Messages appearing in wrong threads

Question

Messages appearing in wrong threads

Hi - I have a probelm where Messages sent from one thread are being received in a different thread by the recipient(s).

Here's the background. My family of 4 has a group chat. Each family member has mutiple devices (a laptop (latest Maverics) and an iOS device) and each family member has their phone number and .mac/.me/.icloud accounts registered to iMessage. Each family member also has their phone number as their default send-from account and we have gone through the various threads and deleted any that refer to an email address.

Why do I keep getting mutiple threads?

Why do messages appear as being received by a registered email adress when it was sent to the recpients phone number?

Is there any way to consolidate these trheads?

Is there any drawback to unregistering all of the email addresses for the 4 of us?

Thanks!

Chuck

MacBook Pro, MacBook, iMac Core 2 Duo 24, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Airport Extreme/Express/AppleTV/iPhone/iPad

Posted on Apr 25, 2014 11:35 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 25, 2014 1:25 PM in response to Chuck Coulson1

Hi,

Does this:-

... and each family member has their phone number and .mac/.me/.icloud accounts registered to iMessage.

mean each has multiple email (but Apple IDs) linked to their iMessages account ?

Or do you mean that some of you have older @mac.com, some @me.com linked to iCloud and some actual @icloud.com ones as well ?

Multiple threads tends to mean that the sender of that particular iMessages has not selected the group chat.

Replies tend to be sent from the ID the original iMessage was sent to. So if one child sees the conversation starting to their email ID then their replies will tend to come from that email ID despite any setting otherwise about Starting a conversation.

Un-linking an Apple ID on a device or Mac to "force" it to use the iPhone Number will effectively mean you can't be in the group chat and it will show you as a Separate thread person.

Add in to this that sometimes an iPhone number will somehow get deselected on the iPhone so that it is not registered with iMessages. (you have to remove the Apple ID and then turn off the iPhone to then be able to Re-register the number before adding back the Apple ID).

You cannot "merge" or consolidate the threads.

I would be tempted to remove the Apple IDs from the iPhones and deselect them on any Mac involved.

I would then start and new group chat base on just those iPhone Numbers.

Once that is done people can re-add the Apple IDs to the phones and re-enable it on the Mac.

Don't close the conversation anywhere so that you can be sure of reselecting it to send new iMessages.

9:25 pm Friday; April 25, 2014

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

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Answer 2

Apr 26, 2014 11:25 AM in response to Chuck Coulson1

Hi,

If, in the case of your wife as you describe, her ID appears in different thread that sounds like it is to do with the Contacts App (either on the iPhone or a syncing issue with your Mac).

7:25 pm Saturday; April 26, 2014

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Reply

Answer 3

Apr 25, 2014 3:54 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Thanks Ralph. yes, I mean that each of us have a mac.com, a me.com and an icloud.com email address. Been subscribers for a long time and as the packaging has changed we have received new addresses.

I don't think this is an issue of a use responding to the wrong thread. In my case, I can send a message to the group and when my wife responds, her response will show up on my Mac Message in the right thread, but on my iPhone in a different thread.

I think I may try to unlink all of the email addresses and ensure that everybody has their right phone number associated and start a new thread. Then, if that goes well, add back in the email addresses to the account profiles.

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