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iPad not sending text to some contacts

A friend of mine just purchased a new iPad and some of his contacts when he text to them the message will not send. I have tried to resend but they did not work. He is setup with the iCloud. Not sure where to look next. I have also deleted the message and contact and started new message but that did not send either.

Posted on May 10, 2021 7:43 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 27, 2021 4:33 AM

Some additional information that may be helpful to you regarding the Apple Messages App…


  • Blue Bubbles = Apple iMessage
  • Green Bubbles = SMS (Text) or MMS (Picture) messaging over Cellular messaging services


An iPad, whether a Cellular model or not, is not capable of directly accessing Cellular Voice or SMS/MMS Messaging features. An iPad with either WiFi or Cellular connectivity alone can only access IP-data services.


However, If paired with an iPhone, the capabilities of iPad significantly broaden to include access to Cellular Voice and Messaging services of the associated iPhone - relayed to the iPad over WiFi using Apple’s continuity features.


More information about Continuity and the relevant Cellular services can be found here:


Continuity

Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch – Apple Support


SMS/MMS Messaging

How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support


WiFi Calling

Make a call with Wi-Fi Calling – Apple Support



If you have an iPhone - and both iPad and iPhone are signed-in to iCloud with the same AppleID, to send SMS/MMS messages from your iPad you must explicitly enable Text Message Forwarding for your [new] iPad on your iPhone...


On your iPhone:

Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding - set to ON - and explicitly enable your iPad from the list of devices.


Also ensure that Messages in iCloud is enabled on both your iPhone and iPad:

Settings > [Your Name / AppleID] > Messages - set to ON


7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 27, 2021 4:33 AM in response to maott

Some additional information that may be helpful to you regarding the Apple Messages App…


  • Blue Bubbles = Apple iMessage
  • Green Bubbles = SMS (Text) or MMS (Picture) messaging over Cellular messaging services


An iPad, whether a Cellular model or not, is not capable of directly accessing Cellular Voice or SMS/MMS Messaging features. An iPad with either WiFi or Cellular connectivity alone can only access IP-data services.


However, If paired with an iPhone, the capabilities of iPad significantly broaden to include access to Cellular Voice and Messaging services of the associated iPhone - relayed to the iPad over WiFi using Apple’s continuity features.


More information about Continuity and the relevant Cellular services can be found here:


Continuity

Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch – Apple Support


SMS/MMS Messaging

How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support


WiFi Calling

Make a call with Wi-Fi Calling – Apple Support



If you have an iPhone - and both iPad and iPhone are signed-in to iCloud with the same AppleID, to send SMS/MMS messages from your iPad you must explicitly enable Text Message Forwarding for your [new] iPad on your iPhone...


On your iPhone:

Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding - set to ON - and explicitly enable your iPad from the list of devices.


Also ensure that Messages in iCloud is enabled on both your iPhone and iPad:

Settings > [Your Name / AppleID] > Messages - set to ON


May 11, 2021 10:13 AM in response to JovonaP.

Thank you very much for responding. On these particular individuals that he can not text to on the iPad they also did not migrate over so he set them up individually. Which is odd and on the text messages that did not go through when you touch the exclamation point it does not give you the option to "send as text message" only "try again" and of course that does not work. What am I missing here?

May 11, 2021 9:21 AM in response to maott

Hello maott,


Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It's our understanding that your friend is unable to send text messages to some contacts on his new iPad. You've done a great job trying to get this resolved. We're happy to help.


If you haven't already, please try the remaining steps in the following resource:

If you can't send or receive messages on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


Let us know the results. Please include specific error messages and any other troubleshooting steps that you may have tried.


Have a nice day!

May 24, 2021 7:40 AM in response to maott

moatt,


That information is very helpful. It sounds like the messages that aren't sending are because they're not iMessages. Since the iPad is not connected to a cellular network SMS and MMS messages won't send. If your friend has an iPhone, he can use Continuity to send and receive SMS and MMS messages from the iPhone on the iPad. Take a look at the following resource for more information: How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac


Cheers!

May 22, 2021 6:08 PM in response to JovonaP.

Thank you very much for troubleshooting this issue with me! In answer to your questions, so the pattern I see is on these few contacts that did not migrate over from the iCloud on to this new iPad is he manually had to set them up and all the other contacts are using iMessage and theses few are using sms/mms. Not sure how this default takes over.

The iPad is WiFi only no cellular. Our test was having his iPad running off my iPhone hotspot on a completely different WiFi and the text message still failed. I have never run into this type of issue on my iPad so I’m not sure how to resolve it. Does it have anything to do with the type of phone that receives the text ie tracker, android non-iPhone?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards

iPad not sending text to some contacts

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