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iOS 7 Users cannot text me, because it keeps sending as iMessage?

M

MMoon24

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 6, 2013
6
0
First off, let me make this clear. I DO NOT own an Iphone. I have NEVER owned an Iphone. I own a macbook pro from 2008 and Ipod touch first generation that I stopped using a long time ago. Both have my AppleID, which is my email. However, the phone number listed is my house number and not my CELL number.


Second, some of my co-workers and friends who have not updated to IOS7 for one reason or another can send me text messages perfectly fine.


Anyone who has updated to IOS7 will have their messages sent to me as Imessage, which I obviously do not get. Some random guy even responded to my sister who said he was from Bangladesh. Why are they being redirected there?


I've called Apple about this. They said to wait for an update, which would fix all these bugs. This problem is still going on after the most recent update. Working as a consultant, you have no idea how frustrating this has been when it comes to communicating via texts. Especially when someone who doesn't know me personally or does not know about my issue tries to send me a text, only to call later and say "Why don't you ever respond? I wanted to talk to you about something important".


I've concluded this is obviously an IOS7 bug. I do not plan to change my number, given that will be just more of a headache, and I shouldn't have to change my number due to Apple's short comings. I've tried googling this issue to no avail. If anyone has a solution to this, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
MMoon24 said:
First off, let me make this clear. I DO NOT own an Iphone. I have NEVER owned an Iphone. I own a macbook pro from 2008 and Ipod touch first generation that I stopped using a long time ago. Both have my AppleID, which is my email. However, the phone number listed is my house number and not my CELL number.


Second, some of my co-workers and friends who have not updated to IOS7 for one reason or another can send me text messages perfectly fine.


Anyone who has updated to IOS7 will have their messages sent to me as Imessage, which I obviously do not get. Some random guy even responded to my sister who said he was from Bangladesh. Why are they being redirected there?


I've called Apple about this. They said to wait for an update, which would fix all these bugs. This problem is still going on after the most recent update. Working as a consultant, you have no idea how frustrating this has been when it comes to communicating via texts. Especially when someone who doesn't know me personally or does not know about my issue tries to send me a text, only to call later and say "Why don't you ever respond? I wanted to talk to you about something important".


I've concluded this is obviously an IOS7 bug. I do not plan to change my number, given that will be just more of a headache, and I shouldn't have to change my number due to Apple's short comings. I've tried googling this issue to no avail. If anyone has a solution to this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Click to expand...

1. YOU can ONLY GET iMessages and NOT Text messages.
2. I really don't understand what you're asking.
3. I don't think you really know what you're asking.
 
MMoon24 said:
First off, let me make this clear. I DO NOT own an Iphone. I have NEVER owned an Iphone. I own a macbook pro from 2008 and Ipod touch first generation that I stopped using a long time ago. Both have my AppleID, which is my email. However, the phone number listed is my house number and not my CELL number.


Second, some of my co-workers and friends who have not updated to IOS7 for one reason or another can send me text messages perfectly fine.


Anyone who has updated to IOS7 will have their messages sent to me as Imessage, which I obviously do not get. Some random guy even responded to my sister who said he was from Bangladesh. Why are they being redirected there?


I've called Apple about this. They said to wait for an update, which would fix all these bugs. This problem is still going on after the most recent update. Working as a consultant, you have no idea how frustrating this has been when it comes to communicating via texts. Especially when someone who doesn't know me personally or does not know about my issue tries to send me a text, only to call later and say "Why don't you ever respond? I wanted to talk to you about something important".


I've concluded this is obviously an IOS7 bug. I do not plan to change my number, given that will be just more of a headache, and I shouldn't have to change my number due to Apple's short comings. I've tried googling this issue to no avail. If anyone has a solution to this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Have you ever messaged them from your macbook pro? If so, maybe they have that saved in their phones, and so they are sending iMessages there (since it's linked to your email).

If not, I'm not really sure. I and many others I know have iOS 7 and have no issues texting non iOS users..
 
osx11 said:
1. YOU can ONLY GET iMessages and NOT Text messages.
2. I really don't understand what you're asking.
3. I don't think you really know what you're asking.
Click to expand...

Uh, yes I do know what I'm asking. Let me give you an example.

A co-worker, sister, friend have Imessage enabled from their settings naturally. They decide to shoot me a text message. I don't own an Iphone, so it should be sent as a text AKA green bubble. However, when they send it, it sends as a blue bubble (imessage) instead of a green (text). They have to purposely change it to a green bubble, otherwise, I don't get it. For my sister at least, it's going to some guy in Bangladesh.

And like I said, this is only happening to people who have IOS7. A co-worker of mine still has the 3GS. When she sends a text to me, it registers as a green bubble automatically, and I get it.

So yes, I do know what I'm talking about.

Tyler23 said:
Have you ever messaged them from your macbook pro? If so, maybe they have that saved in their phones, and so they are sending iMessages there (since it's linked to your email).

If not, I'm not really sure. I and many others I know have iOS 7 and have no issues texting non iOS users..
Click to expand...

Thing is, I've never used messenger on my MBP. My sister even said my email is not registered under my contact name.

It's definitely a weird problem and it's become painfully frustrating.
 
MMoon24 said:
Uh, yes I do know what I'm asking. Let me give you an example.

A co-worker, sister, friend have Imessage enabled from their settings naturally. They decide to shoot me a text message. I don't own an Iphone, so it should be sent as a text AKA green bubble. However, when they send it, it sends as a blue bubble (imessage) instead of a green (text). They have to purposely change it to a green bubble, otherwise, I don't get it. For my sister at least, it's going to some guy in Bangladesh.

And like I said, this is only happening to people who have IOS7. A co-worker of mine still has the 3GS. When she sends a text to me, it registers as a green bubble automatically, and I get it.

So yes, I do know what I'm talking about.



Thing is, I've never used messenger on my MBP. My sister even said my email is not registered under my contact name.

It's definitely a weird problem and it's become painfully frustrating.
Click to expand...

Hmm, try having one of those contacts delete you from their contact list, then try re-adding you. Make sure they're entering your number as mobile, not iPhone in their phones.
 
remove your email/phone number and whatever else of you inside the
Messages app in your MBP.

Open the messages app, then click on messages tab at the top then preferences then accounts and remove the account from there w/ the - button.
 
"I don't own an Iphone, so it should be sent as a text AKA green bubble. However, when they send it, it sends as a blue bubble (imessage) instead of a green (text)."

Mac to Mac
Mac to iOS
iOS to MAC
iOS to iOS

WILL ALWAYS SEND AS iMESSAGE i.e. BLUE NOT GREEN

iMessage has nothing to do with an iPhone. It's just Apple's internal communication protocol.

As soon as someone outside the Apple eco-system is involved, it's a "text"
 
Thanks everyone. I'm going to have to double check my Mac when I get home, but like I said...I just find it weird how anyone below IOS 7 can message me and anyone on IOS 7 cannot. I know my apple ID doesn't have my cell phone registered and my sister and co-workers don't have my email listed under her phonebook. Thing is just wack. I guess I might have to get the run around from Apple again.

osx11 said:
"I don't own an Iphone, so it should be sent as a text AKA green bubble. However, when they send it, it sends as a blue bubble (imessage) instead of a green (text)."

Mac to Mac
Mac to iOS
iOS to MAC
iOS to iOS

WILL ALWAYS SEND AS iMESSAGE i.e. BLUE NOT GREEN

iMessage has nothing to do with an iPhone. It's just Apple's internal communication protocol.

As soon as someone outside the Apple eco-system is involved, it's a "text"
Click to expand...

Right. So why is it that, me...a non-iphone user is appearing as "blue" aka Imessages for Iphone users?

If it's an internal communication protocol, then why is it that this problem is showing up on IOS 7 users and no one else?
 
osx11 said:
"I don't own an Iphone, so it should be sent as a text AKA green bubble. However, when they send it, it sends as a blue bubble (imessage) instead of a green (text)."

Mac to Mac
Mac to iOS
iOS to MAC
iOS to iOS

WILL ALWAYS SEND AS iMESSAGE i.e. BLUE NOT GREEN

iMessage has nothing to do with an iPhone. It's just Apple's internal communication protocol.

As soon as someone outside the Apple eco-system is involved, it's a "text"
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand what you're talking about.

An iPhone is perfectly capable of sending an SMS, and does to non-Apple devices.

iMessage is only sent between Apple devices registered with an Apple ID. You can only send an iMessage to another Apple device. Any message you send to a non-Apple device is sent as an SMS message, and the bubble appears green. Blue bubbles solely correspond to iMessages.

The OP does not have an iPhone, but his friends do. Yet, for some reason, their messages that they send to him are sending as iMessages, and therefore he doesn't receive them as he does not have an iPhone and none of his Apple devices are attached to that number.

Therefore, his friends' messages to him should be sending as SMS messages, but instead they're sending as iMessages - hence the issue..
 
Tyler23 said:
I don't think you understand what you're talking about.

An iPhone is perfectly capable of sending an SMS, and does to non-Apple devices.

iMessage is only sent between Apple devices registered with an Apple ID. You can only send an iMessage to another Apple device. Any message you send to a non-Apple device is sent as an SMS message, and the bubble appears green. Blue bubbles solely correspond to iMessages.

The OP does not have an iPhone, but his friends do. Yet, for some reason, their messages that they send to him are sending as iMessages, and therefore he doesn't receive them as he does not have an iPhone and none of his Apple devices are attached to that number.

Therefore, his friends' messages to him should be sending as SMS messages, but instead they're sending as iMessages - hence the issue..
Click to expand...
I don't think you read my comment because I said that as soon as a non-apple device is involved it is a "text message"
 
Just making sure, your friends are trying to send texts to your phone number not your email address right? Also, when they send the iMessages, does it tell them the message was delivered?
 
osx11 said:
I don't think you read my comment because I said that as soon as a non-apple device is involved it is a "text message"
Click to expand...

And according to the OP there seems to be a glitch where the iPhones running iOS7 are trying to send it as an iMessage when there is a non-apple device involved and it should be sending a regular text instead.
 
Try to change your Apple ID/iCloud password. That should unregister all devices (including ones you no longer have access to, or in this case never even owned..)
 
osx11 said:
I don't think you read my comment because I said that as soon as a non-apple device is involved it is a "text message"
Click to expand...

I did, but your responses are not helping the OP at all. All you are doing is describing iMessage.

The OPs issue is that his friends/coworkers on iDevices running iOS 7 are sending him messages, but they are sending as iMessages, not as SMS texts like they should. He understands how iMessage works, so none of your posts have really discussed his issue..It really seems like you don't understand what the OP is saying, when it seems pretty clear.
 
Some of the ignorance in this thread is disappointing.

To the OP- How long have you had this phone number? I've seen issues where someone gets a new phone number, and the person who used to have that number was an iphone user and the iMessage servers never removed the number.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else but I'm warning you, Apple is AWFUL at fixing this type of issue. I switched from an iphone to Android, iMessage never cleared my number (yes I did all of the steps listed here and everywere else), and when I called Apple they basically told me since I no longer own the Apple product they can't help me.

This issue, and Apples blatant neglect to fix it, are starting to get more and more media attention (quick google search and you will see this) so I think they will figure out how to fix it soon. I ended up going back to the iPhone because getting my texts was more important to me.
 
So I would like to thank everyone for their advice as my issue has been fixed now.

Turns out, my macbook had somehow logged into messages, despite the fact I have NEVER used it. It must've done it through Itunes. With that being said, I did log into my Apple ID on Apple.com and didn't see my cell phone registered. Only my home number...so why it was still effecting my cell phone number, I have no idea.

With that being said, I haven't done anything weird on my computer, so something with IOS7 included integrating laptops and other devices in some sort of fashion. That's really the only explanation I can think of at this point.

Cheers everyone. Really appreciate everyone's tips. Props to those who told me to check messenger.
 
osx11 said:
"I don't own an Iphone, so it should be sent as a text AKA green bubble. However, when they send it, it sends as a blue bubble (imessage) instead of a green (text)."

Mac to Mac
Mac to iOS
iOS to MAC
iOS to iOS

WILL ALWAYS SEND AS iMESSAGE i.e. BLUE NOT GREEN

iMessage has nothing to do with an iPhone. It's just Apple's internal communication protocol.

As soon as someone outside the Apple eco-system is involved, it's a "text"
Click to expand...

WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT HIM

PEOPLE ARE TEXTING HIS MOBILE NUMBER

HIS MOBILE NUMBER SHOULD ONLY REGISTER AS IMESSAGE IF HE OWNS AN IPHONE

THAT'S CLEARLY NOT WHAT'S HAPPENING

HE'S CLEARLY EXPERIENCING A HORRIBLE BUG

smh
 
Last edited:
MMoon24 said:
So I would like to thank everyone for their advice as my issue has been fixed now.

Turns out, my macbook had somehow logged into messages, despite the fact I have NEVER used it. It must've done it through Itunes. With that being said, I did log into my Apple ID on Apple.com and didn't see my cell phone registered. Only my home number...so why it was still effecting my cell phone number, I have no idea.

With that being said, I haven't done anything weird on my computer, so something with IOS7 included integrating laptops and other devices in some sort of fashion. That's really the only explanation I can think of at this point.

Cheers everyone. Really appreciate everyone's tips. Props to those who told me to check messenger.
Click to expand...
So, out of curiosity, what exactly did you end up actually doing to fix it? And how do you know that it did what you were expecting?
 
MMoon24 said:
So I would like to thank everyone for their advice as my issue has been fixed now.

Turns out, my macbook had somehow logged into messages, despite the fact I have NEVER used it. It must've done it through Itunes. With that being said, I did log into my Apple ID on Apple.com and didn't see my cell phone registered. Only my home number...so why it was still effecting my cell phone number, I have no idea.

With that being said, I haven't done anything weird on my computer, so something with IOS7 included integrating laptops and other devices in some sort of fashion. That's really the only explanation I can think of at this point.

Cheers everyone. Really appreciate everyone's tips. Props to those who told me to check messenger.
Click to expand...

Awesome. Glad it worked out. Still weird that the iMessages were being sent even though they were all texting your mobile number, definitely something for Apple to be aware of and look into.

Glad it's better.
 
C DM said:
So, out of curiosity, what exactly did you end up actually doing to fix it? And how do you know that it did what you were expecting?
Click to expand...

Opened up my MBP, went under apps and clicked messenger. For whatever reason, when I checked under the accounts that were logged in, I saw my email. I logged out and it's fixed. Once again though, my apple ID does not have my cell phone number registered, only my home number.

Interesting to note though, my sister said it still tries to said as a "Imessage" first before it automatically reverts to SMS text.
 
Looks like I may have jumped the gun on this. Some friends are still having issues, so I dived a bit deeper.

1. Turns out, the user needs to have the "Send as SMS" option availble under Settings > Imessages on. Otherwise, even though I'm logged off messenger on my MBP, it still sends as an Imessage. I'm not sure if this is on by default, but a co-worker and friend did not have it on by default...so it sent as an Imessage, which I never ended up getting. What that means is, it's still trying to send as an Imessage first before anything else.

2. As I recall, my sister's Imessages to me were going to someone in Bangladesh. Meaning that someone may have my phone number over there or used it to register for his Iphone.

I'm honestly confused on this manner. Someone from another country has gotten messages intended for me before, but signing off messenger seemed to fix it somewhat so long as you have the "Send as SMS" option on in your settings.

Is it possible for me to call Apple and just ask them to remove my phone number from their system?
 
osx11 said:
1. YOU can ONLY GET iMessages and NOT Text messages.
2. I really don't understand what you're asking.
3. I don't think you really know what you're asking.
Click to expand...

1. I don't think you read his post before you responded.
2. There are CONFIRMED issued with iMessage and iOS 7, such as iOS 7 iMessages not being received by iOS 6 and 5 users, and visa versa. So why is it a far stretch that Apple - God forbid - messed up with this one too?
3. I don't think it's nice to jump down people's throats and accuse them of not knowing what they want.
 
MMoon24 said:
Opened up my MBP, went under apps and clicked messenger. For whatever reason, when I checked under the accounts that were logged in, I saw my email. I logged out and it's fixed. Once again though, my apple ID does not have my cell phone number registered, only my home number.

Interesting to note though, my sister said it still tries to said as a "Imessage" first before it automatically reverts to SMS text.
Click to expand...

My boss has a similar issue — except he did own an iPhone 4 before going to Android a few months ago. Under iOS 6, my phone would always try to send him an iMessage. When I updated to iOS 7, the behavior you describe here started. It tries to send an iMessage, fails, and reverts to SMS.

I'm not aware of any fix. He's removed his number from his Apple ID, set up Messages properly on his MacBook, and I've tried deleting and re-adding his contact card. Even after I got my new iPhone 5s, the behavior of iMessage-Fail-SMS continues.

osx11 said:
1. YOU can ONLY GET iMessages and NOT Text messages.
2. I really don't understand what you're asking.
3. I don't think you really know what you're asking.
Click to expand...
It's a sad day when basic reading comprehension isn't a skill exhibited by over half the posters in this thread.
 
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