iMessage on iPhone 3Gs being used as an ipod

I had the same problem. I believe that I have a word around. It would've been a solution if the number would be removed from the settings but oh well; one must take the small victories sometimes.

What worked for me:

I disabled/enabled iMessage. It still shows the number under "Receive at" and the number has a status of "Verifying". It also shows the "Waiting for activation..." text. However, the device is not receiving messages anymore and that's what I was shooting for. Hopefully this works for you as well.

I encounter the same problem. I changed my number on my iPhone 4, however, i can only recieve iMessages with my iPhone 4 with my old number. my new number still doesn't work with iMessages... only with standard SMS. 😟

I hope someone has a solution for this.

I have the same problem. Activated a new iPhoto with Verizon and ported over my old number from AT&T, however had connection problems while the port took a day to go through, and in the meantime, VZW assigned me a temporary number. That number is still associated with iMessage.

I have:

1. switched iMessage on/off & reverified

2. restored from iTunes

3. wiped all settings and restored as new

4. wiped all network settings.

5. removed sim card, restarted phone, and reset network settings (interestingly, imessage still has the wrong number associated with it with sim card REMOVED leading me to believe this is truly an apple server problem...

apple support has thus far been unhelpful.

This really is an Apple server side issue. I switched to a droid phone and people cannot SMS me since it thinks I have iMessage still. I called Apple support to have them unregister the number and they told me I have to pay $29 to get ANY further help than just saying "Yeah, that's a problem." Nonetheless, I'm furious over this and it's really changing my opinion of Apple as a company. Never buying another Apple product. Shame, shame, shame.

This only began for me with iOS6. I (or thought I had) already removed the number from my old 3GS. Now my son gets my SMS messages, and I get nothing. It's not even connected to a mobile network, it's taking texts from any Apple product to my phone number and pushing them VIA wi-fi to his device, but not mine. Potential security issue here Apple?

I just want to remove my phone number from iMessage on the Apple system. If I had the phone handy, I suppose I could just smash it, but I'd still be missing my texts. I may have to change my phone number at my own expense. I note the lack of support.

I fixed this issue. I was using an iPhone 4, recently switched to a Windows phone. However, all incoming texts sent by my family/friends who use iPhones were still being sent as iMessages despite sending them as texts to my phone number. I noticed that my phone number was still a part of my iPhone although I changed it. I spent about 2 hours first with ATT support then with Apple support but no luck. I was told to basically restore my iphone to default settings(which means i have to lose all data). But I took my chances & tried the following which fixed the issue.

1. Go to Settings-->Messages-->Send & Receive-->sign out of your Apple ID

2. Back in Settings-->Messages, turned off the iMessage.

3. Go to Settings-->Facetime, signed out of your Apple ID.

4. Back in Settings-->Facetime, turned off the Facetime.

5. Now go to Settings-->General-->Reset-->Reset all settings-->confirm it.

Now it will reset all settings in your iPhone ( it WILL NOT delete any data). Now turn off the phone & power it back on. Now go back to settings & turn on iMessage, log in with your Apple ID & repeat the same with Facetime as well. You will now receive text messages to your new phone. People can iMessage when they send it to your email associated with your iPhone. Hope this helps. If anyone from Apple support is reading this post, please share it amongst your team.

anil024 wrote:

I fixed this issue. I was using an iPhone 4, recently switched to a Windows phone. However, all incoming texts sent by my family/friends who use iPhones were still being sent as iMessages despite sending them as texts to my phone number. I noticed that my phone number was still a part of my iPhone although I changed it. I spent about 2 hours first with ATT support then with Apple support but no luck. I was told to basically restore my iphone to default settings(which means i have to lose all data). But I took my chances & tried the following which fixed the issue.

1. Go to Settings-->Messages-->Send & Receive-->sign out of your Apple ID

2. Back in Settings-->Messages, turned off the iMessage.

3. Go to Settings-->Facetime, signed out of your Apple ID.

4. Back in Settings-->Facetime, turned off the Facetime.

5. Now go to Settings-->General-->Reset-->Reset all settings-->confirm it.

Now it will reset all settings in your iPhone ( it WILL NOT delete any data). Now turn off the phone & power it back on. Now go back to settings & turn on iMessage, log in with your Apple ID & repeat the same with Facetime as well. You will now receive text messages to your new phone. People can iMessage when they send it to your email associated with your iPhone. Hope this helps. If anyone from Apple support is reading this post, please share it amongst your team.

Just went through these steps and they worked PERFECTLY! Thank you!