Diagnose my iPhone

February 16, 2014 10:31 AM

Text messaging consistently does not work on my phone (iPhone 4s, AT&T). 2 failure modes: 1) The blue "Sending" bar does not go all the way to complete in iMessage 2) I'll send a text successfully, and the other person will text me back right away, but I won't receive their reply. When I do get their reply, however, it'll say the correct timestamp (from when they sent it, which is often hours earlier.) This always happens with some people and never with others. It happens to both iMessage and regular texts. I'm wondering whether to take it to the Apple store, the AT&T store, to do a factory reset, or to fiddle with some other settings. Has anyone else encountered this and been able to fix it?
posted by estlin to Technology (6 answers total)

Response by poster: kalessin, I just signed out of and back into iTunes, and now it seems that text messages are working as they should! Thanks so much!
posted by estlin at 11:17 AM on February 16, 2014

While you say that it happens with both iMessages and regular texts, I'm wondering if it's some issue with iMessage (particularly since kalessin's advice worked). For the people where messaging sometimes fails, is there some common denominator with respect to iMessage? In other words, do they all have iPhones? All have phones other than iPhones?
posted by Betelgeuse at 12:19 PM on February 16, 2014

I had this exact same problem. My iphone was at the end if it's life so I got a 5s.
posted by exois at 2:00 PM on February 16, 2014

It seems like you already got this fixed, but this works for me in a pinch - turn off iMessage completely on ALL devices it's turned on, then re-sign in.

iPhone/iPad/iPod: Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > tap your Apple ID - sign out
Macintosh (OS X 10.8/9): open Messages, click Messages on the menu bar, Preferences, Sign Out

I'd recommend turning iMessage off on all devices, then re-signing in one by one. This resets your iMessage registration to a clean slate, while not deleting any messages or history, and can help clear up some miscellaneous problems.

Also, press the Home button and the Power button simultaneously until the iPhone/iPad/iPod screen switches to black, then release, let the iPhone restart. This also clears up some issues. A combination of those two tips can really clear up some quirks.

This is applicable for everyone and anyone who is having problems. You can also check the status of various Apple services, including iMessage, here.
posted by dubious_dude at 6:45 PM on February 16, 2014

Also, signing out and back in on the iTunes settings pane is a bit not related to iMessage, because that settings pane is specifically designed for the App Store, Music, and Videos, not text messages. If it worked for you, great! I'd still recommend doing the iMessage sign out/back in and soft reset simultaneously, just to be safe and to ascertain you won't run into this problem again - if you do, it's decidedly an Apple server-side issue.

Enough threadsitting for me! :)
posted by dubious_dude at 6:47 PM on February 16, 2014

With iMessage, the endless blue Sending bar issue sometimes happens to me when my phone is connected to wi-fi rather than 3G. (Well, it looks like it's connected, but it won't send or receive data.) Turning my phone's wi-fi off and on again fixes it.

If your problems return, that might be something to try.
posted by Georgina at 8:29 PM on February 16, 2014