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

Well, set aside the negativity for a moment and imagine if what I said is true -- that the Apple ID is now meant to unify various points of contact for a single person. That would mean that the person would receive the same iMessage on all their devices that use that ID, regardless of phone number or alternate email associated with the ID, and all people who had contact with this person would see their iMessages from various phone numbers/emails combined into one thread. Sounds familiar, right?

If there is any fault, it is that the replies among family members using the same ID are inconsistent, where replies seem to go to the family member who last contacted you (or something of the sort). If you think about it, if the intent is "one ID per person", you'd be messaging yourself in this scenario, so quirky things might be expected.

I realize that the effect of this is undesirable for many here, but it seems to be operating exactly as intended (with exception of the aforementioned inconsistency of messaging between users with the same ID).

Many of us have families where we have been purchasing devices for over a decade for our families - long before family sharing - and with kids, that was the only way to deal with controlling kids access to things, monitoring things, etc. There was no reason to make this change - there was nothing wrong with iMessage - unifying across a user id is simply causing problems for people with children who have trusted Apple and iMessage as a way to communicate as a family. And for people with kids who can’t drive - who need to be picked up from activities, school - this is a real problem. Whether intended or not, they should fix it. It’s simply giving people another reason to move away from Apple and iMessage.

I understand your situation, and I feel bad for those impacted by this.

However, I also understand what Apple might be trying to do here to unify a person's iMessages from varying points of contact. You say "it was working fine" and that's true, for you. For others who have certain situations as I've described above, perhaps it was "not fine" for them. Look, it's Apple's system and they can shape it how they want, like it or not. It has been said many times in this thread, and countless others over the past few years that sharing IDs is not supported (just because it worked doesn't mean it's supported).

This is the worst effect from sharing that I've seen, but I've seen other effects of sharing IDs over the years (this is hardly new, look for the several-hundred post thread about shared call history from a few years back). The response back then was the same, don't share IDs.

Yes it is so annoying! My husband and daughter's messages have merged and depending on who messaged me last I can't text the other person! I don't have the same AppleID, I have my own, but mine is the only one doing it.

I have the same problem with threads shared and messages going to the wrong person since the iOS 12 update. It’s very embarrassing. I spent hours with 2 different Apple support team troubleshooting this issue. Our family had a shared ID which was never a problem until now and it’s total chaos. I had to delete threads on all our iPhones and setup separate Icloud accounts. Worked for a few days but that didn’t solve the problem. Messages continue to go to the wrong person. This poses a big security issue. Needs to be resolved urgently.

We are in the same situation in our home! 5 Family members, all of us have our own AppleID and my husbands and youngest sons messages combine into 1! I can only text back whoever texted me. I did find I can text my son through an old group text that includes him and my daughter but that means she gets texts that do not pertain to her.

As seen multiple times in this forum, people have created new Apple IDs for each person but have reported that the messages are still being merged. The problem isn’t just that people are sharing IDs because even people who are not sharing IDs are having their messages merged.

So, what do you suggest for families who have to share a synced calendar, reminders and notes? My understanding is that with separate apple ID's we won't be able to sync our home calendar from our home iMac.

Also what do you suggest for syncing my Music library, photos, etc. with my wife? Our apple ID is essentially a joint ID for joint property.

But, I could easily be wrong and if there is a solution to this, then that's great.

However, this problem is not only happening to people on the same apple ID.

True that apple can do whatever they want. But, there was a time that they were better at customer service and getting their customer's needs. I think that time has gone.

Something that’s working so far and a suggestion: I called Apple yesterday about this. They know about it, advice was “change your messaging to start new messages from your AppleID email address”. I did that on my phone, then had all family members delete prior strings and it appears to be working (for now). 4 of 5 of us are on same AppleID, but problem is/was across all 5 devices.

Suggestion - if you have time, call Apple at 1-800-MY-APPLE (

800-692-7753) and ask about this, tell them. The higher volume of calls they get about this, you’d hope the more they will try to deal with it, or make an announcement, or something.

For those of you who keep saying stop using the same AppleID, it’s not just that issue in our own family where we have several - not in this thread - and the point is Apple should be helping people, making statements that they are aware, on it, or it, etc. Not the best PR response thus far.

Dan - one simple solution to get away from Apple on calendar is to create a Gmail account such as “peck.fam.cal@gmail.com” - once you have that, everyone can use it on their phones, laptops, etc and you can share, edit, etc a family cal... works great for us and others we know who use this. You don’t use the email, just the cal, notes, contacts if you want, etc.

Dan Peck wrote:

So, what do you suggest for families who have to share a synced calendar, reminders and notes? My understanding is that with separate apple ID's we won't be able to sync our home calendar from our home iMac.

Also what do you suggest for syncing my Music library, photos, etc. with my wife? Our apple ID is essentially a joint ID for joint property.

But, I could easily be wrong and if there is a solution to this, then that's great.

However, this problem is not only happening to people on the same apple ID.

True that apple can do whatever they want. But, there was a time that they were better at customer service and getting their customer's needs. I think that time has gone.

Family Sharing lets you share iCloud calendars, reminders, and notes (although some time ago you could share iCloud notes with other IDs even without Family Sharing). Contacts are not shared, but there's alternatives for that (e.g. a separate non-iCloud email that is shared and only used only for contacts, not necessarily email).

Separate IDs does not preclude you from syncing to the same iTunes library, except for (very old) DRM-protected iTunes music purchases. Family Sharing takes it a step further by allowing members to share apps and download past purchases right to the device.

If you're syncing photos through iTunes that won't change with separate IDs. For iCloud, Shared Photo Streams work even outside of Family Sharing, so no change there. If you want photos that you just took with your iPhone to be shared automatically, that's where Family Sharing breaks down -- but there is a common "Family" album that you can manually manage to share specific photos, or simply create a Shared Photo Stream. Not ideal, but it works.

So there are solutions besides sharing IDs. Family Sharing is not perfect I'll give you that, but it is far better than the situation you're in now. I do think that this change was intentional and has to do with unifying all iMessage traffic by the ID, not the phone number or other email contact, so I think it's here to stay. During this transition the intended functionality may have some quirks in implementation, and certainly some major headaches for those who were sharing IDs, but the warning about sharing has been there for as long as I've been using an ID. Apple can't make you read the warning, and they can't prevent you from sharing an ID, but the message is pretty clear that bad things can happen if you do.

Laura02Beth wrote:

As seen multiple times in this forum, people have created new Apple IDs for each person but have reported that the messages are still being merged. The problem isn’t just that people are sharing IDs because even people who are not sharing IDs are having their messages merged.

But you don't know how they implemented this change though, do you? Getting an ID is just the first step, how you implement it has many variables. Some may simply sign out of iMessage and sign back in under the new ID. Is that the right way? Probably not. You likely have to back all the way out of the shared ID and start fresh by signing into the new ID everywhere, and waiting for the changes on the back-end to correct (which may very well take several hours, so the impatient person may report that it didn't work).

Then there's also the issue about contacts that were "tainted" by the shared ID, they'd probably have to be deleted and re-created. Did everyone do that? Then there's the iMessage threads which were "tainted" by this shared ID, those probably have to be deleted too, not just by the ones sharing the ID but perhaps even those on the receiving side. Did everyone do that?

As you see, there are many variable so just because it doesn't work for some doesn't mean it doesn't work. I do wish Apple would provide some guidance for all of you having this problem, maybe with enough complaints they'll provide some instructions on how to get out of this mess, but I think that whatever changes they implemented were intentional and here to stay (albeit, with some possible bugs upon launch).

What I don’t understand is if this is intentional, why is it not consistent? We have six kids who share an AppleID. Only two of the kids merged and only on my wife’s phone. The rest of the kids work fine. Nothing has changed on my phone and nothing has changed on my kids’ phones. If I were excited about this change, I’d be frustrated because it’s still not working like it’s supposed to. Seems like we should see a lot more merging going on across all phones.

I ran the 12 beta for a while and never had this issue until updating to the official release. My wife and daughters have all used their own unique Apple IDs on their devices and I have always been the only one using mine. We have never shared IDs. This issue is only happening on my phone with my wife and one of my daughters. Their phone numbers are only different by 1 number in the last digit of their phone number. All the accounts are part of family sharing. I have been able to call each person but not text then individually after send a group text to them.

I went in and deleted their contact info from my phone, erased their chat messages, disabled contact iCloud uploading on all phones, disabled find contacts in other apps under settings, contacts, Siri & Search. I haven’t had the issue since but I cross my fingers hoping it doesn’t come back.

WOW, that is a lot to do in response to an update. Shares ID’s, independent ID’s are having issues!! From reading this forum it’s more tha. Apparent that Apple should address this publicly as many of us loyalist will refuse to stay loyal if it’s now a one way deal. I have asked periodicals who have been ffollowing this issue as well if Apple has responded and they have said that they (Apple) have read the Q and complaints but will not respond. Extremely disappointing as there have to be Millions having the same problems! Ap