Iphone 5 upgraded to ios9.3.1 now lost all text messages, get no notifications, stuck 'sending'

I had this on both 9.3.1 and 9.3.2 and now on 10.0.1 too. I have an iPhone 5.

Thanks Apple for inventing new levels of time wasting. Sometimes I think computer software people have no idea about the real world or that you just need to get on with things and, funny enough, don't want to spend tens of hours figuring out other people's mistakes!

I will try the erase yet again - I agree it does seem like the restore brings the problem back - so factory reset and erase and selectively restore Apps but not settings.

Bad Apple. Bad.

I think it's not iOS 9 Problem, I am using iPhone 5S which still in iOS 7.1.1, and I did not check for software update, I didn't try to update from my phone nor my PC, but I still have that exact same problem.

1. Messages app couldnot show messages, even though the usage under general settings shows that messages app still contains data.
2. There is no notification when I receive messages. If the messages app already running in the background, the newly received messages will be there, however if I tap to show the whole conversation, nothing shows up (Just empty convo).
3. I can send messages but the app says "sending" forever even though that it's actually sent and received (Tested to multiple numbers including mine).
4. As soon as I force close my messages app or turning off my device, the messages are not shown again.
5. Mail app can't be opened, crashes instantly at launch.

This is really frustating, and is a major flaw, and I honestly don't know why this problem still exists even in later versions of iOS. I have also done some research and tried a lot of troubleshooting and contacted apple support chat but nothing helps.

Now I can't text whatsoever unless I nuke my phone.

Even this forum is glitchy.

i have an update and I am going to greatly simplify the post. The bottom line after several chat sessions and a direct call with the engineer support line is that the restore software methods of both iTunes and iClould have some kind of bug (admitted by Apple rep). The only apparent solution is to use the "set up new iPhone" method and MANUALLY restore your settings and info by hand. This was discussed by others in this thread. Apple had me restore 3 times. Basically there is a bug in your settings/info that gets stored in your backup. At first Apple said it was in iTunes but not iCloud. However iCloud backup also had it. Sorry, but you have to manually back up to fix and your messages are gone forever. Make sure you back up your data some way to get it back before starting over. For me I got my media backed up offline or iTunes. I have all my contacts, calendar etc on Gmail so that was not an issue. It wasnt that hard to load everything back but it was a major pain! Definitely this is Apple's problem not mine, but there appears to be no other solution. Good luck.

Does new message app in IOS 10.x fix this issue for IPhone5?

No I don't thinks so and I dread every update now because it means hours of time trying to fix and reload all the apps, contacts and media manually.

I had the same experience as the original poster and others in this thread. I upgraded iPhone 4S from iOS 6 to iOS 9.3.5 and restored from back-up and the messages app behaved strangely (lost all text messages and iMessages, no notifications, stuck sending at 90%, messages deleted after restart, etc). I tried many things like resetting network settings, turn Airplane mode on and off, and other standard things, and nothing worked. At the end, I had to "Restore iPhone" using iTunes on Mac to install a fresh iOS 9.3.5, and then setting it up as a new iPhone, and Messages worked as expected as it is pristine new iOS installation.

I can confirm srg158's comments regarding a bug related to the restore from older iOS when upgraded to iOS 9.3.5. Therefore, I had to manually restore many things, like email settings, Apps, etc., which took a long time. However, I managed to restore my messages (and call history and camera roll as well) using the method detailed in

https://9to5mac.com/2016/04/09/how-to-backup-restore-sms-texts-imessages-clean-i os-install/

Basically, the steps are:

1) Install a fresh iOS 9 on the phone and set it up as new (that is, do not restore from backup)

2) Do a back up of this new clean iPhone using iTunes

3) Use the software iBackupbot (see link below) to insert the old messages from your old back-up (pre iOS9) containing the old messages to the new backup (iOS 9) created in step 2)

4) Use iTunes to restore the modified backup made in step 3) back to the phone

http://www.icopybot.com/blog/transfer-sms-messages-with-attachments-between-ios- 6-and-ios-7.htm

This took me many days and nights of work and trial and error, but I managed to restore everything from my old iOS 6 backup . I believe the Bug is that Messages app is corrupted after restoring an older version of iOS to iOS 9, as others have discovered. The above is a workaround solution which bypasses restoring from earlier iOS backup, but instead restores from a iOS 9 backup (with messages inserted manually with iBackupbot). It should be noted that iBackupbot is not very user friendly and this procedure is not for the novice user.

I concur with srg158 this was major pain, which should have been a seamless exercise to upgrade. Definitely Apple failed me on this one, after being a long-time Mac user for over 20 years.

If anyone requires assistance with this issue, please don't hesitate to reply to me and I can share my experiences further.