iPhone to Android iMessage bug fix

When I spoke to Apple Support, this is the site that the person directed me to in order to de-register my phone number from all imessage accounts that I had. I hope this helps everyone. These steps are for those who have switched from an iphone to an android phone.

1) Go to selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage

2) Key in your 10-digit phone number

3) They will send you a CODE via text to this number

4) Key in the CODE and press enter

5) You are finished. It says that it may take a few hours before all contacts are updated, but I found that it only took about 45 minutes.

Pantherabast wrote:

switched from iPhone to android, and having this problem.

I have tried everything suggested here, and so far nothing has fixed my issue.

I bet you never tried this: iOS: Deactivating iMessage

I see that you think advice given 4 years ago is wrong today. You didn't even consider that something may have changed in the ensuing 4 years. Brilliant.

Don't you know that Apple customers are incredibly logical? Please report the post, just having fun - so nice to leave universe of incredulity.

My case seems to be a really odd variant of things being described here.

1. I had an iPhone 5 on Verizon running the latest version of iOS 7. For work, I needed to temporarily move to a Verizon Galaxy S4, which I activated without first deactivating iMessage.
2. NO iOS user could properly text me whatsoever (it would show as message failed) with the exception being those iPhone users who have manually gone into their settings and enabled Send as SMS. But, as has been pointed out, iOS 7 seems to have defaulted that to No.
3. I turned off iMessage on my old iPhone 5 and wiped it. I signed out of iMessage on all other tablets and computers. The problem still existed. The only iPhone users who could text me were those with Send as SMS enabled.
4. I tried the support profile solution, but my iPhone was not registered on it. When I tried to register it, so I could then unregister it, it told me my serial number was already associated with another account. This is probably because my iPhone was an Apple Store replacement given to me earlier in the summer. Maybe it was refurbished?
5. I tried the Apple ID password reset solution. The problem still existed.
6. I reactivated my iPhone 5, restored from iCloud, and then turned off iMessage. I went to my laptop and signed into iMessage to check and see if the phone number was still an option. It was, but when I tried again later in the hour, it was gone. This was my first sign of sucess, but the texting problem still remained. At this point, I was now on an iPhone 5 with iMessage turned off, but I still couldn't get any texts from iPhone users who didn't have Send as SMS turned on.
7. I called apple support and explained I wanted to disassociate my number from iMessage. The agent instructed me to sign out of iMessage on all devices, which I did. 20 hours later, some of the iPhone users who could not text me began to see my name as GREEN when they composed a text message. This is indicative of an Android number, a dumbphone number, or an iPhone that does not have iMessage enabled (Me). Partial sucess!
8. I am now past the 24 hour limit, but the problem still remains for some users. The only connection I see is that these users had Send as SMS enabled on their phones at the time that Apple deleted me from their database. I could be way off base here, and this could very well be totally unrelated.

I don't think the problem will magically go away for me after 30 days, or anyone else who apple manually deleted, because our numbers technically have already been deleted from the iMessage system. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and things will have magically resolved themselves, but I doubt it. I'm really out of ideas at this point. I'm happy the problem has been fixed for some of the iPhone users trying to reach me, but I'm concerned that others aren't automatically able to-even after toggling Send as SMS and deleting the old conversation on their devices.

I tried all suggestion i could find online:

• Turning off iMessage on my old iPhone
• Signingout of iMessage on all iOS units and MacOS
• Resetting account password
• Deleting unit from my Apple account
• Calling Apple support with no luck - they could not see my number in their system

The guy from Apple support was not helpful at all and insisted it was not a problem at their side or my side - but at all iPhone users side. He suggested i tell ALL my friends that they should contact Apple care so they can "help them change a setting" which would probably be to turn off iMessage. I tried to explain the guy that I simply cannot tell every single iPhone user to change their settings if they want to contact me - and it is truly my problem now since if I never used an apple product in the first place with that simcard this problem wouldn't have existed.

I am out of ideas now - after i spent 5 hours on this. It is super super frustrating and I am considering buying a changing plans / changing number to escape from Apple's hostage situation here. Can anybody confirm the number will be dropped from iMessage after a while or is it not going to change over time?

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?

• They need to Delete YOU From the MMS. As they saved YOU from the MMS, they will keep going on iMessage automatically.
• Before they delete you, be sure they click on write a new message and make sure it's not blue. It has to be green and the contact they have for you isn't iphone but mobile.

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... 😟

I like Pat had that issue when I tried to switch to an android device. No one who had an iphone could get text messages from myself or from them to me.

It is a glitch that requires another step to fix the issue.

Again. They were still messaging you to your iMessage address. This is NOT a glitch. It is the same as addressing you to a nonexistent email address since you no longer have access to it as are no longer using the iPhone. They must send the messages via SMS to your number.

Actually I asked them to shut off imessage and I did as well and to change my phone from showing as an iphone in their contact list to mobile. It still wouldn't send me anything.

Plus, it states that if a message can't be sent as an imessage it should be able to be sent to the same number as an sms message. So yes it is a glitch.

By the way the option given by the original poster you aren't unregistering the phone. you are merely removing it from the cloud as an acknowledge device that is attached to it.

Yes it is clearly a glitch. Because seriously the process of changing from iphone to android shouldn't require an extra step. Plus, after going through all the other steps that others have suggested I still couldn't switch to my new android phone. I had to resort to going back to my iphone again. At the moment I have yet to try the original posters trick. Though I am certain by this point they have worked on the issue.

If you google it there are clearly threads that refer to it as the same. I'm sorry, but if I can painlessly and smoothly switch from an android device to an iphone the same should be said about switching back to android. It's an inconvience that shouldn't exist. Leads people to believe that they have to stick with the iphone device they have and feel like they've wasted their money.

I think you're missing the point. Iphone users don't have the option of sending sms or imessage. If your iphone has imessage turned on and you previously had a conversation with another imessage person every text you send is imessage, regardless of what you want, apple forces this on its users. I have the same issue, the only way I found is to call my friends and tell them to turn off imessage on their phones in order for them to send me a message. Ridiculous. I hope all iphone users realize that apple has you by the balls.

Obviously you did not read the entire thread. You need to unregister your AppleID from the iMessge database. Did you do that? I tested it and all I got on a non-Iphone telephone were SMS. So if you haven't, I suggest you try it instead of whining and complaining.