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

My mom has her own Apple ID under my family sharing. On my phone it is combining messages that I am trying to send to her iPhone and her iPad. Same is true if I'm trying to message her from my ipad to either her iPad or iPhone.

What is being combined? You're messaging one person who has their own ID on two devices -- it is normal for two or more devices using the same ID to be merged together, depending on how you set things up. Surely you're not expecting two separate threads -- one for your mom's iPhone and a separate thread for her iPad, right?

If that's what you want, then her iPhone needs to be set to only receive iMessages to her phone number (not her Apple ID as an optional point of contact) and her iPad needs to be set to only receive iMessages to her Apple ID (not her phone number as an optional point of contact). She would also need to disable Text Message Forwarding on her iPhone to prevent those messages from being sent to her iPad.

But if I'm misunderstanding your concern, note that this thread was for messages of multiple people being merged into one thread (because they shared an ID). Perhaps if you explain your problem in a different thread you might get some answers (this thread is saturated, and appears to be unrelated to your issue).

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.

I used an IBM PC with MS-DOS for years also. Then Windows 3.1 for more years and years. But what worked in the past doesn't update very well to the present. It was never a good idea to share an Apple ID, but as Apple added features it became a bigger and bigger problem. That's why Apple created Family Sharing several years ago. If you are unwilling to update to the 2018 and later version of reality you will just continue to have problems like this (and more).

Turning iMessage off and then back on has worked the past couple days.

Why you people so intense and emotional about separate Apple ID’s. Most families share.

darthbenji wrote:

Has anyone tried turning off ‘handoff’ and iCloud imessage backup?

Or even iCloud Drive (that has helped in the past with call history sharing).

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.

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.

I noticed this started once I got the new iPhone last week. Only occurs on my new iPhone and only with the members on my Apple ID. After you text 5-6 times, it combines the messages into someone else in the family and does it with everyone logged into that Apple ID. Very odd. I too find the temporary fix is to delete the conversation. But after a few texts, it starts to combine them again. Doesn’t do this with anyone else not on my Apple ID. I have reported this to Apple as well.

Because the devices have not yet been set up properly.

For each person with a new iCloud account, follow the procedure here, then have them set them up from scratch using their own account.

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

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.

I am having this issue with my two children. After spending hours googling, turning stuff on and off, etc, i think i found a work-around. I started a new thread with my daughter and added myself (my phone number). This seems to work but - I’ve only tried it with one child. (My other child is sleeping and I don’t want to wake her. ) I don’t have any problems in other group messages with my daughters so i figured I’d try. So far it seems to be working. My daughter seems to think Apple will address this issue. Hope so.

It is irrelevant whether most families share or not. They should be using the system in the way it was designed to be used, with Family Sharing. Piling everyone onto a single Apple ID is unsupported, has always been unsupported, and has been causing random and unpredictable problems for a considerable time. Over in the Apple Watch communities we also have a similar issue ongoing with Activity data and awards getting corrupted and cross linked between two sharing users.

After reading about iMessages, I'm taking a stab at this solution.

Go into each device, log in using Apple ID. This might be where everyone is losing control. Determine if you want to use your own ID or shared ID.
Go to settings on iOS devices and to Messages (and really should do the same for FaceTime)
Reset can be reached at and messages sent from.
In some cases might have to log out and back into iCloud to effect change.

In OS open iMessages, Preferences, Accounts and make the same changes

Make sure all devices have the same phone/address selected in each (if that's how you want it to work)

This is what I did (on the latest iOS 11). I am only thinking when iOS was installed it kicked out these settings or defaulted to something else.

I had the same issue with a old thread from iOS 11 between my wife and kids. After updating to iOS 12, all iMessage that's supposed to sent to my wife was sent to my daughter. I fixed the issue by deleting all the thread between the 3 of us on our iPhones.

lakeviewyouthguy wrote:

My messages are getting mixed up with my contacts too. Messages I am sending to my kids are going to wife and vice versa. PLEASE get this glitch fixed soon! Thank you

It's not a glitch. It's a problem resulting from improper use of Apple IDs. Any "fix" is up to the user.

Just to clarify, this thread was actually originally about merging messages, exactly what the original poster stated, because that is a problem that a lot of us are having - literally taking two contacts and merging them into one text messaging thread akin to a group message, but it isn't, and you can only text the person who last messaged you within that (forced) merged thread. I think this conversation has just subsequently morphed into a lot of other issues people are having since the update (including the one you mentioned, with randomly misdirected messages.) I also had an issue since the update where my iMessages were only going to my iPad for a couple days (I had turned iMessage off on my phone in a feeble attempt to correct the problem, and instead of sending things as a text message, it just didn't send them to my phone at all.) Suffice it to say, I think the issues Apple created with this latest iOS update are much broader than the one the OP brought up.