iPhone to Android iMessage bug fix

jpag99 wrote:

I'm an Apple fan (have been before Apple became the Apple we know today)

I am as far from Apple fan as humanly possible. I think that Apple has created an entity "Apple user" that is use to using overpriced outdated product that "just works" in artificially created environment. Before at least I felt it had one positive feature - security. After Apple artificially (I believe) retired facetime certificates in April - I stopped believing that.

It stopped innovating iphones since iphone 4s (icloud and siri were the last brilliance of now deceased genius). I think that the reason Apple has people leaving, cause it feels it still can threat customers the same way it treated them when there were millions less of those. Apple management lives in the dream world of their own making. All that has nothing to do with that thread though. That thread is precisely about people who leave "it just works" environment and expect to it just works after that. Typical "Apple customer" mentality. All pun intended. I do try to help to anyone who leaves Apple. I do not try or intend to help to "Apple customers" ranting here. Responses claiming someone is fanboy here are addressed to technicians, who just gives you facts. If doctor tells you you will live a year, you better get your affairs in order, instead of giving him a bribe or screaming at him that medicine su cks hoping to extend the term.

I'd just like to add that anyone who thinks this issue is fixed it wrong. I just called apple about this. Before someone says I don't like Apple I would like to mention that I have two iPads and iPhones. And I like apple products. One of my phones is switched to android now since my screen broke.

Apple told me that my phone number is de-registered from their servers. However anyone who has sent an iMessage to me has cashed a token on their phone. I verified this on my friend's iPhone 5 with latest updates. That phone did not recognize me as a non iPhone user until I reset all settings on his phone.

Apple told me it would be almost a month before all iOS devices out there will refresh my token. Maybe sooner they don't know. This is madness. I'm not telling everyone I know to reset their phone. This is not just an issue on the apple servers but also on iOS devices. And people who send me messages don't get the usual "not delivered".

I hope some lawyers are reading this. This a winner class action. It's almost like apple has created a virus for our benefit.

funny what you are saying as I agree. My iphone 5 is nothing more than a glorified iphone 4 with a slightly bigger screen. I'll say this as it's my opinion- the Galaxy S5 is a better phone today than the iPhone 5 (or 5S).

I've been in the tech sector for many years- from development to sales to marketing to the c-suite and Apple's agressive iPhone 5S TV campaign makes me wonder just what they plan to announce come fall. the skeptic in me says it's a bigger and slightly thinner 5 (faster too but let's face it speed is not an issue for 90% of users- battery life is) but do not expect anything overly radical. I get it, the iPhone is a great and simplified device that speaks to a wide spectrium of people young and old but at some point those of us in the middle (business users) need a little more horsepower. Android (google) needs a little bit of help but they are truly not far off at all...

I might be back on iPhone at some point in the mid future but, like you said, don't make me despise you because i needed to leave the hive for a period of time.

Going to agree with harsh_varia. Anyone who says there is a simple fix for this is wrong. There are from what I can tell 2 fundamental problems here. The first is easily addressed. Calling Apple will get your number removed from Apple's database of iMessage accounts and will prevent new people from trying to send you iMessages. Apple should probably work with the carriers to find a way to automate that process when people port their numbers, but at least this is easily remedied with a call to Apple.

The second issue though is a major flaw in the architecture of the iMessage client. iMessage doesn't seem to check to see if a phone number you have been sending to still has an iMessage account. So if you have existing message threads with someone, then you will continue sending them iMessages even if their account is no longer valid in the Apple database. And iMessage won't let the user select the type of message they want to send, so your friends won't necesarily notice that they sent you an iMessage unless they look at the color coding. (Which in truth is one of the things that makes iMessage so great. It keeps those kinds of decisions away from the user and just chooses what should work best for you. And that seems to work well in just about every circumstance except here.) Fixing that though will require a software update and Apple has been notoriously slow to do anything about it. I suppose another option is for Apple to make some changes server side that would reject iMessages send to phone numbers that have been deactivated. With iMessages being a closed platform, I can't really speculate the plausibility of that. The issue is probably compounded with group messaging. The majority of iMessages I don't get are group messages that involve multiple iPhone users. It might be trickier to send a fail notice when some accounts are valid but some aren't.

I'm not typically a conspirary theorist, but since this only affects people leaving the Apple ecosystem, you get the feeling that they are treating this as a low priority fix. It's exceptionally frustrating since there isn't much you can do about it other than telling all your friends to delete your messages, delete your contact, add you back in as a contact, and keep your fingers crossed. I haven't even heard from Apple if that is a confirmed way to fix it. They have been tight lipped about the whole thing and from what I can tell only have one partially useful knowledge base article. There have been a number of news articles about this issue recently though and it's starting to make Apple look bad. Let's hope that they add more resources to fixing this problem and get something out soon.

bluon wrote:

Apple should probably work with the carriers to find a way to automate that process when people port their numbers, but at least this is easily remedied with a call to Apple.

this. all of the this.

bluon wrote:

The second issue though is a major flaw in the architecture of the iMessage client. iMessage doesn't seem to check to see if a phone number you have been sending to still has an iMessage account. So if you have existing message threads with someone, then you will continue sending them iMessages even if their account is no longer valid in the Apple database. Fixing that though will require a software update and Apple has been notoriously slow to do anything about it. I suppose another option is for Apple to make some changes server side that would reject iMessages send to phone numbers that have been deactivated.

the latest software update was SUPPOSED to do exactly that. but judging from all the people who say they have tried that it doesnt seem to have worked.

and if anyone is wondering why i sound bipolar on the threads and jump around from defending apple to agreeing with others that are posting against the imessage issue like the thread i just quoted... its because of the context in the text. bluon posted what i believe to be the most intelligent thread in a long time on here. i find it a complete waste of time and space to see an entire page taken up with nothing but, "someone should sue apple" and "nothing works for anyone ever. dont bother doing the troubleshooting steps because it didnt work for me". im not defending apple against them. i just want to shut them up so we can get to the problem solving. so either post something helpful or expect to get rediculed by the people that are on here to discuss solutions. sorry if thats not sensitive enough for u guys but i am a very blunt person. i do not have any patience for nonsense. i know this post, like all of my other very blunt posts, will get me trolled again. but be warned, im just gonna post the feedback website again that dont have anything intelligent to add to the conversation because noone on here wants to hear u *****.

zelous wrote:

but be warned, im just gonna post the feedback website again that dont have anything intelligent to add to the conversation because noone on here wants to hear u *****.

I'm pretty sure the feedback goes to the same place as those iMessages we aren't getting...

zelous wrote:

and if anyone is wondering why i sound bipolar on the threads and jump around from defending apple to agreeing with others that are posting against the imessage issue like the thread i just quoted... its because of the context in the text. bluon posted what i believe to be the most intelligent thread in a long time on here. i find it a complete waste of time and space to see an entire page taken up with nothing but, "someone should sue apple" and "nothing works for anyone ever. dont bother doing the troubleshooting steps because it didnt work for me". im not defending apple against them. i just want to shut them up so we can get to the problem solving.

Give it up.

Lost cause. They simply want to rant.

hey guys

it's pointless to call Apple or argue with the idiot fanboys.

there is obviousely no concrete solution to the problem. Removing your phone number from your apple account or turning off the imessage on the iphone is useless. ( please stop suggesting that!)

so at this point i found two UNCONVENIANT ways to get around this problem.

it all depends on which iphone model your friends own. ( you need to contact them either way)

1st) if they own an iphone 5, 5S, or 5c they need to go to settings> message> swich on "send as SMS".

2) If they own an IPHONE 4s or lower

unfotunatley the only thing they can do is delete and reinstall your contact info from scratch.

there is no options to resolve the problem.

i know this is very unconveniant, espcially if you are dealing with business contacts

but i had to do it on my boss's iphone 5, and it worked.

i hope someone else comes u with a solution that doesn't involve contacting all our friends soon.

goukison wrote:

hey guys

it's pointless to call Apple or argue with the idiot fanboys.

there is obviousely no concrete solution to the problem. Removing your phone number from your apple account or turning off the imessage on the iphone is useless. ( please stop suggesting that!)

ur entire post was false. but ill just quote this bit to reply to. i know of many people those steps HAVE helped. so it sounds like ur selfish, egotistical, and arrogant and just because it doesnt work for u that means it cant possibly work for anyone else. please, for the love of the gods, stop trying to spread ur stupidity to everyone else that is actually trying to resolve this issue.

zelous wrote:

goukison wrote:

hey guys

it's pointless to call Apple or argue with the idiot fanboys.

there is obviousely no concrete solution to the problem. Removing your phone number from your apple account or turning off the imessage on the iphone is useless. ( please stop suggesting that!)

ur entire post was false. but ill just quote this bit to reply to. i know of many people those steps HAVE helped. so it sounds like ur selfish, egotistical, and arrogant and just because it doesnt work for u that means it cant possibly work for anyone else. please, for the love of the gods, stop trying to spread ur stupidity to everyone else that is actually trying to resolve this issue.

It's not that it's useless. It's just marginally useful and not totally effective. Even getting all my friends to upgrade to 7.1.1 is not wholly effective as Apple suggested it would be.

APPLE communities reputation status

https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/reputation.html

"When another community member marks your answer as helpful or solved, you receive reputation points. Helpful answers are worth five points, and solved answers are worth ten.

You can see a user's status level and points next to each post."

While there is no direct correllation between quality of advice and amount of points, there is high chance that advice given by person with 0 (zilch) points may be incorrect and very damaging to follow. I completely agree with assesment that was given by previos two posters. Follow instructions not to turn off imessage and not to contact Apple at your own risk.

goukison wrote

2) If they own an IPHONE 4s or lower

unfotunatley the only thing they can do is delete and reinstall your contact info from scratch.

there is no options to resolve the problem.

In your 2nd screen shot (above), there is no option to Send as SMS because iMessage is turned Off.

Everything is already being sent as SMS!

It has nothing to do with being iPhone 4S or lower... 😟

martofsky wrote:

zelous wrote:

goukison wrote:

hey guys

it's pointless to call Apple or argue with the idiot fanboys.

there is obviousely no concrete solution to the problem. Removing your phone number from your apple account or turning off the imessage on the iphone is useless. ( please stop suggesting that!)

ur entire post was false. but ill just quote this bit to reply to. i know of many people those steps HAVE helped. so it sounds like ur selfish, egotistical, and arrogant and just because it doesnt work for u that means it cant possibly work for anyone else. please, for the love of the gods, stop trying to spread ur stupidity to everyone else that is actually trying to resolve this issue.

It's not that it's useless. It's just marginally useful and not totally effective. Even getting all my friends to upgrade to 7.1.1 is not wholly effective as Apple suggested it would be.

i agree. it doesnt work for everyone. i just dont like it when someone says it doesnt work at all and everyone should ignore it just because it didnt work for them. its like telling everyone in a cpr class that this one time it didnt work and the person died so everyone should just forget about learning cpr because it never works.

zelous wrote:

i agree. it doesnt work for everyone. i just dont like it when someone says it doesnt work at all and everyone should ignore it just because it didnt work for them. its like telling everyone in a cpr class that this one time it didnt work and the person died so everyone should just forget about learning cpr because it never works.

I think most people are just objecting to the posts that go something like "all you have to do to fix it is..." From the start, people have been saying this isn't a bug, but as we have learned there are no simple fixes yet. There are lots of things that people can try and maybe for some inexplicable reason it works, but for most people, there is not much you can do.

Again, support from Apple would help to clear up a lot of this confusion. But Apple has been very tight lipped and has barely acknowledged there is an issue.

oops, am sorry chris

you are absolutely wright !

if the imessage option is turned on the iphone 4s and below , your friends will have the option to "send as sms" available.( i will correct that part of my post immidiately)

i am not sure if i explained it correctly, but the people that need to turn on the "send as sms" option are your friends who still own iphones and are trying to send you messages on the device you've switched to.

it's true that i am not an expert at this,

i am not claiming that this a general solution to the problem which is why i said that " it's an UNCONVENIANT way to get around this problem" on my post. this was actually suggested by another user earlier on this forum.

i did it, and it worked for me, so i decided to share with everyone just in case it works for someone else.

it's entirely up to you to follow my suggestion.

it seems like the worst that could happen is that your carrier will charge your friends according to their text message plan. ( not a 100% sure)

it's very unconveniant to call your friends and ask them to make sure that their "send as sms" option is on

but it works.

some users are saying that my suggestion is wrong. i am not sure why, but it worked for me

my advise is to call one of your close friends, and test it ( switch on "send as sms) and text you . if it fails, all they have to do is switch the "send as sms" option back to off .

here is the list of things i did before i came up to this:

1) turned off imessage on my iphone

2) called my carrier

3) removed my number from my apple account

4) called apple ( several times)

5) went to multiple forums

i never said to NOT turn off your imessage or to NOT call apple, i just said that it was useless ( based on my experience and apparently on several other users here too) if they had a solution, i wouldn't be here on page 29 of a post that seems to be going on for a while...

i am not involved in the apple love/hate fan war, we all have good qualities and flaws ( whether it's apple or me)

if i am wrong about something i always apologize, but if i am wright i stand my ground.

i never intend to offend anyone when i come to this post

and i will not engage in a conversation with angry users

good luck to all