Why is iMessage splitting group conversations into multiple threads after upgrading to iOS 8?

Apole needs to get on this quick. I shouldn't have to try all of these steps to send a group message and keep it in the same thread. It doesn't seem To matter who create the group message. As soon as I respond the message breaks into seperate threads and I receivd half of the conversation. i am getting frustrated with Apple with all their updates having some type of bug. Don't they test their updates before sending them out? maybe that is why everyone I know who went to Samsung say they will never buy an iphone again. Apple fix this or lose another customer.

I found the solution to fix this problem. Go to App Store, and search for WhatsApp. Download, install & use, problem fixed.

At least I'm not the only one having this problem… There are 4 of us in a group text that has been going on for years. First time it became an issue was when I upgraded to Yosemite and used Messages on the Mac-- thought I had it all fixed when I realized there was one additional address for me on my Mac's Message settings. That worked for quite a while. Then it started up again a month or so ago and I noticed on my husband's phone (he's one of the group) that, though I couldn't tell what address he was using for me, one of the two split threads had my name capitalized and one didn't. Got rid of the one and it all stayed a single thread again. Now this morning, I reply from my iPhone and it split again… *I* have yet to see any splits, just some of the other participants… (though, actually, I saw one once when it was just 3 of us)

And I never knew you could even name a group (just found that out a few minutes ago from the post!), so I don't think that's our issue, though I could see that causing issues for some.

All 4 are iPhones, they span AT&T, Verizon and Sprint (though some are on wifi when they're in use), 3 are on iOS8 with 1 still on iOS7, at least 2 of us use both the iPhone and the Mac…

We have finally solved our problems. I'll explain what we did, though from the sounds of the other responses, my fix won't work for everyone. There were 5 in our group. Initially, not everyone in the group could even receive a message from me (I'm on an iPhone with iMessage enabled), so we started testing. Three of us were on iPhones using ATT. The other two were using android phones with Verizon, I believe, and both of them had had converted from iPhones with ATT, where they had enabled iMessage. Neither of them had turned off iMessage before switching over to Android phones, so we started by deregistered their phone numbers with iMessage using this Apple support page: https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage. When that was done, we all deleted every message ever sent between any of the five of us, whether single or group messages, and rebooted our phones. I believe some of us also tried resetting our network settings. At that point, a new group message from me was successfully received by all, and replies from all but one person were successfully received within the group message. No one had ever renamed a group message, so that did not appear to be the issue for the remaining person. It ended up being a settings issue on that person's Android phone - she did not have group messaging enabled, so her phone was not able to reply to a group message. Instead, it replied back in a separate thread. Once she changed the setting and rebooted her phone, problem solved.

What a complicated and unpleasant solution to this problem, which Apple should have addressed long ago. This thread has been going on for months, and the problem for longer.

Yes, it's been happening to me too. Yes, it's unbelievably annoying. It occurred to me as well that throwing away all the threads might solve the problem... but who wants to throw out the baby pictures with the bathwater?

Come on, Apple. "It just works." Sure it does.

The reason that you see a split thread is that there are now multiple usernames/phone numbers linked to your imessage that you have enabled under "you can be reached for messages at: " and at some point, someone in your group removed and re-added you to the group using your email instead of phone number, or visa versa, which actually created a second group. One person now replies to the group+your phone number, while the others reply to group+your email. Since apple, in its infinite wisdom, does not allow you to see your own name in the group details, the details lists look identical to you, and imessage is not smart enough to merge the two back together, hence, either having everyone delete the list, and one person start a new one will solve the issue, OR, figure out who is replying to the "wrong" list and have them edit the details list.

You can test this by sending two messages to someone with two imessage accounts. Send one to their email, and one to their phone number, and they will see two separate imessages.

Thanks for the reply... You've illustrated the problem exactly.

Along with others here, I figured out the cause of this mess, namely the mixing of various phone numbers and email addresses on a thread. But the solution is ridiculous. No, I don't want to delete every conversation I've ever had, many of which are full of info or photos that I don't want to lose. And I don't want to make everybody I've ever texted with do the same.

A REAL solution would be for Apple to address this, and fix it. Letting their customers bear the brunt of solving problems that they created is no way to operate.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one feeling that way.

I completely agree with woid, Apple should try and make iMessage "smarter", and find a way to merge conversations without loosing all the data when removing threads.

I just need to add my comments so Apple sees more movement on this issue. It appears it's a very complicated problem and that there is all kinds of trouble shooting one has to go through to solve the problem. See list below:

1) What carrier are you on? AT&T only allows 11 total in a group (10+yourself)

2) What iOS and OS are you running? Best if everyone is on the same one in the group but not always necessary

3) Are you texting from laptop/desktop and iPad and iPhone? Settings, contacts, and phone number info all need to be uniform on all devices to prevent split messaging

4) How many threads have started on your chains already with the same group of people? Must erase all of them one by one on each device to start fresh

5) How many group threads have been named and renamed in the newer iOS? Must delete all threads and stick to no name or never rename the first name that is written out to avoid confused split threads on multiple devices

6) How about your contacts on your phone and computers? Are they in sync? Do you have duplicates? If you have someone under a thread for their email and another one for their phone number you may not even realize you just split the group message by adding in the wrong contact

I have a group with 11 iPhones and each of us has iPads and iMacs or MacBooks so I'm really not looking forward to all this work to prevent our messages from splitting... Apple really needs to address this!

I've got this issue too. Just submitted a bug report to Apple. If you want them to fix it submit a bug report here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/ichat.html

Excellent thread here. Lots of good details. I never noticed this problem on iOS7. It's new since iOS8.. but several of my family members in our main Family Chat thread aren't on iOS8 yet AND they are NOT seeing the multiple thread split issue. So I knew iOS8/Yosemite, alone, couldn't be the main issue.. Well others of you have correctly diagnosed that the issue is in the new iOS8 thread 'naming' feature. This starts the terrible thread split purgatory.. for ALL in the group thread.. Even older phones can start see the split threads.. but only when the originator of the 'naming' starts jumping around threads to try and keep their own phone organized. It's a terrible problem Apple HAS to fix.

But the person that also said you need to have your Contacts folder clean too.. with no multiple contacts, is absolutely correct! This is ALSO a problem on WhatsApp.. so you're not entirely problem free in WhatsApp if you have multiple contacts within WhatsApp.. but certainly the Apple iMessage group issue is a bigger one.

Also.. this thread has been conflating two issues.. Android users MUST HAVE their 'group message' feature turned on on their phone or their replies will always come back as only separate single threads with you as an iPhone iMessage user. When the Android user has that turned on - they will work very happily with an iMessage group thread. I love how in Yosemite you can text to Android user from your computer's iMessage app just as easily to iPhone users. This wasn't the case in Mavericks and before.. NICE feature!

So those of you who've identified the 'naming group threads' feature, starting in iOS8, are correct. And it's the only thing that explains every case that's been explained here. Some have confused the Android functionality with groups in with this and that's confused some of the cases... But in general, if you've experienced the thread breakup issue, either you or someone in your group is on iOS8 and has attempted to name the group and/or another person in group has tried to name it something different. As soon as all members of group remove the group names... and start a new thread - everything will be fine thereafter. You do NOT have to delete old groups..

But seriously gang.. Every time you see a video or pic come through in a text conversation you need to long press on it and say SAVE.. This will put all pics in camera roll. Don't ever let precious pics ONLY sit in a texting conversation. BAD practice!

Good day all. There is actually a pretty easy fix for this, and the best news is, you don't have to delete groups, and you will not lose chat histories.

First, go to your messages list, and for each conversation that SHOULD be part of the original group, go to details, and remove any and all group names.

Reboot device or restart Messages

Go to each conversation and update its details to include all of the contacts which should be in it. Do this for every orphaned conversation fragment. *I found that I had to also send a test message to the modified group after I changed the participants.

Reboot device or restart messages

With the group names removed and the recipients updated, all of the fragments will consolidate when the Messages app restarts. If you still have some rogue bits, double check the steps a second time, and make sure the participants are correct. If problems persist after that, see advice above about making sure your contacts are correct, and that iMessage is using consistent contact information across devices.

Each participant will have to do this on their own device.

Looks to me that the root cause is related to group names. Like others, I did notice this around the same time as an IOS 8 update. Personally, I stopped caring after my groups were sorted out. I'm not getting paid to investigate bug fixes, I just wanted my groups to work again. I haven't tried adding names to the repaired chats yet, so idk if that will rebreak it.

i know that many have probably tried this already but my wife and I recently intalled the latest upgrades on our iPhone 6's and ran into the issue being discussed here. After reading through the thread and not finding any group names, I restarted both of our phones and that did the trick. If you haven't tried that then give it a whirl before going crazy with the other solutions. If you have tried that then dig in with the other solutions.

I have been having this issue and just fixed it. In settings, go to messages, scroll down and make sure Group Messaging is enabled. Voila. 🙂