jman0613

Q: "iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message?

What does "iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message" mean?  I can't get my messages to send and when I try that pops up. What is it and how can I fix it?

iPhone 4, iOS 6.1.4

Posted on Jul 22, 2013 3:38 PM

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Q: "iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message?

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  • by goldgg,

    goldgg goldgg Jan 19, 2015 1:10 PM in response to inarf02
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2015 1:10 PM in response to inarf02

    This worked for me too.  Disable iMessage, delete the draft text and the entire thread with that person, start a new text and then it sends just fine. thanks!

  • by amlee17,

    amlee17 amlee17 Jan 28, 2015 7:30 AM in response to leesehome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2015 7:30 AM in response to leesehome

    Resetting the Network Settings worked for me. Thanks.

  • by Bruce Sellnow,

    Bruce Sellnow Bruce Sellnow Feb 12, 2015 9:29 AM in response to jman0613
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 12, 2015 9:29 AM in response to jman0613

    Holy Mackerel!  I've been searching for the solution to this for a couple months, and now I just found it. This is the EASY fix people.

     

    The reason it is trying to send using IMESSAGE is that it's trying to continue a thread you had before with that recipient. Just open up the message window and at the top do a search for that person's name. Then for each entry found (including groups if you want) swipe them left to delete them. When you're done, the screen should be pretty much blank. Start a new message to this person and it should come up GREEN as SMS and you're good to go.

     

    Note I didn't have to do anything in my settings or reboot the phone or any of that stuff. I've had iMessage turned off for a while and have been dealing with this problem for some time.

  • by Craig Kerr,

    Craig Kerr Craig Kerr Feb 16, 2015 4:16 PM in response to Bruce Sellnow
    Level 2 (230 points)
    Feb 16, 2015 4:16 PM in response to Bruce Sellnow

    Great that everyone was able to defeat the Apple software engineers' ineptitude at their craft with workarounds.  But, whatever happened to "it just works"?  The point here is that Apple has a mess to clean up and refuses.  I have supplied them with the simple fix:  This would be a separate, industry standard SMS app, for regular type non iMessage texts, which do not go thru Apple servers, which go over the carrier's servers, with an icon at the bottom row next to the phone app.  Then, just get rid of iMessage entirely.  Everybody hates it anyway.

  • by kneemick,

    kneemick kneemick Apr 10, 2015 5:02 PM in response to arwen jersey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 10, 2015 5:02 PM in response to arwen jersey

    Just updated to ios 8.3 and got bubble saying imessage had to be turned on. Toggling it on then off seems to have worked

  • by armstrong1z8,

    armstrong1z8 armstrong1z8 Apr 14, 2015 11:09 AM in response to Craig Kerr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 14, 2015 11:09 AM in response to Craig Kerr

    Agreed! Toggling iMessage does the trick for me, but why can't SMS just work?  Stop trying to force iMessage on everyone.

  • by AnthonyNC,

    AnthonyNC AnthonyNC May 12, 2015 12:32 PM in response to jman0613
    Level 1 (9 points)
    May 12, 2015 12:32 PM in response to jman0613

    I just got this too. After years of using iMessage without any issue, this message pops up.  Then I go to Settings, Messages and it says "waiting for activation" ?  WHY????????   I've activated it years ago, upgraded the phone 3 times, I cant count how many OS updates too.  Never a problem.  All of a sudden?

     

    This is getting pathetic. Things that should just work, stop working.  Really disgusted with this phone lately.

  • by AnthonyNC,

    AnthonyNC AnthonyNC May 12, 2015 12:36 PM in response to Craig Kerr
    Level 1 (9 points)
    May 12, 2015 12:36 PM in response to Craig Kerr

    Then, just get rid of iMessage entirely.

     

    Speak for yourself.

     

    Everybody hates it anyway.

     

    No, not everybody.  My family, my friends, we all love it and wont use SMS.  Thats about 20-something people and I bet there are more besides us.

  • by SR_LA,

    SR_LA SR_LA May 30, 2015 11:00 PM in response to AnthonyNC
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 30, 2015 11:00 PM in response to AnthonyNC

    I agree. My family and I love using iMessage. Very convenient to share large numbers of pictures and videos, even though it eats up your data when you have to use 4G/LGE, but perfect at home or office with wifi.

  • by SR_LA,

    SR_LA SR_LA May 30, 2015 11:10 PM in response to jman0613
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 30, 2015 11:10 PM in response to jman0613

    My family and I love using iMessage. Very convenient to share large numbers of pictures and videos, even though it eats up your data when you have to use 4G/LGE, but perfect at home or office with wifi. However, it is EXTREMELY annoying that I do not have an easy option to switch to SMS when I want. Right now, I am visiting Canada, and I want to avoid roaming charges. I signed up for a global package with 100 SMS/100 MB data, so I want to use the SMS option instead of having  iMessage eat up data when I am outside my hotel room. It is soooo frustrating!!! I tried switching iMessage and Facetime on/off and restarting my phone, but it just does not work. And I refuse to delete my 3-year text history with my wife, so the option of deleting a thread and starting a new one is no good for me.

     

    sabinscabin's workaround is the only method that worked and did not involve deleting a thread or resetting network settings. It simply boils down to what inarf02 said, that if a thread is using iMessage, it will keep trying to send new messages using iMessage, and will not work if you slide iMessage to OFF in Settings. Anyway, here are the steps from sabinscabin's workaround with some additional steps at the end to make sure messages keep going as SMS when you switch cellular data/wifi back on.

     

    1. Go to Settings, then Messages. Make sure "iMessages" is ON and "Send as SMS" is ON.

    2. Go back to Settings and go to Cellular. Slide "Cellular Data" to OFF.

    3. Go back to Settings and go to Wi-Fi, and slide "Wi-Fi" to OFF.

    4. Go to the Messages app and send a message to the person you want to send SMS messages to.

    5. The message will start going out as a blue iMessage. Press and hold down on the message bubble until you see the option "Send as Text Message". Press this. Once you do this, the message should go out as a green SMS.

    6. Send one or two more messages to make sure they are still going out as green SMS.

    [REPEAT Steps 4-6 for each person that you want to switch from iMessage to SMS]

    7. Go back to Settings and go to Messages, and now slide 'iMessage" to OFF.

    8. Go back to Settings and go to Cellular, and slide "Cellular Data" back to ON (if you were using cellular data (3G/4G/LGE) to begin with).

    9. Go back to Settings and go to Wi-Fi, and slide "Wi-Fi" back to ON.

     

    This should set the threads to SMS, and now all messages to the person(s) in Step 4 will go as SMS. Note that If there is more than one person that you want to switch from iMessage to SMS, you have to repeat Steps 4-6 for each person BEFORE going to Step 7. Otherwise, if you switch iMessage to OFF, text messages will not go to people with an iMessage thread - you will get the "iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message" error. A BIG downside is that if you accidentally switch iMessages back ON at any point, all threads will return to iMessage, and you have to start all over.

     

    This is really roundabout, but it's the only thing that worked without deleting any existing threads or resetting network settings (that still doesn't make sense to me). I cannot comprehend why Apple does not give us an easy option for switching from iMessage to SMS. It shouldn't require programming more extensive than, say, first-year-college-programming courses. They do have programmers on their staff, right? Don't they realize that there is a whole world outside of the USA where cellular data is not free or cheap for US travelers???

     

    [To Apple: sorry for lashing out at you in the previous paragraph. I love your products, but this is extremely frustrating problem that you should have fixed, and I did spend the last 3 hours obsessing over it].

  • by Bleegan ,

    Bleegan Bleegan Jun 6, 2015 10:48 AM in response to leesehome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 10:48 AM in response to leesehome

    Anything new to do for iPhone 6. Clearly it's enabled and did not have this issue. I did everything listed and even realize my paper with network password is gone from bottom of my router and loat my info to no avail. This is just maddening as it's clearly maddening that I cannot send 3 photos to my sis a non iPhone user but I can send 1 of the 3 photos to a friend who is an iPhone user.

  • by triplefuego,

    triplefuego triplefuego Jul 11, 2015 11:54 AM in response to sabinscabin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 11, 2015 11:54 AM in response to sabinscabin

    I followed your instructions, and got the message bubble to turn green- then turned off iMessage and tried to send a text. Alas, I get the same message that I need to enable iMessage, and it's blue again. This is only happening with one of my contacts, and it's driving me nuts.

  • by triplefuego,

    triplefuego triplefuego Jul 11, 2015 12:05 PM in response to leesehome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 11, 2015 12:05 PM in response to leesehome

    Thank you! This worked, although when I turned iMessage back on after doing the reset, I didn't wait for it to activate before I turned the phone off and back on. Maybe it's just the reset itself that got rid of the problem. (I was having the problem of not being able to text without activating iMessage to only one of my contacts.)

  • by BubbaDaLubba,

    BubbaDaLubba BubbaDaLubba Jul 17, 2015 6:45 PM in response to jman0613
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 17, 2015 6:45 PM in response to jman0613

    I went to Settings, WIFI, then "Renew Lease". After 3 days of battling with this problem, that's what restored my texting ability.

  • by rdunlop,

    rdunlop rdunlop Oct 1, 2015 8:13 AM in response to jman0613
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 1, 2015 8:13 AM in response to jman0613

    Two years after the OP and I am also encountering this problem. I have an iPhone 6plus on iOS 9.0.2

     

    I want to send my husband a message as an SMS because he is travelling internationally and has his data turned off. He cannot receive iMessages unless connected to WiFi. He can receive SMS anywhere at any time via his cellular network.

     

    If I am quick enough, I can hold the message as it is sending and get the 'send as text' option. If the message has already gone to the Apple server, with the status 'delivered', I lose that option. 'Delivered' means Apple have the message on their servers, it doesn't mean it has been received by my husband's phone.

     

    That all being a pain, I normally turn off iMessage while my husband is abroad so messages I send him automatically go as SMS. But all of a sudden, if I turn off iMessage and try to send a message to my husband, or anyone else with whom I have previous iMessage conversations, I get the alert that iMessage has to be turned on to send the message. The phone is preventing me from sending SMS messages. Which are technically a feature of my carrier, not my phone.

     

    I have tried all the fixes listed in this thread EXCEPT deleting the conversation thread. That's just not an option for me. I'm going to report this as a bug to Apple, because there is no technical reason why this should be happening. And then I'm going to download a different messaging app for SMS.

     

    Anyone found a solution that works other than those listed here?

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