imessage using son's phone number on wife's iPad

You must all be sharing an Apple ID if that is happening - or your wife and son share an ID.

Go to Settings>Messages>Send and Receive at>You ban be reached by iMessage at and see if you can uncheck your son's phone number. You will need to add another email address in that setting that your wife can use for Messages if she was using his phone number.

Are you trying to message another Apple device?

Using FaceTime http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4319

Troubleshooting FaceTime http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3367

The Complete Guide to FaceTime + iMessage: Setup, Use, and Troubleshooting

http://tinyurl.com/a7odey8

Troubleshooting FaceTime and iMessage activation

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4268

Using FaceTime and iMessage behind a firewall

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4245

iOS: About Messages

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3529

Set up iMessage

http://www.apple.com/ca/ios/messages/

Troubleshooting Messages

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2755

Setting Up Multiple iOS Devices for iMessage and Facetime

http://macmost.com/setting-up-multiple-ios-devices-for-messages-and-facetime.htm l

FaceTime and iMessage not accepting Apple ID password

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/facetime-and-imessage-not-acc epting-apple-id-password/

Unable to use FaceTime and iMessage with my apple ID

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4649373?tstart=90

 Cheers, Tom 😉

You're making a huge mess by using one Apple ID for everyone in the family. Each person should have their own Apple ID to prevent these problems.

You can continue to share that one ID for iTunes purchases if you want, but set up a separate ID for each person to use for iCloud syncing, message, etc. Works fine across 3 iPhones and 2 iPads for us.

Two points first ...... You have 4 iPhones so I assume that you know that the phone number must be an iPhone number, FaceTime and Messages don't work with any other cell phone or smartphone. And FaceTime and Messages only work with other iOS users or Macs running mountain Lion.

Having said that - No - you do not have to have a phone number for these apps to work 100% of the time. Linking the phone number just came about in iOS 6 and the reason Apple did that is so that you can now sync the messages across all devices (including your Mac) and see your phone number as the contact at address for the apps.

I don't have an iPhone and neither does my wife and we Message or FaceTime and it has worked every time we have done. These apps work over WiFi and its not like sending an SMS text message with a cell phone.

My family shares an Apple ID and we have 4 devices set up to use FaceTime and Messages using different email addresses on all 4 devices. In my opinion, it is very easy to do and I don't see anything messy about it all. After all, most people have their own email addresses anyway. I figure just use my wife and daughter's email addresses as the contact at email address for FaceTime and Messages.

Frankly I don't see why everybody thinks that you have to have a separate Apple ID for this to work or it will get messy. It is no different than if I wanted to send my wife or daughter an email, they have to have separate email addresses for that. If you create an Apple ID for each of them, you are probably only using the existing email addresses that they already have, so what's the big deal about having to assign another email address for these two apps? I don't get it - but that's just me.

You can read this and see if it provides any help for linking your wife's phone number to messages on her iPad

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5538

You can watch this about assigning different email addresses to FaceTime and Messages.

http://macmost.com/setting-up-multiple-ios-devices-for-messages-and-facetime.htm l

Is your issue to do with which account your wife's iPad is sending from, rather than receiving on?

You can change this on the Messages page of the Settings app.

rpotter1967 wrote:

My wife's ipad automatically chose my son's iphone number (instead of hers) and she was recieving his imessage texts.

Her ipad also had her email checked for imessage - I have since only activated her email - and the ipad has not automatically selected my sons iphone number (again) - as of this morning.

The issue is - the ipad automatically selects the wrong iphone number - and I have no idea where it is getting that instruction - the ipad is new, up to date, and icloud is INACTIVATED.

You synced this iPad with a computer that had your wife's info. That's the only way this could have happened.

You might consider simply wiping the iPad and starting fresh. It may be the fastest/easiest way to resolve the problem.