Q: iPhone to Android iMessage bug fix

Make sure that you all are calling apple and then you have them revoke the certificate for your apple id with the connection of your old iphone.  At that point make sure that you delete the previous text threads with your contacts on your new phone and start a new one.  If you are still unable to access the texts, the carrier will still have you  provisioned with an iphone connected to that phone number.  Also, if you are on your 5th call to apple, ask to speak to a senior advisor.

Yep, with the senior advisor now (second one...)

Ask to get their contact information.  Senior advisors can give out their direct line so you don't have to regail your story to several different people.  By the way, has all of the steps I listed been completed?

Yep followed all steps. My issue has been passed onto the engineers to hopefully push it through the system faster. This is ridiculous. FTC needs to do something.

MichGuitar wrote:

 

Zelous - for the most part you have a great reply and I believe it's probably accurate.

 

HOWEVER - there is a big flaw if there is not another step.

 

Heres the flawed part

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then have ur contacts turn off imessage and turn it back on. this should update the change with ur contact info. while they are in the correct page also have them make sure that they have send as sms turned on in settings>messages.

 

if that doesnt work, then have them delete every conversation they have with u in it, delete u as a contact, and then re-add u and try to start a new conversation.

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I have 100s of contacts - you act as though a) I have every contact in my new phone and b) I have time to go through the process of contacting each one of them.

 

I was one of the people who started this thread - I gave up on Android and came back to Apple because of this (and the fact that battery life on my Android was horrible).

yah i know that step would be a real pain for most people. and the new step thats suggested by apple, which is to contact all of ur iphone using contacts and have them update their software, is also pretty difficult. but since those have worked for others in the past and there doesnt seem anything else thats possible to try and get it fixed i thought id post everything that might help.

im just sad to hear from others here that the software update DIDNT fix the issue like it apple said it would. not very surprised at this, but still sad.

either way it means the troubleshooting steps are still valid and i would suggest trying all of them if possible.

updated list of steps to try.

NOTE: some people are still posting that these steps have not worked for them and that apple has stated this is a known issue and are STILL working on it even after the update that was supposed to fix it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5185

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5759?viewlocale=en_US

before calling applecare to have ur # unregistered by them:

if u have the old iphone still, turn off imessages and facetime.

if u do not have the old iphone still, text "STOP" to 48369. this should prevent anything apple wise from being associated with ur apple id at all.

both steps take up to 24 hours. please wait until those 24 hours are up until continuing with further steps.

if u did at least one of the 2 steps above, waited 24 hours, and ur iphone using contacts still cant text u:

call applecare at (1-800-275-2273) and have an apple advisor revoke the # out of the imessage/facetime system. if u followed the previous steps then it should already be out of the system but it never hurts to check with apple itself.

have ur contacts update their software to ios 7.1 (or later, if available when this is read) as apple posted a fix for the iphones not receiving notifications about contact's imessages being turned off/revoked and are therefore still sending imessages.

if that doesnt work then have ur contacts turn off imessage and turn it back on. this should update the change with ur contact info. while they are in the correct page also have them make sure that they have send as sms turned on in settings>messages.

if THAT doesnt work, then have them delete every conversation they have with u in it, delete u as a contact, and then re-add u and try to start a new conversation.

I tried calling 1-800-MyApple, and they want to charge me $20 for a service ticket?! I couldn't even get to a rep to have my account removed from the iMessage/Facetime server.

I'm not sure if this was suggested in another thread or this thread but just wanted to pass this along in case it can help someone...

I switched from the iPhone 4S to the Samsung S3 just this past Thursday.  I had the same problem with iMessage and not receiving texts from my iPhone contacts.  I called Apple and they revoked the certificate and said it would take 24 hours but 24 hours later, the issue wasn't resolved. 

Since my husband is very techy and good with this kind of stuff, I handed everything to him and he fixed it!

All he did was put the sim card back into the iphone, hook it up to iTunes and restore it back to the way it was before I switched phones.  So the iphone went back to its original state as if i never switched phones.

Then he turned off iMessage and then turned off Facetime and then logged out of iCloud.

Then he deleted me as a contact on his iphone 5 and deleted all threads with my name and number.

Then we put the sim card back in the S3 and he sent me a text and it showed up as green on his screen and i was able to receive the text.

We sent each other text messages periodically to see if it was still working properly and everything seems fine.

He was wondering why the Apple tech support didn't suggest this but I'm glad he tried it out.  Hope this can help someone else.

Yea, this has worked for most people and has been discussed in this thread. I did the same thing with my wife, so I could at least get messages from her.

The problem most of us are still hung up on is, that's not a feasible fix for all the rest of your contacts. I have over 300 contacts, most of whom have iPhones. I can't expect each one of them to jump through all of those hoops - especially when they don't even know there is a problem. If they send me a text, they assume I got it. There is no indication on their end that it didn't go through - it just appears as an iMessage. An astute observer might notice the lack of "delivered" or "read" indicator. But most people don't even know there is a difference between iMessage and SMS, so I would have to manually call each person, ask them to do all of the steps you described. Not going to happen.

The only way to fix the remaining problem is an iOS patch for everyone, that does a better job of actually knowing whether or not there is an iMessage capable device on the other end, before actually sending via iMessage.

ajdiduca wrote:

 

I tried calling 1-800-MyApple, and they want to charge me $20 for a service ticket?! I couldn't even get to a rep to have my account removed from the iMessage/Facetime server.

just go through the system to speak to an advisor. they wont charge u for this issue. all u have to do is say no to the charge and they wont charge u anything. u will know this because apple advisors dont keep ur credit card on file for charging u so unless u tell someone ur credit card # u know u havnt been charged.

djfiii wrote:

 

The only way to fix the remaining problem is an iOS patch for everyone, that does a better job of actually knowing whether or not there is an iMessage capable device on the other end, before actually sending via iMessage.

thats what ios 7.1 was suppose to be but some people are still saying its not working even after update.

Suing Microsoft here- still unable to open those .doc attachments here. Already spoke to 5 Microsoft managers, contacted FTC. ALl they say is either buy Office or contact all your friends and tell them not to send those attachments. Losing money, how about some human emphathy. Bad Microsoft bad Apple.

On the serious note, iOS 7.1 suppose to make iPhones  to more often connect to iMessage server for updates about taken out of circulation phone numbers. If you still have problems and your phone number is revoked, your calls to AppleCare are useless. Whoever is unable to text you needs to call with you.

Thanks for the response--I just called them and their resolution was for me to call all of my contacts with iPhones and have them delete message threads with me and if  that doesn't work, then they should call iPhones. Such an unrealistic solution!!!

Call back and ask to speak to a supervisor.

ajdiduca wrote:

 

Thanks for the response--I just called them and their resolution was for me to call all of my contacts with iPhones and have them delete message threads with me and if  that doesn't work, then they should call iPhones. Such an unrealistic solution!!!

The only approved steps so far are to turn off iMessage on your old iPhone, have Apple Support revoke the certificate to disassociate your phone number from iMessage/Facetime, and for anyone using an iPhone to send you messages to update to the newest iOS (7.1 for iPhone 4 and higher, 6.1.6 for 3GS).

Other possible steps:

1. Go to www.icloud.com and make sure the device is removed from Find My iPhone.

2. Backup and then restore as new your old iPhone.

3. Go to id.apple.com and change your Apple ID's primary email address to something different than it currently shows.

4. Go to id.apple.com and change your Apple ID password

5. Have the other iPhone users delete the existing message thread, delete your contact from their iPhone, backup and restore from backup, and then re-add your contact using only your phone number.  Also, make sure they have 'Send as SMS' turned on.

The core issue is usually the other iPhones not sending the message as SMS when it should.