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Switched from iPhone, can't receive iPhone users texts.

I recently switched from iPhone to Android and now I no longer receive texts from iPhone users. I have removed my iPhone from my apple support profile as of Monday of this week, removed my iPhone from Cloud services as of Monday as well, and still have not been able to receive messages. I can't even receive a MMS message from an iPhone user. Is there any solution that doesn't require every iPhone user to delete me and re-add me to contacts or have to turn off iMessage?


It's a little ridiculous that Apple intentionally coded their phone so poorly as to punish users for switching to a different phone while Android doesn't extend the same slight. All I want to do is be able to communicate with my sister and other loved ones and I can't because Apple has a problem with me paying the same price for a phone with double the capacity of an iPhone. It's like I'm being held hostage my Apple and last I checked, I wasn't America and they're not the Tea Party.

iPhone 4, iOS 7, Switched to Android, no texts

Posted on Oct 13, 2013 5:07 AM

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Posted on Nov 15, 2013 5:20 AM

You all need to CALL Apple and have them disassociate your phone # with iMessage.


I agree there should be an easier and more friendly way, but this is per their support document. The only other way around this would be to put your SIM into an iPhone, activate iMessage, then deactivate it and put your SIM back into your phone.

33 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 15, 2013 5:20 AM in response to Stevey247

You all need to CALL Apple and have them disassociate your phone # with iMessage.


I agree there should be an easier and more friendly way, but this is per their support document. The only other way around this would be to put your SIM into an iPhone, activate iMessage, then deactivate it and put your SIM back into your phone.

Mar 29, 2014 11:28 AM in response to BD34

Hi all. I had a friend who just switched to Android and was having the same issue. My iPhone was attempting to send via iMessage, and I did this trick to get my phone to reset to text when messaging my friend: Typed and sent her a message. When the blue bubble popped up with my message in it, I pressed and held on the bubble until a box popped up that said "send as text message". After two messages of doing that and choosing "send as text message" my iPhone defaulted to text message when texting my friend. It's not a perfect fix, but hope this helps some.

Nov 20, 2013 10:46 AM in response to BD34

All,


Call Apple IPhone Support @

U.S. iPhone technical support:

(800) MY-IPHONE (800-694-7466)


Explain to them that you switched to an Android phone (in my case it was business related, the new company I joined is heavily integrated with Google) and you need your iMessage certificate unregistered from the Apple servers. The technical support person I spoke with (Kristin) said this has been a common issue when people do not shutoff iMessage before wiping their old iPhone. Of course why would one do this!!!!


When you call, the automated prompt will tell you that if you are past your 90 days of complimentry support there will be a $19.00 fee + tax but hit "0" and explain to the support person the situation and they don't hassle you about it. The whole call took no more than 10 minutes.


An additional note is that there will be a 24 hour (I am still waiting to confirm this) where anyone that has you in their contacts as a person with iMessage capability will get a "message send" failure. They have the option to send it as a text message if they have it enabled in Settings -> Messages -> Send as SMS enabled. After 3 iMessage failures it will default to sending as a SMS message *BUT* only for that active conversation. Once the conversation is deleted, it will try to send as iMessage again until the Apple servers update (again still waiting for confirmation on this).


Hope this helps everyone as this is a rediculous waste of time on all of our parts! 😠

Nov 19, 2013 3:02 PM in response to RussR3218

I dissociated my phone from iTunes and it seemed to work fora handful of people sending me texts. After some others were not getting throughi called Apple. I didn't have any problems with them trekking me too pay. Todd themi no longer had the phone andi needed them to disassociate my number from the imessage server. Took 24 hours but it worked. Keep calling them and keep talking to supervisors if you need to. They can do it and they are well aware of the issue

Nov 15, 2013 5:11 AM in response to BD34

Im having the same issue, no longer have access to the phone. Apple have deliberately made this awkward as to penalise people leaving. They are also not admitting fault and after 5 calls and being told crap information that didnt work from Apple Support I still have the problem.


Tried everything have disassociated my number from my apple ID have followed a text cancellation procedure Apple Care sent me again this didnt work either. Tried various other things too but alas to no avail.. this is costing me hundreds of £££'s per day as I am self employed and no longer getting messages from clients wishing to book me. I am fuming!!!

Aug 11, 2014 6:33 AM in response to BD34

I found this today....according to Apple, the following DO NOT work:

  • Logging in to My Support Profile and changing your password or removing your phone number
  • Texting STOP to 48369
  • Resetting your network settings
  • Changing your Apple ID password


They say if you don't have access to your old phone, you need to contact Apple.


Here is the full article:

Can’t receive text messages on a non-Apple phone

Jan 3, 2014 2:49 PM in response to BD34

I just went through this on my son's phone. We disable iMessage on his most recent iphone but I discovered it was still enabled on his older 3GS phone that is looong gone. That's why it only works sometimes. If you log into iCloud and then click devices and it shows more than 1 iphone and 1 ipad then you will most likely have the same problem. Just removing it from your account will not disable iMessage, you will need to call Apple support and have them do it.

Switched from iPhone, can't receive iPhone users texts.

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