imessage not working reliably after ios 9.0.2 update.

After the iOS 9.0.2 update, I am not reliably receiving or sending text messages. This occurs on group and single person text messages. It occurs with others that have iphones and other phones. It seems to be worst on one group text which contains a mix of iphones and non-iphones. Some messages that I send are not received. Some messages that are sent to me are not received.


There are no blocks set for Messaging. I have reset my network with the help of Apple's help line. I have restarted my phone. I have good WiFi and Cellular connections. I am on AT&T's network.


The problem persists.


Any solutions?


Thanks.

iPhone 6, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 6, 2015 9:02 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 10, 2015 7:17 PM

Update to my previous post. iPhone 6 / ATT / IOS 9.0.2


After 5 HOURS on the phone and on chats to various Apple support people, and restoring my phone twice, backing up twice, and restoring to factory default as starting all over as a "new" phone - yes, twice... the text issue was finally resolved. Remember, I couldn't send texts to anyone, phone calls were not coming in, and the touch screen was staring to not respond anymore. The phone was basically freezing up.


I spoke to two different support people today. The first was very supportive and helpful, but had me backup from the Cloud after restoring to factory default. He said it was safer than restoring from iTunes. I'm not sure he was right. Whatever bug was in the backups since the IOS updates reappeared when I restored from the Cloud. He was, btw, very aware of this glitch and said he'd been dealing with it all day/every day since the update.


Next I had to go to an "Advisor." This guy was not nearly as nice, but then by that point, neither was I. 😠 He went through the whole process with me again... and that's when I had to restore as new phone. All texting functions worked perfectly. We then tried to sync to my last backup on iTunes and all the issues returned. So, one more time of restoring as new phone, and then picking and choosing what apps, music, etc. from iTunes that I actually wanted on the phone. I lost some stuff, but oddly, throughout all of this, my contacts never disappeared.


Also, the clerk in the Apple store yesterday, who couldn't figure it out at all, told me that only the last 30 days of photos from the phone would be saved in the Cloud. Not true. All my pix are still there.


There was no charge for all this, because you can request to have any charges waived if the issue is related to IOS9, 9.0.1, or 9.0.2. The warranty on my phone had just expired about a week ago, but I was told by the Advisor that if they couldn't fix it, they would replace the phone since it hadn't been that long since the expiration. Frankly, at this point, I think they'll waive charges for anyone. But don't quote me on that one.


Keep in mind that I had a severe issue since the updates... not just a matter of blue vs green texts... it was NO TEXTS and a one year old phone was rapidly dying. So, what worked for me:

A ton of patience (and dark chocolate)

Restoring to factory default (groan)

Restarting as "new phone" (louder groan)

Manually adding apps & music I needed from iTunes

Being willing to lose a history of texts, losing a few other sentimental things, and taking the time to reconfigure a lot of stuff in order to have a working phone!

Oh yeah, NOT swearing at the tech people helped, too.


The Advisor ended up knowing what he was doing after all. Now, we wait and see if the phone continues to work.


This update was written by the one remaining brain cell I have left after this experience!!! I hope it helps anyone else who has a similar situation. I feel your frustration. These phones are expensive. A lot of us use them for work, and for a lot of people they are our only phones. The updates should enhance their reliability and functionality, NOT wreak havoc. Good luck!

126 replies

Oct 7, 2015 1:32 PM in response to cececraft1

I'm glad that I'm not the only one this is happening to! I upgraded to a iPhone 6S last Saturday and updated to ios 9.0.2 on the same day. I have the issue where messages are saying they're sent as iMessage, but never say 'Delivered' and then change to sent as text. And it only seems to happen with the person I message most too. The other issue is when a message comes through, the contacts name doesn't show on the messege notification, it's only their number. It's very annoying!

Oct 7, 2015 3:13 PM in response to SDNick

I'm having the same problem. It will send as a iMessage. Everything looks normal and than about 5-10 minutes later it turns green and says it was sent as a text. I've tried to reboot the phone, factory reset it, and pour oil on it. You know to lube the messages up for delivery.


I'm on AT&T so that's more than likely the issue.


Started when I downloaded 9.0.1 and then I did 9.0.2 because it was being very pushy about it and I thought it would resolve the issue. It did not.

Oct 7, 2015 4:03 PM in response to SDNick

Same issue as everyone else and it's even affecting messaging on my Apple Watch. I hate my phone so much now, I've considered pulling the SIM and using an old iPhone 4s in my closet. My phone doesnt even function correctly since iOS9, but this issue has got to be the most inconvenient yet.


Just pure frustration.


Apple iPhone 5C

32 GB

iOS 9.0.2

AT&T US Network

Oct 7, 2015 5:04 PM in response to SDNick

Ditto what everyone is saying. However, when I iMessage this same person on my Mac, it seems to force iMessage on the phone. They are quick to send and they are all "blue" bubbles - both on my mac and on the phone. It's only when the message originates on the phone that it appears to send a text as SMS - green bubble. I do not have unlimited texts so I am mindful of messages that go as SMS. I honestly don't know if these messages are in the SMS count or not because even those that are green bubbles on my phone show up as blue bubbles on my Mac.

Oct 8, 2015 12:16 PM in response to SDNick

I have the same issues. Blue bubble doesn't show delivered. Turns green later and shows as text.

NONE of the fixes outlined below worked for me.


T-Mobile US network

iPhone 6, iOS 9.0.2

Don't use WiFi assist, so always off.

Only have the issue texting one person, my wife of all people, the person I text the most.

She was on iOS 8 when the problem started. Updating her to iOS 9.0.2 did not solve the issue.

Turning off iMessage resulted in me not receiving incoming texts even though they went out and I have a good LTE signal. Go figure that one.

Group texting isn't working for me either. Recipients got my messages, but I didn't see any of the replies. Same result whether iMessage is on or off. Everyone else on the thread saw all the messages.


Really annoyed.

Oct 8, 2015 3:35 PM in response to SDNick

So, my husband (iPhone 5) updated his phone as prompted several times over the last week. I did not (same phone). He cannot receive my calls, nor can he receive my messages (not even as texts). I can receive his calls and messages. We are on T-mobile. This has gone on for days. I have turned off his wifi assist and rebooted, synced, etc - nothing seems to work. Anyone having success with issues like this?

Oct 9, 2015 7:05 PM in response to SDNick

Same issue. It began with update to 9. Continued with 9.0.1, and got worse with 9.0.2. iPhone 6. One year old. With AT&T. This phone worked perfectly until this issue arose.

Currently, I can't send texts to ANYONE no matter what phone or OS they're using! I can use iMessage on my Mac, but not on my phone. Period. I've tried everything ... other than total restore to factory default ... yet!

I've had to repeatedly sign in and out of iMessage and iCloud, and have even had to change my password since Apple stopped recognizing the password I've used for over 3 years. That was the first sign that something was wrong.

I have Wi-Fi Assist off and it is still not working.

Went to Apple store today and they ran a diagnostic, which showed no issues whatsoever. The tech guy didn't have a clue what was wrong. His suggestion? Restore to factory default.

This is a serious problem. Like others, I need my phone for work and have been unable to text with any reliability for 2 weeks. Now, I can't text at all. It's killing my battery, and driving me nuts! These phones are far too expensive to deal with this kind of inefficiency. Please find a fix! Thank you.

Oct 10, 2015 5:18 PM in response to jenniferclearwater

A New phone won't help, the new iOS isn't working right. iPad Air 2 lags, freezes but still records touches, it made an app purchases that I did not make. I suspect it was still recording touches to the screen, even though screen was frozen, with the touch button, it authorized a purchase. No reply, no response, no help from Apple. Really annoyed, they've grown too big, and the complaints they used to say about Windows being glitchy and u reliable is them now. I can't believe that windows is actually more stable than apples iOS. How sad is that?

Oct 14, 2015 1:39 AM in response to SDNick

I'm having major issues! My 4s can't seem to cope with the 9.0.2 update 😟 I can't get ANY messages to work. when I open the messages app, it's blank and takes me straight to new message, but if I try to send one it crashes. If I close new message, it takes me to a blank messages app. Every so often it comes back for a bit then goes again. Sometimes I can send messages as usual then nothing. If I go to the settings for messages or FaceTime, its just a log on page for the iMessages. There is no option to turn off iMessages and just use SMS. It's driving me crazy!! Is there a fix for this? After I initially updated to 9, I got stuck on the update and I lost everything and had to set up as new phone. I lost all apps and data - everything! Then when I updated to 9.0.2 it all came back which I was SO HAPPY with but no messages working well! Grrr what do I do??

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imessage not working reliably after ios 9.0.2 update.

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