IMessage/Text Messages Out Of Order

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!

I already have read receipt off and so do most of the people I text and we have the problem. The only fix is for Apple to fix it as they broke it with one of their updates. Seems to me like their last update to try to fix it helped a little but it’s still broke. Meaning, since the update I now notice that if the text is longer than a minute old and their is then a response it show properly. Any text that is answered within the same minute the order gets messed up. So many texts are answered right away so their fix is not really working.

Just in time, 11.2.2 showed up yesterday, it is fixed now, iMessage seems really snappy now! 👌 💯

A hard reset on my iphone7 cleared the problem for me.

Have you updated to the latest iOS? The last update mentions a fix for this issue in it

Can confirm the issue exists in the latest version of macOS as well.

My devices are:

iPhone 6s Plus iOS 11.2.1 (Confirmed issue)

Watch 1st Gen

Late 2011 MacBook Pro macOS 10.13.2 (Confirmed issue)

Early 2015 MacBook Air macOS 10.13.2

Rebooting the phone temporarily solves the issue.

I was able to go through AppleCare since I am on the Apple upgrade plan. Based on the conversation I believe there are others that Engineering has as well, I just didn't need to go beyond the first one. If you have AppleCare {bus do it via the chat or call back and they will escalate it for a callback from engineering.

Because the carrier sends the messages to the phone over the network. Then a setting or some other hiccup in the phone displays them improperly. All the carrier does is deliver the message to the phone. How the phone then displays the message in its software is the problem. Its obviously some sort of glitch in the iOS software.

And if you don't believe that, then the simple fact that people who use different carriers are having the same problem. I have AT&T and my wife has Verizon, and we both have experienced this same issue.

Actually I djust d that and it worked but after rebooting or a day, it quit. I had the update 11.12.2 flash on my screen a few days ago so I bit the bullet and did it. It SEEMS to be working ok now. But the other way did not permanently fix it

Have you guys tried any of these. I did and it seemed to fix but I don't know which one did it. If we can narrow it down that would be better?

https://www.payetteforward.com/imessage-out-of-order-iphone-heres-real-fix/

ANd i want to here back from those that used to have this issues after they got to 11.4 and hear if it's fixed

For now, I found a simplier way and a reboot fixes the problem for a day or so. So keep rebooting to fix it.

Try downloading the Apple Support app. I have had very good luck with Apple using that app and online chat

This is a known bug with iOS 11. Sadly we just have to wait till the next update.