Messages app freezes every time iPhone 13 charges overnight

First off, I went though old screenshots and found that I, too, had received an "accounts do not match" pop-up almost 7 months ago. I believe it was dismissed by a senior advisor as a glitch during our troubleshooting at the time, but cannot be certain.

That said, I believe I found a fix. I will start with telling you what I did, and will then make some guesses as to what the problem was and why it was resolved.

• First, I signed out of iCloud, powered the phone off, then signed back in.

Messages did not freeze on me, but I also did not put the phone on charge. The app did quit unexpectedly at least once, however.

• Second, I reset network settings.

Last night, the phone charged all night without freezing. Texts came through correctly overnight, and I got notifications. This morning, Messages continue to work normally.

Now, as to my best guesses as to what happened / what's going on:

After I signed back into iCloud yesterday, I noticed that the Messages button under Settings > Apple ID > iCloud was turned off. I did not do this. It was suddenly just off. I turned it back on.

Before bed, I initiated an iCloud backup. The backup could not complete as I was told there was not enough storage available, even though my phone had backed up the previous night at less than 4GB and I had 40GB of iCloud storage space still available. It didn't make sense.

I tried again, and got the same error message - not enough storage available.

I purchased additional storage - a ludicrous amount - to see if that made a difference. My phone successfully backed up, but at a whopping 50GB.

My phone charged overnight without Messages errors or freezing and continues to work correctly today.

I suspect there has been an ongoing issue with Messages in iCloud. Over the last 1-2 years, my backup sizes have been wildly inconsistent. My old phone backed up at 13 GB, I set up a new phone and restored the backup, which then backed up to 5 GB total. Restore from iCloud, the same phone backups up at 7 GB, etc. Further, every time I attempted to set up a new phone with an iCloud backup, certain messages would be missing. Instead of photos in specific threads, I would only have blank text bubbles. I have ongoing cases with Apple on this, and was told to wait for a future update to resolve this Messages issue.

• My best guess: Apple made changes on their end in the past 2-3 weeks and there was / is a significant Messages discrepancy between what should back up and what actually was backing up to iCloud, hence the Messages freezing behavior. Signing in and out of iCloud cleared that glitch / reset things. My iCloud messages automatically turned off when I signed back in because my storage plan now did not have enough room to accommodate all the Messages data, which is why my backup could not complete once I turned iCloud > Messages back on until I purchased additional storage.

I still cannot say why my overall phone backup would change in size from 4 GB one night to 50GB the next, other than to guess that the 4GB size has been incorrect for quite some time due to errors in Messages / iCloud.

I hope my phone continues to behave normally now, and that some of this information is helpful.

It may be a coincidence. I have an iCloud plan that is shared with a family member and has not changed (from shared to individual) before or after this issue showed up.

That said, 15.2 seems to have corrected the issue of Messages freezing when charging.

HOWEVER. My 13 has returned to a "normal" iCloud backup size. My backup / test phone has not. It has less than 2GB of actual storage used on the phone, but keeps wanting to backup to over 50 GB. It makes no sense.

Even more alarming, yesterday I thought perhaps I recreated the problem on 15.2. I'm sharing this so no one else does what I did:

• I was texting a friend from the Messages app. I decided to call him instead.
• WHILE IN THE MESSAGES APP, I hit the contact photo at the top of the screen, and then the phone
• After the call, the Messages app was completely frozen. I could not quit the app.
• I power cycled, and Messages opened up to a blank screen, exactly as it had done after charging.
• I power cycled multiple times, and each time, Messages opened to a blank screen for 2-3 seconds before then loading the Messages

Much to my relief, I was able to charge the phone last night and not have the same issue show up as of now. Hopefully it continues. There are several analytics logs related to Messages on my phone, however.

That said, I'm grateful 15.2 appears to have fixed this odd charging issue with Messages that appears somehow related to iCloud / iCloud Messages.

As for the other issues - wildly inaccurate iPhone storage amounts and slow calculations, iPhone storage going immediately out of whack upon syncing with Finder, huge and inaccurate size of iCloud backups, etc....here's hoping they are unrelated to this particular issue and are addressed in a future update.

I'm grateful to everyone who has contributed and helped out in this post.

I appreciate your response...thank you. And I'm sorry you're experiencing this, too. It might be worth contacting Apple directly to report this, since as of right now, there are only two total reports of this issue, including my own.

Just this morning I noticed the exact same other things you mentioned - Messages and FaceTime Settings freezing, while all other Settings worked correctly, then the whole Settings app would freeze after trying to access either Messages or FaceTime settings. Furthermore, Messages settings would NOT allow me to select my phone number for "start new conversations from", which should have been checked in the first place, but somehow was unchecked.

I also had the freezing happen when charging via USB since my initial post. The frustrating part was that I was attempting to make an encrypted backup so I could restore and set up as a new phone per Apple's instructions. Given that Messages freezes within minutes of putting it on charge / connecting to my mac, I can't successfully complete a backup I feel good about in order to proceed.

I did come across an individual on another social media site who was experiencing the same issue on 15.1. He was kind enough to respond and say that the following steps have corrected the issue thus far: sign out of iCloud, power cycle the phone off and on, then sign back in. Since he did that (I believe well over a week ago), the problem has not reoccurred.

I have just attempted that myself, and will report back once I can gauge results.

That is odd. I did not get that message when I signed out and back in. Other than the freezing, is everything else “normal?”

It certainly makes me think this is an issue on Apple’s end, though - either with their iCloud services or the 15.1 software update (I’m more inclined to guess the former given this issue started for me seemingly at random a good while after installing iOS 15.1).

I also reset my network settings to see if it makes a difference, as I’ve always been on Wi-Fi when this issue appears. If I learn anything noteworthy, I’ll report back.

Please do report back. I hope it works for you.

Two days ago, I restored the phone via connecting to a mac, set up as new, erased from the phone Settings, and then restored an encrypted backup. Messages was fixed, and my Other Storage / iPhone storage issues seemed to resolve as well (I had huge discrepancies between what was actually on the phone and what storage showed). After I did this, Messages was working even while charging, and all my iPhone storage seemed accurate in all respects.

After my phone backed up to iCloud for the first time after this, my photos storage doubled in size, showing 2x the amount of what was actually on the phone. The next morning, after a second iCloud backup, both my Messages and Photos in iPhone Storage are massively out of whack. Perhaps a coincidence, perhaps not. When I click on iPhone Storage > Messages, the Settings app freezes and behaves the same was Messages was...blank screen.

This morning, Messages froze on me again after charging, and now does so every time I charge.

Unfortunately, I need to use a backup right now. When I don't, Messages do not fully download from iClould. Some very important messages only show up as blank text bubbles instead of the images I need. I can only get them back with via mac backup. It's maddening.

I hope it's not a backup corruption issue, and you and I are not alone in experiencing this. And I hope that more people call in to report so that Apple becomes more aware of it.

I wish you luck...please let me know how you do.

Thank you for sharing and for documenting. I am very grateful you are contacting Apple, as the more who do, the closer this gets to getting addressed as a "known issue." Please report back with any relevant information...I will do the same. Good luck!

Would you be willing to clarify something for me, please? When you signed back into iCloud and iCloud > Messages was turned off by default...did you still have all your messages saved on your phone? Are you able to go back in the threads and have the messages load properly?

I have several key texts and threads from long ago that I don't want to lose. As frustrating as this whole thing is - Messages app freezing, iPhone storage wildly inaccurate and all over the place, iCloud backups leaping from 4 GB to over 50GB, etc. - I don't want to lose those messages.

I'd appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

Thank you! So you only have the text messages themselves, but no photos or attachments (I'm hoping to keep the images and photos that go along with the threads, which leaves me hesitant to sign out and back in leaving iCloud > Messages off).

Did you have any luck with Apple Support?

I submitted several analytics logs this evening for the Apple technicians to review at and I expect a call back towards the end of the week. It seems like it has to be an error with Messages in iCloud or with the iCloud backups somehow, most likely Messages. I'll report back when that happens.

I hope you remain problem-free and don't have to deal with this Messages issue anymore...what a mess! I can only hope they realize there's a problem and address it soon. Thanks again!

I'm so happy for you that things seem to be working...that's excellent news!

I ended up erasing my phone - again - last night, installing clean software, and restoring from the backup. It charged overnight without any problems so far. I also turned off my iCloud backup, as I noticed the same discrepancy you did and also thought of a problem between the phone and the iCloud servers with Messages. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice Messages continued to work correctly.

I am still getting the "iMessage accounts do not match" error, however, and I DO have my Apple ID selected as an address, along with two others. You are referring to *only* the "You can receive iMessages to and reply from" section in Settings, correct?

I still suspect the huge discrepancy in iCloud backup size is at play here, and the Messages are being double-counted both in iCloud Messages and the phone backups. We'll see. I hope that turning my iCloud backup off will keep Messages working for now.

(I also had a huge discrepancy / change show up in my iPhone storage as soon as I connected the phone to Finder / mac this morning, but that's (I think) a whole other story).

Thank you again for your thoughts, efforts, and contributions. If this does NOT fix the problem for you, please consider contacting Apple - the more that do, the more likely they will investigate and resolve what's going on. Have a great holiday!!!