Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Hi. I recently gave up my iPhone to switch to a non-Apple device. While I had the iPhone, my phone number was used for iMessage.
Now when my friends using iPhone try to send me a message, it automatically select iMessage as Apple recognises my mobile number as an iMessage number even though I don't have an iPhone anymore. Is there any way to remove my phone number from Apple's iMessage database?
iPhone 4, iOS 5.0.1, iMessage
If you still have an apple device. Even though the device is deactivated from your cell phone carrier.
1)On wifi Login to the device with your apple id and turn on imessages, if off. (This may say waiting for activation)
2) Turn mms and sms on
3) While being comfortable that you had gotten all of your contacts off of the device, delete all of the contacts off of the device.
4) For extra measure Turn off Imessage, then turn it back on. You will see a message like "waiting for activation" when you see this you know the system knows your new setup because it is synching.
No one can send you and imessage if they are not in you contacts.
I have done this several times and the previous iphone friends have been able to text to your number on the non iphone device seconds after doing this even if your number is in their contacts on their iphone.
5) For Those who still have other apple devices and wants to keep the contacts. Then you may consider sending your imessages to you email by adding your email address in the send receive field under settings>message>><send receive > and check the email address.
Tried pretty much everything in this post and some iPhones would send as SMS and others would send as an iMessage. Most annoying was my wife's iPhone would send as iMessage. On her iPhone we performed kurthurst's solution and it worked. Tried again on my mother_in_laws iPhone which also sent as iMessage and it worked too.
Yea its a pain in the *** to tell everyone to do this but it seemed to work for me.
Thank you to all contributors in this thread!!
kurthurst
Re: How to remove my phone number from iMessage?
Apr 25, 2013 10:18 AM (in response to LeeBrenda)
I just got this issue resolved. You will need to have the original iPhone to do it this way, but it will allow you to receive sms from other iPhone users.
1. Go to Settings -> Messages and turn on iMessage if its off.
2. Go to Send/Receive options
3. Tap on your icloud/itunes account email at the top of the page.
4. Tap on "Sign Out"
5. Go back to Message settings and turn off iMessage.
6. Restart your phone.
7. Have someone with an iphone send you a message. It should be working now
i havent been able to remove old number on iphone 4, 7.1.1, completely from imessage send /receive in setting probably because service is disconnected. i was getting other people' texts and face time. old grayed phone number was checked. selected email in "can be reached at..." and deleted all text msgs and facetime attempts from people. cycled imessage on /off few times . after grayed phone number was no longer checked. btw went to support profile on apple' site and removed everything but email acct. so far no texts or face time from unknown users
I contacted their support using the online chat tool and they removed my number from the iMessage database although it did take around 24 hours for it to work. I would try contacting them using the online chat and that should hopefully solve it.
Apple offers a ridiculous "solution" for a problem they created.
I recently switched from iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy S5. It became clear shortly after activation that I was not receiving texts from other iPhone users.
After a quick search it became clear that the issue was with iMessage. That is, otheriPhone users were sending me texts via iMessage. While this problem appears to be widespread and my search revealed a class action lawsuit against Apple for this issue, there were no viable solutions.
In a nutshell, Apple support told me the ONLY fixes to this issues were to 1. Have all of my contacts delete our text thread and 2. Wait 45 days for iMessage to expire. This is outrageous and not a solution at all.
If you want to see screencaps of my exchange check out my blog post about it:
This site should help or start a chat with apple support
This worked!!! Tried all others for hours, save time and do this one.
Thanks for posting !
I have 2 iphones right now, I was hoping to use one fro apps and one for messaging and calling. I signed into my apple id on the phone i wasnt to use for apps and it started receiving the messages from my other phone that were bing sent and received. How do I make it to where my number in not longer on the phone I am using for apps, but only on my real phone?
This did not work.. this erases the settings for your network.. i.e. wifi passes, cellular network settings etc.
How to remove my phone number from iMessage?
