I am trying to add a person to my account recovery contacts. The user is on a brand new iPhone 14 that I just finished setting up from the previous iPhone 12. I checked and they do have iMessage enabled in their message settings.
When I add this contact, the iPhone says the user is not using iMessage. What can I do to get my iPhone to recognize that this contact is also using iMessage?
For the benefit of others, I figured out the solution. And yes all of the iPhones involved satisfy the requirements to be a recovery contact. The problem was related to a similar problem we were having:
iOS insisted on associating recommended contact with their email addresses rather than their mobile phone numbers.
This contact/e-mail issue is the root cause for this particular problem.
This is the fix:
When selecting a Legacy or Recovery contact, do not select the recommended one, instead, select Choose Someone Else. Then on the To: line, use search to find your contact by entering their name. If the info below their name is their mobile number, select that contact. If the info below the contact is an email address or the incorrect number, select the ">" button to the right of the contact. That will present a list of phone numbers and email addresses. Select the contact's mobile phone number. Click Add and continue following the instructions to add that contact.
The same process can be applied to iMessage, which will happily attempt to conduct a chat with a contact's email address without informing you it is not using their mobile number. The fix is to start a new chat, search for the contact as above and follow the same procedure to select their mobile number.
For the benefit of others, I figured out the solution. And yes all of the iPhones involved satisfy the requirements to be a recovery contact. The problem was related to a similar problem we were having:
iOS insisted on associating recommended contact with their email addresses rather than their mobile phone numbers.
This contact/e-mail issue is the root cause for this particular problem.
This is the fix:
When selecting a Legacy or Recovery contact, do not select the recommended one, instead, select Choose Someone Else. Then on the To: line, use search to find your contact by entering their name. If the info below their name is their mobile number, select that contact. If the info below the contact is an email address or the incorrect number, select the ">" button to the right of the contact. That will present a list of phone numbers and email addresses. Select the contact's mobile phone number. Click Add and continue following the instructions to add that contact.
The same process can be applied to iMessage, which will happily attempt to conduct a chat with a contact's email address without informing you it is not using their mobile number. The fix is to start a new chat, search for the contact as above and follow the same procedure to select their mobile number.
Hey jlczukk,
Thanks for participating in Apple Support Communities. Did you make sure they meet all of the requirements to be a recovery contact?
Requirements to be a recovery contact
* Your device must be running iOS 15, iPadOS 15, or macOS Monterey or later.
* You must be over the age of 13.
* You need two-factor authentication turned on for your Apple ID.
* You need a passcode set up on your device.
The above list and a bit more details can be found here: Help a friend or family member as their account recovery contact - Apple Support
If they do meet those requirements and you're still not able to add them, we recommend reaching out to Apple Support to look into this more. They can be reached here: Get Support
Take care!
Adding user to account recovery says they aren't using iMessage
