IMessage/Text Messages Out Of Order

Hello All

I *think* I might be on to something.

I went into [Settings->Messages] and turned off iMessage. I left it off for about an hour (not sure if that made a difference). Messages would only appear as green bubbles now (away from apple's imessage network). No messages seemed to arrive at their destinations at this point -no comms! Yikes!.

I then re-actived iMessages [Settings->Messages] and rebooted the phone.

So far all *new* messages are in the correct sequence. I sent pictures and texts to various people. So far so good.

I'll report back if it fails in the next few days. Hopefully that's fixed it.

MB

This issue is fixed in the iOS 11.2.5 update, you should get it.

The release of iOS 11.4 today is reported to have a fix for the message order issue.

It is a shame when us “iUsers” have to do these fixes ourselves.. however;

Hold the Home and on/off button together for about 10 seconds.. the screen will go off and the Apple logo will appear. Let go of the buttons. This reboots the phone and sorts the problem.

A couple days after applying the 11.2.5 patch, it started happening again. Changing to a different time zone, then opening closing messages, then putting the time zone back to auto does fix the issue for me. However, it only lasts a couple days and I have to do it again.

Force Restart Your iPhone

Sometimes, a normal reboot just doesn't do the trick. If your iMessages are still acting up, try a force restart instead. The process for a force restart varies depending on your iPhone model.

• iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus: Quickly press and release the Volume Up button, then do the same for the Volume Down button. Finally, hold the Side button down until you see the Apple logo.
• iPhone 7 and 7 Plus: Press and hold the Side button and Volume Down button together for about 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo appear.
• Earlier iPhone models: Press and hold the Side button and Home button together for about 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo appear.

Once you see the Apple logo, you know you've completed the force restart.

started in 11.2, see some recent articles just as of last month here:

http://piunikaweb.com/2017/12/27/imessage-out-of-order-messages-bug-plaguing-dev ices-on-ios-1121-and-112/

https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/apples-imessage-glitches-continue-to-bend-t he-space-time-continuum-with-out-of-orde…

https://www.techgenyz.com/2017/12/28/imessage-order-messages-ios-11-bug/

****Feedback - Apple - the only way to fix this FOR GOOD!!! GO HERE and FILL OUT BUG REPORT****

I turned iMessage off completely and my texts were fixed, i would turn it off unless you absolutely couldnt.

Just updated to the 11.2.6 and it fixed the problem initially. We'll see how long that lasts though!! 🙂

The hold the home button/power button until the Apple logo fix also worked for me. The resetting the date/time as mentioned earlier did not work for me.

This fix worked!! Force close messages app. Restart phone.

Reset auto date and time.

Reset Imessage

That will work for 2 days, then just do it again to keep working.

My phone was connected to my computer and text messages were coming up on there before my phone received them. It's possible it was throwing the order out of whack. I disconnected my computer and it seems to be fine.

To be fair, I also reset my phone too, so I'm not 100% positive which one did it.

Okay. I did the "turn the set automatically off for 15 + seconds and then turn the 6S off then back on again" and if fixed the problem. However, when I did that my wife's iPad started doing the same thing (which wasn't happening previously to my fixing the problem). Now, when she did the same fix it fixed the problem on her iPad and did NOT re-introduce the problem on my 6S. So I'm happy now.

So I just swiped to the left a message that I just sent to a friend, to reveal the time of the sent message. To my surprise the timestamp of the message (4:02pm) was actually a minute ahead of the time being displayed at the top of my phone (4:01pm). When my friend immediately replied to my message, the timestamp on his message was 4:01pm, and hence his message was inserted before/above mine in the thread. Test it out for yourself.

I just tried toggling the auto time zone in settings and restarted imessages, this rearranged the messages but the problem continued as soon as I started chatting with my friend again.

Very frustrating! I also have an Apple watch, messages in the correct order on that device

C'mon Apple, please fix this.

Found it. The messages are displayed based on the clock of the sender. If my sending clock is off by -10 seconds the recipient will see them 10 seconds earlier in the conversation even though they just received them. I was able to duplicate the issue and place imessages anywhere in the timeline of the converstation by simply switching my clock to manual and changing the time and then send. Apparently the IPhone does not use a universal time sync (NTP) like most networking devices but gets if from your local tower which may be off by several seconds in any direction. Basically the imessage app *****!!! Time to go back to SMS so the messages are displayed as they are received, not based on the the timestamp of the message on the clock of the sending phone which may be off by god knows how much! I'm sure there is a reason for the stupidity, maybe so you can say "I sent that 20 minutes ago, you just didn't read it..." and then you can spoof the time of the message and it will appear that it truly did come in 20 minutes ago and they will be dumbfounded as to how they missed it!