iMessage not working with ios8
I have just updated iOS8 and my iMessage is not working. It is in blue when i text it shows to some peopl delivered but to some nothing 😟 what is wrong?
iPhone 5s, iOS 8
Newsroom Update
Apple is introducing a new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop, matching watch face, and dynamic iOS and iPadOS wallpapers as a way to champion global movements to protect and advance equality for LGBTQ+ communities. Learn more >
Apple is introducing a new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop, matching watch face, and dynamic iOS and iPadOS wallpapers as a way to champion global movements to protect and advance equality for LGBTQ+ communities. Learn more >
I have just updated iOS8 and my iMessage is not working. It is in blue when i text it shows to some peopl delivered but to some nothing 😟 what is wrong?
iPhone 5s, iOS 8
Warning, before you do the below steps, write down which iCloud account you have used in your phone's Settings app in the iCloud panel. Make sure you know the password for this by going into iCloud.com on your computer and logging in with that account. If you don't know the password, STOP HERE and don't proceed until you figure it out.
To fix this here's what you need to do (if you don't know how to do one of these steps then google it or use a link I provided):
This problem is caused by Apple's update process, and this is the same problem they have had with every update. What happens is that there are activation tokens stored in an SQLite system database inside your phone's hidden iOS system folders. For some reason if those tokens become invalidated by the update process, then the iOS software does not properly delete those tokens, even if you turn iMessage off and then back on again, or even if you remove your iCloud account entirely.
Only by doing the steps shown above can you fix this, because when you set up your phone as new, then those old invalid tokens won't exist anymore, and when you first reactivate iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime on the newly-restored phone in step 8-12, then your phone will establish fresh, valid tokens for all those services with the cell phone towers. When you Restore from Backup in step 14, iTunes follows a series of programmed commands to restore the data back to your phone. Part of those commands is that it looks to see if your phone already has those new tokens. If it does, and those tokens are associated with the same iCloud account as the one that was active at the time of your backup, then iTunes won't overwrite the new tokens with the old, invalid ones. 😀 That way your phone keeps working even after the restore.
However if you just wipe the data off your phone and restore from a backup, without doing steps 8-12 first, then your phone will use the old, invalid tokens from your backup. I view this as a MAJOR flaw in Apple's iTunes restoration process, and I have told them about it on several occasions using official bug reports, but they closed those reports as duplicates and still have never fixed this issue, and never responded. I even personally e-mailed Tim Cook about this problem, telling him that it was a major problem and explaining why their developer bug testing procedure for iOS does not detect this bug.
The reason why Apple's developer bug testing program has not solved this issue is because developers are explicitly instructed NOT to try to bug test the standard update procedure, but instead, they are told to install each beta version onto a freshly-wiped device by following a very strict procedure that is similar to the one I have described above. It was only through following that strict procedure AND adding the additional step of activating with iMessage and FaceTime prior to restoring from backup that I was able to finally solve this issue for myself.
This is not a negative comment but in my opinion Apple could improve its quality control of user experience by getting a significantly large random group of various users to update to the beta iOS over-the-air and see if they encounter these kinds of problems.
Based on my experience as a developer I strongly believe this issue is caused by a problem in the way Apple uses its own CoreData framework to migrate the database containing the iMessage and FaceTime service tokens during over-the-air update procedures, combined with a lack of adequate bug-busting "robustness" code. What their code should be doing is that if the device has recently been updated and yet iMessage and FaceTime do not properly activate after a certain period of time, then their code should automatically delete these tokens out of the database and try to create new ones. If it still doesn't work then it should wipe the entire database they are part of, and build a new one from scratch.
Over the years I have noticed a lot of problems with Apple software related to CoreData databases getting corrupted and the software not having the proper "robustness" code in it to notice when this has happened by detecting unusual spikes in processor usage, application freezes and crashes, etc. When these bad symptoms happen, then these apps like iPhoto and Mail should automatically perform rebuilds on their databases. Search these forums and you will find thousands upon thousands of unhappy Apple customers who have had iPhoto, Mail, iCloud, iWork apps, not to mention Spotlight!! and others experience severe data loss, total crashing of the computer, locking up of the system, etc. etc.
They really need OS X and iOS to auto-detect when they have performance, connectivity, and data integrity problems, and self-diagnose what the problem likely is, and then fix it. It would greatly reduce the load on Apple's support staff and make their products vastly more reliable. Sadly I doubt they will ever read this message, nor will they ever hire someone like me to work for them who is good at finding and fixing deep-level problems. (I've already applied to work there in just this sort of job and they didn't hire me.)
Warning, before you do the below steps, write down which iCloud account you have used in your phone's Settings app in the iCloud panel. Make sure you know the password for this by going into iCloud.com on your computer and logging in with that account. If you don't know the password, STOP HERE and don't proceed until you figure it out.
To fix this here's what you need to do (if you don't know how to do one of these steps then google it or use a link I provided):
This problem is caused by Apple's update process, and this is the same problem they have had with every update. What happens is that there are activation tokens stored in an SQLite system database inside your phone's hidden iOS system folders. For some reason if those tokens become invalidated by the update process, then the iOS software does not properly delete those tokens, even if you turn iMessage off and then back on again, or even if you remove your iCloud account entirely.
Only by doing the steps shown above can you fix this, because when you set up your phone as new, then those old invalid tokens won't exist anymore, and when you first reactivate iCloud, iMessage, and FaceTime on the newly-restored phone in step 8-12, then your phone will establish fresh, valid tokens for all those services with the cell phone towers. When you Restore from Backup in step 14, iTunes follows a series of programmed commands to restore the data back to your phone. Part of those commands is that it looks to see if your phone already has those new tokens. If it does, and those tokens are associated with the same iCloud account as the one that was active at the time of your backup, then iTunes won't overwrite the new tokens with the old, invalid ones. 😀 That way your phone keeps working even after the restore.
However if you just wipe the data off your phone and restore from a backup, without doing steps 8-12 first, then your phone will use the old, invalid tokens from your backup. I view this as a MAJOR flaw in Apple's iTunes restoration process, and I have told them about it on several occasions using official bug reports, but they closed those reports as duplicates and still have never fixed this issue, and never responded. I even personally e-mailed Tim Cook about this problem, telling him that it was a major problem and explaining why their developer bug testing procedure for iOS does not detect this bug.
The reason why Apple's developer bug testing program has not solved this issue is because developers are explicitly instructed NOT to try to bug test the standard update procedure, but instead, they are told to install each beta version onto a freshly-wiped device by following a very strict procedure that is similar to the one I have described above. It was only through following that strict procedure AND adding the additional step of activating with iMessage and FaceTime prior to restoring from backup that I was able to finally solve this issue for myself.
This is not a negative comment but in my opinion Apple could improve its quality control of user experience by getting a significantly large random group of various users to update to the beta iOS over-the-air and see if they encounter these kinds of problems.
Based on my experience as a developer I strongly believe this issue is caused by a problem in the way Apple uses its own CoreData framework to migrate the database containing the iMessage and FaceTime service tokens during over-the-air update procedures, combined with a lack of adequate bug-busting "robustness" code. What their code should be doing is that if the device has recently been updated and yet iMessage and FaceTime do not properly activate after a certain period of time, then their code should automatically delete these tokens out of the database and try to create new ones. If it still doesn't work then it should wipe the entire database they are part of, and build a new one from scratch.
Over the years I have noticed a lot of problems with Apple software related to CoreData databases getting corrupted and the software not having the proper "robustness" code in it to notice when this has happened by detecting unusual spikes in processor usage, application freezes and crashes, etc. When these bad symptoms happen, then these apps like iPhoto and Mail should automatically perform rebuilds on their databases. Search these forums and you will find thousands upon thousands of unhappy Apple customers who have had iPhoto, Mail, iCloud, iWork apps, not to mention Spotlight!! and others experience severe data loss, total crashing of the computer, locking up of the system, etc. etc.
They really need OS X and iOS to auto-detect when they have performance, connectivity, and data integrity problems, and self-diagnose what the problem likely is, and then fix it. It would greatly reduce the load on Apple's support staff and make their products vastly more reliable. Sadly I doubt they will ever read this message, nor will they ever hire someone like me to work for them who is good at finding and fixing deep-level problems. (I've already applied to work there in just this sort of job and they didn't hire me.)
I am also having an iMessage problem with iOS8 on the iPhone 5. I had an iMessage conversation open with someone, and suddenly their iMessages appeared in a brand new conversation and the old conversation (that had previously been iMessages) turned into text messages. Now I have two conversations for every person, split between text and iMessages! Please let me know if you find a solution!!!
It's absolutely ridiculous that we have to go through this circus to fix this problem. I appreciate the time and effort you have put into this answer, but people just don't have this kind of time. Many of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances are having a slew of iMessage problems and Apple refuses to officially acknowledge that there is a problem. We see duplicated streams, with one as iMessage the other turning into text. We see iMessage working one minute and literally within seconds, in the same conversation, it just stops, along with normal texting. All of my contacts who had a phone number listed as "iPhone" are now showing up as simply "mobile", and when I try to iMessage them in a new conversation I get the error that they are not registered as iMessage users, even though I know they are. It's absolutely absurd the number of problems we are seeing with iMessage. But, Apple's refusal to address this issue is even more absurd.
iMessage not working with ios8