If I try to start a new iMessage to an Apple ID aka an email address, it sends the message as an MMS and it goes to the recipients email, not as an iMessage. I found this out by trying to iMessage my mom on her iPad and it doesn't work. If she sends me an iMessage first, I get it and can reply with an iMessage. I can't initiate the conversation though. I am 100% certain I'm using the correct Apple ID. I've also tried sending an iMessage to other Apple ID's (emails) and get the same result. Very weird. This was never an issue before iOS 7. Anyone else having this issue? I included a photo for reference.
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Can't send an iMessage to an Apple ID (email)
- Thread starter Roc P.
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Yes! I having the same exact problem, I can reply and it sends iMessage. But if I try and initiate, it goes MMS. And like you, I know I'm sending to the correct icloud email address. Glad you posted this. Now I know it's not just me. Must be some glitch somewhere. Hopefully it will be corrected soon.
Yes. Like I said before, if she messages me first, I can reply and it will be sent as an iMessage. If I try to start the conversation though then I get what I posted in the photo. This happens if I put anyones Apple ID in the send field.
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Thank you for sharing and confirming it's not just me also! I hope this gets fixed!
Maybe you can get some info to help here guys, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5179435?start=0&tstart=0
I just tried it out with two persons.
My daughters Apple ID email stays green
My cousins is blue.
I went to contacts and noticed that my daughter didn't have the blue bubble near her address but that my cousin had it in both address and #number.
So I guess it's just the way they have it set up .
My daughters Apple ID email stays green
My cousins is blue.
I went to contacts and noticed that my daughter didn't have the blue bubble near her address but that my cousin had it in both address and #number.
So I guess it's just the way they have it set up .
Did you recently activate a new device? I ask because I've noticed on my 5S when I message someone I know has an apple device it first is sending the message as an SMS. Then when they reply it changes to iMessage. Subsequent messages are then iMessages always.
I've had my 4S since 2012 but when I upgraded it to iOS 7 it activated it as "new" I suppose. No other devices I own use iMessage though except my iMac which I've also owned since 2012. As I said before though, sending the message makes it go to the recipients email, not to their messages app.
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I appreciate your feedback and noticed that my brothers email also has the blue bubble. The thing I don't understand is how he could have it set up any differently than my mom. My mom can only receive iMessages to her email address since she has no iPhone.
I was having the same issue, but I was sending to known iphone numbers, not emails. If that person already had sent me a message, I was able to respond via imessage. But could not initiate sending texts via imessage. I rebooted.. still could not send. And then all of a sudden, it cleared up. I had turned imessage off and on so don't know if that jostled something inside. Still not positive it's totally right since I can't know exactly everyone in my contact list with iphones who have imessaging activated, but glad to find this thread to verify that it was not just me.
Can't send an iMessage to SOME iphone owners
Okay. So I spoke too soon. iMessage is not fixed on my phone. But what is worse, is the issue is inconsistent and it's driving me nuts! I can't find the common denominator for what makes one work while the other does not.
I've gone through my contacts list and tried to send mock imessages to a good number of known iphone owners to their phone numbers, not email, to form a test group. (Don't actually send.. just set up to send and then cancel) Some of the iphone owners messages would get sent as imessages.. their names are in blue. Others have their names in green meaning that their message would send as a text. While it's impossible to know how many of the green named iphone users have imessage turned off by accident (highly unlikely, but possible) , I know it can't possilbly be all of these green folks. Some of them are die hard Apple fans and pretty techie.
I don't know if this figures into the issue, but I deleted a BUNCH of text messages the other day to free up space on my very loaded iphone. If I had left all the previous messages from iphone owners, I'd probably not have the issue because I am able to reply to those who sent me an iMessage even when I could not initiate one.
Not sure where to go from here. Wait until they send ME a message so I can reply is one option, but seems like there should be a fix somewhere. Any suggestions appreciated! I'm at a loss....
EDIT: I went on my iMac's messaging and tried sending mock messages to these same people. Several of the names showed up in red.. and there was a message that the phone number was not registered with iMessage. So for those folks I suppose it's possible imessage was turned off.. perhaps while updating. But for others, the name showed up in blue which meant I could send an iMessage from my Mac, but not my phone meaning it's the phone that has the problem. Which I suspected was the case. Not sure if I said, but phone is a 5 and I just updatrd to iOS 7.
Okay. So I spoke too soon. iMessage is not fixed on my phone. But what is worse, is the issue is inconsistent and it's driving me nuts! I can't find the common denominator for what makes one work while the other does not.
I've gone through my contacts list and tried to send mock imessages to a good number of known iphone owners to their phone numbers, not email, to form a test group. (Don't actually send.. just set up to send and then cancel) Some of the iphone owners messages would get sent as imessages.. their names are in blue. Others have their names in green meaning that their message would send as a text. While it's impossible to know how many of the green named iphone users have imessage turned off by accident (highly unlikely, but possible) , I know it can't possilbly be all of these green folks. Some of them are die hard Apple fans and pretty techie.
I don't know if this figures into the issue, but I deleted a BUNCH of text messages the other day to free up space on my very loaded iphone. If I had left all the previous messages from iphone owners, I'd probably not have the issue because I am able to reply to those who sent me an iMessage even when I could not initiate one.
Not sure where to go from here. Wait until they send ME a message so I can reply is one option, but seems like there should be a fix somewhere. Any suggestions appreciated! I'm at a loss....
EDIT: I went on my iMac's messaging and tried sending mock messages to these same people. Several of the names showed up in red.. and there was a message that the phone number was not registered with iMessage. So for those folks I suppose it's possible imessage was turned off.. perhaps while updating. But for others, the name showed up in blue which meant I could send an iMessage from my Mac, but not my phone meaning it's the phone that has the problem. Which I suspected was the case. Not sure if I said, but phone is a 5 and I just updatrd to iOS 7.
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I appreciate your feedback and noticed that my brothers email also has the blue bubble. The thing I don't understand is how he could have it set up any differently than my mom. My mom can only receive iMessages to her email address since she has no iPhone.[/QUOTE]
I depends if they have associated their emails to their phone number, or the other way around .
I for instance have added my usual email address ( not a .mac or .me) so I can be joined at my phone number or usual email address .
You can also choose in iMessage where "conversations" start , phone# or email .
I found this that will explain better than I can ;-))))
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5538?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
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I appreciate your feedback and noticed that my brothers email also has the blue bubble. The thing I don't understand is how he could have it set up any differently than my mom. My mom can only receive iMessages to her email address since she has no iPhone.[/QUOTE]
I depends if they have associated their emails to their phone number, or the other way around .
I for instance have added my usual email address ( not a .mac or .me) so I can be joined at my phone number or usual email address .
You can also choose in iMessage where "conversations" start , phone# or email .
I found this that will explain better than I can ;-))))
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5538?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
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Dang, Jayes, that's rough. I hope it gets resolved for you. Unfortunately I can't offer much assistance since rebooting fixed the issue on my end :-/
Just wanted to post a reply and update on my iMessage issue.
I rebooted my phone last night and went to sleep. At that point, nearly half of the people I knew had iPhones would not accept an iMessage. This morning, almost all of these people have blue names.
I had never noticed colored names before, (it might be new to iOS 7 or I just had not paid attention) but if you want to send a new message, as soon as you put a letter in the TO: field, a list of contact names and numbers populate for that letter. There is a long list of names associated with, let's say, A, but those who have iMessage enabled are in blue. And everytime I check this list, there are more and more names in blue. The others are gray.
I'm not sure where my phone is getting its information from, but suspect by the end of the day, I'll have everyone who has an iPhone with iMessage enabled in my list in blue. It's bizarre. I don't recall an issue prior to updating, but then again, most of my texting went to several people with iMessage that already had threads and I was just adding to them.
I guess my suggestion to anyone else having this issue is be patient, it will fix itself. But it does not hurt to reboot, and turn iMessage off and on again just in case that was the fix.
I rebooted my phone last night and went to sleep. At that point, nearly half of the people I knew had iPhones would not accept an iMessage. This morning, almost all of these people have blue names.
I had never noticed colored names before, (it might be new to iOS 7 or I just had not paid attention) but if you want to send a new message, as soon as you put a letter in the TO: field, a list of contact names and numbers populate for that letter. There is a long list of names associated with, let's say, A, but those who have iMessage enabled are in blue. And everytime I check this list, there are more and more names in blue. The others are gray.
I'm not sure where my phone is getting its information from, but suspect by the end of the day, I'll have everyone who has an iPhone with iMessage enabled in my list in blue. It's bizarre. I don't recall an issue prior to updating, but then again, most of my texting went to several people with iMessage that already had threads and I was just adding to them.
I guess my suggestion to anyone else having this issue is be patient, it will fix itself. But it does not hurt to reboot, and turn iMessage off and on again just in case that was the fix.
I guess my suggestion to anyone else having this issue is be patient, it will fix itself. But it does not hurt to reboot, and turn iMessage off and on again just in case that was the fix.
Indeed. Thanks for all your feedback!
I just ran into this bug as well setting up my father's iPad. The only thing that fixed it was rebooting the device that couldn't send, in my case an iPhone 5 on iOS 7.0.3.
