Texting problems with iPhone 5

I believe turning on Settings > Phone > Dial Assist does exactly what Mr. Ponderous suggests automatically.

I had the Dial Assistant on. Unless you need to turn it off an reset the phone.

MichelleB101 - Were you ever able to figure this out? I just activated my iphone5 and am having the same problem with texting Droid and all other non-iPhone users. No problem texting other iphones, but I get the red "⚠Did note send" error message. I've tried the +1 format in the sending contact and recepient contact, turning off and on imessages and sms messages, and everything else on this thread.

Anyone know how to fix this?

hard to know who is getting your texts until it's been happenign for awhile... I must have 100 text treads on my phone. very vexing problem... bummed to hear so many folks having it and not resolved yet. Have to say... generally a big booster for apple, but the 5 is a step back on a lot of qualitative levels... kind of missing my 4.

Thinking about from the MMS message perspective...AT&T and Verizon use different messaging providers...additionally...and they both operate with "good enough" attitude. Anyhow, its a transalation problem. It shouldnt be, but it is. I suspect its at the root intra-messaging gateway in how it routes imessage traffic versus traditional MMS(mobile ANI to mobile ANI)...the dileneation is transpiring at the wrong place; it should happen prior to being routed to the external GW hub.

The reason you see "Message Delivered" is because the messaging GW carrier outside of AT&T is reflecting they have successully delivered 100% of the traffic, when that is incorrect. They dont submit a delivery receipt to their GW partners. So, telling the straight dope on this is unsettling, but until customers demand that their messages get delivered successfully, it will continue to be an "unknown problem". Unfortnately this is the new reality in the age of Unlimted Everything plan offerings.

As for SMS, it obviously does not have the delivery options/real time of MMS(think email in text format versus HTML format) for reality of how successful they are transmitted. There is a substantially reduced error rate, noentheless, if the messaging provider states they sent 100% of the messages successfully, there is no validation of the success rate.

As of today, March 13, 2013 that is the truth.

The tips provided above (turning off Dial Assist & re-authenicating with Apple iMessage portal) seemed to improve the issue.

For me the suggestion with deleting first message thread and try again worked with my son and his new phone. We are even on same phone contract and at first he would not receive my texts, but I received his. After deleting original text thread it worked.

This is an on going problem, 2 years now. Mine is getting worse, the list of people I can't text keeps growing. Apples suggestion.....have your contacts use another messaging system that will work. Excuse me? The one that came with my phone should work for everybody. Stupid.

<Edited by Host>

I found this thread because of the exact problems that everyone is having.

I called apple support in Canada and got the following answer to resolve the problem:

"IF you have a person you are communicating with that has their phone number in the Apple Database associating that number to an apple device, current or not, then YOUR apple device will continually use iMessage to attempt to communicate with it".

I turned off my iMessage and was instantly able to text my buddy back without a problem...turn it back on and problem was back.

He in fact DID have that number registered to an iPhone previously and now has moved that number to an Android device...I told him the fix was for him to call apple support and have it removed from the database...he wasn't happy but complied and the problem is gone.

Very nasty way of monopolizing the industry!

I updated from an iPhone 3gs to a Samsung on the ATT network. Nothing but problems trying to receive texts on the android Samsung from two different iPhones in the family. In this case they receive mine, however. Apparently fixed the two iPhone problems by having them make sure MMS/SMS messaging was turned on in settings in their iPhones. I've not solved ALL of the iPhone texting problems yet, however. Still can't receive texts from other family members who have iPhones. But they are looking for someone to help them at their end. We are working on that. In talking to three different ATT retail store employees, they are aware that this problem happens all the time. One claimed that it will take 4-6 weeks for the problem to correct itself!! I don't believe him but even if so in the meantime I have to wonder how many iPhone messages I will miss in the future since apparently many if not most of the iPhones are incapable of making the transition we're talking about without each iPhone user making adjustments in their settings. Or deregister the iPhone. Or any one of another number of tortured round-a-bout solutions. Good luck to you Michelle and everyone else. Personally I'm glad to get out of iMessaging and its associated hoops....Kent

If what you say is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, ATT should be discouraging people, for now, from doing what I did--changing my iPhone to an android phone on the same number which led to being unnable to receive texts from some (all???) iPhones. Right now I have no idea if I can receive texts from all iPhones out there! Kent

If the iPhone/android texting problem in its apparently various forms continues I would assume that all technical support help will be disingenuous on the part of carriers and Apple. As in, the messaging systems are incompatible at some level and it may be a long wait to get it fixed? After all, the Apple system, if it can be called that, is a closed system in the name of security and other considerations. Kent

Thank you! I am not sure about the deleting the phone # from the database thing since the person I am trying to communicate with has never had an iphone BUT turning off iMessage worked so I am up and rolling again. Yeah!