iMessage - messages arriving in wrong order

Does it happen every time?? They never come into your device in proper order?

Does it happen when you first turn on the device? Or only after it’s been on for a while?

Does it happen when the device is off? Jk on that one lol

I have the same issue between my and my wife's devices (two iphones and two macbooks pro). Time sync in settings is correct, but still - wrong order and sometimes on one of the notebooks red exclamation appears. ios and macos are the latest.

This has been happening to me for a while. It happens on my iPhone, iPad and my Macbook Pro. It happens in multiple conversations. It does not happen every time, but I can't detect a pattern to when it does happen. Date/Time set accurately on all devices. All devices running the latest software/updates. I've ensured all devices signed in to the same Apple ID and have all the same contact info in terms of message IDs. I've rebooted the Messages/iMessage apps in all devices. I've rebooted all devices. In the past two weeks, I've started seeing the red exclamation points in most messages (again, no pattern). If I click the exclamation point, it will tell me my message didn't send and asks if I want to try again -- but my message really did send (which I know because I've received a reply). I click the "try again" anyway, and it usually makes the exclamation point disappear (usually). As an example of the ordering problem, last night I was texting with my son (also on iPhone, in another city/state). My comments would post to the thread ABOVE his already-posted comments. I'd post something else, and it would appear above his comments, but below my most recent comment. (I got the exclamation points in that conversation.)

I'm on the public beta 11.3 beta 6 and it seems to be fixed in this release...

I had this problem on all my devices and i got it fixed at those aswell.

Goto settings - Time

Remove the Auto time.

Set the clock forward like 5 min.

Enable the Auto Time.

Reboot the Phone.

Fixed the problem on all my devices for me.

Mvh. Lennie

Thanks. I tried this on all my devices. It worked for the afternoon. Now I'm getting the red exclamation point again, even though the messages are going through. So far, the messages are staying in the right order. Fingers crossed. Thanks!

This is ridiculous and annoying. I'm often left scrolling back in a conversation to see a message that I missed because I was expecting to see someone's reply AFTER my previous message. Is it really that complicated that you cannot fix the issue, Apple? Not even so much as a "It's a known issue and we are working to resolve it"?

Two things fixed this for me:

1. Ensure auto date/time is enabled in Setting > General > Date and time: Set Automatically

AND

2. Ensure setting time zone is enabled in Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services: Setting Time Zone

I have tried every suggestion as well: The auto time and timezone settings were already set on my phone as well. Regardless, even if it worked, if someone needs to enable or disable certain features on a device to “fix” a bug, it’s not a fix. That’s a bit like someone saying, “if your horn honks when you turn on your turn signal, stop using your turn signal and the horn won’t honk”.

Apple needs to pay attention, stop ignoring the issue and fit it. It’s not like we don’t have other options out there.

I'm not "worried" about it. I'm irritated by it. It's annoying and shouldn't be happening. Someone else on this thread notes that it's happened through at least three iOS upgrades and hasn't been dealt with yet. We pay a boatload of money for these devices. It would be nice if they worked as expected and as advertised.

Easier said than done, Amos. There have been at least a handful of times that I was waiting for a reply from someone, but the message previews in my message list showed my message as the most recent message. I naturally assumed that they had not replied. It is an inconvenience to have to open each message and scroll back to see if somone replied.

As was stated earlier, we pay a lot of money for these devices. The most heavily used feature of these devices is text messaging, and it’s not working properly.

Though I don’t have this issue regularly, or nearly ever, it looks like they have fixed this in iOS 11.3. The next question is, when does it release... should be very soon as they’ve seeded what is typically the last Beta version.

Thats fantastic! Great job at keeping your devices up to date. However, there are newer updates coming soon and they may (or may not) fix your issue.

In the meantime, have you contacted support?

Is this with multiple apps just like the others have posted? Or just with iMessage?

I also logged a support call yesterday and was told that "our engineers are actually aware of this issue where the messages in Mac OS 10.13 (or later) are coming out of order". I was also told that engineers are working on a fix but was given no indication as to when to expect it. It has only been an issue for over 3 months!

I have tried various 'fixes'. Some don't work at all, whereas others seem to work for a while but eventually the issue returns. It is very frustrating and I am now using other messaging tools instead.

It is actually more common than you think. Apple usually doesn't respond to the forum posts except for in extremely rare cases.

If you want visibility, you have to contact support and show them the forum post.

I have the same issue on my iPhone 6 with iOS 11.3 (latest).

I tried restarting the app, deactivating iMessage and reactivating it but nothing seems to work.

The message order is still wrong.

This issue happens when I'm in a conversation with multiple messages going in and out in a short time.