You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

iPhone to Android iMessage bug fix

I was having the problem when i switched from my iPhone to my Galaxy s4 where people using iPhones would try to text me and it wouldn't get to me because it would be sent in iMessage. Well i asked one of my friends who knows a lot about Apple products and he seems to have found a fix. What worked for me is to open iTunes, then go to account. Once there find the the section "iTunes in the cloud" and the option in there "Manage my devices". You have to go in there and remove your iPhone from the iCloud and that should work, or at least it did for me.

Posted on Jun 3, 2013 9:01 PM

Reply
597 replies

Mar 3, 2014 12:18 PM in response to fromsouth

Reading this discussion over the past day has become more annoying than the actual problem itself!!! I am confused why this person defending apple sooo vehemently is even part of this discussion since he/she and the lucky friends don't even have the problem??! For the rest of us that have had this problem....it's really annoying! I own both an apple and Samsung phone and love them both but the problem does exist and does cause problems! And yes I can turn off iMessage before switching to my Samsung phone and that has seemed to help! But what about the people who deactivate their phones and switch before even knowing the problem exists??! Once that happens, your SOL! Have some sympathy for the people experiencing this unnecessary problem and quit defending Apple like they can do no wrong! No one is perfect!

Mar 3, 2014 1:03 PM in response to deggie

Been following this for a while, tried every suggested fix which all boiled down to calling a Apple support number provided by Verizon.


The technician acknowledged the problem and that it has existed for over a year. He also said he would be subjected to disciplinary action if he submitted another trouble ticket for this problem. Problem exists today, 3 weeks after the switch.


Any solution that puts the owness on the user or their contacts is specious at best. When you bow out , you should be out with nothing interfereing with your normal operation. The length of time this problem has existed certainly gives creedence to those that suggest it is punishment.


This issue is squarely in Apple's court and they have seen fit not to address the problem for those that have left the Apple sphere.

Mar 3, 2014 1:01 PM in response to deggie

deggie wrote:


And after you called AppleCare did they they disconnect iMessage for you?


I don't care either way about Apple, it isn't a religion or my family. The fact that the Verizon rep, who sells iPhones, knows about this doesn't prove anything.

imessage was already disconnected and my cell phone number was already removed from their portal but some iphone users still couldn't send me a text message, namely my brother. He even tried removing me as a contact and then just sending a text to my phone number but it didn't go through without first getting an error asking if he wanted to send it in a different mannor.

Mar 3, 2014 1:05 PM in response to deggie

deggie wrote:


Past that the issue in question probably has nothing to do with the persons iMessage account and is something else entirely that should be pursued through other methods.

Yeah like why Apple software can't figure out the person they're sending a text to doesn't use an iphone any longer.

I am amazed at how long this problem has been going on and don't understand why Apple won't fix it.

Mar 3, 2014 1:11 PM in response to deggie

deggie wrote:


Then it sounds like the problem is with your brother's phone.

I might think you were right if my brother couldn't send text messages to anyone with an Android phone but that's not the case.

I don't know the ins and outs about how these phones work but if there was a problem with my brother's phone where he couldn't send text messages or imessages without some error, wouldn't you think that would be the case with what ever number he was texting to and not just one number that switched from an Apple iphone to an Android phone?

Mar 3, 2014 1:14 PM in response to sheryltoo

Has he contacted AppleCare and opened a ticket on this?


Has he contacted his cell provider to have them look at it?


If he deletes your contact(s), does not enter a new one for you, and attempts to send directly to your phone number does he get a green send button or a blue one? If it is green what happens after he hits send? Does it stay green?

Mar 3, 2014 1:49 PM in response to DuxburyDad

DuxburyDad wrote:


Been following this for a while, tried every suggested fix which all boiled down to calling a Apple support number provided by Verizon.


The technician acknowledged the problem and that it has existed for over a year. He also said he would be subjected to disciplinary action if he submitted another trouble ticket for this problem. Problem exists today, 3 weeks after the switch.


Any solution that puts the owness on the user or their contacts is specious at best. When you bow out , you should be out with nothing interfereing with your normal operation. The length of time this problem has existed certainly gives creedence to those that suggest it is punishment.


This issue is squarely in Apple's court and they have seen fit not to address the problem for those that have left the Apple sphere.

Here is what we deal with. Once phone number was taken out of imessage database, sender has two options.

One is to enable automatic sending by going to Setting - messages and turn SMS on and Two is every time see that message is not delivered and opt to either send as SMS or not to. If sender chooses not to send - OWell- result is recipient will not receive. The only way things happen to make it like recipient had never had an iphone is to clear the cache of all senders phones if they do not want to enable automatic switch.

Now we are talking about wiping part of the memory of 50 to 100 current Apple customers for one of the former. And to do what? to make it easy for him/her to leave Apple? Let me be a bearer of Bad news. If Apple would do that I would call them crazy. Otherwise good luck to everyone and consider it a karma for leaving Apple. Nobody promised it would be easy and if anyone can show me or direct me to link where Apple did promise that - I d be happy to see.

Mar 3, 2014 1:55 PM in response to deggie

deggie wrote:


Has he contacted AppleCare and opened a ticket on this?


Has he contacted his cell provider to have them look at it?


If he deletes your contact(s), does not enter a new one for you, and attempts to send directly to your phone number does he get a green send button or a blue one? If it is green what happens after he hits send? Does it stay green?

I don't know what he gets. All I know is he got tired of trying to make it work right and decided he'll just live with the fact that he has to resend text messages to me. He doesn't text me that often so I guess retexting is the lesser of the two evils.

I keep checking this thread in hopes that someone will say Apple has finally gotten their act together and fixed this but it doesn't look like that will ever happen if this has been going on for over a year.

I did read at one point that after a few months, your cell number gets out of the Apple servers and all is fine so that's what we've been banking on.

Mar 3, 2014 2:53 PM in response to fromsouth

It would be appropriate for Apple to remove a phone number from their iMessage servers within a reasonable time such as 24 to 48 hours after the customer shuts of iMessage on their device, removes the device from iCloud then activate an Android.

Asking the customer to ask his or her iPhone contacts to do anything is unreasonable. The customer may or may not know which of his contacts have an iPhone.

To the best of my knowledge,there are two very unattractive solutions:

1 - Change your phone number

2 - Wait for 30 days or so for the phone number to drop off the iMessage servers.

After the year or so this problem, there is no excuse for Apple not having fixed it.

Mar 3, 2014 3:47 PM in response to deggie

deggie wrote:


So you are actually more interested in ranting and not really interested in your brother having his problem fixed, correct? If they are working sometimes from his phone and arriving at your phone as an SMS that will not be an iMessage problem.

No, I'm not at all more interested in ranting about this. I would love to find a solution which is another reason why I keep reading this post in the hope that there's an actual solution that has worked for everyone and then I'll check with my brother and see if he'll try it. Like I said, he's tired of trying all the tips and suggestions I've found or were given by an Apple representative since none of them worked.

I myself never like to leave a problem unsolved and I'm not one to settle for doing something the wrong way. I have a lot of patience so if I was the one trying to send text messages from an iphone, I'd be trying everything to make it work. Of course I have more time on my hand then some people including my brother.

I spent a few days trying to figure out why I couldn't get any text messages from my iphone friends and I've now spent over two months trying to make it work. If I sound like I'm ranting, it's probably because of all the time I've wasted trying to rectify a problem that I have no control over.

iPhone to Android iMessage bug fix

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.