Bug with iPhone, iMessage and calling – Solutions

Sms non sending or not being received.

Occasionally we have customers report one or more of the following problems, Most invariably this will affect iPhones that have been handed down from a parent or android phones that accept been fix to use "Google Chat".

  • SMS not sending or existence received
  • SMS arriving simply just when the phone gets habitation and connects to WiFi
  • Calls to the phone ringing other phones in the business firm in stead
  • Calls failing to connect or dropping within seconds of connecting.

Quick Solution: The problems will nearly always be fixed by resetting the iPhone to Manufactory Settings and setting it up from scratch with a new iCloud account that is unique to the phone; and past making a couple of settings adjustments to the phone.

iMessage requires the phone to be connected to the internet at all times. If y'all want to use iMessage on a phone that has restricted net access then you will need to go quite familiar with how it works.

This is usually the safest method but we'll attempt and explain here what is going on, as understanding the causes of the problem tin aid. So if you don't want to go with the reset option, read on…

iMessage is non SMS

iPhones are equipped with a 'unified messaging' platform they call "Messages". Imaginative. This application can ship regular SMS – that are sent and received over the cellular network asynchronously, and iMessage which is an encrypted, synchronous, net-based instant messenger.

In their wisdom Apple tree take made the two virtually indistinguishable from each other – as a dominion, save the colour of the message chimera. A bluish bubble for sent iMessage and a green bubble for sent SMS and a fetching ambivalent grey for incoming letters. Because Apple knows you probably don't intendance much what it is apart from what information technology says. They are then alike information technology's not unusual for new Apple users to be unaware that there is fifty-fifty a divergence.

Dissimilar versions of iOS or an old iPhone?

Even when everything is prepare correctly, if an iPhone has a different or erstwhile version of iOS to the parents' or friends iPhones, this is a well-known Apple trouble. Currently all iPhones beneath 6S are at present technically unsupported by Apple tree. Apple wants everyone to purchase a new iPhone every 2 years at most. An iPhone that was supplied on a contract six years ago and has been sitting in a drawer for the past 3 years, is almost certainly going to have an old version of iOS, and compatibility is not guaranteed!

Anyone who has had iPhones for many years knows that Apple definitely has a policy of helping erstwhile phones caput into retirement and encourage a purchase of the latest model. Former phones also endure from bombardment issues and crashing telephone radio circuits causing dropped or failed calls.

Asynchronous vs Synchronous

Apart from their different methods of commitment – iMessage needing a data connection, either Mobile Information or WiFi – and SMS non, the biggest difference betwixt the ii message types is that iMessage is a Synchronous messanger ( ish! ) and SMS is asynchronous.

A Synchronous message relies on both the sender and receiver of the bulletin to be attached to a data connection at the aforementioned time. It means you can get instant feedback and confirmation that the message has been received, and potentially if it has been read. Yous can also ofttimes encounter the remote party is interacting with the message past seeing the familiar "I'm typing" dots.
On the confront of it that seems like something you'd always desire. But if the remote user is unavailable due to beingness in a blackspot, or turned off, the message cannot be delivered in real time then the network will either have to inform you that the message tin can't be sent or volition have to innovate an amount of cacheing. It's non really designed that way, so it gets all a bit clunky.

An SMS is born asynchronous. When you lot send an SMS it is sent to an SMSC ( SMS message centre ) which waits for the telephone to connect to a network and request messages be spooled to it. The advantage of this is information technology copes very well with phones being turned off for very long periods of time. The downside is the feedback about the messages being read is far less instant and reliable, and occasionally messages tin can spool out of sequence.
If you take a phone with no mobile data, or data that is restricted – say while the phone is at school – an Asynchronous messenger is far more appropriate.

Setting upwardly iMessage for use with SMS

With the right settings and an understanding of what is going on, it's perfectly possible to use SMS and iMessage and they will play very nicely together with a petty help. It's most of import to have all the Apple devices in the household ready to Send equally SMS when iMessage isn't available.

Under Settings –> Messages, make sure Transport every bit SMS is turned on.

Target Address

The Second large difference between iMessage and SMS is the flexibility of target address.
With iMessage it's possible to use either the telephone's mobile number, or the phone's iCloud email address as the 'target' for the bulletin.
If you are using iMessage exclusively, then this doesn't really affair, but if y'all are using iMessage AND SMS together then it'due south vital that you use only the telephone'southward mobile number equally the target address. If you use both, and so at best y'all terminate up with multiple message threads going on, and at worst, you will have failed messages.

If you have the child's phone registered on iMessage, and a friend of theirs messages them 'from' an electronic mail address, then information technology volition but be possible to reply using iMessage. This will piece of work while the phone is connected to the cyberspace, but volition fail as soon as information technology's non.

The setting for this is under Settings –> letters –> Send & Receive

Always making sure new conversations are started from the mobile number, and iMessage only listens on the mobile number will help.

Information technology's perfectly possible to send and receive letters to both mobile number and electronic mail address, but for maximum compatibility, we would set iPhones upward to always use the mobile number. Everyone will know your mobile number so uncheck the electronic mail addresses for maximum compatibility.

Quite often the iPhone will kickoff a new bulletin thread using the iCloud email address as the identifier rather than the phone number. This means any replies volition go dorsum to iMessage using the e-mail accost. SMS, being send to the number and not the email address volition go into a different thread. iPhone users with not-Apple tree friends will likely be familiar with this behaviour already.

Check the accost book

A paw-me-downwardly phone will almost certainly incorporate contact address-book entries. These may be mobile numbers or e-mail addresses. The other phones in the house may well also contain contact records with email addresses and no mobile numbers.

If a contact tape just contains an email accost and you accept at present disabled iMessage on a phone to the iCloud email address then you aren't going to exist able to bulletin past a name search – yous're going to have to type in the mobile number. Resetting the phone and starting again won't do whatever harm.

It's also worth standardising the number format. You can store an 07nnnnnnnnn number and the aforementioned number equally +447nnnnnnnnn against the same record. iPhones are notoriously bad at automatically divining the source country from the phone number so nosotros store all ours as +44 numbers.

ALWAYS have a Unique iCloud account

The biggest and most common problem with a 'handed down' iPhone is quite likely to be the fact that the phone may take the Parent's iCloud account equally its identity.
The reason this causes unexpected behaviour should start to become clear when y'all deport in mind the points above and the manner iMessage works.

If you lot take multiple iPhones with the same iCloud account and y'all send an iMessage to that iCloud address or a phone number linked to it, it's impossible for Apple to know which of the devices the message is intended for, and distinguish whether the message should be send every bit iMessage or SMS. The results are highly unpredictable.

The other issues with having the aforementioned iCloud address for a kid'due south phone don't cease at that place of grade – it also means you have given your child the tools to lock and wipe your ain iPhone and authenticate your spending, and delete all your backups and music and any online content. Only let's non worry about that correct now.

Turning off Calls on other devices will fix the about surprising of Apple features. Does anyone actually desire their iPad to be a phone anyway?

Another unexpected effect of having the same iCloud address for your phone and your child'due south phone can be your calls unexpectedly being delivered to your child'due south phone and vice versa. You can turn this off in Settings –> Phone –> Calls on other devices, merely far better to have dissimilar iCloud accounts and be done with it.

You are adding a new Phone Number…

When you lot insert a new SIM in an iPhone, the iPhone sends a verification SMS to apple to inform apple of the new number to associate with that phone's iCloud account. Apple sends i back to the phone with conformation. You will see these in the ParentShield Portal – they're normally hidden surreptitious messages only nosotros 'unhide' system messages so yous can meet them. It's a useful feature and allows you to spot suspicious activity.

Apple volition so pop up a message on the screen of every iOS device with that iCloud business relationship to confirm adding the new number to that iCloud business relationship. If you remember seeing these pop-upwards messages but can't call up what was selected information technology's worth checking Send and Receive under Settings –> messages to double check.

People sometimes volition bespeak out the advantages of having a 'family' account. The ability to control spending is the main one. Yous don't desire to have to load your credit card onto your child's iCloud account to make information technology piece of cake for them to make purchases from the iTunes store.

Fortunately Apple tree has solved this by allowing you to have carve up iCloud accounts for the phone's identity and for the purposes of iTunes.

Under Settings yous can specify which account is used for what. It'south well worth condign familiar with the dissimilar accounts so you know which 1 to apply for the discover-my-iphone feature.