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Can't deactivate iMessage after switching phones?

I bought an Android phone tonight, replacing my iPhone. I also ported my number to the new phone. However, now, anytime someone with an iPhone tries to SMS me, their phone automatically sends it as an iMessage, which I can't receive, since I no longer use my iPhone. How do I deactivate my phone number with iMessage so that I can start receiving text messages from my iOS-using friends again?

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 9:03 PM

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136 replies

Jun 13, 2013 4:15 PM in response to albermad

After I tried almost all of the tips listed above mine still didn't work. I finally did what I found on the Verizon site which was...


Turn off the old phone (i still have mine)

Take out the sim card from the new phone for a minute and then put it back in.


Mine worked after I did that.


Keep in mind I had already removed the device from the support page, turned off imessage on the device, created a new account to associate with my wife's iphone, reset the network settings and virtually anything else I could find online to try to fix this issue.


So far I have just tested it (Lumia 920) with my wife's iphone and it is finally receiving texts.

Jun 18, 2013 8:33 AM in response to Literroy

This was SUCH a headache to resolve. I feel like it's my duty to post what finally worked for me. My issue was I left my 4s phone on the roof of my car and it got run over (classic blunder). I was still able to plug it in to charge, but the screen was completely crushed and unworkable. My upgrade with Verizon is just a few weeks away so I opted to use my husband's old LG phone in the meantime. After taking it in to the Verizon store and having them activate it, I still couldn't receive texts from anyone who used to imessage me.


First, I deactivated the device from my account on itunes and deleted my phone number from the account as well, as others mentioned. Still couldn't receive texts from imessage users (I could hear the text being sent to my old, crushed iphone). I then tried signing in on my husband's phone under imessage settings, deleting my email and phone number from the "receive at" option, and turning off imessages. Still no dice. What I finally had to do was plug my crushed phone in to my pc, connect it to itunes, and choose "Restore iphone". Before I restored it, my phone number was still showing up under the summary tab. After the restore, the phone number space showed "n/a". Apparently this was the last link, because I'm now receiving texts from all again.


Hope this helps anyone else who's frustrated!

Jun 27, 2013 8:30 AM in response to Literroy

This is a really frustrating problem, and only goes to affirm my choice to leave Apple. Thanks for all the suggestions here. For me a combination of deleting my device from the support site https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do, removing my phone number from the support site, then while on wifi on the old phone deleting my iCloud account and turning off iMessage in the messaging settings, seems to have worked. I don't think simply removing the phone from support was enough since iMessage was still turned on in the phone.

Jul 16, 2013 7:02 AM in response to mitler80

Hi all,

Just had the same problem but couldn't find my phone in Apple account so the issue was not to remove the device from the Cloud.


I managed to fixed this after reading this tread and the thing that worked for me was:


1. Turn of iMessager on all my Apple devices, they where iPad, MacBook Pro and iPhone 5. Had taken the SIM card out of my iPhone at this stage and had Wifi only when I turn iMessage off.

2. Waited for about 10minutes.

3. Restart my iPhone.

4. Send myself a Text message from the phone I was not getting the SMS from and it worked.


Hope this help someone. Yes, I agree that Apple really need to start listen to their customers....

Jul 17, 2013 3:15 PM in response to Literroy

I'm having all of the problems mentioned in this thread. The only solution that works for me is to turn off iMessgae and FaceTime on my old iPhone. This isn't an ideal solution because I still want to use iMessage and Facetime via my e-mail address. I'll monitor this support thread and hopefully someone finds a better solution to this problem.

Aug 16, 2013 6:30 PM in response to Literroy

I unregistered my old iphone first. Since my phone had a white screen of death, I could not turn off imessage from my phone. I had already activated my new Galaxy S4 so the SIM was deactivated. I went ahead and took it out and put it in my wife's and turned imessage off anyway. Still no luck. I then logged into icloud as I had read in a previous post, went to find my iphone, clicked it, clicked "erase iphone" which prompted me for my appleid. I entered it, hit erase. 30 seconds later I sent myself a text from my wife's iphone with imessage on, and still nothing.

Can't deactivate iMessage after switching phones?

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