I have a new phone number on my new iPhone Pro Max and do not have my old iPhone or my old phone number I want to deregister. How do I deregister my old phone number that is not available to me any longer?

I still cannot remove my old cell number which I do not have access to any longer. I added my new cell number but the old cell number AND my new cell number are receiving my iMessages, according to my settings. If someone new gets my old cell number I’m concerned they could be receiving MY iMessages. I very much appreciate your help, but I still have the same issue.

Thanks anyway.

That’s the problem. I did not. It was a company iPhone that we would upgrade every couple of years. My last day before I retired was January 31st, I completely wiped the phone and restored it back to its original new state. I thought that would be enough. I returned (via FedEx) all the company equipment back to headquarters in Denver, I live outside of StL, MO. The next day I went and bought my own personal iPhone 12 Pro Max, with my new cell number, and my iPad Pro is WiFi only, but still received iMessages. By changing my old cell number, which everybody does in my position with the company I retired from so we can be “actually” retired without having customers continue to contact me. My old iPhone, laptop, iPad etc. have all been put in 30 day quarantine for legal reasons which has always been the practice. I’m not sure what happens to the number the first of March. I would imagine the cell phone number will end up with someone outside the company. I may have to open a completely new AppleID Account (& iCloud Account). I hope not. You would think there should be a way to deregister my AppleID Account from an old cell number I do not have access to any longer.

I hope someone can answer this question. I hate entering retirement concerned about my backed up data and my iMessages going to others that will eventually get the old number that is still registered to my old cell number.

I added my new cell number and that works fine, I can also REMOVE that number or add another number or email address - I just can’t remove the old, original cell number I had tied to my AppleID & iMessage Accounts. Crazy. I’m likely going to have to reach out to Apple but I’m afraid what their reply will be. I also want to make sure the old information I have backed up on AppleID Account iCloud, can be cleaned.

This retirement thing is a heck of a lot of work! Thanks for your interest. I simply cannot be the only person this has ever happened to.