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

12.1.1 did not fix the problem.

Family sharing or iCloud photo library do not help my situation. I used my current set up seamlessly for years never ever a problem until IOS 12.

This may be isolated to iPhone 6, and 6S, anyone else having this problem using a 7 or higher?

My husband and daughter’s contact is like sink together I cannot send one message or the other message if I try then my daughter gets my husband’s messages this is really messed up I just need fixed I just got my new phone

Add me to this list and add this issue to the list of nightmares with the the latest iOS and the Xs.

I am receiving notifications without texts, and yesterday was in the middle of a 3-way conversation when I suddenly did not receive one person's texts. Then, another person was added to the conversation (who had no clue what we were talking about and we had not added anyone), then one of the original people was 'removed from the conversation' by someone who was not part of the thread. To top it off, my replies then became a different conversational thread which randomly included several texts dating back to 2015. Even after deleting the corrupted thread, problems still continue with messages between us.

After weeks of Bluetooth disconnections and still no consistent wifi calling, this latest fiasco has me inches away dumping my Xs and considering Android. And I've used a Mac since the original desktop. Really, really frustrating and disappointing...

Thanks for the inapplicable condescension. Apparently you believe that it is as 'simple' as deleting conversations with my entire family, losing all related threads, quitting messages and restarting my phone. This is not a user issue; this is a hardware and software failure. Period. There are not multiple users or iPhones tied to a thread with a single i.d. I do not wish to delete years of conversations. I have restarted, rebooted, hard rebooted, quit messages, quit wifi calling, quit Bluetooth, repaired, renamed, reset network settings, called my service provider, called Apple techs etcetera and ad nauseam. I have read this thread, and the many others pertaining to Bluetooth connectivity, wifi calling and innumerable iOS12 and iPhone Xs issues and the varied 'solutions' from other community members and Apple 'support.' Your sarcasm is very helpful; just like Apple support. iOS 12 and the Xs are dismal, bug-filled products. Pretending otherwise is not helpful, and offensive.

One of my contacts is crossed. The contact works sometimes but sometimes that contact will not deliver messages. It appears I had the contact in with an overseas prefix and now it is crossed with the regular contact. All efforts to delete it fail.

Extremely glad I found this thread. I was driving myself crazy. We have this happening on my wife's phone. We are a family with many Apple devices. For individual's phones, we have separate Apple ID's. However, for iMessage on Macs, iPads, and iPods, they are signed in under one Apple ID that then has about 6 aliases/sub accounts (forget the terminology Apple uses) to differentiate each device. In the past, this worked flawlessly and correctly. However, now when any one of the devices messages my wife's phone, it creates the scenario others are describing. The messages all come through in one thread and the displayed contact changes to whichever the last message came from. I spent an hour or two checking that each device only had the check mark by its correct account, all had iCloud syncing for messaging turned off, and all were correctly listed in the contacts. Even after signing out of the Apple ID on all, deleting all contacts and re-adding, the problem still happens. Really hoping there's a fix for this soon as it has completely broken my system. And if this was an intended feature as some have pointed out, there should be a toggle or way to not use it.

It is now January 3rd 2019!! Time to get it together Apple, and I am asking nicely. I have been dealing with this situation since your update of iOS 12 and now it’s iOS 12.1.2 I’m not really sure what’s been changed but this hasn’t, and a lot of people are very unhappy that they cannot use their phones the way they used to and that’s not right. A lot of us have tons of information saved that we absolutely cannot lose and that needs to be considered. I am on a completely different Apple ID than my child and messages between me and his father are going to his account which is completely uncalled for and personal and should never happen to anyone. These kind of problems never happened before. There is nothing but constant problems happening and it’s tiring honestly, but this one is huge for me. I cannot understand either why something like this hasn’t even been resolved yet, and if it isn’t I’ll be happy to move to somewhere else with less headaches. I’m beginning to wonder if Apple reads these.

a lot of people are very unhappy that they cannot use their phones the way they used to and that’s not right.

I am SO UNHAPPY that I can't use my 1980 IBM PC to run Windows 10! Time marches on. Your choice is to accept change and adapt to it or never get a new product.

Apple isn't going to change anything, so base your future plans on that assumption. Ranting to other users in this user-to-user forum accomplishes nothing except to make you look foolish.

I’m beginning to wonder if Apple reads these.

If you had bothered to read any of this thread you would know that Apple does not read these. This is a user-to-user forum. Apple does not participate. To make your views known to Apple-->https://apple.com/feedback. When you use the link it pays to be polite and provide a reasonable argument. Rants probably just go into the bit bucket.

I’ll be happy to move to somewhere else with less headaches

By all means! You should buy whatever product best meets your needs. No one here cares how you spend your money. However, finding something with less headaches will be a challenge. You can find other headaches in other platforms, but not less headaches.

Apple has never supported sub IDs under an Apple ID, so they haven't discontinued anything. That is your invention. Probably 99.9% of all Apple user use the same Apple ID for everything. A few may have used a common Apple ID for the iTunes & App Store to share purchases, but even that became unnecessary after Family Sharing was introduced 5 years ago. But there also was no real harm in continuing it.

Sor of reminds me of the IBM 1401 computer, which users discovered had some assembly language operations that were undocumented, but were useful. When IBM discontinued the 1401 they accommodated programs written for it in an emulator on the 360, but the emulation did not include those undocumented instructions, which broke a lot of stuff. But the programmers had to rewrite their code anyway.

It's my invention? It's been on every Apple device I've used for years, was first suggested by an Apple store employee, and then more recently supported by Apple phone tech support 3 days ago. It currently is in place on the 19 Apple Devices I personally own as well as the 54 employee iPads I provide tech configuration and repair to. I would consider that a supported feature. This isn't some hidden, undocumented script written into an assembly language. I believe it's in part what's become a contributing factor to both miscommunication and a flaw in the current iOS. I was trying to see if I could help intelligently sort out anything about this issue. I thought you seemed like a user who may be able to be helpful, but hearing your made up statistics of "99.9% of all Apple user", condescension, and reference to old IBM technology that has no bearing or help in the current situation I don't think you have any value in the conversation.

Your continued condescension is ill-placed, belies your ignorance and helps no one. No, this text issue is not 'entirely due to sharing Apple i.d.'s,' which you would know if you read the comments and actually cared to help think of a solution. Yes, Apple does not 'officially' monitor these conversations but most of the participants have tired of calling text support and receiving no solution so they turn to this community.

This texting/contacts problem is only one example of the failures of iOS12 and more particularly the Xs product line. Why don't you google, Xs and wifi calling, or Xs and bluetooth devices, or Xs and speaker qualities, or Xs and volume issues? Just those few will trigger 200 million results. Why do you think that Apple is missing its financial projections? Trade tariffs? Chinese economy? Pricing? Currency exchange? Yes, all of those play a role, but the most basic issue confronting Apple's iPhone is that iOS12 was rife with issues as yet unaddressed and the Xs is the most overpriced and bug-filled product Apple has released in decades. Period. I have been using Apple products since 1984. The xS is an embarrassment. Climb off your pontificating mountaintop, lose the sardonicism, and use your synapses to help people not criticize them.

Same exact issue I’m experiencing. Incredibly frustrating. Messages between my mom and dad suddenly one of them disappears. The other day they both were separate again. Could have been because I was switching phones doing an iCloud restore, but there they were. Now gone again. This is insane!!!

My Iphone x has same problem. Most people on here are experiencing mix ups with family members with same apple id. My problem isn't mix ups with family members, but with some of my business contacts. I type a message to lets say Lauren, one I push send it tells me I have sent the message to Royal Mail, there entry in my contacts isn't even a mobile number. Very confused... Is there a fix yet?????

I would like to make a suggestion to you. Your problem seems to be totally unrelated to what is going on in this discussion. My suggestion would be to start your own thread and provide as many details about the problem as you can.

This is and still happening with my 6s and on 12.1.4. I am not connected to the Apple ID at all in this case as we are in different homes so have a separate Apple ID. I don’t believe this is a Apple ID problem like Lawrence has stated above and it’s something entirely different. I am also losing my 2 threads that somehow ends up being put into one for those contacts. This is very frustrating and was not happening till iOS 12. I have tried everything including calling Apple without any resolution.