Messages frozen and crashes on iOS 17.5.1

I believe all “fixes” are red herrings. It seems to be indeterminate.

I have two iPhones, one has Messages crashing constantly and I have not been able to work around it anytime (12 mini). The other one worked (14 Max Pro) fine at first - but then froze too. But that one I got to work again - only to have it lock up a little later. After that it stopped / started working again with random causes.

Apple needs to get involved here. Severely crippled without messages..

I have a potential fix. Check your time and date settings.

General>Date & Time> Set Time Zone Automatically

I’m in the US and mine somehow was changed to Beijing, with the update.

Here are the steps I preformed:

1. Disabled set automatically.
2. Changed it to the proper Timezone.
3. Re-enabled set automatically.

After about two minutes, I received every text I have missed over the last four days.

I was also unable to use FaceTime until now as well.

I hope this helps someone.

IOS 18.0 is expected to come out on July 8th!! Hopefully they have a fix for everyone who has issues with 17.5.1 IOS. Wanted to let everyone know!!

2 out of 5 of our phones are having this issue as well. iPhone 15 and 15 ProMax with AT&T service.

I tried all the steps that were suggested in previous posts and none work for more than a minute. iMessage comes through Wi-Fi extremely delayed.

I've been dealing with this for weeks. Reset network settings, reset all settings, restored phone from backup, set up phone as new, it keeps coming back. Messages extremely slow to send / sync, and often fail on linked mac and ipad. iPhone now in a complete crash loop where it doesn't work at all.

Wow, 16 hours issue free. Come back when it is a week or two.

Unfortunately, done that, did not work. It is just a temporary fix, not permanent.

Without a software fix by Apple we will see no improvement on this end.

Mentioning again, as this seems to be an easy way to fix it, if it works for you:

• Have an sms be sent to your phone.
• On the lock screen, having received the message; tap and long press; a window opens to reply.
• Reply to the message from the lockscreen.
• Having sent the reply, my phone was fixed.

I, too, had multiple apps freezing and crashing; not only Messages, but also Settings, Maps etc. I could not go to Messages settings, as Settings were frozen. However, the above solved it. Having replied to an sms (normal sms btw, not iMessage) from the Lock Screen, I did not have to touch focus options or anything. Three days now and counting; the issue has not reappeared.

Tried this. So far so good. I saw that focus button and thought that couldn’t be the culprit. I then saw your post and tried it. Thank you for the tip!!

(turn off the focus in message settings)

Same exact issue since latest update on my 12 pro max and wife on her 11. Kid also on their 11 having same issue. Can’t even go into settings app messages section. Locks there too. Messages fail to send. Can no longer get into iMessage at all … just hangs @ white screen

so frustrating. First time having issues with messages since my iPhone 3G lol

hope they can fix or get some work around

imessage is completely unusable. Had to setup my wife and kids on WhatsApp just to message argh

wife auto-updated first to 17.5.1 and had issues immediately. My phone was good until it too did the auto update overnight and then bam issues immediately morning of update. So definitely an iOS update issue.

iMessage still works on my MacBook and on kids MacBook no issues

lesson learned. Turn off auto updates

I have same issue two iphones 14 pro max and 11 pro . I can read and respond from my apple watch but in the iPhone complete freez and when i try to scroll it turn to black screen. Also there is a big delay when i receive any call my watch rings as incoming call after 5-10 minutes by it self.

I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue. This is AWFUL! I also went to Apple Store and they have no idea how to fix. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max and have never had any issues until now. I’ve tried factory resets, and hard resets. Only temporarily fixes it!

so frustrated. was having this jussie no my iPhone 12 Pro Max, along with some other issues. was due for an update and thought hey, maybe getting a newer phone will solve this. i am now having the same issue with my brand new iPhone 15 Pro on 17.5.1, can’t even open message settings.

My messaging problem was resolved for about a month (after restoring from a prior 17.5.1 back up) until I reinstalled Microsoft Intune to be compliant with my corporate policy. Messages locked up and froze again. I promptly uninstalled intune and disabled my VPN, rebooted and problem resolved again.

there’s definitely something with the VPN or Intune network stuff.

I did read that apple’s doing an emergency release of 17.5.2 (before 18 in September) as early as this week for bugs and security patches, hoping this fixes messages 🤞🏻

Anyone know when Apple are actually going to resolve this? I just keep being told ‘we are aware and investigating’ and they refuse to acknowledge how this is a huge problem or when it will be resolved.

Keep getting me to try the various other temporary fixes mentioned here which unfortunately do not work for me.

Having the same issue (on my iPhone 14 pro). iMessage, Facetime, and the phone app all open to a blank screen and then crash. I can't even use other apps sometimes. I have had to force restart my iPhone about 15 times since yesterday because if I don't, my phone freezes, and gets stuck, and does not work. After force restarting it, it maybe works for an hour or two then stops again. My settings app works only until I click on something, and then it stops working. Apple told me to put my phone into recovery mode and select update on a computer, but I am not risking losing anything. I couldn't even call 911 if I had to. This has got to be fixed.