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

I'm sympathetic to your plight, however, that does not alter the fact that if you want to fix the problem, correctly, you have to basically nuke it from orbit. No one at Apple advised you to set things up with shared accounts. That has never been supported. The fact that you feel you have special circumstances does not mean that Apple is going to redesign their systems to meet your special needs.

You've been told what you have to do to correct the problem. Whether you do so or not is your choice. Whether you switch platforms is your choice. You're currently speeding down the expressway going the wrong direction. Sooner or later, no matter how fast you try to dodge and weave, you're going to smack head on into a semi and you're going to lose data. Possibly all of it.

If the ONLY thing you're worried about is being able to message them privately, then tell them both to turn off iMessage and leave it off. Or YOU turn off iMessage and leave it off.

As I said, though, sooner or later, there are going to be much more serious problems.

I didn’t set it up and originally it was because my parents wanted to be able to receive texts that my sister received, plus they didn’t want her having her own email or account.

There should be an option to turn it off or ask people or warn them of the upcoming catastrophe.

Plus turning iMessages off doesn’t help.

No one here works for Apple. This is a user forum. As for who turned on what, and when, that's irrelevant at this point.

They ignored Apple's documentation regarding the use of Apple IDs and iCloud accounts.

How is anyone supposed to "warn them of the upcoming catastrophe" when there's no way for Apple to determine that the devices signed in with any given ID are not being used by the same person... Are we to the point with technology now that we've reached with coffee.... that we have to have warnings that coffee may be hot, or that you should not attempt to iron your clothes while you're wearing them?

They chose to ignore the instructions in order to find a way to spy on their daughter, very possibly violating the law in doing so by allowing a child to use an online account registered to an adult, putting her at risk and making her vulnerable to monitoring that would have otherwise been illegal.

Sorry. You're not going to get any sympathy from me on this one.

You've been given the answer. How you act on it is up to you, but continuing to whine about how things aren't working right because you can't or don't want to follow directions is a waste of electrons.

Spying or monitoring on a child over 13 isn’t illegal... but we’ll see soon since Apple support didn’t say any such thing when I spoke with them, but instead said that there should be a fix coming out.

You know what KiltedTim, despite the fact that you are a level 10 person in this community you are not helping anyone with your comments.

We are ALLOWED to use a single ID for more than one person, this is a fact and you ranting at us over and over to stop doing this is not going to solve the root problem here even if it solves the issue for individuals. Some of us have a use for two people on a single ID and until Apple actually tells us we can no longer do it we may continue to do so.

There is a problem with IOS12, it is merging threads that come from the same Apple ID and it is going to continue to do so until Apple fixes it ... or tells us that this is what they intended with IOS12 and we will all have to make hard choices at that time. In my calls with Apple they have confirmed that in the release documentation there is no stated intent to do any of this ... which means this is unintended ... or in other words, a bug.

For those out there that are blowing away their phones trying to solve this ... none of it works so far, just delete the threads when they get merged and start new ones, this works for a bit and then they get merged again; so far, nobody has had any better luck. To reiterate, resetting your phone and losing everything is not helping.

Oh, and for those that might not have noticed yet, I can confirm that it is phones that have upgraded to IOS12 that is merging threads from people that may or may not have upgraded themselves; in other words, some component of IOS12 (whether or not it is local to the phone or server side to support IOS12) is doing this. I have family that are not yet on IOS12 on their devices that are not having a merging problem with the same people that I (and other family members) that are on IOS12 are (having the merging problem).

Keep calling Apple guys, as KT and others have told us more than a few times, these are forums for users to help each other and we cannot expect Apple to be reviewing these threads.

Busby.p wrote:

We are ALLOWED to use a single ID for more than one person, this is a fact and you ranting at us over and over to stop doing this is not going to solve the root problem here even if it solves the issue for individuals.

You certainly can use a single ID for more than one person, just as you can use a wrench as a hammer. In both cases, the results may not be what you'd like.

You are using the feature in a way that Apple specifically advises against. When Apple makes changes in that feature, changes that do not negatively affect people using it in the way Apple intends it to be used, you may have problems. It's not realistic to expect Apple to take that into consideration any more than it would be for the wrench manufacturer who made changes that made the wrench less efficient as a hammer.

You just don't get it. There is not a problem with iOS 12. It is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It is behaving exactly the way it was designed. In fact, only indicator of a problem here is the way it was behaving for you before updating to iOS 12. I'm sure that was the result of the roundabout way you had tried to do things before.

You don't want help. You want someone to validate your irrational anger at Apple because you think their systems should behave the way you want them to whether you're following the directions or not instead of the way Apple told you they would behave.

Good luck in life. I have a feeling this isn't the only mess you've got yourself into.

"...You just don't get it. There is not a problem with iOS 12. It is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It is behaving exactly the way it was designed. In fact, only indicator of a problem here is the way it was behaving for you before updating to iOS 12. I'm sure that was the result of the roundabout way you had tried to do things before...."

If that were true (and I have my doubts), Apple would know this would be a major issue for many many people, and would have taken steps to alleviate people's anger and confusion...this isn't some small subset of users.

“You can select which phone numbers or email addresses you’d like to start new conversations from, and which phone numbers or email addresses you can receive messages and reply from, in iMessage and FaceTime settings.”

This is from Apple’s iMessage policy - copied and pasted, today (you can check in settings, the same place it lets you set separate send and receive numbers for EACH device) if Apple intended to lump them all together, why is there a specific setting to choose?

I can’t speak for any others, but I never used any workarounds... I simply used the setting options, as apple supplied, for each device and it worked smoothly for the past 9+ years, through new phones and iPads and numerous iOS updates.

dirwuf wrote:

"...You just don't get it. There is not a problem with iOS 12. It is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It is behaving exactly the way it was designed. In fact, only indicator of a problem here is the way it was behaving for you before updating to iOS 12. I'm sure that was the result of the roundabout way you had tried to do things before...."

If that were true (and I have my doubts), Apple would know this would be a major issue for many many people, and would have taken steps to alleviate people's anger and confusion...this isn't some small subset of users.

Apple has said for years that an Apple ID is for individual use only. Why would they assume that people kept ignoring them? And, if they ignored them before, why would Apple expect them to pay attention now?

Multiple phones on the same ID (four family members, four different phone numbers, all using my ID), have worked without issue for 7 years - no problem with iMessage at all. Something has changed as threads are being renamed and messages not going to the correct numbers. so your prior admonition about the issue was wrong. I’m not hassling you but simply restating the same incorrect point is not a solution and will mislead people from demanding the proper assistance from Apple.

This is happening to me as well. We have 4 different Apple IDs organized through Family Sharing. All of us are having issues with sent texts getting sent to the wrong person. If I try to turn off iMessage and send it by sms, it won’t let me send the text at all. Somehow one of my texts went to my sister. Who has a different Apple ID, a different phone provider, lives in a different state and is not family sharing with us. I spent 90mins on the phone with Apple Care and no one there had any clue what was going on either. It got bumped up the the engineer level. Whatever that means.

The only people "restating the same incorrect point" are those of you who insist that you should be able to use the same ID on multiple devices used by multiple people and have it work correctly.

So long as you persist in this madness, you're going to have problems. You're shooting yourself in the foot.

I did the same and had a sigh of relief when I finally got 2 separate messages. Then, as soon as Person A responded, it combined the messages again with Person B. It is only a 1 time fix unfortunately - and you'll have to keep deleting each message so separate ones come through. That isn't a viable solution for people who have years of one string with a spouse or BF/GF and dont want to delete - but there's zero way to separate them once they're combined. It really *****, this is the most disappointed I have ever been with Apple.

if i may ask, did you recently get a notification on your iphone that your carrier settings needed to be updated?

And separate from that, i seem to have fixed the problem for us. On each phone i went to Settings/messages/send&receive - on the top where it shows your Apple ID click on it. One of the popup choices is to sign out. Go ahead and do that. It's safe - you don't lose any messages and you can always sign back in.

You then have to delete ALL threads that are inadvertently combined and delete them. That was sad for us because those threads had been long-running ones with our kids but you have to. Hard power down your phone and then restart. Do that with all the effect phones. Then try to text again and please let me know...

jim