Wife switched to Android, now I cant send her texts - iMessage related

**campuscop2003** · 11-12-2012, 03:40 PM

My wife retired her iphone 4 and bought a Samsung galaxy S3 yesterday. Now I cant text her without turning off iMessage because my phone is a moron and thinks she still has an iphone. I deleted her contact and added her as a new person and put the number as "other" instead of "iphone. This is getting annoying as the rest of my family has iphones and limited text plans as I do and I have to turn off iMessage to talk to my wife then turn it back on to talk with dad and family.

Any ideas would be greatly helpful, thanks!!

**vietalogy** · 11-12-2012, 04:00 PM

If you still have her old iPhone you need to turn off iMessage.

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**campuscop2003** · 11-12-2012, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by vietalogy

If you still have her old iPhone you need to turn off iMessage.

via Tapatalk

No its on the mail on the way to Verizon for the trade in

**kch50428** · 11-12-2012, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by campuscop2003

No its on the mail on the way to Verizon for the trade in

Did you have 'find my phone' active on it? Use that to do a remote wipe if possible...

**Heisenberg** · 11-12-2012, 04:18 PM

There's a way to remove the serial number from her Apple ID without physically
needing the phone. iMore had a blog once with a link to it. Lemme see if I can find it.

**campuscop2003** · 11-12-2012, 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by Heisenberg

There's a way to remove the serial number from her Apple ID without physically
needing the phone. iMore had a blog once with a link to it. Lemme see if I can find it.

Cool that would be great.

I wiped the phone prior to shipping it so its back to stock.

**Heisenberg** · 11-12-2012, 05:18 PM

I can't find that blog post. But she should be able to by going to the Apple ID support site and logging in.

**campuscop2003** · 11-12-2012, 05:47 PM

got apple support on the line, they were completely stumped. Had me do a reboot and reset my network settings. Did not work. I completely deleted her out of my contacts altogether, and tried to text her by number only and it still freaking turned blue. Now I'm getting angry!

**Heisenberg** · 11-12-2012, 05:53 PM

Once it sends blue just gently hold down the message and send it as a text. It'll eventually recognize you're not in iMessage.

**campuscop2003** · 11-12-2012, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by Heisenberg

Once it sends blue just gently hold down the message and send it as a text. It'll eventually recognize you're not in iMessage.

Thanks that a cool trick. Worked!! Thanks so much!! still turns blue but at least I now know how to change it over to a text. Wonder how long till it catches on that my wife has a droid not an iphone?

woohoo sent three texts that way and now its staying green!!! You are the best tech support a guy could have!!!!!

**big9erfan** · 11-12-2012, 06:25 PM

Assuming the device was registered with Apple: login and click "unregister".

**Heisenberg** · 11-12-2012, 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by big9erfan

Assuming the device was registered with Apple: login and click "unregister".

THAT is what I was looking for. Thanks!

**0pusX** · 11-13-2012, 07:53 AM

iMessage bug prevents SMS from getting through to Android switchers | iMore.com

Here is the link the poster earlier was talking about.

**Ih8reno** · 11-13-2012, 08:29 PM

Does she have any other apple devices? If so that number may be associated with an iPad or something as now iMessages are connected to email address and iphone phone numbers.

**Kona Baker** · 11-14-2012, 08:33 PM

I had the same issue with responding to my wife on her Samsung s3. Her number was never on iPhone . I'm on sprint and she's on Tmobile

**Ronald Buckingham** · 02-03-2013, 04:20 PM

I used to own an iphone 3gs, then i switched to android. I never got my friend's text messages because thy were being sent as imessage. The easiest way to fix this is to go to your contacts on your I phone, and select the ex-iPhone number. Then change the label from whatever it used to be to "home" or something you want. Then try to send a message to the DROID phone. It should work, and, if it still does not work after you switch the label back: delete that contact and make a new one (make sure the label is "mobile" and not "iPhone"). hope this helps.

**gameson** · 02-03-2013, 06:26 PM

is this bug consistently reproduced for someone who switch from iOS to others?

**Square85** · 02-03-2013, 07:32 PM

It's not really a bug. You just have to shut off iMessage on the iPhone for your phone number. You can keep iMessage on your other iOS devices if they are connected to your email address or Apple ID.

I had my iPhone stolen from me when I was in South America and had the same problem. I had purchased an HTC Trophy but couldn't get texts from any of my friends who had an iPhone.

I was forced to sell the Trophy for another iPhone from eBay because iMessage was still on in the "Apple Servers."

I'm due for an upgrade in two weeks on Verizon and if I decide not to get an iPhone 5, I have to remember to turn iMessage off on my iPhone 4 before I get my new phone.

**QCPanama** · 03-12-2013, 09:08 AM

Least complicated, fastest solution is use a service like Tango which can associate an account with an email address instead of the phone number. Chat with your wife through an alternate application. WhatsApp is also great

**JustMe'D** · 03-12-2013, 09:23 AM

Originally Posted by QCPanama

Least complicated, fastest solution is use a service like Tango which can associate an account with an email address instead of the phone number. Chat with your wife through an alternate application. WhatsApp is also great

You can also associate email addresses with iMessage. Apple IDs are in the form of email addresses.

**Jeremy** · 03-12-2013, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by big9erfan

Assuming the device was registered with Apple: login and click "unregister".

Yeah, this does not work the way it's described. At least it didn't for me. I switch back and forth between an iPhone 5 and Nexus 4 and for some reason two friends of mine with iPhones still sent iMessages to me when everyone else with an iPhone sent normal texts to me while using the Nexus. The above link was the first thing I tried with no success. It was a very odd issue. I don't think my issue was the same as the OP as it seems he just left iMessage on. So I'm sure the link did work for him. Or at least I hope it did.

**NolansVlogs** · 03-12-2013, 11:12 AM

iPhone is only iMessage, meaning iPhone to iPhone

**sting7k** · 03-12-2013, 11:19 AM

The issue is that the phone number of the former iPhone user is still associated with iMessage. So any time an iMessage capable device sends that phone number a text it will attempt to use iMessage.

The only way to avoid it is to always setup iMessage with an email address and not your phone number. Just turning iMessage off on the old device is not 100% effective either. I went through this last summer. I switch between my Nexus 4 and iPhone 5 and there is no problem now that iMessage is configured only with my email address.

**JustMe'D** · 03-12-2013, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by NolansVlogs

iPhone is only iMessage, meaning iPhone to iPhone

Yes and no. Yes, iMessages are limited to device running certain versions of iOS and OS X, however, the iMessage app can still be used to send SMS messages to non-Apple devices.

**NolansVlogs** · 03-12-2013, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by JustMe'D

Yes and no. Yes, iMessages are limited to device running certain versions of iOS and OS X, however, the iMessage app can still be used to send SMS messages to non-Apple devices.

Yes I do know that, I'm just saying (BLUE iMessage is only apple devices to apple devices)ImageUploadedByiMore Forums1363105597.149628.jpg