Common iMessage Problems and Solutions

I see a lot of tweets and forum posts about iMessage issues, so I thought I would make a post with some of the common issues I see, along with the steps that fix things most of the time.

Here are some of the common problems I see:

• My iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch won't send iMessages at all.

• My iPhone won't send iMessages from my phone number, only an email address.

• I can't receive any iMessages, they only come through as SMS.

Here are the common solutions (in order of increasing "messing with stuff"):

• In the Settings app, go to General → Messages and make sure the iMessage switch at the top is on.

• In that same Messages settings screen as above, click Send & Receive. If you are sending iMessages from an email address instead of a phone number, look to see if you can check your phone number under "Start New Conversations From." If the phone number isn't selected, check it now. (And that might be all you need!)

• If nothing so far has helped (and you know your Apple ID login and password), tap your Apple ID at the top and then tap Sign Out. Then where your Apple ID once was, you should be able to tap and sign back in. After a few moments, this usually clears up any iMessage problems.

• If signing out and back into iMessage didn't help, we'll need to reset your network settings. You'll have to reenter wifi networks and their passwords after doing this to use wifi networks that were once saved to your device. In the Settings app, go to General → Reset → ResetNetworkSettings and then confirm. Reset Network Settings is an option only in iOS8. If you aren't using iOS8, you can try Reset All Settings, but it will reset a lot of settings, including your network ones (like turning on keyboard sounds, erasing your lock and home screens, etc.) DO NOT select to reset content, as this will wipe all of your data!

We hope this guide to fixing common iMessage problems was helpful. If you have another iMessage issue that you need help with, leave a comment below and we will try to help as best we can!