iMessage thread stuck on satellite

A friend entered an area with no cell service so her iPhone 15 went into satellite mode. Her and I text(iMessage) a few times while she was using satellite. Ever since, the thread states that she is connected “only by satellite” which isn’t the case. She has been back on 5G and wifi etc. So now the only way I can send her a text is by turning off iMessage, typing and sending the message (SMS) and then I turn iMessage back on. She does not have issue messaging me. Anyone know what this is about or how I fix it? Thanks.



iPhone 13, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 28, 2024 8:22 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 3, 2024 4:35 PM

I HAVE A FIX:

After a very long chat with Apple Support, this is what ended up working:


Open Settings > Apps > Messages > Send & Receive

Remember your settings here.

Tap your Apple Account (it's a small blue link at the bottom).

Tap Sign Out.

Tap Use your Apple Account for iMessage.

Tap Sign In

Sign back in with your Apple Account.

Once you're back on the Send & Receive screen, double check that your settings here are correct.

Try having a friend text you, it should be working as normal.

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Oct 3, 2024 4:35 PM in response to bjs19781978

I HAVE A FIX:

After a very long chat with Apple Support, this is what ended up working:


Open Settings > Apps > Messages > Send & Receive

Remember your settings here.

Tap your Apple Account (it's a small blue link at the bottom).

Tap Sign Out.

Tap Use your Apple Account for iMessage.

Tap Sign In

Sign back in with your Apple Account.

Once you're back on the Send & Receive screen, double check that your settings here are correct.

Try having a friend text you, it should be working as normal.

Reply

Oct 3, 2024 7:49 AM in response to DopeDrew

Not deleting a thread that’s been years in the making, fix this Apple. I can send all the photos I want to my wife. But every time my wife goes to text me. It says I’m in satellite mode. I sent my wife a text when that Verizon debacle was happening. I was at Sam’s Club in the parking lot. I guess the beta testers didn’t catch this one.

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Oct 14, 2024 8:08 PM in response to bjs19781978

I found a fix from Apple Support.

The agent told both parties (both the sender and receiver) to complete the following steps.

1) Go to SETTINGS—> FOCUS —> Share Across Devices (Toggle Off)

2) Restart Device.


This worked and fixed the iMessage thread as being ‘stuck on satellite’.

The agent said that they had seen this problem 3 times before and each time this seemed to fix the issue.


The agent said that IF this did not work, to follow up by turning Airplane Mode ON, then OFF and completing another restart, however steps 1 and 2 fixed the issue and this was not necessary.


I hope this helps everyone like it helped us.



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Oct 3, 2024 7:00 PM in response to bjs19781978

So I had the same issue with my wife and our text thread. She could text me fine but when I texted her it would only say satellite and I couldn’t send any media. I tried idkmanwhatever’s strategy and it didn’t work at first. Then I tried logging out of iMessage again (using the Apple account link at the bottom of the send and receive part of message settings). Waiting a bit and actually sending a text message. It didn’t clear until I tried sending a message while logged out. Then I logged back in and it’s working fine. Hope this helps someone. I was also not about to delete a thread with my wife that spans 15 years…

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Oct 3, 2024 6:16 AM in response to DopeDrew

Solved it. This is what we did. First, apple had me reset ALL settings on my phone. That did nothing (other than required me to literally have to put all of my original settings back manually one by one which was super annoying). Then they had her turn location services off for a bit and then back on. Did nothing. Then they had her reset her network settings. Did nothing. So then I deleted our entire conversation, deleted it from recently deleted. I deleted her contact. Put her contact in brand new. Still the same. BUT..... then she did the same exact thing. As soon as she deleted the conversation and then from recently deleted, everything immediately went back to normal. So I think somehow the message thread was somehow holding the satellite information or something. And by deleting it completely it must have released it. Try that out!

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Oct 3, 2024 5:15 PM in response to idkmanwhatever

is this actually working for you after a few texts? i did this (as well as the avoe tips) and at first it looked all good, but after a few texts it went back to saying I’m on satellite (on my end I’m fine but anyone with an iPhone 14 and above can’t send me photos because it says I’m on satellite)

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Oct 5, 2024 8:36 AM in response to bjs19781978

Same thing here. Only one contact is affected, but of course it’s the person I talk to the most.


It claims he’s connected to satellite but he’s not and never has been. I’m unable to call/Facetime/send media and messages have a character limit but things are normal on his end. Also, he uses a 16 Pro and everything was fine until I updated to iOS 18. (iPhone 15 Pro Max).


I spent hours with Apple yesterday with no help. We have both reset phones, reset network/location settings, logged out/in as stated in this thread, updated software to 18.0.1. Unwilling to delete the thread.


Apple…help!


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Oct 3, 2024 6:04 PM in response to bjs19781978

Sorry if my fix doesn’t work for you. My gut feeling is that the issue isn’t with iOS but with the iMessage backend. I probably just got lucky in that signing out and back in reset the value on my account on Apple’s servers telling others that I was in satellite mode.


If you haven’t already, use the Support app to get Apple to notice this problem. Odds are you’ll have to escalate to at least tier 2. If enough people contact them about this they’ll be more likely to push a fix.

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Oct 23, 2024 7:02 AM in response to bjs19781978

Tried some of the ideas here and had no luck. After speaking with Apple Support, what worked for me was:

  1. Delete/Re-add contact
  2. Make sure email address associated with your Apple ID is checked under iMessage “You can receive iMessage s and reply from” (I only had my phone number checked). I left start “new conversations from” with just my phone number checked
  3. Turn iMessage off then back on


I did all three of these at once before trying to have contact message me again so not sure which item or combination solved it.

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Oct 27, 2024 6:09 PM in response to maestro_sk

I have a slightly different procedure that I did for mine. Here is what worked for me. My wife was out of town recently so her iphone 16 Pro went to satellite mode for some of the people she was messaging but not all. When she returned home her phone was still stuck in satellite mode for anything I tried to message her. Tried everything and finally found this combination worked - step by step. Make sure you have both phones in hand cause this procedure will go quicker.

1) On both phones navigate to Settings / Apps / Messages. Turn iMessage off for 1 minute. Then turn back on

2) On both phones navigate to Settings / Apps / Messages / Send & Receive. Look at the bottom of the screen - it will say Apple Account followed by an email address. Click on that and click Sign out.

3) On both phones on that same screen click on 'Use your Apple Account for iMessage'. Then click Sign In. Wait about 10 seconds and it will sign you in (or you will be prompted for your applie id and password). Go ahead and sign-in

4) With both phones in hand, delete the message thread on both phones. So on her phone I deleted the thread from her to me. Then on my phone I deleted the thread from me to her.

5) On both phones turn off WiFi (go to Settings / WiFi and turn OFF)

6) On both phones go to Settings / Focus / Share Across Devices (and turn OFF)

7) Hard reboot on both phones (press volume up, press volume down, then press and hold right side button for 10 seconds until phone reboots)

8) On both phones turn airplane mode to ON. Keep it on for 1 minute. Then turn it OFF on both phones

9) Hard reboot on BOTH phones again

10) On both phones turn WiFI back on and connect to the same WiFi network. You can change it to another WIFi network later - for now we are just refreshing settings and trying to break the satellite connection.

11) On both phones go to Settings / Focus / Share Across Devices (turn it to ON)

12) Now try sending a message - you should see the 'is only on satellite' message is gone now. If you can send the person a photo then that is additional proof they are off of satellite mode.


Hope this works and fixes it for people!

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iMessage thread stuck on satellite

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