Share focus status greyed out after IOS 15.5 update

1 I toggled the iCloud setting on my phone and it didn’t fix it.

2 I removed my older Mac Book from my Apple account (No focus setting)

3 I made sure on my new Mac Book iCloud was on and I still couldn’t toggle shared focus

4 on my new Mac book I opened iCloud settings again and realized Messages wasn’t selected. I toggled it on, rebooted both my phone and my Mac book and …. Success!!!

5 az921 you are a HERO! I spent hours and hours with Apple support over this! Thank you!!!

🙏🙏🙏

I have had the same problem for months and I recently realized the solution for it. The share focus status is greyed out most likely because your icloud drive in settings is turned off. Just go to settings -> apple ID -> icloud drive and toggle that on. Then your share focus status should not be greyed out anymore!

This comment gave me a clue and thats how I was able to solve it for myself, by enabling iMessages on my Macbook that is linked to my account. If one of your devices doesn’t have iMessages enabled, indeed it will break “Share across devices” and the whole Focus sharing doesn’t work.

Hello Shaneyfelt82,

Thanks for choosing the Apple Support Communities. To start, let's ensure a few things are set. Please make sure the following are enabled:

1. Settings > Focus > Share Across Devices is enabled
2. Settings > Privacy > Focus > Messages is enabled
3. Settings > Messages > Focus also displays as enabled

If you're using any other devices signed into the same Apple ID, make sure they have the same settings. Let us know what you find, and we'll go from there.

More info on using Focus can be found here.

Use Focus on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Cheers!

I just finally fixed mine. Ever since I got a new MacBook I couldn’t share or see focus status on my iPhone iMessages, but it still worked on my iWatch.

I did everything people on this thread wrote and alone they didn’t work. But previously I had not enabled iMessages on my Macbook, so decided to give it a shot and enabled it and that did the trick. Now my iPhone iMessages app shows focus status.

weird bug, Apple eng should fix.

Bakerab wrote:

Can we get some confirmation that Apple is actively tracking this weird bug?

You could try asking Apple by using the "Get Support" link at the top right of every page of these forums. However, I don't know if the support folks will have an answer for you.

Itsericayo wrote:

Apple refuses to fix this problem everyone who updated their phone has. It’s been like this for over a month.

No, most people don't have this problem. I don't. I understand the fact that most people don't doesn't help you. But, what it does mean is that it's going to be harder for Apple to figure out what the problem is if only some people have it.

You should be sure to let Apple know about your issue. The more people who do, the more data they will have:

Product Feedback - Apple

Related / Unrelated: My Mac laptop's Messages app wasn't syncing with my iPhone Messages.

• In Messages/ preferences/ iMessage on my Mac, I put my phone number instead of just my email address (I don't know how my phone number was removed, but now it lists my email AND my iPhone's number)
• 
  
• iPhone General / Settings / Messages / Text Message Forwarding and selected my Mac laptop

Ten minutes later my girlfriend texts, "hey, I can see your "notifications silenced, notify anyway" , how did you fix it?"

Shocked, I did some troubleshooting with her and sure enough, she can see when I have notifications slienced from either my Mac or my iPhone again.

It's still not entirely fixed because:

• My Mac can see when other iPhone folks have their notifications silenced
• Folks can see when I have my notifications silenced from my Mac or my iPhone , but my iPhone still can't see when theirs are silenced
• Share focus status is still "off" and grayed out

I spent another few hours on the Apple support line and they just said try to upgrade to 15.6 - which I did and it didn't fix it.

My question to you fine folks:

Do ANY OF US that are experiencing this issue have just a single iPhone and no other Apple devices associated with your iCloud account?

If my theory is correct, the answer is no.

Also, the Apple tech made the senior techs aware of this thread. Hopefully it will get some traction soon.

Thanks for being in this busted boat with me and trying to figure it out.

I did pretty much everything everyone has suggested in this forum, even the iCloud drive, but none seemed to change anything.

Someone mentioned old laptops under the same apple ID ... I have two old laptops still connected to my Apple ID and there is no Focus setting like in Mac OS 12.5.1. I wonder if that breaks the Share Across Device setting on my iPhone and that causes 1) my Share Focus Status to be greyed out like most of you and 2) others don't see the message "This person has notifications silenced" in Messages.

Shaneyfelt82,

It's best to contact Apple directly to investigate this issue with Focus.

Contact Apple Support

Regards.

To be more specific this bug is causing paranoia as well.

Allow me to elaborate:

I realized “share focus status” toggle had gone locked/grey/unusable when my significant other & I added a contact at the same time. In my partner’s phone it shows the contact’s “focus status” On, saying the usual “notifications are off” line or whatever. Curious me thought the person’s “focus status” wasn’t showing on my phone because the person hadn't saved my # in their contacts; therefore not allowing me to see their “focus status”, nor share mine as well.

But Then!!! I learned you can share “focus status” with ANY unsaved/or saved number. That’s also when/how I realized my focus toggle was completely locked.

I tested all my theories with my other phones & I that’s how I came to the conclusion it had nothing to do with the person not saving my #.

On one of my iPhones it tells me that my main line’s “focus status” is on, BUT on my main line it doesn’t allow me to fiddle with my own ”focus status” nor see others’ “focus statuses”.

I mean, I guess now I know that my “focus status” is halfway working, since it shows everyone my notifications are off, even though it doesn’t work for my main line or my main phone. I have the newest iOS 15.5 too.

It definitely was an inconvenience because it had me thinking the worst for a moment.

Never assume people always investigate first.

I think the only way to fix it is to go back to IOS 15.0, because when I was still on it ‘share focus status’ was actually working. It’s doable to make your phone go back to 15.0, you just need to use whatever computer you have available and download the packed for it etc.

lizzo45 wrote:

I think the only way to fix it is to go back to IOS 15.0, because when I was still on it ‘share focus status’ was actually working. It’s doable to make your phone go back to 15.0, you just need to use whatever computer you have available and download the packed for it etc.

No, that's actually not possible. Apple has long since stopped signing iOS 15.0.

Read the comments below please, your tip on how to fix it, doesn’t fix it. We know how to use “Focus” feature. It’s a bug. It’s bigger than all of us :’( lol crying