Why is iMessage combining two contacts into one thread. I can only text back the last one that messaged me. This started with iOS 12

We are experiencing the same problem. Three phones updated to iOS 12 and they are all combining message threads. We've checked all contact info to make sure there is nothing in common and there isn't. We have three phones on the same Apple ID, but this isn't restricted to those numbers. My wife sent her friend a message from my phone to see if it would come through as me or her and it combined my wife's previous conversations into this new thread on my phone. I have tried manually entering my wife's phone number and it shows her name and then when I send the message it reverts to the thread with my daughter and my wife does not receive the message. This is a huge problem!!

Also, likely related, yesterday morning I started receiving messages on my Apple watch between my wife and her coworker- they never showed up on my phone, but I can see the full thread on my watch.

Apple has really dropped the ball on this update. It sounds like this was a bug on earlier releases and they didn't fix it prior to release.

If your problem, as you described, started with one person having the same apple id signed into different devices (i.e. one with an international sim card or something) then the only solution is not only to delete the contacts on every one of your devices but to also delete every thread that includes that person, at the international or domestic number. Otherwise, your phone “remembers” the numbers belong together (i.e, same person) on the new unified thread function and forces them back together, over riding any attempt to manually type in a different number. Then very carefully try to communicate with that person only at the number you want...although in most cases, the problem is encountered when family members share an apple id, it can happen without knowing with strangers that have signed in with same id to different numbers...

Thomas, one of the geniuses in Sydney, and his team fixed my problem, which was identical to yours.

1. Make sure iTunes up to date
2. sign out of iCloud
3. Back the phone up to iTunes, NOT iCloud
4. sign out of FaceTime and iMessage
5. Restart phone
6. restore from iTunes backup.

It takes awhile, but it was worth it to save all of my husband’s messages! Both message threads separated and I was able to keep both. Most other answers involved deleting the entire message stream.

Less

I started getting this problem all of a sudden 3 days ago with my husband and my son. I went into the contacts and deleted the home number, which was shared, by my husband and son. Deleted the home number from my son's contact and viola, it fixed the problem. I hope this helps other users.

Thomas, one of the geniuses in Sydney, and his team fixed my problem, which was identical to yours.

1. Make sure iTunes up to date
2. sign out of iCloud
3. Back the phone up to iTunes, NOT iCloud
4. sign out of FaceTime and iMessage
5. Restart phone
6. restore from iTunes backup.

It takes awhile, but it was worth it to save all of my husband’s messages! Both message threads separated and I was able to keep both. Most other answers involved deleting the entire message stream.

I'm going to throw in my 2 cents. It's not necessarily the Apple suggested method or agreed upon by everyone. However, I've been using multiple Apple devices this way for years and it would alleviate a lot of the problems you're bringing up. Unfortunately, from your scenario, this only helps on the recipient's end. This would be what your daughter could do. You as a sender still never know which or how many devices your message is going to so the onus is on the recipient. This could mean it's still possible have an awkward situation, but at least it may help.

For my wife and kids I manage 4 iPads, 3 iPhones, 2 MacBooks, and 1 iMac. All use one single Apple ID for the app store and iTunes/Apple Music. There really aren't any complications there. Then, they all share one single Apple ID, with an upgraded iCloud storage size, for iCloud. The tricky part is that they also share one single Apple ID for iMessage and FaceTime...kind of. For years now, Apple has supported aliases and that's how I manage to have a shared Apple ID where messages go to the correct place. I have no way of knowing how long they will in the future.

With that second Apple ID for iMessage and Facetime, it is the same Apple ID login information on each device. However, I then have different aliases for each device. If you didn't know about this feature or have never used it, sign in to appleid.apple.com then where it says "Reachable At" click edit. From there you can add aliases. I have around 9 and I've never seen a limit. In my uses the aliases are all separate gmail addresses. You could possibly use phone numbers, but I'm not certain and have never tried or seen if that's supported. So in my scenario (using fake example info) I login with "mainappleidaticlouddotcom" and then under that have "myphonealiasatgmaildotcom", "myipadaliasatgmaildotcom", "wifephonealiasatgmaildotcom", "daughtersipadaliasatgmaildotcom", and so on. My only caveat there is that you can't use an email that's ever been associated with an Apple ID on its own; meaning, you can't merge an existing Apple ID into the aliases, it has to be an email that's never been associated with one before.

That's on the Apple ID setup side. Then on the device side I'll just take my phone and my daughter's iPad. In iMessage, we both login with "mainappleidaticlouddotcom" then in the iMessage settings, where it says send and receive, all of the aliases are listed. I uncheck any that don't apply to that device and check the specific one. On my phone it has my phone number and "myphonealiasatgmaildotcom" with check marks by them. On my daughter's iPad it has just "daughtersipadaliasatgmaildotcom" checked. If you get the setup I'm describing, the other issue is that there has to be complete trust involved. I would never do this with anyone except my wife and kids. My daughter could very easily go into the settings, hit the check mark by another alias, and receive all of the messages intended for that device. I don't know if in later years I may worry about that more or ditch my setup all together, but as I have younger children and nothing to hide from my wife, everyone has mutual understanding of the way it works and doesn't do that. Settings go through the same routine for FaceTime.

Is this for everybody? No, definitely not. Will people tell me that I'm setting myself up for problems. Sure, and that's fine. I've done this for about 6ish years successfully. The only time I had an issue was when I first posted a message on this board and followed the thread. In one update a few months back, things started getting crossed and duplicated. I thought my system was done for, but simply signing out and back into all of the Apple ID's and rechecking the correct device's aliases had it all back to normal.

I'm not saying this makes it so that no-one can ever have the problem of messages going to the wrong recipient, but if you think the process through it is a viable solution for parents, kids, and spouses sharing an Apple ID without overlap as long as everybody knows and understands how it works.

Stop sharing an Apple id. That is the cause.

After reading every post in this thread in an attempt to solve this, I think there is a big communication issue in referring to Apple ID's in general when they come in two variations. I believe that some people on here are referring to a main Apple ID and some are referring to sub accounts or aliases under a main Apple ID. Not to mention the fact that your Apple ID could be one thing for iCloud backups, another for the iTunes store, another for iMessage, etc...

Let's say we're exclusively talking about the Apple ID's for iMessage as that is what this problem is referring to. The posts saying "don't share an Apple ID, change that to solve the problem, doing that is wrong" would be correct in that you should not simply share one main Apple ID between different devices for different users in regards to iMessage. However, there is the scenario where you create an Apple ID, say it's called ID 1, and then sub accounts under that ID, say they're called Sub 1, Sub 2, and Sub 3. Let's then say you have a Macbook the family shares, an iPhone exclusive to one user, and an iPad that the family shares. I have this basic scenario myself and was told over the course of a few years by Apple reps in person and through phone support that having them all sign in with ID 1, then having each individually use the sub accounts so that Macbook = ID1 Sub 1, iPhone = ID 1 Sub 2, and iPad = ID 1 Sub 3 for iMessage is appropriate and will be successful. Side note - This is my setup for iMessage; all use different ID's for iCloud backups.

This has been the case until iOS 12. So, before I would get a separate iMessage text thread between each device. Now they come through randomly under the same thread. I would additionally argue that this is in fact an Apple bug rather than expected behavior based on incorrect user use of Apple ID's because there is no consistency. ID 1 Sub 1 and ID 1 Sub 2 devices could both send messages to someone and come in overlapped in one thread, while ID 1 Sub 3 sends one that comes in separately. And the messages coming through in one thread, the contact showing, or otherwise is seemingly random rather than consistent.

If Apple wants to discontinue support for the feature of having sub ID's under an Apple ID, then that is their choice. However, as it is still supported and a viable feature, this should not be happening.

This will happen if the person you are texting with shares an Apple ID also. And location doesn't matter with Apple ID. If the Messages app is signed into the same Apple ID on 2 devices this can be the result.

This is happening to me too. I’m glad I’m not the only one experiencing this. So far it has done this to me four times since installing iOS 12. Originally on my iPhone 7Plus and now my iPhone XS. The only contacts that it is doing this to me are my mother and father. They have separate apple IDs and separate phone numbers. I can have a thread with my mother and suddenly my father’s thread is gone and if I try to crest a new one it automatically reverts to the thread with my mother. His name or contact info is not on the thread at all. The only fix I have found is to delete the thread, delete both their contacts, then create new contacts for them and open new threads. That works for a couple days and then this again. It’s not that I have anything to hide from them, but it’s annoying and sometimes there’s things were discussing that the other wouldn’t know or care about.

Any ideas for a permanent fix or word from Apple on the matter?

I also have this issue. It occurs with messages (including iMessages) between my mom and dad and myself. They used to have the same Apple ID, they have since gotten two different emails and they have two separate phones and phone numbers. This seemed to start happening with iOS12 as another had pointed out. I was on the public beta, and it happened on that as well. I submitted feedback for it also.

I have deleted the threads on my phone as well as their phones and checked all handoff and iMessage settings to make sure there should be no combining.

Someone suggested this solution, which seems to be working when I tried it. Give it a try, I forgot his/her name and can't find the posting to give him/her credit for this post.

I have a family of five, and two of our phones experienced this glitch when updating to iOS 12. I call it the "Frankenstein-chat". What happens when the phone is affected by this glitch, it takes all phone numbers and emails that are linked to iMessage on your Apple ID and merges them into one Frankenstein-chat.

In your case, it took the iMessage chat with your daughter and iMessage chat with your husband and made them one. It will only show up under one of their names at a time, so it won't look like a group message. Very deceiving.

To fix this, simply identify this Frankenstein-chat on the main menu of the Messages app (it should display either your daughter's name or your husband's name). Once found, slide the chat from right to left to reveal a Delete button. Delete this faulty chat and then send a message to your daughter and husband's contacts separately as if they're new people. They should be effectively separated by now, assuming that neither of their phones were also affected by this glitch.

*be sure to save any precious photos or media that you don't want to lose when deleting the old chat in Messages

Having the exact same experience here. Without question, this issue began when I “upgraded” to iOS12. This issue has been devastating and needs to be resolved ASAP. I depend upon iMessage and can no longer trust/depend on the tool to send messages to the proper person. In the same way, I cannot be sure from whom texts are actually being sent.

I know this is from 12/15, but I just happened on this thread a day or two ago. I've read through all of it in hopes of finding a solution to this really frustrating problem. As you seem like a "power" user I respect your comments, but I believe this statement is incorrect and there is a problem with the scenario you describe.

I myself have had multiple products of every device Apple makes for the last 15 years and know the ins and outs of Apple ID use very well. Before iOS '12 I had a system where we could have non-unique user devices, i.e. a shared family iMac, a shared family iPad, an iPod hooked up to a shared sound system, etc... all sign in under one Apple ID and then each have an individual alias. So for instance, my iPhone signs in under Apple ID 1, my wife's iPhone signs in under Apple ID 2, the family iMac signs in under Apple ID 3 and then the family iPad signs in under Apple ID 3. For Apple ID 3, those devices that use it then have a unique alias so that that the iMac is Apple ID 3-Alias 1 and the iPad is Apple ID3-Alias 2. In this way, everything could individually message and communicate while being managed by a shared Apple ID successfully. This seems to be a similar setup to what you describe in your post.

For weeks now, that system has changed needlessly so that messages sent from Apple ID 3-Alias 1 and Apple ID 3-Alias 2 come through to my wife's phone, Apple ID 2, in the same thread as if they are the same user. However, the contact name and picture changes to be from whichever message is most recent. This is not a desired or expected behavior in any way.

bluebird728 wrote:

I have sent a suggestion to Apple that they give us the option to turn this off since we have no way to control it if the recipients, unknown to us, have a shared account .

Then you've done all that you can do, aside from asking that your daughter not share her Apple ID (minors can have their own ID, with some caveats).