ios 12 imessage streamlining

They need to stop starting an Apple ID and set up Family Sharing.

There may be some data loss, but you can minimize it. If syncing photos with iCloud, ensure Optimization is turned off in Settings/Your Name/iCloud/Photos and/or in Photos/Preferences/iCloud. Then make sure full resolution photos are on the device/computer. When signing out of iCloud, if asked whether you want to retain data, choose yes. Messages conversations will be lost if they are addressed to the ID. See the article below for other places that the old ID should be removed. Also set up Family Sharing to keep access to your apps. Also see Winston Churchill's response in the below discussion

Apple ID – Create

How to transfer all files from one iCloud account to another

Apple ID email address or password - What to do after you change

Family Sharing

Family Sharing - Use your own Apple ID for Family Sharing

Family Sharing -What types of content can I share?

Family Sharing - If you don‘t see your family‘s shared content

Family Sharing - Ask to Buy

Family Sharing - Ask to Buy - Get Help

Family Sharing - purchases and payments

Family Sharing - Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books

Family Sharing – share iCloud Storage

Family Sharing - Share an iCloud storage plan with your family

Family Sharing and location

Family Sharing and Apple ID for your child

FYI I seem to of found a workaround! I removed any other email address to associated with my main Apple ID Then I created Apple IDs with those email addresses for my wife and kids. If it’s for kids make sure you set the birthdate to at least 13 years old or it has to be shared with an adult Apple ID . Then on each of the devices I logged in separately with those accounts to iMessage and FaceTime. And left the main Apple ID the same on all the Devices. Seems to work for now.

I had this same problem when I shared apple id with my kids. I set up new apple id's for each person and set up family sharing. I made sure that icloud, messages, and facetime were all using the new apple id for each person on their device, but left the shared apple id for iTunes and Apps on each device. After I did all of this, I was still having the issue with the merged imessages text string. I then deleted the "infected" text string (the one where all the shared apple id's were showing up). After I deleted the text string, I was able to text each individual person again! For some reason, getting rid of the "infected" text string was what prevented the solution of new apple id's from taking over. All is good now and all works!

I downloaded iOS 12 when it was first available in September. For a week, I had the same frustrating problem with myself and my teenage daughter. Our iMessage threads were merged into one under my Apple ID with my Apple ID icon. So everything I had texted to myself was showing up in that conversation. It was extremely annoying and I thought about setting up family sharing with an Apple ID for my daughter, but she did not want to do that because she did not want to lose her data with her apps. So, after many different ways to try to solve this including generating a new text message & typing her contact name in, which would show her in the contact and then as soon as I sent the message it would merge it again, I found a solution. I started a new text message & typed in her phone number with the area code, and ever since then, I was able to retrieve her thread by itself with all of our pre-existing iMessages intact. Now I can go to iMessages and click on her thread as usual, and it will only sent it to her phone.

Go to appleid.apple.com and get a new AppleID for each additional person sharing your AppleID. Then have each person sign out of the shared AppleID used just for Messaging and then sign in with their new AppleID. It doesn't change the AppleID associated with each device or iTunes or AppStore--only for the Messaging app. There's no need to set up Family Sharing and it isn't possible unless at least one device is signed into a new AppleID. Problem solved.

We created separate AppleIDs for each of our 4 iPhone users, but then still had to delete all message threads that involved any of us (on every device). Once we did that, the problem was solved. Turned on Family Sharing, but honestly at this point having access to my kids' music library is not necessary or appealing. I have older children (20 and 17) so monitoring their every purchase is not practical. I agree that creating unique AppleIDs should not be required and hopefully Apple will come up with a solution. We used Facebook Messenger for about a day until we learned about the "deleting the infected" thread solution. Now we're back to iMessage again and it's working fine.

I logged into appleid.apple.com from a Mac to create an AppleID for my wife including all the personal, security, and credit card info. When you set it up using the web app, it doesn't change any settings in your iPhone or iPad (or on your Mac). On my wife's iPhone, I went into Settings/Messaging/Send&Receive. It will show the current AppleID being used. Touch the > and it shows the current AppleID on the top line. Tap it, and a box pops up: Tap "Sign Out". Then type the new AppleID on the top line with its password on the second line, then touch "Sign in". That's it after it all syncs up in a minute or two. After making the change our iMessages were completely separated on both sending and receiving. And nothing else was changed on her iPhone. It's still using my AppleID and all the apps and shared iCloud data are still there like before.

As a bonus, my wife and I were now able to use Messaging on our iPads without getting each other's messages. It works really well: everything is synced between my iPhone and iPad and I can alternate devices on a single thread without losing anything.

Our adult daughter who has always had her own AppleID notified me of the problem when she upgraded to iOS12: my wife's and my iMessages were combined in a single thread which also made it impossible for her to send iMessages to us individually. Once we made the iMessaging change on my wife's iPhone and iPad, it fixed all the problems on our daughter's devices. She didn't have to make any changes on her end. So this "fix" solves that problem.

I know that there are many reports of iMessages just being re-routed incorrectly in situations where there is no sharing of AppleIDs. I think that's just an iOS 12 bug and not something that can be fixed by changing settings like this.

It was not acceptable to my wife and I to switch to Family Sharing because we enjoy sharing common calendars, contacts, reminders, and notes which becomes very difficult or impossible to do. We don't have secrets after more than 50 years together <g>.

i created sub accounts and separated everyone . . . . deleted the text string and started over. It's still happening to one person who I have checked every setting i know and they have their own itunes now.

Wow I hope they fix this! In the mean time I’m going to try and remove thier iMessage emails from my main account and create a Apple ID for each one. Then I’m going to try and just log in with these accounts for just iMessage and face time. Then use my main Apple ID for everything else! 🏻 Hope it works! I’m so **** frustrated with this. I personally think they should of made it a option where you could toggle off streamline messsaging!

I only had to delete 1 text string because everyone I shared the Id with “merged” I to 1 string. So if it is you, your wife and your daughter, whoever text you last is how the string should be showing up in your list of messages. Delete that text string.

There is no way to undo it because Apple didn’t make it an option. I’m almost ready to throw my iPhone at this point.

This is a terrible problem. I have 4 family members (myself and three kids) on a single icloud account. My wife has a separate icloud account. After upgrading their phones to iOS12, my wife started reporting that the wrong messages were going to the wrong kids. I had not updated my phone yet (work phone) so I seemed unaffected. Did the usual; make sure only configured to send/receive from their respective phone numbers, signed out of icloud. I even created separate icloud accounts for all the kids but it still threads messages or sends them to the wrong phone. All phones do use the same account for iTunes purchases, perhaps this is an issue. After creating new icloud accounts for everyone I deleted all messages from all family members to each other - individual and group - from everyone's phone. Issue persists. I have even seen the header of a text message switch names from "Kid A" to "Kid B" as I watched. Apple needs to fix this problem. There is no justifiable explanation for it to work this way intentionally.

(solution of separate IDs did not work for me and my family)

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