iPhone to Android iMessage bug fix

@moosecouture, hear hear!

I just switched to a galaxy s5 last night. I still have an iPhone for work which is how I discovered this. I turned off iMessage on my work iPhone but I don't have my original iPhone that I replaced with the android so I can't perform any function on it. I watched them wipe it. What's interesting is that now none of my messages will go as iMessage from my work phone. It's all or nothing which seems strange. Is there a way to tell the phone which contact numbers are iPhone and which are not so that messages are sent based on that? Sorry if this has been answered...there are a lit of responses in this thread and I haven't gotten to most of them. It's been difficult filtering through the drama;).

Any advice would be great. I will send my peeps messages telling them to turn off their iMessage if they want to text me. Seems silly that they need to do that but I guess that's the only answer.

Thanks.

Step one - call Apple and verify your phone number is revoked.

Step two have someone with iphone text you and see if you get it.

Step three if you missing messages from someone - tell them to turn on "send as SMS" option

in settings messages.

Agreed! Or what about releasing an official help page that describes (admit) the issue and provide help to current and previous users in fixing it? This is what a company with integrity and empathy for their user base would do.

At least if it comes from Apple, my iPhone friends will take it seriously, maybe even change some settings during the interim of an update patch. Otherwise, Apple is just pitting us against each other.

All I can say is Apple is really dropping the ball here. I am not able to recive group text messages from iphone users because they send as imessage even though I text the group first. HEY APPLE MAYBE GET RID OF IMESSAGE SINCE YOU WONT FIX IT. Seriously.

<Edited by Host>

Does anyone know if this might work? It will be a lot of time and work, and I don't want to try it if it's already been tried:

1. Reactivating my iPhone on my phonen number (and deactivate my android).

2. Reactivate iMessages.

3. Disable iMessages, and wait for a 2-3 days.

4. Reactivate Android and WIPE iPhone.

?

quitob1 wrote:

Does anyone know if this might work? It will be a lot of time and work, and I don't want to try it if it's already been tried:

1. Reactivating my iPhone on my phonen number (and deactivate my android).

2. Reactivate iMessages.

3. Disable iMessages, and wait for a 2-3 days.

4. Reactivate Android and WIPE iPhone.

?

If you still have your iphone and see your phone number under imessage all of your steps can be replaced by one relevant step of turning off imessage and leaving it off for few hours. Just long enough so when you turn it back on there is no phone number only email. I d leave it off period. Then you can wipe. Phone call to Apple can actually be replaced by that one step - turning imessage OFF.

fromsouth wrote:

quitob1 wrote:

Does anyone know if this might work? It will be a lot of time and work, and I don't want to try it if it's already been tried:

1. Reactivating my iPhone on my phonen number (and deactivate my android).

2. Reactivate iMessages.

3. Disable iMessages, and wait for a 2-3 days.

4. Reactivate Android and WIPE iPhone.

?

If you still have your iphone and see your phone number under imessage all of your steps can be replaced by one relevant step of turning off imessage and leaving it off for few hours. Just long enough so when you turn it back on there is no phone number only email. I d leave it off period. Then you can wipe. Phone call to Apple can actually be replaced by that one step - turning imessage OFF.

Thanks. Unfortunately those steps were already done but in a jumbled order (because I didn't know any better at the time). Here's what I did and where I'm at:

1. With iMessage still active, I called Sprint to swap my to my Android (which was previously used and already setup).
2. Discovered iMessage problem, then disabled iMessages on ALL my Apple devices. (Yes, but too late now).
3. Called Apple who said they'd remove my phone number from all the iMessage servers and to wait a few hours.
4. Logged into Apple Suport and my Apple ID and deleted my registered iPhone and mobile number.
5. 5 days later, problem still persisted so Apple then told me to ask all iPhone senders to delete my contact, my iMessage threads, recreate my contact, then try sending me new texts. No iPhone users I know were happy and willing to do this and just blamed my Android for "having issues". This is hardly a solution.
6. On my wife's iPhone under Settings > Messages, I enabled "Send as SMS" which seems to work (for her only) sending SMS and group MMS. However asking other iPhone users to do this unrealistic and they refuse because they perceive this as changing their phone "to fix an Android problem" (when in fact, it's an Apple problem). Other's on the same group MMS thread with my wife cannot send me their messages.
7. On my unlinked iPhone, I noticed my phone number still showed under Settings > Phone > My Number, so I wiped the phone to factory settings.
8. Restored iPhone from backup using iTunes (to use with wifi etc), and my number now shows as "Unknown".

Problem still persists that I cannot receive some iPhone user's group MMS. My wife's iPhone works fine with both group MMS and single SMS (with the "Send as SMS" feature enabled under Messages) but I cannot get other iPhone users to do the same because they don't want to pay for SMS.

None of this was a problem when I used my Android with my phone number. But after I switched to iPhone with iMessages, and now back to Android, most iPhone users can no longer send me SMS and none can send me group MMS.

And to top it off, "Darren Neil" (Senior Apple Tech support) is supposed to take my case but has not returned one of my 3-4 telephone calls over the past 8 days. I'm trying to be patient and maintain composure but it's extremely frustrating and I don't have time for this BS. Yes, I'm angry.

Going back to iPhone is not an option just out of principle because I feel like this is all happening by design, and part of Apple's secret evil plan.

Can anyone please help?

cbracer wrote:

My only explanation is that it was just a matter of time before Apple's servers fully released my number. Extremely frustrating, extremely annoying, time consuming, and just plain not right for Apple to not have a better solution. However I seem to finally be getting all of my texts and I love my new phone and will never go back to Apple sad to say. Hope this helps

I'm thinking of relinking my iPhone just to try this - re-enabling iMessages/Facetime just to properly deactivate before re-swapping to my GS4. Would you say that time was more the factor that solved it or reactivating and properly disabling iMessages/Facetime was more the factor that worked?

I'm so disappointed in Apple for this. I own Apple TV, 2 Macbooks, a Powermac G4, and two iPhones along with my GS4, and this is making me start to question if I should stick with Apple because it feel like a shady move to keep you in the Apple ecosystem.

quitob1 wrote:

No iPhone users I know were happy and willing to do this and just blamed my Android for "having issues". This is hardly a solution.

That is the root of your problem. Apple allows iphone users to use two services - unlike usual phones with one. If Apple customer(with iphone in his hands) chooses not to use SMS, no one will help you. You choose to see it as Apple problem, just like other people here - hence heated discussion. But the simple true is that iphone users have choices and choose to accommodate themselves and not people who left Apple. And before you blame Apple - make sure you have facts, your friends actually get prompted that messages will not get delivered unless they choose to send as SMS. So plenty of notice and information to make decision. Now I am not here to argue, so unless you get an iphone or persuade your friend- no Darren will help you. It is up to your friend's free will.

fromsouth wrote:

You choose to see it as Apple problem, just like other people here - hence heated discussion. But the simple true is that iphone users have choices and choose to accommodate themselves and not people who left Apple. And before you blame Apple - make sure you have facts, your friends actually get prompted that messages will not get delivered unless they choose to send as SMS.

It is an Apple problem - Apple support admitted it on the phone. This weekend they said "we hate to admit this, but it's not your Android but our iPhones. We have really smart and highly paid engineers working really hard now to find a fix fast because the problem is that iPhones are not pulling the updated Contact info (which is now updated to show I'm no longer on iMessages) onto the iPhone" to stop the iPhone from sending as iMessages.

When I was on my GS4, it worked without issues sending to iPhone users because my phone number wasn't registered with iMessages. Then I activated an iPhone and used iMessages for a month. Only after I used iMessages and switched back to Android, did my with phone number get linked to iMessages and stuck in various iPhones that aren't properly syncing with iMessage servers.

I wonder if the reasons that some iPhones don't properly sync with the updated iMessages server is because they are using a non-Apple mail and contact provider (Gmail, Yahoo, private domain, etc)....This sounds like a broken and fragmented Contact and IM system. A proper UX would not require a user to consciously think and make choices about how to send a message. Steve Krug is right when he said, "Don't Make Me Think", and Apple should know this. It should be designed to be seamless and just automatically send either MMS or SMS depending on who the recipient is. I'm sure Apple knows that the solution should not be put upon the user but on the system, but they still haven't resolved it. And Apple is smart - which is why I suspect they might be doing this by design. And just know that I'm an Apple fan - just a very unhappy one right now.

Message was edited by: quitob1 for spelling errors and typos

I posted back on page 20 regarding this problem. Having your iphone contacts turn on "send as sms" did not fix the problem for me. 60 hours after Apple revoked my certificate, my son's iphone, with "send as sms" turned on, still would send me an imessage that would never get delivered, and the bubble on his phone would stay blue, and never say delivered. So, imo, based on the evidence of my own testing, having your contacts turn on "send as sms" is not a definitive fix.

The explanation that the iphones are not pulling updated contact information seems plausible. As to the cause of this, or the motives (if any) behind it, is speculation on our parts.

In any case, this is a real problem that needs a solution, and that solution must come from Apple. All the tweaks in this thread did not fix the problem for me. I was still missing texts sent to me by family members, especially group texts. "It just works" does not apply in this case.

I have used Apple products since the Apple II. Currently I have a Macbook, an iMac, a Mac Mini, an ipod, two iphones, and an ipad. Since this problem occured for me earlier this month, I have mothballed the iMac and turned my Mac Mini into a dedicated computer for my weather station by installing Parallels and running Windows on it 24/7. I still use my iphone 4S for a couple of programs that I like better on IOS than Android. I was very close to buying a Macbook Pro this month, but I have decided that I will not continue to invest in the Apple system. There are other reasons for this besides that problem with iMsg I have had, but its fair to say that the iMsg problem was the final straw for me. So this iMsg problem has caused Apple to lose at least one customer.

I chose to end my problems with iMessage by changing my phone number. It took me about five hours to change all my contact info at various places, and consider it time well spent. No more iMsg problems for me. Good luck to those of you who are waiting for a fix.

Message was edited by: larryhutch for grammar

I am having this same problem but I HAVE AN IPHONE. Group texts that include android users just don't work properly. There are many other discussion threads in this forum with the same problem. And these are iPhone users. The two people in two different groups that I have group texted with for several years, who have androids, have never had iPhones. So it is not the problem described above where they have to remove their old iPhone number from the cloud or whatever. Before iOS 7 I group texted successfully with the android users in a group among other iPhone users and it just doesn't work. In different ways, depending on who originated the group text. I've been to the Genius Bar about it and they are unable to solve this. It has only happened since iOS 7. Check out the other threads and you will see.

Didn't work. Apple store genius did it.

fromsouth wrote:

That is the root of your problem. Apple allows iphone users to use two services - unlike usual phones with one. If Apple customer(with iphone in his hands) chooses not to use SMS, no one will help you. You choose to see it as Apple problem, just like other people here - hence heated discussion. But the simple true is that iphone users have choices and choose to accommodate themselves and not people who left Apple. And before you blame Apple - make sure you have facts, your friends actually get prompted that messages will not get delivered unless they choose to send as SMS. So plenty of notice and information to make decision. Now I am not here to argue, so unless you get an iphone or persuade your friend- no Darren will help you. It is up to your friend's free will.

You're simply wrong. Messages look delivered but will stay undelivered. That's the crux of the issue here. If I had never bought an iPhone in the first place, I wouldn't be having this problem. There often isn't an option to "Send as SMS" (see posts just previous to this one). If you're not going to be helpful (or correct), perhaps refrain from chiming in.