iOS 26.2 – SMS 2FA codes are massively delayed (sometimes hours later) on iPhone and Mac

You can call your service provider or log into your account with either their app or website and view your message logs that will show the time your carrier received them. That will tell you where the delay is. If they are not being posted to your account looking at your cell providers call log, there is no way your device would ever receive them. You can't view the contents of a message, but the time is recorded.

FutureX wrote:

• iOS 26.2 – SMS 2FA codes are massively delayed (sometimes hours later) on iPhone and Mac

Since updating to iOS 26.2, SMS-based two-factor authentication codes are no longer reliable. They sometimes arrive, but usually with extreme delays (often hours later), which makes them useless for real authentication.

This happens across:

iOS Messages app

• macOS Messages (Desktop Messenger)

• Multiple services (banks, logins, apps, etc.)

•

Normal texting works fine:

iMessage works

• Regular SMS from people arrives instantly

• Only automated/short-code verification messages are affected

•

What I’m seeing:

Request a 2FA code

• Nothing arrives

• Retry fails

• Hours later, multiple expired codes suddenly appear at once

•

That rules out:

App-specific bugs

• Service-specific issues

• Carrier blocking (messages eventually show up)

•

It feels like iOS 26.2 is failing to process or route short-code/automated SMS properly in real time, but the messages are being queued somewhere and delivered long after they’re valid.

Troubleshooting already done:

Rebooted devices

• Toggled iMessage off/on

• Airplane mode cycling

• Reset network settings

• Cellular only (no Wi-Fi)

• Tried multiple services

• Happens on both iPhone and linked Mac

•

Nothing changes the behavior.

This is especially serious because:

Many services only offer SMS as a verification method

• Delayed delivery makes authentication impossible

• It can completely lock users out of accounts

•

Has anyone else on iOS 26.2 experienced:

SMS 2FA codes arriving hours late?

• Multiple expired codes showing up all at once?

If so, this looks like a serious regression in iOS’s handling of automated SMS/short-code messages, not a carrier issue and not an app bug.

This has nothing to do with ios 26.2 or Apple. All SMS is handle through your phone carrier, the delay is coming either from them.

You pay your phone carrier not Apple a monthly fee to user their service, escalate the issue with them.

"Has anyone else on iOS 26.2 experienced:

• SMS 2FA codes arriving hours late?
• Multiple expired codes showing up all at once?"

Nope. Not at all.