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Apple Customer Support Claims Apple Stymied by Phone-Switching iMessage Glitch

wookiee2cu said:
Probably just a matter of time before it does. I get that it is a large undertaking on their part to get this fixed but reading the article, this issue has been known since 2011 so knowing that it's sad on Apple's part that they haven't figured this out. On another website the poster stated that the Apple rep had little sympathy and told him to just get a new number from his carrier; that is the lamest excuse I've heard. There are so many accounts associated with your phone number these days that it's impossible to remember them all and make the necessary changes. Others saying I should have known to log out of iMessage and all that other stuff... sorry I guess I didn't get the memo from Apple regarding this being an issue, besides I've never had to worry about anything in the past when switching phones. I just hope they somehow get this issue figured out because they are causing some major headaches for folks. I’m pretty much done with Apple after this experience (may sound extreme but it’s been a bad enough experience for me) and I doubt I’m the only one.
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Looks like we were correct in this case. I just saw this article published today.

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-lawsuit-iphones-dont-deliver-texts-to-android-2014-5
 
My wife has a Galaxy S5 and has the same problem.
(I have a Galaxy Note 3).
We both have a Macbook Air.

So from my Macbook Air:
1- I was testing my iMessage trying to send a text to my wife's phone number.
It was showing her phone number along with iMessage icon.
I could type a message and every time I hit the enter button to send the message, our older conversation appeared and message went through (to limbo since she got nothing).

2- I created a new user on my Macbook Air, logged in and configured the iMessage using my account.
Added my wife as a new (first) contact on Contacts app.
Opened iMessage, typed her name. I could type a message but every time I hit the enter button to send the message, no older conversation appeared and a message popped up saying my wife's phone number wasn't registered to receive iMessage's message. Huh...interesting

3- Now logged back to my account.
Open the Contacts app. Selected all. Exported as a back up.
On (System Preferences>iCloud) I deselected Contacts.
Opened iMessage, typed my wife's name. It was showing her phone number along with iMessage icon.
I could type a message and every time I hit the enter button to send the message, our older conversation appeared BUT this time I got an exclamation mark next to the message I sent. I clicked on the exclamation mark and a pop up window opened saying:
Your message could not be sent.
Click “Try Again” to send this message.
Cancel or Try Again

4- Inserted my SIM card into her old iPhone, set up iMessage and I could not sent her a message using iMessage. It said her phone number wasn't registered on iMessage.
I managed to send as a text message (green) and she got on her Galaxy S5.

My conclusion: account/iCloud combo problem. We should ask our contacts who's having problem to send us text messages on their iPhones to delete us from their Contacts app and iCloud.
 
I haven't learned software programming and I don't know if there would be a lot of overhead to put this in the iMessage app.. But Is there a way to add a line of code to the program that says:

if iMessage = true then send as iMessage

if iMessage = false then send as text to (contacts number)
 
Best solution would be if the Sim card is removed FaceTime and iMessage disable phone number and continue to work with the emails , if no emails as alternative just turn off both services.
 
There is a major secondary issue when changing from an iPhone to a DROID (or non-iPhone). Even after you get your iMessage Registration revoked you still can’t receive SMS from any iPhone that previously sent you iMessages if the originating iPhone has the option “Send as SMS” set to the default, OFF. The workaround is to have the originating iPhones set the “Send as SMS” option to ON which isn’t a great solution if you have dozens or hundreds of Contacts with iPhones.
 
geetis said:
There is a major secondary issue when changing from an iPhone to a DROID (or non-iPhone). Even after you get your iMessage Registration revoked you still can’t receive SMS from any iPhone that previously sent you iMessages if the originating iPhone has the option “Send as SMS” set to the default, OFF. The workaround is to have the originating iPhones set the “Send as SMS” option to ON which isn’t a great solution if you have dozens or hundreds of Contacts with iPhones.
Click to expand...
The point is that the originating iOS device would know at that point that the recipient is no longer compatible with iMessage and simply use SMS as it would with any recipient that never supported iMessage.
 
Yes, that is what is supposed to happen. With iOS 7 Apple changed the default for SEND_AS_SMS to OFF instead of ON. With SEND_AS_SMS = OFF the originating iPhone knows that the message did not deliver via iMessaging - actually displays NOT DELIVERED in red letters - but is unable to then send as a SMS.
 
geetis said:
Yes, that is what is supposed to happen. With iOS 7 Apple changed the default for SEND_AS_SMS to OFF instead of ON. With SEND_AS_SMS = OFF the originating iPhone knows that the message did not deliver via iMessaging - actually displays NOT DELIVERED in red letters - but is unable to then send as a SMS.
Click to expand...
The main issue here is that in many cases the message gets sent as iMessage still (even though it should no longer be as the recipient no longer has an iOS device) and it never actually gets registered as failing, it just gets sent as iMessage and that's it. So that Send as SMS setting wouldn't make a difference in cases like that. And, ultimately, the underlying issue is still unrelated to that anyway, it's that Apple shouldn't try to send an iMessage to someone who no longer supports it, no matter what the settings on any one's iOS device might be.
 
The internal registration in the sending iPhones should update to reflect that the destination is no longer subscribed to iMessaging but that is the bug. With the SEND_AS_SMS option disabled the sending iPhones are not updating their internal registration for the destination.
After you have revoked the destination's network registration in the iMessage Registration server then you will start to see "Not delivered" in red on the sending iPhones that have the SEND_AS_SMS disabled.
Another issue involves Group iMessages. If the prior iPhone number is included with only iMessage destinations then you will not even get the "Not delivered" error message.
 
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