How do I get Messages to stop sending from my email address instead of my phone number?

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Level 1

60 points

How do I get Messages to stop sending from my email address instead of my phone number?

I've had several people tell me that texts I've sent from my iPhone have been showing up as <myemailadd>@mac.com instead of my phone number. It started doing that under iOS7. I don't want my email address sent with my phone-originated texts. I don't want my email address broadcast to people that shouldn't have it.

So what do I need to change to make sure that phone texts originate from my phone number, home texts show my email address, and both are viewable on both my iPhone and iMac?

iPhone 5, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 29, 2014 2:12 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

stevejobsfan0123

Level 9

54,384 points

Sep 29, 2014 2:13 PM in response to Chuck Gray

Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Select your phone number under "Start new conversations from."

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Answer 2

Chuck Gray Author

Level 1

60 points

Sep 29, 2014 2:19 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

Thats how I have it set up. It still sends from my mac.com address to certain addresses, even though I'm sending from the iPhone with the phone number set as the origination site. Also, I've noticed that I have yesterday's correspondence with one of those people showing up on my iMac, but today's conversations did not.

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Answer 3

Jan 6, 2017 8:58 AM in response to Chuck Gray

This did not work for me on iphone 5S there is no "send/receipt" after tapping setting, messages,

I continually have an email address and phone number for each persons name when I go to "text" how do I remove this.

Also widgets appear on the opening screen after I swipe to the right "edit" comes up; you tap, widgets appear, I don't want this either.

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Answer 4

mamboMD

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2017 2:18 PM in response to Chuck Gray

This happens to me every time I switch sim cards when I go to another country and then come back to the US. It's a good idea to restart the phone when switching sim cards or you can go to settings,messages and toggle iMessage off and then on again.

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Answer 5

Sep 29, 2014 2:28 PM in response to Chuck Gray

Try signing out of iMessage (and FaceTime) and sign back in. Just for kicks, maybe do an iPhone reset in between.

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Answer 6

Chuck Gray Author

Level 1

60 points

Sep 29, 2014 2:38 PM in response to rockmyplimsoul

I have FaceTime fully disabled so I'm not worried about that.

I went into the iMessage settings and saw where I could sign my Apple ID out, I presume that was what you meant? I did that, and before signing back in I decided to try to send and receive texts. Lo and behold, they're showing up with just my phone number as the originator on some test devices I have around me. Blue bubbles too, which means they're coming through the Apple servers not SMS. Unfortunately, none of my test messages are showing up on my iMac, so for some reason iMessage isn't talking to Messages on the iMac.

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Answer 7

Sep 29, 2014 2:44 PM in response to Chuck Gray

Chuck Gray wrote:

Unfortunately, none of my test messages are showing up on my iMac, so for some reason iMessage isn't talking to Messages on the iMac.

Check to make sure you're signed into the same iCloud account on iPhone and iMac, and even if you are maybe try signing out on the iMac and signing back in.

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Answer 8

Chuck Gray Author

Level 1

60 points

Sep 29, 2014 2:47 PM in response to rockmyplimsoul

Same account. I signed out and back in, nothing changed. A test message sent from a phone on another account went to my phone, but not my iMac.

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Answer 9

Chuck Gray Author

Level 1

60 points

Sep 29, 2014 2:56 PM in response to rockmyplimsoul

I think its fixed. I had to sign iMessages in on my Apple ID, but then deselect my email addresses to make it behave the way it should. Now if I could get iMessage to only send response alerts to the last device I used, instead of late night texts going to every device I own in the house and waking everyone up.

For some reason, the free iCloud address I automatically received (when Apple was trying to force people to leave Mac.com) is "hardwired" into iMessage. People were also getting texts from that address even though I was on my phone. I tried to delete it but iOS tells me I can't. I don't use that address, I won't ever use it, too bad I can't make it go away.

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Answer 10

Chuck Gray Author

Level 1

60 points

Sep 29, 2014 4:40 PM in response to Chuck Gray

No, now its worse. I just received an iMessage from a friend. It went to my iMac but not my iPhone. Now I have a second iMessage icon showing up at the top of my dock (I have it installed on the right edge of my screen not the bottom), and it has a little thing grafted on to it that looks like an iPhone. Clicking on it does nothing. If my iPhone goes to sleep the second icon vanishes.

What the heck is going on with this thing?

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Answer 11

Dec 17, 2014 2:39 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

I see that my email is selected there, but my phone number is grayed-out and I can't select it. What's the issue? This all happened in the last two hours when I was reseting iCloud passwords and settings on my Mac and iPhone 5

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Answer 12

Dec 17, 2014 4:17 PM in response to hgrossberg

Sign out of your iMessage account, then send a text to anyone (maybe a few). Wait a bit and then sign back into iMessage to see if your account now sees your phone number as the "send from" default.

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