Messages frozen and crashes on iOS 17.5.1

This just started happening to me today. I’m testing just turning off iMessage and just use text messages until this gets worked out. So far nothing in this thread has worked for me.

Having same issue, Apple support have no idea on how to fix this (both over phone and at Apple Store).

Wondering if it's related to using esim instead of physical sim.

Can't open up Settings/Messages as that also crashes.

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.

On my iPad, I see badges on my messages app, open the app, and it shows me the state of messages before any new on comes in but it is frozen. Cannot touch anything to move anywhere. On iPhone, it just shows a white screen that crashes after five seconds or so and takes me back to Home Screen. On both devices, cannot go into the Messages settings in the main Settings app, as it freezes. No one else in my family experiencing this.

Having a similar problem. Suddenly I’ll stop getting notifications from Messages and when the phone is locked instead of showing who the message is from in the header it just shows the word Messages in the header. If I reboot the phone I’ll be good for couple or few days then it’ll start again until I reboot.

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.

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.

I wish I could say that this worked for me, but no luck. I couldn't even open Messages settings for a while. Finally got it to open, and turned off Focus. Messages worked for < 24 hours before the crash issue reappeared.

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.

My iPhone 15 Pro iMessage has started working fine since I ran the Apple diagnostic tool on it and recording all the issues. The iPhone must have realized that it was in trouble but decided that it must start behaving better. 😄

I've tried everything, including dropping my phone off at an Apple authorized repair store, and still have no ability to send or receive messages after the 17.5.1 update. FaceTime is also an issue. Some people can't even make calls.

I'm very upset that Apple hasn't even owned this as an issue. Since being able to use a phone is a SAFETY issue, I'll purchase an Android phone within the week if they don't address this. My household has 3 MacBooks, 3 iPhones, and 3 iPads, and we've been using Apple products for over 20 years. It's absurd to treat customers this way.

I have over 1TB of iCloud storage free and about 800GB free on my phone. This isn’t a storage quota problem, though it may be hitting some internal limit somewhere. The only thing that’s helped so far (temporarily) is a full restore of the phone, and I’ve now had to do that three times in the past three weeks.