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That's your problem. You shouldn't switch to Android in the first place, android tracks you, sends your information to remote servers, is totally unreliable too. Believe me, I've studied it. If you would've stayed on iPhone, this wouldn't happen. So, don't be blaming Apple. Blame yourself.

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All of those seem okay to me... They all work perfectly. Instead of finding flaws constantly, try looking at what they do. You go code an Assistant that is amazing, a maps app, or a message service... I'd like to see how it comes out for you.

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You're completely wrong. It'll be cached to apple servers as an iMessage until a set amount of time.

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Then don't move from iPhone. I don't see why you would in the first place. Android harvests your data... So stop complaining. If you hadn't switched, this wouldn't have happened.

Have you thought about changing your name to iApologist?
 
The whole point of this article is that Apple does not actually have a way to do this!

Yes, you can disable iMessage if you still have access to the device, but what if it's broken/lost/stolen/sold/given away?

Apple support doesn't seem to have anything in place.

In case people are wondering, doing it by Apple ID won't work - you don't need an Apple ID to activate iMessage.

If you contact apple support they can revoke the iMessage certificate and iMessage will no longer be enabled. They can do this without you even having the old device. I have called apple and had it done. It is extremely easy.
 
I read that messaging will work fine if you just go into apple id and remove your phone number from your account.
 
If you contact apple support they can revoke the iMessage certificate and iMessage will no longer be enabled. They can do this without you even having the old device. I have called apple and had it done. It is extremely easy.

I read that messaging will work fine if you just go into apple id and remove your phone number from your account.

That didn't work for me. (at least not within a reasonable amount of time.) I had to switch back. It was a huge pain.
 
It’s your own fault for not signing out of iMessage/disabling it on your device before switching to a different phone. The same logic applies if you sold your phone to someone and left Find My iPhone on, the onus is on you to turn that off, not Apple.

That doesn't always work. I have my iPhone and have tried all of these things mentioned so far and not one has worked.

It's a frustrating problem and apple has told me the same thing that they know it's an issue but no solution.
 
I don't quite get this.

I thought iMessages were Apple-only? If someone ditches the iPhone, how would they then get further iMessages anyway?

Or is there an Android/WP app?

this is Apple still associating your phone number with iMessage. So when you go to a non-Apple device, if someone tries to send you an iMessage, Apple still thinks you have iMessage even though you don't... so the iMessage never gets converted to SMS and you never receive the message. Quite frustrating.
 
Like everything else Apple tries to do in the cloud or as a service, it's half-hearted, lazy, and doesn't work (or works just good enough).

In iMessage's case, it's because Apple was too clever, not lazy.

Apple is rerouting the outgoing message depending on the online/offline status of the phone #. How they know the destination is online/offline is something Apple determines. Obviously that part (reachability) of it is broken. It depends on how Apple deals with deactivation of a phone. In real life, Apple should remove a receiver after some amount of inactivity, which sounds like happens occasionally.

However, if someone turns the phone back on without wiping it or resetting the device id, iMessage could reassociate that route to the new device.

I'll bet this change happened after iPod touches (with no phone #) became iMessage/FaceTime eligible. When it was phone numbers it was easier, because finding the associated device is easy. Generalizing out to ID instead of "phone #" that makes it more difficult to determine online/offline status, especially if your iMessage account is linked to multiple devices (mac, iPod Touch, iPhone).

What I'd try is to remove all iMessage accounts from your iDevices and Macs first, and see if that fixes the problem. That should get rid of your iMessage "id" or whatever identifier links all your accounts together. That'll invalidate everything downstream of that as well. Have people try to send you a message after that and see what happens.
 
That's your problem. You shouldn't switch to Android in the first place, android tracks you, sends your information to remote servers, is totally unreliable too. Believe me, I've studied it. If you would've stayed on iPhone, this wouldn't happen. So, don't be blaming Apple. Blame yourself.

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All of those seem okay to me... They all work perfectly. Instead of finding flaws constantly, try looking at what they do. You go code an Assistant that is amazing, a maps app, or a message service... I'd like to see how it comes out for you.

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You're completely wrong. It'll be cached to apple servers as an iMessage until a set amount of time.

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Then don't move from iPhone. I don't see why you would in the first place. Android harvests your data... So stop complaining. If you hadn't switched, this wouldn't have happened.
Buddy, you want to make these claims? Back them up! I bet you can't. Not without linking to a site ran by someone else who is pro Apple and super apologist for everything Apple does wrong. And boy, do they do wrong! This sounds like fanboyisim at it's finest.
Have you thought about changing your name to iApologist?


Jesus, no kidding, right?
LOL really? I love Apple as much as the next guy, but what kind of reply is that? :rolleyes:
An inane, ill-thought out reply backed by nothing. Apple tracks our data too. Shouldn't be a shock.


I find I can get around some issues by turning iMessage off then on as well but it shouldn't have to be that way.
 
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My wife is having this issue right now and it's been going on for about 2 weeks. We are giving her iPhone 5 to our niece for her high school graduation and my wife is using a Nexus 5 until the new iPhone 6 comes out. We have tried EVERYTHING listed here and elsewhere and nothing has worked. Just to recap:

1. turned off iMessage before removing sim
2. called Apple (they had no clue) but they said her cell number wasn't associated with her iCloud or iMessage
3. sent STOP text to number specified in earlier text
4. logged in and deregistered the iphone from her iCloud account
5. changed password for iCloud online
6. Made sure she is logged out of iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime on her iPad

She has missed several work related text messages from her boss over this and is starting to get frustrated. Not sure where to go from here. I'm tempted to get her a used iPhone 4 to use instead of the Nexus but now I'm so irritated at Apple that I'm not sure if I want to use an iPhone again.

I have the exact same situation and have tried them all. Apples response each time I call is pathetic.

Apple tells you to contact each person and have them turn on SMS. What a joke this issue is.
 
Didn't read the whole thread so this may have been mentioned.

I literally JUST got done setting up my replacement iPhone 5 (props to Apple's advance replacement policy).

how about the inverse of what this article is claiming? This happened to us:

My wife's iPhone 4s was stolen. They wiped it and sold it to someone else. One day, she started intercepting text messages (a full convo back and forth). The new owner of her stolen phone had just turned on iMessage. Apparently, if you go to Settings > messages > send and receive, this DOES NOT get cleared out, even during a wipe. Based on this, we started intercepting iMessages that were being pushed to my wife's appleID!

The catch was she was using her gmail address as her appleID and that is first.lastname@gmail.com. Well, we couldn't get *too* abrupt with "Marshall" who was in posession of the phone because if he went poking around in the settings would easily have my wife's first and last name. So we let it go.

BUT... I wonder, as I am sending back my broken iPhone 5, if this bug is fixed.
 
My wife and I are STILL not receiving messages from time to time. Apple really needs to work this out. We switch from iphone to android months ago.

i had this issue. Your phone service provider (At&t, Tmobile etc) will have to reprovision your device. When I called explaining the situation they seem to have heard of it and knew exactly what to do. Apple can't help it ended up being the telecom that helped me. Its frustrating but I was up and running right after I told them about it and they did something on the network.
 
Apple is CLUELESS about how to fix the problem? Gee, that probably explains a LOT of bugs in OSX in general and why they're never fixed. :rolleyes:
 
In iMessage's case, it's because Apple was too clever, not lazy.

Apple is rerouting the outgoing message depending on the online/offline status of the phone #. How they know the destination is online/offline is something Apple determines. Obviously that part (reachability) of it is broken. It depends on how Apple deals with deactivation of a phone. In real life, Apple should remove a receiver after some amount of inactivity, which sounds like happens occasionally.

However, if someone turns the phone back on without wiping it or resetting the device id, iMessage could reassociate that route to the new device.

I'll bet this change happened after iPod touches (with no phone #) became iMessage/FaceTime eligible. When it was phone numbers it was easier, because finding the associated device is easy. Generalizing out to ID instead of "phone #" that makes it more difficult to determine online/offline status, especially if your iMessage account is linked to multiple devices (mac, iPod Touch, iPhone).

What I'd try is to remove all iMessage accounts from your iDevices and Macs first, and see if that fixes the problem. That should get rid of your iMessage "id" or whatever identifier links all your accounts together. That'll invalidate everything downstream of that as well. Have people try to send you a message after that and see what happens.

unfortunately that didn't work for me either. I removed my phone number from iMessages (and FaceTime) on both my iMac and iPad and then proceeded to turn off iMessage and FaceTime on my iPhone (and then changing Apple ID password, un-registering device, signing out of iTunes/AppStore on my iPhone). no dice :(
 
This thread is 7 pages (currently) of everyone claiming to have *THE* solution. Each one debunked shortly thereafter.

This is a serious flaw; one that should be subject to a class action lawsuit for impacted people. I don't care what device you switch to or from, a company that has no right to your phone number and capturing data/text so that it does not pass along to its intended recipient is unlawful.

Could you imagine if the same issue happened if this happened using Hangouts instead of iMessage? This forum would burn.
 
Quick Fix

You can deregister your device from iMessage at here. Login with you Apple ID and click the arrow next to your device and deregister it. That will stop other devices from attempting to contact you via iMessage. To be as thorough as possible you should have your contacts create new text threads.

Hope that helps :)
 
This thread is 7 pages (currently) of everyone claiming to have *THE* solution. Each one debunked shortly thereafter.

This is a serious flaw; one that should be subject to a class action lawsuit for impacted people. I don't care what device you switch to or from, a company that has no right to your phone number and capturing data/text so that it does not pass along to its intended recipient is unlawful.

Could you imagine if the same issue happened if this happened using Hangouts instead of iMessage? This forum would burn.

We'll said.
 
this is Apple still associating your phone number with iMessage. So when you go to a non-Apple device, if someone tries to send you an iMessage, Apple still thinks you have iMessage even though you don't... so the iMessage never gets converted to SMS and you never receive the message. Quite frustrating.

Ah right, ok. That makes more sense, thanks.

I can see that's very frustrating. You'd think the sender's phone would check and be able to see the number was no longer active (from an iMessage point-of-view) and so not offer to send as an iMessage.

Frustrating indeed.

And it's been going on for 3 years?! Brilliant. Another reason I'm glad I jumped off the Apple ship.
 
You can deregister your device from iMessage at here. Login with you Apple ID and click the arrow next to your device and deregister it. That will stop other devices from attempting to contact you via iMessage. To be as thorough as possible you should have your contacts create new text threads.

Hope that helps :)

doesn't always work. See the post above yours.
 
Heaven forbid anyone uses their phone for its intended purpose and CALL someone rather than rely on an instant messaging service if the issue is urgent...:rolleyes:
 
Actually easy to fix.

All of iMessages problems are a function of authentication based on the device phone number, and their insistence on hiding the phone number verification process from the user.

If they would just eliminate device phone numbers altogether and rely exclusively on an AppleID, problem solved. Or allow manual phone number verification as does Whatsapp, with a user-configurable phone number for SMS fallback.

In my case I use Google Voice. Despite having iMessages set to send and receive exclusively from/to one of my AppleID aliases, my contacts still occasionally receive iMessages or SMS from my device phone number. Which no one needs to know, and really confuses them.
 
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