A specific contact won't stay pinned in Messages on my iPhone

I resolved the issue by unassigning their contact information(s), adding it to a dummy contact, and reassigning it to their original contact. Despite reassigning to new dummy contacts, their messages glitched and appeared in their old contact. The preview text showed up but disappeared after exiting the dummy contact. The contact disappeared, and all content loaded into the old contact.

Adding their contact information back to their original contact card resolved the issue before upgrading to iOS 18.1.

ps: they had an iPhone, iCloud email, and Google voice number I unassigned and reassigned, thanks

I had this happen for several months with only one contact—my husband, which was extra frustrating because it’s the one person who I actually needed notifications from.

After trying allll the ideas here and chatting with Apple help desk to no avail, I finally (and accidentally) figured it out!!

Instead of holding the message thread to unmute it, I swiped the message left and pressed the unmute bell icon there. Then, instead of holding down the thread and pinning that way, I pressed “edit” in the top left of the messages app and selected “edit pins” and then repinned the thread using the yellow pin icon.

I have no idea why but for some reason this worked for me!!! After MONTHS of frustration, it has held for me. The problem hasn’t come back. Hopefully sharing doesn’t jinx me. Lol.

Ok. Weird. I went to contacts. Removed the work number. Saved it. Went back to iMessage and the contact magically repinned itself! Weird.

I deleted 3 of my contacts and now the one person who was unpinning stays pinned. 2 iPhone users and 1 android user.

Additionally, they have two contact numbers assigned, one is iPhone, one is their Google voice number. They are also muted (notifications disabled).

I removed their Google voice number, then unpinned them. I pinned the (now unassigned) Google voice number and it put up the old contact, as if it was still assigned to the unassigned Google voice. That’s not supposed to happen (cache issue?).

Somehow, also, I was temporarily able to make their contact stay and another contact was unpinned. But it didn’t stay that way and the original contact eventually unpinned itself again.

Also noticed while searching Google for this problem that this issue has lingered throughout iPhone’s older iOS systems so

Same problem, yet simple hard restart solved it - I re-pinned the contact, turned off, turned on….magic…fixed 👍

Additionally, they have two contact numbers assigned, one is iPhone, one is their Google voice number. They are also muted (notifications disabled).

I removed their Google voice number, then unpinned them. I pinned the (now unassigned) Google voice number and it put up the old contact, as if it was still assigned to the unassigned Google voice. That’s not supposed to happen (cache issue?).

Somehow, also, I was temporarily able to make their contact stay and another contact was unpinned. But it didn’t stay that way and the original contact eventually unpinned itself again.

Also noticed while searching Google for this problem that this issue has lingered throughout iPhone’s older iOS systems.

It keeps unpinning my brother and splitting his messages into one with his phone number and one with his email.

I’ve deleted his information and added it back without his email, and it still keeps splitting it off. It’s so bizarre.

I’m having the same issue. I have one contact with two phone numbers (personal and work) both Apple. My phone keeps unpinning. I’ve removed the work number and every-time I get a message it defaults to the work number. If I send a text to the contact it defaults to the work phone number. If I remove the work number it comes over with the personal AND work number (xxx-xxxx, “maybe John doe’)

it also won’t keep our chat history. It’s getting really annoying. Anyone have a fix?

I’ve even deleted the contact all together and it doesn’t help. Seems there is a caching issue

Seems as if this is a common problem, however no solution is given. When I select and hold the message no option to pin or unpin is available. How about giving a solution? I have iPhone 11, updated to version 18.1.1

Same issue here! And the contact is also an iPhone user. I hate this so much but I'm relieved there are others having the same problem.

I have another issue with that same contact and with iMessage! Not sure if they're related. This contact lives overseas and we text almost exclusively on iMessage. We briefly texted via SMS and now my phone ALWAYS defaults his chat to SMS and I have to manually open his contact, tap Message, and select his Apple ID email instead of his phone number. For a while, it split his messages into two different chats (one with his Apple ID email and one with his phone number) and it took forever and a half to merge the two chats again.

I can no longer forward anything to him from outside the Messages app (like sharing a link or a picture) because it'll be SMS so I have to go through the Messages app and manually attach whatever I'm trying to share.

It may sound silly but it's extremely frustrating especially because I text this person all the time, obviously, hence the pin!

I've tried all the "solutions" I found on this site and on Reddit. This is 100% not a user error or something in the settings.

I've been a loyal Apple user for 20 years and never had any issues like this.

Me too. My wife keeps dropping. I don't see any solutions here. Also, she has an iphone but many of my texts to her get sent as if she is using an Android (green field)..and I get 'Not delivered' messages

I am having the same issue, the contact is an android user on a Pixel 7 device. We can no longer text since I updated to iOS18…calls only 😭

I'm having the same issue with only one person who has an iPhone 14

I’m on 15PM - updated to iOS 18.0.1 and the contact that won’t stay attached is on a 13PM.

this recently happened too, in last two days