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

Possible fix?

Apologies if someone's already pointed this out, but I wanted to pop back into the thread to update on a fix that, for now, seems to be working.

Recap:

1. I have six family phones on my account, each logged in under its own unique Apple ID for quite some time before IOS 12 and the cross-texting issue. The "get your own Apple ID" suggestion was not a solution for me.

2. Only three of the six lines in the family were having an issue.

3. We discovered that, despite the affected three phones displaying a unique Apple ID (Settings>>select Apple ID under the picture on the first screen), when looking at the "Send & Receive" screen in the iMessages app (the screen that allows you to select the phone numbers used by the phone), the three impacted phones were all still displaying the same primary Apple ID (the one on my phone from back in the pre-Family Sharing days when we all shared one Apple ID).

4. The other three non-affected family phones correctly displayed the user's unique Apple ID inside the iMessage app.

5. From the iMessages setting, we logged out the two affected phone and re-logged them in under their correct Apple ID.

6. The problem seems to have resolved itself for now.

So, even if you switch your phones to unique Apple IDs (or already had them set that way before IOS 12), try double-checking:

Settings>>iMessage>>Send & Receive. Make each phone is in fact on its individual Apple ID inside the Messaging app.

Hope this helps.

p.s. When we switched to unique Apple IDs some time ago, none of us individually set the iMessage "Send & Receive" screen. For some reason, two of the six phones didn't switch over (mine never changed as it was the original primary/shared Apple ID).

Murph321 wrote:

Possible fix?

3. We discovered that, despite the affected three phones displaying a unique Apple ID (Settings>>select Apple ID under the picture on the first screen), when looking at the "Send & Receive" screen in the iMessages app (the screen that allows you to select the phone numbers used by the phone), the three impacted phones were all still displaying the same primary Apple ID (the one on my phone from back in the pre-Family Sharing days when we all shared one Apple ID).

That is critical. A high-ranking poster gave a surefire solution that does not involve any investigation.

The following is copied from an sberman post…

This is the cause of your issues. Stop doing this immediately.

Each person receiving a new Apple ID should thoroughly cleanse her/his iOS device(s) as follows:

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

Here is guidance on setting up new Apple IDs:

Help your child set up an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Family Sharing and Apple ID for your child - Apple Support

psmaher wrote:

Having the same problem, right after the update. Based on several threads I’ve seen, it may be planned on the part of Apple in order to force everyone to have their own Apple ID/account. Unfortunately, in our household with younger kids, as a parent, I dont want them having access to certain things and this is our way of having some control over what our kids are doing and what they wish to download/purchase, etc. If this is indeed Apple’s tactic, this pushes things too far in my opinion. Government and big business now want to control all aspects of our lives and my wife and i don’t care or want that kind of intrusion. I‘m hoping Apple comes out with a fix soon for this, or we may look to go the Android route in the near future.

Which is why Family Sharing was created. Apple has NEVER supported sharing IDs. Sharing your ID with children under 13 is a crime. It bypasses the rules for data collection of children's activity. You're only hurting your children in the long run by sharing IDs.

The "Fix" is to use Family Sharing and create appropriate IDs for your children as the law requires.

I have fixed the problem with combined iMessages and I still only use a single apple ID account. Before everyone points out that you are not supposed to do that, I know. I have weighed the costs of not sharing and I am comfortable with my decision, it may not be correct, but it works for me.

My "fix" has been working now for more than 15 days. I will run through exactly what I did, and in what order I did it.

The products I have are:

2011 Macbook Pro (High Sierra) FaceTime associated with email #2, iMessage WAS linked to my phone number (more on that later)
iPhone 6 (mine, iOS 12) iMessage and FaceTime associated only with phone number.

iphone SE (wife, iOS 12) iMessage and FaceTime associated only with phone number.

Iphone 5S (daughter, iOS12) iMessage and FaceTime associated only with phone number.

Old iPad (3rd generation iOS 9.3.5) iMessage and FaceTime associated only with email #1.

Previously on this thread I mentioned that I was going to roll back to iOS 11, but Apple is no longer signing that version so this is how I got everything to work.

1. I signed out of my apple ID on every iOS device and turned off find my iPhone. I deleted all of the iMessages from every contact that shares the single apple ID, on every device.

2. I signed out of my apple ID on my Mac and then turned off iMessage all together. I then deleted all messages.

3. I factory reset my iPhone and restored it from backup. When setting it back up I only allowed my phone number to be associated with my iMessage and FaceTime. (I do not use iCloud photos on any device, but I do use my photo stream. All of my devices are backed up up every night to iCloud. Additionally, AirDrop and handoff is disabled on all iOS and Mac devices)

4. I factory reset my wife iPhone and restored it from backup. When setting it back up I only allowed her phone number to be associated with her iMessage and FaceTime.

5. I factory reset my daughters iPhone and restored it from backup. When setting it back up I only allowed her phone number to be associated with her iMessage and FaceTime.

6. I re-signed into my apple ID on the iPad and I only allowed email #1 to be associated with its iMessage and FaceTime.

7. I DID NOT activate iMessages on the Mac. I have read in other forums that this can cause the combining of iMessages again. I am not happy to no longer have iMessages on my Mac but it is a sacrifice I can live with.

I have subsequently updated all iPhones to 12.0.1 and they have still not combined a single iMessage.

Prior to this fix I was also getting wrong iMessages from my brother who shares a single apple ID with his family. This problem has also been remedied with this "fix".

I understand that this may not be THE way but it is A way, and it has worked for me. I will provide an update if this workaround no longer works with further iOS updates.

Thanks

PattiinCA wrote:

They do share an Apple ID, but according to another post on this thread, Apple says that is okay.

I have no clue what you are talking about but Apple has NEVER made such a statement. An Apple ID can (and should) be shared among DEVICES but ABSOLUTELY NOT among HUMANS. My ID is shared with my iPhone, my logon on an iMac and my logon on an MBP. It is not shared with any human. My wife does the same thing with her ID.

PattiinCA wrote:

When is Apple going to fix this “bug.?”

Never because it's not a "bug." It's a problem that YOU caused and YOU must correct it. Further, some issues may have permeated "under the hood" and there are several steps involved for correction.

1. Eliminate all Apple ID sharing among humans.

2. For all those devices involved, do the following: What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

3. Reload all your apps, music, movies, etc.

captainjacksparrow wrote:

However, to go and create all new Apple ID's isn't a solution

Actually, that is the only solution. They're just going to have to re-enter whatever information was stored in the original ID manually, or you'll have to find another way to transfer it to them.

As long as multiple people are sharing an ID, you will have problems.

The fact that the answer doesn't make you happy does not make it wrong.

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

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

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

Hi all, I hope everyone who’s had the issue here has emails being sent for the discussion notifications. Just wanted to let you know that I found a fix in an article. Really simple. All you have to do is deactivate iMessage and reactivate it. It will take a while for it to reactivate so don’t do this if you’re having an important conversation with someone and need to talk to them right away. Awhile was ~10 minutes for me on school WiFi. It may have been faster if I was at home but I’m not sure. This is simple solution for all that would like to keep message history! All my texts and photos remained unharmed and the conversations that happened during the merge separated as well. Worked for me and I hope it works for you!

TLDR; deactivate and reactivate iMessage through messages settings to fix this issue we’ve all been having.

welafever wrote:

The fix is for everyone to use their own free separate Apple ID. Here are helpful links to get you started -

Set up Family Sharing - Apple Support

Create and start using an Apple ID - Apple Support

They've made it clear that they demand the right to ignore Apple's instructions.

Vandy5111 wrote:

I just talked to a very nice sr. advisor and the only thing he could think of was to go to settings, messages, send/receive and delete the Apple ID there. Has anyone tried that?

You cannot delete the ID in that manner ... the only way to remove it is to sign out of iCloud entirely (not just iMessage) and sign back into iCloud with a different ID. I'm shocked that a Sr. Advisor would not know this.

As others have reported, signing out and signing back in with a different ID is not the end-all solution. If Apple's iMessage servers have associated your phone number with the shared ID, signing out doesn't immediately disassociate your phone number from that ID -- it may take several hours. During that time, and maybe beyond, any iMessage threads you were a part of while sharing the ID will continue to get mixed up, on your end and even senders who were not sharing an ID. Signing out, signing back in with a different ID, waiting, and deleting prior iMessage threads in which the shared ID was used may be the only way to get clear of this.

This just worked for me I read it on another thread

Step 1: go into settings then messages. Make sure your number is the only one with a check mark receiving messages on your phone (on the other phones only their phone number should be checked)

Step 2: delete any group texts and individual texts with all your phones

Step 3: Restart your iPhone

The following is copied from an sberman post…

Sharing IDs is the cause of your issues. Stop doing this immediately.

Each person receiving a new Apple ID should thoroughly cleanse her/his iOS device(s) as follows:

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

Here is guidance on setting up new Apple IDs:

Help your child set up an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Family Sharing and Apple ID for your child - Apple Support

Good luck... Just to reiterate one settings change that has worked thus far for us (4 or 5 days now) - in "Send & Receive" select "start new conversation from" - and pick the email associated with the AppleID for that phone. For receive, choose both the AppleID and the phone #. You indicated you are on separate AppleIDs, so maybe this will help if its not your current settings across all phones. We have 4 on the same AppleID, and now only one phone with that setting (all others just send/receive from # associated with SIM card for that phone) and it appears to have worked after also deleting all old individual and group threads. This was the advice given when I called Apple late last week - to make sure "start new conversation from" was the email associated with the AppleID.