Can't delete individual messages since the IOS8 upgrade.

Do you mean individual lines within a conversation? If you press and hold a block (like you were going to copy it) you should get the options: "copy" or "more". Tap "more" and the lines will shift to the right with bubbles appearing next to them. The one you held down will have a check mark in it's bubble. You will then see the trashcan on the bottom left and be able to delete whatever lines you wish.

It works differently in iOS 8.

1. Tap and hold the individual message.
2. Tap More
3. Tap the Trash Can to delete the message.

Hm, that is weird. You should definitely have a trash can on the left side and an arrow on the right side. I'm no further help. Good luck!

I cannot see you screenshot. The forums have a bug affecting some images.

You can try resetting your iPhone by simultaneously pressing and holding the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons until you see the Apple Logo. This can take up to 15 seconds so be patient and don't release the buttons until the logo appears. Try again to see if theTrash Can is still not there.

I have the same problem with the iPhone 6 Plus on IOS 8.0.2. When I want to delete individual text messages, I click on more, and then select individual messages. While I select messages, the trash can disappears, and the camera icon appears in its place. I need to leave messages, close the application (by swiping up on the home screen), and then restart messages. I can then delete messages again, but the trash may still disappear. It does this even if I reset the phone. I found that if I only delete a few messages at a time, I have less headaches. I still need may to restart at times but don't face the issue of selecting many messages and finding that I'm unable to delete them. I've seen several posts where people experience the same problem in mail with IOS 8.

I get the same issue (iPhone 5, iOS 8.1 but it's been happening since 8.0.0).

I don't have a permanent solution -- I'd love to find one -- but a quicker temporary fix that works for me is to kill the Messages app from the task switcher. The trash can then reappears. It's still frustrating but better than having to reset or restart the phone.

I realized later that the trash can never appears when trying to delete multiple messages instead of disappearing while selecting individual messages to delete. I found that if I close messages and open the app again, it clears the problem most of the time.

Since you have a pattern to replicate the issue, you should report that as a bug with the reproduction scenario to Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I have this issue also, it appears as though the Messages app is not detecting the context and switching to the right menu at the bottom. In addition, the other problems that show up when this happens are:

• If you try to take a photo to send in a message, the camera app opens but the keyboard continues to cover the bottom of the screen (so you can't press the shutter button).
• When you respond to an incoming message, the cursor doesn't automatically appear in the text box - you type characters, but they go nowhere. You have to actually tap once in the message box before typing.
• When you tap send, even though the audio recording button isn't visible, as soon as your finger hits the screen the audio button pops up and a recording begins.

I would really like to go back to iOS 7. Even after 3 minor updates, iOS 8 is still very sloppy. Bad Apple!

I have exactly the same problem, and it has been happening ever since the upgrade to iOS8

It appears to be an occasional bug, sometimes the Dustbin appears perfectly normally, others it will not. 😟

The quick fix is to completely close Messages .... (double click the Home button to show all open Apps, scroll to Messages and close by swiping up to the top of the screen)

Re open Messages App and the Dustbin will appear as it should.