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

[t76turbo]

Group messaging is MMS. Is his MMS configured properly and working?

I would think so. When he sends a group message we all get it. But if you reply to the message he will not get it but the other person on the group text does. We all had iphones until he switched. I assumed imessage was still used even in group potentially unless one of the group doesnt have a i device.

I just looked at another group conversation I have on my phone and it says imessage at the top. Everyone on that conversation has an i device.

I also just looked at the conversation with the guy that switched to the S5 and another buddy who has an iphone. I had totally deleted the guys contact who switched phones and deleted the conversation string I had with him in it. He sent a picture recently, then a short message. The label over his part is text message. Then the other guy on the conversation commented on the photo and it says imessage. The guy with the s5 did not get that response.

 

[Tech198]

lol....

Its like a mobile carrier saying you have a locked phone and we will never unlock it for use on another carrier's network..

People would be up-in-arms over that if it happened.

 

[irnchriz]

nope. doesn't fix going from an iPhone to an Android device. I tried all the above and then some... this is just an Apple issue that Apple needs to fix.

It does, but only if you disable your Apple ID and iMessage on ALL devices prior to moving to a different platform.

I have had to fix this for a couple of clients. Fortunately they held onto their old devices.

 

[co.ag.2005]

It does, but only if you disable your Apple ID and iMessage on ALL devices prior to moving to a different platform.

I have had to fix this for a couple of clients. Fortunately they held onto their old devices.

I did. Please see my previous posts on the matter. Removed # from iMessage and FaceTime on my iMac and iPad prior to disabling it on my phone

 

[irnchriz]

I did. Please see my previous posts on the matter. Removed # from iMessage and FaceTime on my iMac and iPad prior to disabling it on my phone

Did you change your password AND check that you had NO devices listed under your apple profile at supportprofile.apple.com?

 

[coolfactor]

I've helped people resolve iMessage (and FaceTime) problems. Most of them don't understand how to properly configure the applications. You can associate a phone number from iPhones and multiple email addresses from all devices. Quite often, the problems are resolved through proper configuration.

If someone has more than one device that's associated with iMessages, would the "missing" messages not be getting sent there? At what point does that get converted to a text message and delivered to a non-Apple phone? I'm confused why that would be an expectation.

 

[itguy06]

This sort of BS is click bait pure and simple. Cause if the author would have followed directions, it would have been solved in 20 minutes.

I went through just this when I switched from an iPhone 4S to Galaxy S5.

I did all his steps and yet the wife was still unable to text me on my new phone.

But after I texted STOP to 48369 there was a reply with an 800 #.

I called (GHASP) the 800 #, told the agent that I needed my phone # removed from iCloud. Transferred me. The new agent knew about it, sent my phone a code. I gave it to the agent. Chatted about the new S5 and what I liked, and in less than 15 minutes I was able to get texts from the wife.

Pretty simple, no charges, no nothing. Just a less than 15 minute call!!!

It's not Apple hijacking your # - it registers your # with iMessage and if the # is in the database it will send with iMessage. Simple as that.

Apple should make it easier to remove it but at no time was there a hard sell or anything like that. Just a simple conversation with another human being.

 

[co.ag.2005]

Did you change your password AND check that you had NO devices listed under your apple profile at supportprofile.apple.com?

Yep

 

[C DM]

This sort of BS is click bait pure and simple. Cause if the author would have followed directions, it would have been solved in 20 minutes.

I went through just this when I switched from an iPhone 4S to Galaxy S5.

I did all his steps and yet the wife was still unable to text me on my new phone.

But after I texted STOP to 48369 there was a reply with an 800 #.

I called (GHASP) the 800 #, told the agent that I needed my phone # removed from iCloud. Transferred me. The new agent knew about it, sent my phone a code. I gave it to the agent. Chatted about the new S5 and what I liked, and in less than 15 minutes I was able to get texts from the wife.

Pretty simple, no charges, no nothing. Just a less than 15 minute call!!!

It's not Apple hijacking your # - it registers your # with iMessage and if the # is in the database it will send with iMessage. Simple as that.

Apple should make it easier to remove it but at no time was there a hard sell or anything like that. Just a simple conversation with another human being.

So what is this number that you randomly called and gave them various info?

There have definitely been plenty of threads where people talked about calling Apple and they couldn't really do much for them.

 

[iFalcon]

This sort of BS is click bait pure and simple. Cause if the author would have followed directions, it would have been solved in 20 minutes.

I went through just this when I switched from an iPhone 4S to Galaxy S5.

I did all his steps and yet the wife was still unable to text me on my new phone.

But after I texted STOP to 48369 there was a reply with an 800 #.

I called (GHASP) the 800 #, told the agent that I needed my phone # removed from iCloud. Transferred me. The new agent knew about it, sent my phone a code. I gave it to the agent. Chatted about the new S5 and what I liked, and in less than 15 minutes I was able to get texts from the wife.

Pretty simple, no charges, no nothing. Just a less than 15 minute call!!!

It's not Apple hijacking your # - it registers your # with iMessage and if the # is in the database it will send with iMessage. Simple as that.

Apple should make it easier to remove it but at no time was there a hard sell or anything like that. Just a simple conversation with another human being.

I've done this multiple times and the steps have never worked.

 

[afs_nj]

Perhaps the bigger problem is...

conversations around this issues tend to draw in a large amount of users that may not understand that moving from an iPhone means losing free*, less restrictive MMS texting with their iOS friends. (Yes, I realize all the new carrier plans have unlimited texting). I can hardly blame the phone provider for the fact that, messages from text conversations that began with an email ID, now won't reach the recipient because the recipient purposefully departed the shared messaging system. If a person's number was truly "hijacked" - such as, no other person using any type of phone is able to text that person - then I might understand. BUT, if the problem is related to not informing your friends that you no longer use an iPhone and that they should therefore begin a new conversation using your mobile phone number...

 

[RickInHouston]

This sort of BS is click bait pure and simple. Cause if the author would have followed directions, it would have been solved in 20 minutes.

I went through just this when I switched from an iPhone 4S to Galaxy S5.

I did all his steps and yet the wife was still unable to text me on my new phone.

But after I texted STOP to 48369 there was a reply with an 800 #.

I called (GHASP) the 800 #, told the agent that I needed my phone # removed from iCloud. Transferred me. The new agent knew about it, sent my phone a code. I gave it to the agent. Chatted about the new S5 and what I liked, and in less than 15 minutes I was able to get texts from the wife.

Pretty simple, no charges, no nothing. Just a less than 15 minute call!!!

It's not Apple hijacking your # - it registers your # with iMessage and if the # is in the database it will send with iMessage. Simple as that.

Apple should make it easier to remove it but at no time was there a hard sell or anything like that. Just a simple conversation with another human being.

Utterly ridiculous this is what is expected. Why should Apple hijack your personnel phone number in this way. That is what they are doing, aren't they?

 

[C DM]

conversations around this issues tend to draw in a large amount of users that may not understand that moving from an iPhone means losing free*, less restrictive MMS texting with their iOS friends. (Yes, I realize all the new carrier plans have unlimited texting). I can hardly blame the phone provider for the fact that, messages from text conversations that began with an email ID, now won't reach the recipient because the recipient purposefully departed the shared messaging system. If a person's number was truly "hijacked" - such as, no other person using any type of phone is able to text that person - then I might understand. BUT, if the problem is related to not informing your friends that you no longer use an iPhone and that they should therefore begin a new conversation using your mobile phone number...

Yeah, that's generally not the issue here as people are using the phone number and not email address when this happens.

 

[itguy06]

So what is this number that you randomly called and gave them various info?

It was in the SMS I received back - 800-275-2273. Random info was my phone number and maybe Apple ID (but no password). I remember saying I needed iCloud support, not iPhone support.

There have definitely been plenty of threads where people talked about calling Apple and they couldn't really do much for them.

Well the people at that number got it fixed.

----------

Utterly ridiculous this is what is expected. Why should Apple hijack your personnel phone number in this way. That is what they are doing, aren't they?

They are not hijacking anything. Messages from non iPhone people would go through fine. It was just some iPhone people wouldn't work.

Think of it this way - if you use iMessage it first checks to see if that # is in the database. If it is it will use iMessage. If not it goes out as SMS. The problem is Apple has no way for you to purge your # from the database. That is a problem, as when you switch iMessage off it should do that.

But calling them was drama free. The rep I spoke with had a good handle on it and it worked.

God forbid we actually talk to a human to get it to work.

 

[divergirl]

So I don't understand, is this issue ALWAYS resolved after 45 days, or does it sometimes not get resolved ever? I hardly ever used iMessage because I mostly rely on messaging apps like LINE and KakaoTalk instead, so not getting a few messages over the next 45 days wouldn't be a HUGE deal, but if not getting texts from iPhone users could be a permanent thing, then yeah, that would be really problematic for me. I like my number and I don't want to change it. And do I have to be logged out of iMessage for the next 45 days on my iPad for this to work? Will being logged into my iPad prevent this 45 day time-out from happening, even though my phone number is not listed in iMessage on the iPad anymore (the phone number disappeared from the iPad's iMessage automatically when I wiped my iPhone)?

I gave my iPhone to a friend but I actually didn't know that I had to log out of iMessage before wiping the phone. As soon as I wiped the phone my phone number got automatically removed from my iMessage account on my iPad, but I can confirm that the phone number is still somehow tied to my Apple ID. I tried calling Apple support and they said that my phone number is not linked to iMessage in their records, but if I log out of iMessage on my iPad and one of my friends texts my phone number it will send as an iMessage but not say it was delivered, but if I log back into iMessage on my iPad and she texts my phone number it will send as an iMessage but say that the message WAS delivered (though in neither case do I actually get the message at all). So clearly my phone number is still tied to my iCloud ID SOMEHOW, or her messages wouldn't say Delivered when I'm logged into iMessage on the iPad and not say Delivered when I'm not logged in. *headdesk*

I tried pretty much all the steps suggested here. I logged in to manage my Apple ID and made sure the phone number wasn't listed anywhere, and I completely deregistered the iPhone from my support profile, and I texted STOP to that number mentioned in this thread from my phone, and I even called the 1-800-275-2273 number that was written in the confirmation text and talked to Apple about it. I changed my password for the Apple ID associated with my iMessage, and I also made sure I was logged out of iMessage, FaceTime, AND iCloud on my iPad (my only other iDevice) and then had my friend delete all iMessages to and from me and remove my phone number from my contact info, and then restart her phone and try to text my phone number (without adding it back to my contact info yet) and it still sent as an iMessage.

At this point would asking my friend who has my old iPhone to make an iCloud back up and then temporarily port her number to her old flip phone and then let me use the phone, porting my number back to the phone, logging into iMessage with my Apple ID and then deactivating iMessage and then wiping the phone and then porting my number back to my flip phone and then having her port her number back to the iPhone and restore from her iCloud backup actually have a chance of solving my problem? Because I'm sure she'd let me do it but it would be a HECK of a lot of work!

 

[C DM]

It was in the SMS I received back - 800-275-2273. Random info was my phone number and maybe Apple ID (but no password). I remember saying I needed iCloud support, not iPhone support.



Well the people at that number got it fixed.

----------



They are not hijacking anything. Messages from non iPhone people would go through fine. It was just some iPhone people wouldn't work.

Think of it this way - if you use iMessage it first checks to see if that # is in the database. If it is it will use iMessage. If not it goes out as SMS. The problem is Apple has no way for you to purge your # from the database. That is a problem, as when you switch iMessage off it should do that.

But calling them was drama free. The rep I spoke with had a good handle on it and it worked.

God forbid we actually talk to a human to get it to work.

But you do realize that many times different representatives just don't know a lot of things. It's like that in many industries with customer care--you are almost just as likely to get someone helpful as someone who just doesn't know any better (even though they should and are supposed to). Sounds like you and perhaps some others got some helpful people somewhere within Apple probably, but plenty of others didn't unfortunately. That's a problem in itself, not counting the fact that it really shouldn't require calling anyone to do something as basic as not having Apple blindly send your messages to their own servers when you are no longer using their device (and in various cases even specifically turned off those functions from working before switching devices).

 

[JawnVawka]

I have this problem with a friend who switched to android. If you know the have gone to android just send the text as normal then tap and hold down on the bubble chat and you will get an option to send as text. Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this. Too many comments to read through.

 

[odin]

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.

Actually, this isn't an assurance it won't happen. It seems to help in most; but, I've had a couple of clients for whom this did NOT work.

 

[iolinux333]

What I still don't understand is why all messages don't always sync between my two iPhones.

Can't they just get the "Reminders" app people to work on it for a few days? When I put a reminder into one iPhone it instantly appears in the other.

Why doesn't this always happen with the messaging app in iOS, or especially in OS X for that matter.

If I'm carrying one iPhone, and someone with a non apple device sends an SMS message to my other iPhone's phone number, it never appears in both iPhones. Why can't it just copy/sync over to all devices and to the OS X messaging program the way Reminders do?

Also, regardless of which phone number or apple ID I select that the message should originate from, the message always originates from the phone number of the phone it is sent from, rather than what I selected in preferences.

I've tried EVERYTHING in this thread, deleted all my accounts, had messages originate from apple ID, from phone numbers, etc. Nothing seems to work.

 

[co.ag.2005]

I have this problem with a friend who switched to android. If you know the have gone to android just send the text as normal then tap and hold down on the bubble chat and you will get an option to send as text. Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this. Too many comments to read through.

Not the fix. But since you didn't read the comments, I'll let you discover on your own

 

[mezurashii]

The answer is simple - disable iMessage. SMS messages are cheap as chips and I daresay more reliable than iMessage (in my experience anyway).

 

[Oletros]

It was in the SMS I received back - 800-275-2273. Random info was my phone number and maybe Apple ID (but no password). I remember saying I needed iCloud support, not iPhone support.



Well the people at that number got it fixed.

----------



They are not hijacking anything. Messages from non iPhone people would go through fine. It was just some iPhone people wouldn't work.

Think of it this way - if you use iMessage it first checks to see if that # is in the database. If it is it will use iMessage. If not it goes out as SMS. The problem is Apple has no way for you to purge your # from the database. That is a problem, as when you switch iMessage off it should do that.

But calling them was drama free. The rep I spoke with had a good handle on it and it worked.

God forbid we actually talk to a human to get it to work.

Useful number for people outside USA

 

[hchung]

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.

You on T-mobile by any chance? If so, it might actually not be Apple's problem.

To/From a Nexus 5 on T-mobile using a number that's never been attached to an iOS device, we've had plenty of lost SMS messages. Didn't happen as often before on the Nexus 4, so I'm not sure if it's the phone, the OS changes, or the carrier.

The funny thing is, SMS was never meant to be a reliable transport. It's UDP for people.

 

[thewordiz]

no reason to even have iMessage

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There is a long-standing problem with lost iMessages for select users when they switch from an iPhone to another device. Apple allegedly is aware of the problem and not able to provide a fix, claims former Lifehacker editor-in-chief Adam Pash, whose iPhone was affected by this message delivery problem.

After disabling their iPhones, some users experience an issue where iMessages sent from other iPhone owners are routed to the now-disabled iPhone and not forwarded as a text message to the active phone. The recipient never receives the text message, creating a situation that is frustrating for both people involved in the conversation.

Pash spoke to Apple's customer support after he stopped receiving messages from iPhone-owning friends when he switched to an Android phone. The support personnel confirmed "this is a problem a lot of people are facing" and "added that engineering team is working on it but is apparently clueless as to how to fix it." This issue with iMessage has been reported as far back as 2011, shortly after the messaging service debuted as a flagship feature of iOS 5. iPhone owners are advised to disable iMessages before they deactivate their phone in order to remove the device from Apple's system and allow messages to be forwarded properly as text messages to their new handset. This precautionary step of disabling iMessage apparently works for some, but not all iPhone owners who switch to another smartphone platform.

Article Link: Apple Customer Support Claims Apple Stymied by Phone-Switching iMessage Glitch

This problem is in the iMessage system regardless of switching. Apple has a huge problem right now with iMessage, even within the ecosystem.

I consistently receive txts/iMessages late, if you can even trust them. Yes, all of my devices have "send as SMS when iMessage isn't available.

AT&Ts servers seem to be worse than Verizon, as I was recently at an event and my device stopped receiving messages for an entire day. After realizing this, I checked messages and disabled iMessage then reenabled it. Didn't work. I ended up completely reinstalling the iOS. PITA!

I love how it says, if you use SMS, carrier rates may apply? Really? Anyone on here have a limit on txts? I think Apple should do away with iMessage not worth the hassle.

I'm not really a Fanboy, I love my MBPr 13" Late 2013, and I like the construction of Apple's products over all of the other phones. But, the problem is so bad for me, and for the way i work, I am almost ready to get an HTC M8 on Verizon. I just hate the thought of using different devices in the ecosystem. But, all of this stuff is CRAP, if you can't do the work you need to do.

Don't get me started about iOS dropping contacts, that's a whole different issue

 

[C DM]

The answer is simple - disable iMessage. SMS messages are cheap as chips and I daresay more reliable than iMessage (in my experience anyway).

Yeah, not the answer really.