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Getting another user's iMessages

Here is my story: I had an iPhone 4 with iOS 5, which I used with iMessage. I sold my iPhone 4 to upgrade to a 4S, and before I sold it, I erased "all contents and settings" as described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2110 I did not sync, restore from backup, or otherwise use the iPhone 4 after I erased it. At this point it should have in no way been associated with my iMessage account, and after wiping the phone until when I received my 4S, I had been using my SIM in an Android phone.

My wife started complaining that I was not responding to her texts. They showed as being sent via iMessage and all showed as 'received'. I blamed it on the Android phone, naturally, but the problem continued after I got the 4S, until I activated iMessage on that device. After that I did finally start receiving her texts, but also texts sent to and from the person who bought my phone. iMessage is also kind enough to sync messages he sent in response, so it looks as though I had sent them.

So, now I am quite sure this guy is receiving my iMessage texts, and seeing the ones I have sent via iMessage -- if I turn iMessage off on my new 4S, messages sent from my wife to me still go through iMessage, and are still marked as 'received'! If I keep iMessage off, I don't get my messages. If I leave it on, this guy can read all of my texts sent via iMessage.

Here is what I suspect is the problem: after I erased the phone, it still had my SIM in it and 'activated' with that (so that I could prove that the phone was still in working order), and the purchaser may not have put a new SIM into the phone. Even though I wiped the phone clean and did not set up iMessage, the phone still thinks it has my number, which iMessage must be identifying as me?

I called Apple support twice. The first guy informed me that I would have to get ahold of the person I sold my phone to, then walk him through restoring iOS. Great, so not only do I have to walk some stranger through restoring iOS, but then I have to explain to him that he can no longer use the phone until he gets a SIM, because of this restore that I made him do? So I called again -- the second person was a senior support rep, but had never heard of this issue, so hence this thread.

Is anyone else having this issue -- getting someone else's texts after selling their iPhone?

Posted on Nov 21, 2011 9:55 PM

54 replies

Jul 10, 2013 9:10 PM in response to seqbxrs

Same problem here too.... My husband was getting a copy of ALL my Daughters text messages (incoming and outgoing) on his iPhone plus he would get her calls coming in on his iphone too. It was freaky! It turns out iMessage on my Daughters iphone had his phone number in the iMessage preferences to forward. I couldn't figure out how to delete his number off iMessage preferences so we just turned off all iMessages on all iphones and that worked. We don't use iMessage so I don't even know why it was on all our iphones. I guess we set-up iMessage by accident on all our family iphones not knowing what it really does. In the beginning we thought iMessage was part of turning on texting, It's not…It's just a forward (calls/text) feature to other devices. What a tricky feature to get a copy of another family members messages without them knowing. This would be a privacy issue if the other person is not aware of it being on, there are no signals or messages telling them their message was forward to another device. This had nothing to do with iCloud because we had that turned off on all devices except for Find My iphone.….Anyway, just turn iMessage off on all the family iphones & Mac devices and it will stop forwarding/coping messages and or calls.

Sep 20, 2013 2:19 PM in response to seqbxrs

This has worked for me. My Husband and Son are no longer getting my messages. Problem solved. Thanks seqbxrs. 🙂

Sep 23, 2013 10:43 AM in response to seqbxrs

A simple fix is to go to your support profile on Apple's website, and delete (unregister) the phone that you are no longer using from the account. If this does not do it, then create a new separate iCloud account, and that should do the trick.

Indydb

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2013 5:13 PM in response to kittyflipping

This link - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/contacts-and-imessages-appear ing-on-multiple-iphones/ - was very clear and very helpful in solving the same problem. Be sure to make the adjustments in both places (both iCloud & iMessage settings).

Enjoy!

ljsim94

Level 1

0 points

Dec 11, 2013 10:04 AM in response to kittyflipping

Apple definitely have to sort this!! I'm 18 andthe only IT capable person in my house so whenever and of my family get a new phone they hook it up to my itunes account. Today my brother got an ipad and now he's recieving all of my messages as did my mum when she got a new Iphone!! the best thing to do is go on Imessage and untick the adresses and numbers you don't want to recieve from on each device. However this doesn't stop people from re-tickng them afterwards. Privacy=Gone

Jun 18, 2015 1:50 PM in response to kittyflipping

iMessage is a free messaging service that can be used with your Apple ID and/or your phone number, if you have an active cellular plan when iMessage is activated. This means: 1. If multiple devices are signed in with the same Apple ID for iMessage, specifically, each device will be able to receive using the SAME information. So if mom, dad, and kid all use family@123.com for iMessage, when someone sends a message to your phone number it will send tot the other two family members as well, unless that number is unchecked. If you and your family members share an Apple ID for iTunes Store downloads, simply create and use a free Apple ID for iMessage ony (as well as FaceTime and iCloud, so as not to get your data mixed up with someone else's data. 2. If you turn off iMessage and try to re-activate without a cellular plan, you will only be able to use your Apple ID for iMessage.

Check out Send messages with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support for more information.

SinrG202

Level 1

0 points

Sep 29, 2015 2:20 PM in response to kittyflipping

I know it's late to reply. But Apple have a link for this now.
https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage

Dec 3, 2015 8:49 PM in response to iryna187

I Have solved the problem , first go and switch the iMessage of in setting>iMessage then turn it off then wait for activation, if that doesn't work go to the other persons phone and do that it should work .

Moby935

Level 1

4 points

Jun 21, 2017 6:31 PM in response to kittyflipping

In my opinion - same old apple crap where they spy on everything and it is a bug that exposes what apple are really up to.

Getting another user's iMessages