Group text conversation is adding myself as a duplicate participant

Question

Group text conversation is adding myself as a duplicate participant

This just started happening tonight.

I have a regular group message with some contacts. Let's call that conversation A.

A new thread just appeared tonight, let's call that conversation B.

A's members are: Me, Person 2, Person 3, and Person 4 (4 participants including me)

B's members are: Me, Person 2, Person 3, Person 4, and my phone number (5 participants, 2 of which are me)

B just appeared out of nowhere. Since it includes a duplicate "me," whenever I send a message, I automatically get another copy of it back.

My group does not see the duplicate "me," only I do. This is what is most frustrating, it only created a new conversation with a duplicate "me" for my phone.

Some notes to keep in mind:

We all have iPhones.
These are NOT iMessages, these are regular text messages since one of us has iMessage turned off.
When I send a message in conversation A (the original), the others see it, but their replies go to the new conversation B (the new one with duplicate "me") on MY phone only, not anyone else's. Everyone else seems to have the same, original conversation.
If I try deleting conversation B and send messages in the original A, conversation B reappears when someone else replies.
I cannot remove myself or anyone else from this group conversation, even though it has more than 3 total participants. (Does this only work for iMessage conversations?)
I checked the details of each member of the conversation, and all the receiving info is set to their phone numbers. It has to be, since this is a regular MMS/group text conversation, not iMessage.
I checked my own phone settings, I am only set to receive iMessages at my phone number. But, again, this should not be an issue since this is a regular text message conversation.

Has anyone else had this problem before? I don't know if it is a carrier issue since iMessage is turned off on one of our phones, but why would only my phone add a new conversation with another "me" as a contact, for a regular texting conversation?

iPhone 7, iOS 10.1

Posted on Oct 28, 2016 9:28 PM

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Answer 1

Toad_-

Level 1

4 points

Mar 4, 2017 12:32 PM in response to davidmordigal

Okay so I had the same issue to just happen to me today! So what I did and it has fixed it but I'm not sure if it is a permanent fix or temp fix. I went into settings then messages then down to the category SSM/MMS And turned off group messaging for about 30 seconds and then turned it back on and did a soft reset to my phone which if you have the iPhone 7 the way you soft reset your phone is press and hold the power button and volume down button at the same time and keep holding them until your screen goes black and the white apple logo pops up then you can let go. All other versions of the iPhone before the iPhone 7 or 7 plus you just press and hold your power button and the home button. After that I have not had the issue my group message is back to working normal except all the message that were sent during the time of the issue are not in the thread but oh well.

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Answer 2

Oct 4, 2017 7:07 PM in response to AlexRose83

I am now on 11.0.2 and this seems to have fixed the issue. I’m not getting them anymore.

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Answer 3

Jan 10, 2017 6:31 PM in response to davidmordigal

Anyone found a solution yet, i am having so much trouble because of that. In group of total 10 people. when android person replies back, group becomes 11 people and i cannot reply back to them. I am on latest ios 10.2 still my own message comes back from myself. Apple look at this bug.

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Answer 4

Aug 7, 2017 11:16 AM in response to davidmordigal

I solved it by adding +1 to my contact card.

The problem is that in a group message, +1 (xxx) xxx-xxxx is not the same as (xxx)xxx-xxxx thus thinks that the sender is not himself so lt thinks it is receiving the message from someone else

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Answer 5

Sep 24, 2017 7:40 AM in response to Crash76er

Is this happening to only AT&T users? Not sure by the Discussion chain. I would say that this leans toward a network error more so than a phone issue. This happens to me almost exclusively with droid group messages. All my iPhone groups get an iMessage so there no cellular netSMS sent.

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Answer 6

Dec 15, 2016 6:08 AM in response to davidmordigal

Same problem here. It's happening in group texts and individual texts with android / non-iPhone users. Not happening in texts where we're only using iMessage. Restarting my phone helps for a bit then it randomly happens again out of nowhere. iPhone 7, iOS 10.2, AT&T. Anybody have a fix yet?

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Answer 7

weltar

Level 1

4 points

Sep 13, 2017 12:26 PM in response to davidmordigal

Is there an official word from apple yet on this? Happens randomly. Sent messages in a group text (some iPhone users, others not) and never received a duplicate group message with my number added. Happened before but went away, just started recently. My number in my profile has +1 and nothing new was linked so that doesn't resolve the issue.

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Answer 8

Oct 31, 2016 3:07 PM in response to davidmordigal

I'm having this problem too. it even started around the same time as you. I have an iPhone 7 on iOS 10.1 and am on AT&T.

One additional thing i noticed is that, it doesn't even have to be a group message. I received some messages from a single number and it still showed me as an additional person in the conversation.

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Answer 9

Nov 2, 2016 7:08 AM in response to davidmordigal

I am ALSO having this problem - and it just started happening a few days ago. I can't figure out how to fix it! I have an iPhone 7 on iOS 10.1 and am on AT&T as well. Like user trilakini, this also seems to happen if another person texts JUST me (so not a group message) with a photo attachment... HELP!

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Answer 10

ETX2EP

Level 1

4 points

Nov 16, 2016 8:42 AM in response to davidmordigal

My iOS is up to date and I am still having this problem. Anytime a picture is attached from someone it goes to the "new" thread. I have to read our group messages on B's(the new thread) and reply to A's(the original thread) to avoid receiving my own response. They can see the entire conversation but I have to swap b/w the 2 to keep up. Also started happening in other non group messages when I'd receive photos and reply.

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Answer 11

Sep 19, 2017 8:36 PM in response to Toad_-

Still having issues, nothing has worked so far.

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Answer 12

Sep 19, 2017 9:15 PM in response to Crash76er

I have rebooted my phone twice, just upgraded to IOS 11 and tried the +1 thing. Nothin

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Answer 13

Oct 4, 2017 6:07 PM in response to lils_crib

This is happening to me now and I'm on T-Mobile network. Just started happening out of nowhere. I haven't upgraded my software. Using iOS 11.0.2

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Answer 14

Nov 2, 2016 7:33 AM in response to GCTempest

Hi. I recently updated to 10.1.1 and haven't had the problem since. Not sure if it was a fix in the patch but after a few days I haven't had the problem recur. I'd suggest updating and see if that helps.

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Answer 15

BlueRift

Level 1

10 points

Nov 27, 2016 7:52 PM in response to davidmordigal

I'm having a similar issue but mine is all within the same conversation. I have no version without me so I have no option but to text myself in these groups. I haven't been able to decipher a pattern either. So far the ones that are affected are non-iMessage conversations but not all of them.

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