Resolved Suddenly have two iMessage threads from the same person

[kiranmk2]

iMessage was working fine for me a few weeks ago. My suddenly whenever I get a message from my GF it has started appearing in a new thread. Neither of us have changed any settings. If I send her a message from the original thread and she replies it comes back to my original thread, but if she sends me a message at some point later it comes into the new thread.
Turning off being able to contact her at her email address stopped her being able to reach me at all (all her imessages failed to send). We wiped her phone and restored (both phone number and email activated) and it seemed like the issue was sorted, but today it's happened again. I am reluctant to wipe and restore my phone as it takes an age to restore. Is there anything I can toggle to stop this happening (will deleting the new thread solve it)? It is driving me insane!

 

[NoBoMac]

Girlfriend get a new phone? Can see this happening if old phone was not signed out of Messages and iCloud before getting rid of.

Also: check that "Start new conversations from" is set properly.

And: maybe get rid of the old threads. Can see accidentally sending from a thread with the alternate id vs maybe typing in a message without going into a thread and sending a message.

 

[kiranmk2]

Nope - she's had the same phone since the Summer. Start new conversation on both phones is set to the phone number. I only get one thread in OSX 10.10 but two threads on my iPad too (still on iOS 7.1.2)

 

[Ledgem]

Unfortunately, this issue has been going on for the past two years, possibly longer. The issue seems to be that even though the phone (or iPad) is set to use one number or email address for starting new messages, it will occasionally send out a message from one of your other addresses that are enabled for use with iMessage. The only way to ensure it didn't happen was to disable everything except for one thing (usually your phone number) for use with iMessage. The problem is that the new SMS text forwarding feature in iOS 8.1 and OS X 10.10 requires that your phone number and at least one email address be enabled for use with iMessage. If you use that feature at all, then you're forced to open yourself to this issue.

Messages on OS X has always been better about integrating messages into one conversation thread, even if they come from different addresses from your contact. As of OS X 10.10 I've found that it isn't perfect, but it's still better than iOS.

It won't provide a permanent fix, but if you and your girlfriend delete your conversations and then compose a new message, you should both be back to having only one conversation running.

If you haven't already, please leave Apple feedback about this issue. The more people who complain about it, the more likely they are to prioritize it and provide us with a fix.

 

[Vundu]

Same thing happened to messages from me to my wife's phone today.

They were all in one thread yesterday.

 

[kiranmk2]

No settings have been changed from when everything was working before this month. From going into the details of the two threads it looks like messages in the new thread are from her email address (even though her phone is set to initiate from her phone number) and messages to the original thread are from her phone number. It's very odd that if she quickly replies to a message I send her (from the original thread) it goes to my original thread. (As a reminder, she only has one thread on her phone).

 

[Dino F]

I had this very same problem a few weeks ago?! I hadn't changed any settings but intermittently, when my wife iMessaged me, it would create a new thread on my iPhone 6. ON e thread would show it was from her email address and the other thread showed it was from her phone number - very weird.....

The issue just resolved itself after a few days though so just put it down to some kind of issue with Apple's iMessage service (even though no issues were officially present according to the website).

 

[goonie4life9]

I have had a bug report open with Apple about this issue for over a year. They are aware of the bug. I would STRONGLY recommend you file a bug report.

Unfortunately, this issue has been going on for the past two years, possibly longer. The issue seems to be that even though the phone (or iPad) is set to use one number or email address for starting new messages, it will occasionally send out a message from one of your other addresses that are enabled for use with iMessage. The only way to ensure it didn't happen was to disable everything except for one thing (usually your phone number) for use with iMessage. The problem is that the new SMS text forwarding feature in iOS 8.1 and OS X 10.10 requires that your phone number and at least one email address be enabled for use with iMessage. If you use that feature at all, then you're forced to open yourself to this issue.

Messages on OS X has always been better about integrating messages into one conversation thread, even if they come from different addresses from your contact. As of OS X 10.10 I've found that it isn't perfect, but it's still better than iOS.

It won't provide a permanent fix, but if you and your girlfriend delete your conversations and then compose a new message, you should both be back to having only one conversation running.

If you haven't already, please leave Apple feedback about this issue. The more people who complain about it, the more likely they are to prioritize it and provide us with a fix.

iMessage was working fine for me a few weeks ago. My suddenly whenever I get a message from my GF it has started appearing in a new thread. Neither of us have changed any settings. If I send her a message from the original thread and she replies it comes back to my original thread, but if she sends me a message at some point later it comes into the new thread.
Turning off being able to contact her at her email address stopped her being able to reach me at all (all her imessages failed to send). We wiped her phone and restored (both phone number and email activated) and it seemed like the issue was sorted, but today it's happened again. I am reluctant to wipe and restore my phone as it takes an age to restore. Is there anything I can toggle to stop this happening (will deleting the new thread solve it)? It is driving me insane!

 

[CTHarrryH]

Happened to a couple of people I know when they updated to latest Mac OSX version a couple of weeks ago

 

[JeffNT326]

I've experienced similar situations in the past. I solved it by combining a person's multiplie contact information into their contact card.

For example, I was receiving iMessages from the same person's phone and e-mail, oftentimes interspersed into two different threads. By putting the e-mail into their contact info along with their phone number, iMessage merged the discussion into one thread.

I know it's not an elegant fix, but it solved the issue for me.

 

[kiranmk2]

I think I've managed to solve this one:

When I removed my GF's email address from her contact card, the 2nd thread renamed from her name to her email address (as presumably iMessage now didn't know her email address was associated with her phone). I then added the email address back in thinking it hadn't worked but I noticed that there seems to be an extra email option of iCloud (i.e. Home, Mobile, other) that I can't remember being there when I put the data in (iOS6 days I think). I selected iCloud and now everything seems to be working. I still have two threads, but all new messages from her go into the original thread.

Bottom line - try changing the person's email address from Home/Work/Other to iCloud and see if that makes a change.

 

[Dino F]

I think I've managed to solve this one:

When I removed my GF's email address from her contact card, the 2nd thread renamed from her name to her email address (as presumably iMessage now didn't know her email address was associated with her phone). I then added the email address back in thinking it hadn't worked but I noticed that there seems to be an extra email option of iCloud (i.e. Home, Mobile, other) that I can't remember being there when I put the data in (iOS6 days I think). I selected iCloud and now everything seems to be working. I still have two threads, but all new messages from her go into the original thread.

Bottom line - try changing the person's email address from Home/Work/Other to iCloud and see if that makes a change.

...I still think its a glitch with iMessage. My iMessages work fine and all my contacts' emails (the ones which use iMessage) are just stored under the custom label of 'Email' and not under the 'iCloud' heading within Home/Work/Other.

 

[nightlong]

I've been having this problem intermittently for a while, in group message with 4 family members ... We are all often in different countries, and messages is great for daily contact/conversations. All using ipads, iPhones (and 2 of us have computers). But, although the group message stays in one thread for long periods, a new one suddenly starts without anyone changing anything.

So, I think it is a glitch in the OS.