Group iMessage Conversation Keeps Muting Itself on iPhone

Question

Level 1

13 points

Group iMessage Conversation Keeps Muting Itself on iPhone

For the last month, one group iMessage conversation on my iPhone repeatedly mutes itself. I'll unmute the conversation and typically receive one new notification before the conversation remutes itself. Sometimes I'll have replied, sometimes not. Sometimes mere seconds will have passed, sometimes a couple days. But the conversation always remutes itself, and I often miss messages.

There are four people in the conversation. I have separate individual exchanges going with all three of the other participants. None of those conversations have ever muted themselves—just the group conversation. No other group conversation has ever muted itself . . . though now I'm afraid to mute another for fear of never being able to unmute it and have it remain so.

I've tried:

Unmuting the conversation from my list of conversations (swipe left, tap unmute).
Unmuting the conversation from within the conversation (get info, then unmute).
Restarting my iPhone.
Restarting my iPhone and my Apple Watch after unmuting the conversation on both devices.
Unmuting the conversation on every device and restarting them all.
Varying the order in which I unmute and restart all my devices.

None of these have worked.

I have not yet tried:

Leaving the conversation and asking another participant to re-add me.
Resetting my iPhone entirely.

I won't refuse to do these things in the long run—they shouldn't be necessary to unmute a dumb, mostly jokey conversation—but I don't want to lose the conversation history. According to another thread on this topic (inaccurately marked "solved"), people with more important group conversations are resorting to these measures, but they shouldn't have to. The mechanics for muting and unmuting a group conversation are not functioning correctly, and I'm definitely not the only person experiencing this. It's clearly some kind of bug.

Any suggestions? Apple? Anyone?

iPhone 11, iOS 14

Posted on Mar 28, 2021 12:55 PM

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Answer 1

ras5280

Level 1

39 points

Apr 17, 2021 10:01 AM in response to CS Fossett

Same problem here in Colorado on my iPad Pro 9.7" (vintage 2016), iPadOS 14.4.2. Been happening for a few weeks now. I've posted in the other thread on this topic that the OP referred to, as have dozens of others having the same problem. Missing lots of notifications from an important 3-person conversation, a couple of which have been medical related. It's only happening to ONE conversation thread. Hoping Apple solves this soon, as there doesn't appear to be a user solution. I refuse to delete (and start over) a conversation that includes family members and is several years old. So very frustrating.

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Answer 2

mikeg28806

Community Specialist

Mar 31, 2021 11:39 AM in response to CS Fossett

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities,

We understand you're encountering an issue with a group conversation in Messages being unexpectedly muted.

You've taken some great troubleshooting and isolation steps so far. We'd recommend to contact Apple Support for further help with this.

We hope this helps!

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Answer 3

CS Fossett Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 31, 2021 12:47 PM in response to mikeg28806

Well, I started a conversation here, in public, so other people besides myself might benefit from whatever back-and-forth occurred.

So, um, thank you? I think I'll stick around for awhile and hope others have specific advice.

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Answer 4

Apr 17, 2021 9:14 AM in response to CS Fossett

This is also an issue I have been dealing with. It is very frustrating and I, too, have tried all sorts of combinations of updating and restarting iPads and Apple Watch and phone- all to no avail. This is terribly frustrating and I refuse to have to do a hard reset of my phone or delete the group chat- there HAS to be another option. Please help!

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Answer 5

Ljbhpnj

Level 1

8 points

Apr 17, 2021 9:45 AM in response to CS Fossett

This problem occurs for people who do not have an apple watch so I believe it is not related. I've tried the same steps and it did not solve the problem either. One other step that I tried was to pin the thread thinking perhaps it would prevent it from being muted but that did not work either.

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Answer 6

CS Fossett Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 19, 2021 6:57 AM in response to CS Fossett

Yep. Still no solution. I've since tried leaving the conversation and having a friend re-add me, but it didn't work. I was nervous about losing the conversation, but I didn't. So that's good? But it feels like the core problem has actually gotten worse. Every single time I go into the conversation it remutes when I come out again, whether I've texted something or not.

All that remains (as far as I can see) is the "nuclear option" of resetting my phone entirely, which is just ridiculous. There's too much risk of data loss in a complete reset! This is a serious bug, Apple. Please pay attention.

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Answer 7

ras5280

Level 1

39 points

May 22, 2021 6:31 PM in response to tmguillot

What version of iOS are you currently running? If not the latest (**14.5.1** as of May 22) ... 1) dismiss (close) the Messages app, 2) update your iOS, then 3) upon reboot, launch the Messages app and test to see if the problem has gone away. Updating the OS on my iPad cured the anomaly for me.

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Answer 8

CS Fossett Author

Level 1

13 points

May 23, 2021 11:21 AM in response to CS Fossett

I can't say this definitively yet, but I'm tentatively hopeful that updating to iOS 14.5.1 has helped. I need to test it fully, but my text thread with the issue does seem to remain unmuted, at least on my iPhone. I've remuted it and unmuted a few times, and which state I want it in seems to once again be under my control for moment.

HOWEVER!

I don't know this for sure, but I've suspected that accessing this iMessage conversation on more than one of my devices (iPhone 11, Macbook Pro, iPad Pro, iMac) is what caused the issue in the first place. I can't know for sure, since every single one of my devices has accessed iMessage at some point, but I sort of suspect the culprit was my Macbook Pro (my oldest device). I promise to test my theory some more . . . though I admit I'm not eager to get the problem to recur.

I don't think I should mark this "solved" yet. I'd like more people to weigh in after updating to iOS 14.5.1 because a couple people have already said that doing so didn't help. But it also sounds like maybe an extra step or two—such as closing iMessage prior to updating the iOS—might do the trick.

Maybe we're starting to narrow down the cause? 🤞

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Answer 9

zermie

Level 1

4 points

Jun 19, 2021 2:45 PM in response to CS Fossett

I know the date this issue began for me, because I know the event I was at - March 26, 2021.

With the most recent IOS update 14.6 the moon/mute symbol is now gone. And for just a few times earlier this week one (but not both) of the other people in the thread alerted me.

So now my thread does not show it is on mute, but it still is.

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Answer 10

Jun 25, 2021 12:45 PM in response to CS Fossett

I agree. We shouldn’t have to go to that extent. I‘m very frustrated. I don’t have a watch so that is not a fix for me. My moon isn’t on and my hide alerts is not selected. I am still not getting the alerts.

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Answer 11

Jul 3, 2021 4:11 PM in response to CS Fossett

I just experienced this as well (no Apple Watch), and found this thread along with its predecessor.

I was able to get it to stay unmuted by unpinning my group first, then unmuting it, then restarting the app and then re-pinning the group.

Seems the bug may be in the pinning feature.

Hope that helps some of you!

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Answer 12

ras5280

Level 1

39 points

Apr 26, 2021 3:28 PM in response to CS Fossett

It appears that iOS 14.5 (in my case, iPadOS 14.5) has corrected the problem, at least in my case. Just released today so give it a try.

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Answer 13

LGE519

Level 1

4 points

May 6, 2021 9:03 AM in response to ras5280

I have this issue. Updated to iOS 14.5.1 on my iphone and it muted the group convo in question by itself within 15 mins. Update does not resolve the issue.

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Answer 14

kueeny

Level 1

4 points

May 20, 2021 10:58 PM in response to CS Fossett

Someone please helllllppppp

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Answer 15

May 22, 2021 5:32 PM in response to CS Fossett

Same issue here. Nothing resolves it and I refuse to delete the conversation. There really should be a fix by now considering how widespread the problem is.

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