictures
iOS 13 adds a lot of new search functionality to both the Messages app and the Photos app. Because of this enhancement, it takes a long time to index all your messages and photos after updating.
This functionality will re-appear once iOS completes this indexing–in Messages you might see a message that iCloud is repairing the account.
If you see a message (at the bottom of the app) that Messages in iCloud is currently disabled, Repair Account. Tap Repair Account to initiate the process.
In the Photos app, you might see messages at the bottom of the app saying things like gathering favorites, detecting duplicates, and so forth with an additional message to leave device locked and connected to power–this is the indexing process. So please continue leaving your device connected to power and to WiFi to allow indexing to complete.
Again, this is all normal after an iOS update–it can take quite a bit of time (up to 24 hours) depending on how much data it needs to index and how fast your internet connection is.
This isn’t an uncommon problem after an iOS update (or iPadOS). Usually, a restart (power off, wait 30 seconds, power back on) followed by connecting to WiFi and then waiting as all your iMessage media populates does the trick.
If the problem continues past a few hours, let us know
how can i reduce my Apple messages “docs & data? My iphone storage shows 2.8GB in Apple Messages with NO detail avai to be deleted!
Please help✌️
note… iPhone 6S on iOS 13.6
Just updated to iOS 13.4 now if I want to forward a text/picture to Android or iPhone user it won’t let me.
The circles appear to the left like normal when you hold the pic or message you want to forward but it won’t let me check the circle and forward.
Any tips on how to fix this. It’s super annoying and I used this function a lot
Kat,
What iPhone model are you using? We tested on iPhone 11 Pro, XR, and iPhone 7–all on iOS 13.4 and it’s working like normal.
So before anything restart your iPhone. Then try again by opening a message and long-pressing on a photo. Choose the More…button And see if you can select the texts/photos to forward
If that didn’t work, try tapping the info button instead, long-press on the image you want to forward and choose Share from the quick action menu option. Tap the Messages and add in the person you want to share it with.
Here’s the order:
1) Open the message with the image/text you want to forward
2) Tap the name(s) at the top to reveal the menu options
3) Tap the “i” info button
4) Scroll to Photos and long press on the photo you want to forward
5) Choose Share
6) Select a listed contact or choose Messages and add the contact
7) Send it
Come On Apple!!
I paid enough for this phone, then to find Why problems with iPhone 10, to fixes BUGS you fail to check for in new Ios updates, is ridiculous.
Call this my Disney phone, os programmed by Mickey and Goofy.
whenever i go to messages and try and click on photos it wont let me and also gif
I recently got a new iPhone 11 Pro, which came with iOS 13.1.2 I think (I’m updating to 13.2 right now).
When I try to send a text from Messages to many but not all people in my contacts, it only displays their email and not their cell number.
If I go into Contacts and find that person, I can then select “message” and all the possible phone numbers and emails come up to select from.
I don’t see anyone else reporting this problem, and it’s really annoying.
My text thread won’t load for older messages
I have done 2 factory resets to my phone (as well as all the other stated options above) and it still says the messages are indexing. Help!
Hi Laura,
Is you haven’t updated to iOS 13.2, do so–it appears that this bug is fixed for people who reported it in earlier iOS 13 and iPadOS versions.
How do I clear all recent text contacts so they don’t come up when writing a new text message?
For example when I start writing someone’s name old group chats come up and it’s annoying! You used to be able to click the “i” and clear them away.
Hello,
I have tried all of your suggestions on regards to trying to rebuild iMessage in order to have the photo and link and attachment history show up in the “i” icon in iMessage.
After trying all of the suggestions in this article, I can’t seem to have the photo history come back?
Do you have other suggestions that might’ve help to retrieve all of the photo history in iMessage?
Thank you
I was also given a message that reads “Messages in iCloud not available as iCloud and iMessage accounts do not match. Messages in iCloud is not available because iCloud and iMessage accounts are different.” What can I do about this?
HI Angela,
You see this message when you sign in with one Apple ID for most of your Apple Services in Settings > Apple ID but use a different Apple ID for iMessage and/or FaceTime.
The only solution is to use the same Apple ID for iMessage as you do for your device in Settings > Apple ID.
HI Angela,
Have you updated to the latest iOS version of 13.1.2–most people report the issue fixed after updating to this latest iOS.
Also, check that Messages is turned ON in iCloud. Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > and make sure that Messages is toggled green
If nothing is working, we highly recommend you reach out to Apple’s Support team for the Messages app.
When I updated all of my photo/attachments were no longer showing when I clicked the “i” in messages. It was completely blank, so I followed the instructions on how to trigger the indexing and it only gave me max 10 photos which was a day ago. Should I try to trigger this again or will it mess something up? I know I have roughly 150k text messages and within those I have maybe 500 photos and videos, but I feel like it’s completely frozen or never going to give me my photo list in the messages. What can I do? It’s extremely frustrating.
There is no way to delete messages with more than one addressee
Hi Carl,
You should be able to delete any message, regardless of how many numbers are on the message.
Try closing the Messages app. After closing it, relaunch and swipe left on the message and choose Delete.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
After updating to ios13 my repeat notifications aren’t working. I’ve tried everything. Can you help please?
Hi Rosa,
Yes, we’ve had several complaints about repeat alerts not working. Is this happening on a particular app or all apps that have repeat notifications set up?
If a particular app, toggle all notifications off, then restart your device, and toggle the notification settings back on including the repeat alert setting.
If it’s occurring on multiple apps or across the board, try resetting all settings and then set-up your notification settings again.
This option (reset all settings) is a bit drastic and requires time to set everything back up–but for some folks, it was the only thing that worked.
Reset all settings
* This is usually the last resort since it resets all your personalized features back to factory defaults
* Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All
* This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms
* Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
* Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files
Hi Rosa,
I have the same problem with repeat notifications for my text messages not working. I even upgraded to 13.1.2 Did you try Elizabeth’s recommendation to reset all settings, and did it work?
Hi Rosa and Bernadette,
People who still use iOS 12 or earlier versions the repeat alerts are functioning.
It’s the iOS 13 software that’s causing our repeat alerts not to work.
Even the latest iOS 13.1.2 is still full of bugs. Don’t bother to Reset Your Settings.
Many have tried and the repeat alerts still don’t work.
There are a lot of people on the Apple Community message board complaining about the same problem.
Some people who are using the beta version of iOS 13.2 is still experiencing no-repeat alerts. Hopefully, more people will submit a bug report to Apple so they can issue a fix as soon as possible.
iOS 13.2 is longer in Beta and final version released today on 10/28/2019. Repeat Alerts is finally fixed.
Yippee! Thanks for letting us know.
Hi, we have the problem that we can‘t share photos anymore with good quality (probably since iOS 13).
Sending pictures made with iPhone 11 or 11pro has bad quality (the setting for low quality is deactivated).
Even worst is sending screenshots which have been saved in photos.
Sending them directly works fine, but if they are saved on iPhone first (files or photos) and then sent using iMessage, they have such a bad quality, that you can’t see anything.
Does anyone else have this problem?
Thank you.
Tim
Can no longer send messages via iMessage to android phone users on my iPad since iOS 13.1.1. Installed last night.
Works fine with other messages to other iPhones using WiFi.
IPad tries to deliver – get long green line, but ends up saying ‘Not delivered’.
iMessage working fine on my iPhone XR and its on 13.1.1 too.
Everything looks ok with regard to date/time and Apple ID settings – phone and email address.
Any suggestions?
Hi Yvonne,
It’s likely an issue with the settings for SMS text messaging using Apple’s Continuity feature.
On Your XR, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and toggle on your iPad.
Then, on your iPad, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and verify that both your phone number AND your email are check marked. Under Start New Conversations From, choose one option–either your phone number or your email.
Then, run a test.
This feature only works when your iPhone XR is on, as it relays your SMS texts using your iPhone.
Hope this works. Keep us posted on the results.
Liz
Thank you!
I just changed my ‘Start New Conversations From’ to my email address (it was set as my phone number) and it worked. Logical really; not sure why I didn’t think of that
Thanks again.
Yvonne (England)
This problem occurs when texting my friend who has an iPad without a SIM card and an android phone.
When I text his phone number from my iPhone and iPad, the texts go to his iPad.
If I reply to his texts that he sends with his android, my reply goes to his iPad.
This began when I updated to iOS 13.
The only way I’ve found to get a text to his phone is to send the text to his appleID and his phone number. When I provide both options then it will send to both.
Any ideas?
I had a similar problem start recently with one friend who has an Android phone and an iPad.
I called Apple and here was the solution for my problem: The person I was sending to had an Android phone and an ipad. She was getting the messages on her ipad but not on her phone because my messages were going out as imessages instead of sms messages. To fix this you need to do the following:
1. Go the the recipient’s entry in your iphone contacts list
2. At the top of the screen, the “messages” bubble is probably blue. For sending to an Android phone, it should be green.
3. Press and hold the bubble and it will give you a choice of which address/phone number to use. Select “mobile”.
4. Text your friend–it should send to their non-Apple phone.
Why did this happen?
My friend has an iPad. She receives my imessages on the iPad but rarely uses it for texting. One day she must have sent me a text from the iPad. When I texted back, my iphone used the incoming address for that message to respond, which was her Apple ID (her email addy). For some reason, that changed the default Messages setting in my Contacts list to her Apple ID. All future texts from my phone used that instead of her Android mobile phone number. To fix it, the Apple rep gave me the solution above. And it worked!!
Hello…
When I start to type the name of someone I am going to start to send a text message to (in the messages option) I see that name and old contacts I’ve deleted before.
For example, if I deleted Brad, Brian, Ellen, 2 months ago and I want to send a message to Ana I will see their names in my still.
When in reality I have already removed them from my phone and from the icloud contacts options too.
How do I remove old contacts for good? I also see this in the group text option as well.
Best regards
Hi Don,
There are a couple of things that could be in play.
#1: If you updated your iPhone model, the backup you restored was likely older and therefore included these contacts
#2: Those contacts were imported from one of your email accounts that your sync contacts with–to take a look at what accounts sync, go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > tap each account one by one. Check what toggles are on. If contacts are enabled, your device will sync any contacts from that account to your iPhone. If you don’t want that behavior, toggle Contacts off for that account.
Hi ,
Just updated my Iphone XR to IOS 13 , and i can’t send or receive any Imessage, tried to turn off Iphone , turn off and On Imessage in settings ( still on : Waiting for activation )
Someone can help ?
Hi Renaud,
Sorry that your Message app isn’t working as expected after the update.
See the tips outlined in this article How do I Fix FaceTime or iMessage Waiting for Activation?
Liz
Hi! I have a iphone 6S+ that just updated to ios 13. I can open the messaging app, but it won’t let me open any texts! It just freezes when I try to.
Hi Jenna,
It’s likely that your Message app is indexing all your old messages and any photos/attachments contained inside them.
iOS 13 really expands the search functions within Messages so this often takes time to index all that information.
Wait for up to 24 hours and these problems should disappear. If not, let us know
Mine been saying it’s indexing since i updates it which was days ago
Hello, I am trying to do a search for old messages but it keeps saying that there will be more suggestions when it finishes indexing.
I am the kind of person that keeps messages forever and I understand that it will take some time.
However, it has been a couple of days and it still says it is indexing but no more texts appear to have been catalogued.
Is this normal and when can I anticipate it to be finished?
Hi Jonathan,
If you have a lot of messages from many years, it can take quite a while, especially now with Apple Servers very busy and jammed with traffic.
Let it sit for another day.
If it’s still indexing even then if you feel comfortable try restarting your device. Open the Message app and see if it still listed as indexing.
If problems remain,
1) Go to Settings > Siri & Search
2) Scroll to your Messages app and toggle off everything for Siri & Search for Messages
3) Restart the device by powering off, waiting for a few mintues, and powering back on
4) Go back to Settings > Siri & Search
5) Toggle Messages search functions back on
6) Wait another 15 minutes or so–don’t use any apps just let it sit
7) Open the Messages App and see if it now works as you expect
I am having the same issue with photos not showing up due to still indexing. I have tried all of the tips in this article to get them back and none of them has worked. I have toggled messages on/off thru siri/search, I have turned messages off from my icloud and waited 30 plus seconds and turned it back on. I have turned my phone off several times in between all of these steps as well as letting it sit on the charger while doing all of this. My update was done a week ago and still indexing. Any additional guidance?
Thanks. Problem solved due to time setting.
hi when i click on the little i in imessage to see my contacts profile the sent photos don’t show up but they are there when i scroll up. how do i fix this to see al the pictures
Hi Hailey,
iOS 13 adds a lot of new search functionality to both the Messages app and the Photos app. Because of this enhancement, it takes a long time to index all your messages and photos after updating.
This functionality will re-appear once iOS completes this indexing–in Messages you might see a message that iCloud is repairing the account.
If you see a message (at the bottom of the app) that Messages in iCloud is currently disabled, Repair Account. Tap Repair Account to initiate the process.
In the Photos app, you might see messages at the bottom of the app saying things like gathering favorites, detecting duplicates, and so forth with an additional message to leave device locked and connected to power–this is the indexing process. So please continue leaving your device connected to power and to WiFi to allow indexing to complete.
Again, this is all normal after an iOS update–it can take quite a bit of time (up to 24 hours) depending on how much data it needs to index and how fast your internet connection is.
Liz
hi. i updated to ios 13 beta and my media in imessage under the i icon doesn’t show up.
Hi Sel,
This isn’t an uncommon problem after an iOS update (or iPadOS). Usually, a restart (power off, wait 30 seconds, power back on) followed by connecting to WiFi and then waiting as all your iMessage media populates does the trick.
If the problem continues past a few hours, let us know
Liz
i have the 2nd generation Airpods and have the beta IOS 13 on my IPHONE X and i do not see the option
“announce messages with siri” in Notifications
i just downloaded the IOS13 last week.
thank you
jim
Hi James,
It appears Apple pulled this feature from the latest betas. No word when (or if) it returns in time for the public release or a later iOS update.