Messages frozen and crashes on iOS 17.5.1

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.

Turning off stolen device protection does not have any effect. It is only temporarily and does not fix the issue.

Freezes are back after some time and iMessage crashes.

We will need to see a fix from Apple in order to get rid of it.

Update and potential fix: (whether it lasts or not is another thing)

I noticed a post where someone deactivated the "Focus" button at the top of Messages settings, however, that has never been activated for me.

I have various focus types set up throughout the day, so my thoughts were that it SHOULD be activated. I have now turned that button to ON, and so far, so good - I can use my messages as normal on my phone. If this does continue working, then the issue could be as simple as a disconnection between Messages and Focus.

I can't get into my iPad the same way yet but I'm wondering if that might be because it was currently in a focus mode when I tried. When I try again later, I will turn off all focus modes then try and access the settings and see if that works.

Hopefully this works for someone else! :)

Do you have any Focus modes active? If so, turn those off first temporarily then try. Once I turned on the Focus button in Message settings, it started working. Not sure it will last but it's working for now.

OK, here's another diagnostic data point:

I have an old Apple Watch (V1) and I recently reset it "Erase all Data and Contents". Immediately after doing that Messages on my iPhone broke (again after working well for maybe 24 hours). Then I restored the watch and pair it with my phone again, and Messages starts working again. Then I deleted it and it broke (again).

very sus

I am also having issues with iMessage!! When I go to settings and scroll down to Messages my iPhone 15 pro stays frozen and will not do anything. iMessages will not respond at all. This is happening on my wife’s iPhone 12 too. Apple Needs to Send Out a Patch ASAP to fix the widely known issue with IOS 17.5.1.

APPLE FIX THE PROBLEM NOW!!🤬😡🤬

Called Apple Support. May have fixed things. Here’s how.

Settings > General > Transfer or Reset Phone (scroll to the bottom to find it) > Reset > Reset All Settings.

It won’t wipe your phone completely, but you’ll have to adjust your settings after it restarts including display settings, Face ID, credit cards in your wallet, etc). The CC restoration was faster than expected.

after this I’ve not been dealing with an unusable messages app or getting frozen messages settings.

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 went to the Apple store today to address this problem. First, they removed the version of 17.5.1 that I had downloaded/updated my phone with. Then they downloaded and updated my phone using one of their computers. The woman at the genius bar said that if you download an update and the wifi goes out during the update process, it can create issues.

After, they restored my phone to a previous iCloud back-up from before I had upgraded to 17.5.1. Messages are now working and the text font looks different, reflecting the new update. This was not the case before.

Fingers crossed this sticks. Otherwise, I'll have to start over with a blank phone and lose all of my contacts, calendar, photos etc.

tl;dr: My iCloud data storage was full. Deleted a 60GB iPad backup and some other things. Boom, Messages was normal again. I am a digital packrat and have "save all messages" turned on.

Long version:

I suffered from the above problem. Another iCloud family member had a similar issue likewise after 17.5.1 upgrade. Symptom: sporadic crashing of Messages app on invocation. My experience worsened over time, to the point that it wouldn't even open. Green SMS messages wouldn't get served in a timely manner or occasionally ever, to my other Apple devices.

So I called/texted (on another device) Apple Support. They all were nice and did a hardware diagnostic, etc. etc. eventually recommending to do Restore using a computer (Mac or Windows). In anticipation of doing that, I took a backup of the iPhone and noticed that iCloud was at the 2TB limit. I deleted said file above (and yesterday to try and take an on-Mac local iPhone backup I had flushed almost 200GB from the Mac, which is iCloud synced). Well with that last 60GB iPad backup deletion (which the confirmation flow suggests to be a permanent delete; I suspect the Mac files may hang around for some time for recovery) BOOM, Messages was working like a charm again. The grey storm clouds parted, beams of radiant sunlight shown upon the land, angels were singing on high, and I was again able to share my pearls of wisdom, sharp analytic wit, eye-rolling dad jokes, and marginally sufferable selfies to my friends and family. Said friends and family if they stumble across this discussion may be instead trying to fill up their iCloud account to pause their suffering. Either way you're welcome. YMMV.

As said numerous times, this is just a temporary fix and does NOT resolve the issue.

Same as for resetting the phone, wiping it or even release more storage. This has NO long-term effect.

Freezes will come back after a certain time.

Whoa! I think this fixed it for me. My time zone was set to the correct location, but I did it anyway and Messages is way more responsive now and doesn't seem to be freezing. I will see if it holds up. Thanks!

14 pro max. Same issue. Tried everything. Mine did it before 17.5.1. Updated to that and still same problem. Reset phone, yata yata yata. Same problem. Fixes itself after a little bit but then starts again. iPad Pro and watch work fine. I have Verizon. Not sure if it’s them or Apple or both. So annoying.

That's a really interesting observation -- I'm noticing this affects messaging on my Mac to some extent, too. And I've been using it for Messages when I usually don't because of the inability to use the phone, so maybe that's somehow contributing to a circle of messaging failure (eye roll).

Just want to add my voice to the mix started June 28th soon after updating. Messages app is frozen and then crashes. Can’t access the Messages tab in Settings because then the Settings app freezes and crashes. Can’t reset network settings or reset the entire phone because the reloading screen freezes force resets do nothing. Support on Chat had no idea what to do.