disgruntled imessage user
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: What have you done to iMessage?

Dear Apple,

Since updating my iPhone to ios9 my iMessage keeps turning itself off when I am out of cellular range for a certain period of time - approx 48 hours.  I work on a ship at sea, and although we have satellite internet, iMessage won't activate without Cellular reception.   My issue is - what has changed and why on earth was it changed with the recent software?   I have owned iPhones for years and have never had a problem with iMessage turning itself off like this.   I have sometimes been at sea for weeks without cellular reception and my iMessage has stayed on and worked without fault.   Now after a couple of days, it turns off and I can't activate it again until we are next in port.    I am not alone in this frustrating problem - 5 of my shipmates have iphones as well and they suffer from the same problem.   And as previously mentioned they have only been experiencing this since updating to ios9.    We are all forced to switch to other messaging apps such as Viber or Whatsapp.   

So basically what I/we are asking is........... PLEASE FIX IT!!  You have no idea how frustrating and annoying it is! 

iPhone 6s, iOS 9

Posted on Dec 26, 2015 2:07 PM

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disgruntled imessage user

Q: What have you done to iMessage?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by dklubu,

    dklubu dklubu Dec 26, 2015 2:16 PM in response to disgruntled imessage user
    Level 1 (87 points)
    Dec 26, 2015 2:16 PM in response to disgruntled imessage user

    I'd fix this if I could but this is a forum for users, not apple itself. Judging by your version you might want to update to 9.2, just to see if that does anything.

     

    Have you tried contacting apple directly though? Seems like it's something they could help you with directly.

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232

  • by sberman,

    sberman sberman Dec 26, 2015 3:12 PM in response to disgruntled imessage user
    Level 8 (41,140 points)
    Dec 26, 2015 3:12 PM in response to disgruntled imessage user

    disgruntled imessage user wrote:

     

    ... although we have satellite internet, iMessage won't activate without Cellular reception.

    This appears not to be correct.

     

    If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime - Apple Support

     

    Item (1) under "Check your device settings" says "Make sure you're connected to cellular data or a Wi-Fi network."  When you try to activate iMessage, are you connected to the "satellite internet" (which I assume means you have a Wi-Fi connection)?   Have you set up your time zone correctly as the article indicates you must do?

  • by disgruntled imessage user,

    disgruntled imessage user disgruntled imessage user Dec 26, 2015 3:24 PM in response to dklubu
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 26, 2015 3:24 PM in response to dklubu

    Hi,

    Thanks for your reply -  I have the latest version of ios9.   Sorry should have stated that in my original post.

  • by disgruntled imessage user,

    disgruntled imessage user disgruntled imessage user Dec 26, 2015 3:35 PM in response to sberman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 26, 2015 3:35 PM in response to sberman

    Hi,

    thanks for your reply.   Yes we have wifi network throughout the ship which is connected through satellite. 

    TIme Zone is correct.   Believe me we have tried everything that the article suggests.   I have searched through multiple support forums and tried all the different suggestions that people have made - still does the same thing.  The odd thing is that when iMessage turns itself off after however long,  it happens at pretty much the exact same time on all of our iphones!

    I have an iPad Mini as well -  but iMessage works fine on this.   It seems to be isolated to iPhones only and has something to do with the txt message 'handshake' between imessage and our cellular service providers.  It seems they have changed something in the new software for some unknown crazy reason.

    Other IM apps work fine - why should iMessage be any different?