Removing phone number from iMessage

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Removing phone number from iMessage

I had an iPhone. It was associated with iMessage. I moved to the (gasp) Samsung Galaxy S IV. I have several other devices, including desk tops and iPads that are logged into iMessage. For some reason, all my previous contacts with iPhones can't text me, unless they turn off iMessage. Their devices don't see a delivered message, but it never tries text either. As an Apple user, I'm let down by the fact that users can't specify in a thread that they don't want to use iMessage, especially given the number of complaints concerning this feature.

iMessage problem

Posted on Jun 16, 2013 8:47 PM

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Answer 1

Ocean20

Level 6

13,727 points

Jun 16, 2013 8:50 PM in response to jimwoodard

Go to the profile you had when you had an iphone and unregister your phone https://supportprofile.apple.com

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Answer 2

Jun 16, 2013 8:51 PM in response to jimwoodard

Hi jimwoodard,

iMessage can be used for either iMessages or SMS messages, however, since you no longer have an iPhone, then you can't be "iMessaged". Your friends need to take your old iPhone number out of their Contacts lists, and make sure that they have "Send as SMS" turned to = On in Settings>Messages on their i-devices.

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 3

Jun 16, 2013 8:52 PM in response to gail from maine

Yeah, and what Ocean said as well....

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 4

Jun 16, 2013 8:54 PM in response to gail from maine

Hi Ocean! How ya been, buddy? I was just getting ready to log off for the night, so glad we crossed paths 😀

GB

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Answer 5

Ocean20

Level 6

13,727 points

Jun 16, 2013 8:55 PM in response to gail from maine

Read https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5107134?answerId=22258560022#22258560022 not relevant to present post but funny

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Answer 6

jimwoodard Author

Level 1

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Jun 17, 2013 11:24 AM in response to jimwoodard

Already removed my phone number from my account. Already removed me from the contacts and the iPhone automatically put my new contact into iMessage state. No, I'm not receiving texts. Hoping for a response that isn't in one of the hundreds of other threads. I already did the following:

1. Went to my devices and removed the phone number from iMessage AND FaceTime.

2. Removed the iPhone from devices in my iTunes account.

3. Turned iMessage off on the phone, even though it's not paired with the phone #

4. Reset the phone to factory

5. Removed my contact from an iPhone and sent a text. Ready for the fun? Once it saw the number, it immediately assigned outbound messages to iMessage.

I had several iPhones on my personal account. I removed two. I still have 2 more. What's funny is that the other phone number that was using iMessage needed nothing special done. I didn't touch the iPhone and the number automatically went SMS on other iPhones when it was upgraded/changed to a Samsung phone. The point might become moot if I upgrade the whole family to Samsung and leave iPhone completely, but until then, my own wife and kids can't text me unless they turn off iMessage in their phones.

If there are any other suggestions, please give them to me. Thanks.

Message was edited by: jimwoodard - changed wording to clarify.

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Answer 7

jimwoodard Author

Level 1

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Jun 17, 2013 11:33 AM in response to jimwoodard

Oh, and I did have the iPhone family members turn iMessaging off in their settings, but that means they're not iMessaging anyone, so that's not helpful either. I still like the convenience of using iMessage from my desktop here. With iMessage off, they can text me, but when they turn it on, no texts. This is a little frustrating to say the least.

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Answer 8

Jun 17, 2013 1:41 PM in response to jimwoodard

So your new phone has the same phone number as your iPhone did?

GB

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Answer 9

Jun 17, 2013 3:12 PM in response to jimwoodard

jimwoodard wrote:

Already removed my phone number from my account.

By that sentence do you mean that you "Unregistered" the device on your Support Profile? Or did you "remove" it in some other way?

GB

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Answer 10

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Jun 17, 2013 3:24 PM in response to gail from maine

gail from maine wrote:

Hi jimwoodard,

iMessage can be used for either iMessages or SMS messages

To be clear, the app is Messages.

Text messages can be sent as iMessages (only to other iMessage users over cell data/wifi)

Text messages can be sent as SMS using cell text plan to any user who has a cell plan.

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Answer 11

Jun 17, 2013 3:28 PM in response to Chris CA

Thanks for clarifying that, Chris! I think that it is important to keep the terminology straight, so good reminder to be more careful in future! I always appreciate accuracy!!!

Cheers,

GB

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Answer 12

jimwoodard Author

Level 1

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Jun 18, 2013 5:30 AM in response to jimwoodard

Thanks for all your help. I not only unregistered that phone, I unregistered all 5 of my phones. I removed the phone number from every device I have, which includes 7 MacBook Pros, 5 iPhones, 4 iPads, and 3 iPod Touches. I appreciate the specifity with which ChrisCA posted, but I've been using iMessage since its inception, and I was admittedly lax in my details. Let's just say, I understood your messages.

I want to say thank you to everyone who provided feedback. Not enough can be said about community input and the results are normally very positive. Unfortunately, I took the easy road - I changed my phone number. I'd only had this number a few days and a handful of people had it, so it was the path of least resistance.

Thanks again to all.

Sincerely,

Jim

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Answer 13

djuknow1

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2013 4:31 PM in response to jimwoodard

just call apple i had the same problem and they just deleted the number from i message

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Answer 14

Nov 11, 2013 6:31 AM in response to jimwoodard

You don't need to unregister your phone; you don't need to call apple. You need to go into iMessage settings on ALL of YOUR devices that are using iMessage. Once you've turned off iMessage on all of your devices, other people with iPhones will then be able to text your non-apple phone...

I just switched from an iPhone 4 to a Samsung Galaxy S3 and had the same problem: all non-apple phones could send and receive texts with me fine; the people who I could CALL but not text were iOS devices (phones). When I went into my OLD iPhone, iPad, and iMac, and turned off iMessage on ALL three devices using iMessage, I was able to begin receiving/sending texts with iPhones, no problem. IT'S ALL ABOUT YOUR iMESSAGE SETTINGS! 🙂

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Answer 15

Nov 14, 2013 2:25 PM in response to crscott82

That's great, if you still have all the devices you've logged into iMessage with. However, if you sold an iPhone, and you didn't realize you had to explicitly turn of iMessage before you did a Erase All Settings and Content (you'd think doing so would tell iMessage it's logged out) or worse yet, youre phone was stolen, so you couldn't deactivate iMessage on it, then this doesn't help. For some reason, the Erase All Settings doesn't seem to be considered the same thing as logging out of iMessage specficially on the device. That in there lies the rub. Apple has not bothered to make an iMessage maintanence page which allows a user to log into thier ID, and disassociate a number in a case where they no longer have the ability to do so on a device that had that number on it. The'y're only solution is to assume we still have all the devices in our possession. Or, you have to call them, based on what one of the previous posters stated.

Kind of disappointing, considering how thier devices and service are supposed to be "everything just works". Sorry. This just doesn't work.

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