Text messages erasing itself while being written on iPhone

It happens to me in any and every app that allows the keyboard function (I use both an iPhone 8+ and an iPhone 12), whether it’s a comment section online or a Notes workspace. The only “solution” I have found is to hit the space bar on my keypad; other keys don’t stop the deletion. iOS 16.7.8

Apple apparently has ZERO solutions considering this spans several years at this point.

Yudlose wrote:

Same thing here and I’m using an iPhone SE 3rd generation so it’s relatively new and I keep the auto updates on. It’s so frustrating because often times I struggle with the right words to say when dealing with important yet sensitive matters such as my marriage. I try and make sure that my texts are meaningful and to the point and sometimes this takes time for me.

I would suggest that you compose your texts in another app such as Notes. You can use the sharing button to easily move the completed text to Messages to send.

I can’t say why this happens, but I can say hitting the space bar will halt it, minimize your loss, and you should be able to move forward without further incident. Though, if you’re experiencing this, you may want to break up your message into multiple parts. And, you know, send, while the sending is good!

Same thing here and I’m using an iPhone SE 3rd generation so it’s relatively new and I keep the auto updates on. It’s so frustrating because often times I struggle with the right words to say when dealing with important yet sensitive matters such as my marriage. I try and make sure that my texts are meaningful and to the point and sometimes this takes time for me. The screen will eventually time out and suddenly a huge portion of what I had just composed has vanished when I immediately queue up the screen again. I remember this happening years back when my phone would die completely and I can almost understand that, but this is different. It really makes me wonder about the security and reliability of my device, especially when I’m here in the help forums looking for answers and there are none, only a large group of others with the same problem. Someone knows what’s going on here but no one is willing to tell us. It almost makes me want to abandon Apple products entirely. I feel if it were a simple issue we would have already figured it out by now but sadly that’s not the case. I’ve also seen other strange things happening on my device like the Home Screen comes up with double print thats just off to the side of the normal layout making everything blurry and hard to see. So for example it would show the time on the top of the screen in the middle, and right next to that it shows the time again pasted right on top of the other but not quite aligned right which ends up looking like a smeared blurry image. Also the sound will occasionally act weird. While texting the button clicks will fluctuate from normal to loud to non existent, all within the same message. In fact it’s doing that now and I haven’t let my screen time out once after what just happened to me while typing a text to my wife. It’s frustrating and a waste of my time to say the least.

I just experienced the same issue I wrote out a text message and went to another tab to collect information came back to my text message and “ select parts of the text” were deleted from my message. I also have an over type issue when I’m writing something it’s deleting certain letters or blocking the word I’m tying to type. It autocorrects words that don’t make sense and won’t allow me to chose the word I want when I’m typing. Almost certain a KEYSTROKING VIRUS and SPYWARE has been inserted to my iOS device. With the current update consumers are supposed to be able to “UNSEND” messages if they are incorrect or changed our minds - I have NEVER been able to “UNSEND” a message.

This is happening to me in both Gmail on google chrome and iMessages on my MacbookAir M1 ever since I upgraded to Sonoma. It is driving me crazy because I am writing very thoughtful emails and texts and then all the sudden half of everything I write is gone and it reverts back as if it goes back in time 10 minutes.

I turned off predictive text in keyboard settings to see if this helps but I have a feeling it's not going to. Very frustrating and worrisome.

I’m having the same issue as well. I’ve figured out when it does it sometimes, it’s when the next word starts with the letter “M”. I don’t know why but my guess is it has something to do with the space before the start of the word and it’s close proximity to the space bar, the delete key and the return key. I’ve noticed that it’s not an issue when the letter “m” Is in the middle of a word and it doesn’t always do it at the beginning of an “M” word but it only does it at the beginning of an “M” word.

Bobby_Goren wrote:

FIX IT before adding another useless buzzer or whistle to the platform.

This is a user-to-user support forum. Apple doesn't read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

CuriousCompUser wrote:

This is happening to me in both Gmail on google chrome and iMessages on my MacbookAir M1 ever since I upgraded to Sonoma. It is driving me crazy because I am writing very thoughtful emails and texts and then all the sudden half of everything I write is gone and it reverts back as if it goes back in time 10 minutes.

I turned off predictive text in keyboard settings to see if this helps but I have a feeling it's not going to. Very frustrating and worrisome.

As your issue involves a different type of device with a different operating system, I would recommend you start your own thread in the Sonoma forum. You'll probably get more help.

Yes, when I am talk texting sometimes my text just disappears as well. I am trying to compose it. And I have to go back and redo it. This is since the update about a week ago in November 2023. Also when I’m making a phone call now my screen is gray and the answer button etc. are on the bottom and in different positions I don’t like gray I can’t believe this is an update whatever they’ve done is not good we need Steve Jobs back!

Yes I have the same problem plus when you go to delete a couple of letters or a word it zooms back and deleted multiple sentences Thank goodness I saw most of these complaints before I updated my iPad so at least I can continue to use that properly.

[Edited by Moderator]

Yeah, this is getting annoying. It seems like this started after one of the many updates. A lot of times when I want to put a period or an! At the end of the sentence, it just acts like it doesn’t hear me, but the erasing of the paragraphs that I just wrote is ridiculous! I’m sure someone has to know how to fix this, please keep me posted.

Apple is a $3 TRILLION company. I fail to understand why my texts often disappear before sending, particularly when texting an article with comments.

FIX IT before adding another useless buzzer or whistle to the platform. Focus on real user problems and not some engineer’s jollies. Don’t be Tesla, which is absurd in its faux innovations.

Pressing spacebar dint stop mine

I’m finding when I add an emoji, such as a heart, after I type text, it erases the word that came before it. There’s just a wide open blank space. Incredibly frustrating!