02-22-2012, 03:12 AM

My wife's new iPhone 4 does not receive incoming iMessages sent from other iPhones. Senders think the message has been sent but this is not so. All the info that I have read on the subject states that the senders iPhone will recognise if the recipient iPhone cannot receive iMessages and then any message will be sent as an SMS. Clearly this is not happening.

I've searched on this site, googgled the problemand check Apple support forums to no avail. Has anyone here any ideas on this one?

02-22-2012, 03:21 AM

Can she send them?
Under
Settings - Messages
Set the first three switches to ON
Ensure the 'Receive At' setting has the phone number and primary email set.
Now toggle iMessage to off, restart the phone, toggle iMessages back on.

02-22-2012, 03:25 AM

Originally Posted by Sawday

My wife's new iPhone 4 does not receive incoming iMessages sent from other iPhones. Senders think the message has been sent but this is not so. All the info that I have read on the subject states that the senders iPhone will recognise if the recipient iPhone cannot receive iMessages and then any message will be sent as an SMS. Clearly this is not happening.

I've searched on this site, googgled the problemand check Apple support forums to no avail. Has anyone here any ideas on this one?

Very strange!
Is she able to send messages?

I occasionally have problems where my iPhone won't send or receive messages (or iMessages) but I get a send error telling me it didn't go out. No errors on the receiving side obviously.

The only way I have found to fix it is to do a hard reset (holding the Home and Sleep buttons until the Apple icon appears). But from the sound of it I'm not sure your wife's problem is similar to mine.

02-22-2012, 03:39 AM

Originally Posted by mrplow

Can she send them?
Under
Settings - Messages
Set the first three switches to ON
Ensure the 'Receive At' setting has the phone number and primary email set.
Now toggle iMessage to off, restart the phone, toggle iMessages back on.

I'm pretty sure we (ie me) have tried that amongst the many suggestions found so far. However, I'll try this specifically tonight and report back.

And yes she can send messages to iphones and others though without checking I'm not sure whether these went as imessages or SMS.

02-22-2012, 03:46 AM

Originally Posted by Razormac

Very strange!
Is she able to send messages?

I occasionally have problems where my iPhone won't send or receive messages (or iMessages) but I get a send error telling me it didn't go out. No errors on the receiving side obviously.

The only way I have found to fix it is to do a hard reset (holding the Home and Sleep buttons until the Apple icon appears). But from the sound of it I'm not sure your wife's problem is similar to mine.

No-one is getting any error mesages on sending or receiving. Out-going messages all arrive OK, incoming iMessages just don't arrive. Incoming SMS does. A quick check of her contacts list indicates that 75% have iPhones so this is a major problem.

After we have tried the routine given above by mrplow would restore factory settings be an idea to try? Presumably this would wipe out contacts (but that's OK we have a hard copy) but would it really set everything back to base?

02-22-2012, 03:53 AM

Originally Posted by Sawday

No-one is getting any error mesages on sending or receiving. Out-going messages all arrive OK, incoming iMessages just don't arrive. Incoming SMS does. A quick check of her contacts list indicates that 75% have iPhones so this is a major problem.

After we have tried the routine given above by mrplow would restore factory settings be an idea to try? Presumably this would wipe out contacts (but that's OK we have a hard copy) but would it really set everything back to base?

Doing a factory restore would be worth trying, but I have to admit that to me iMessage and iCloud functions are still a bit of a work in progress that hopefully will eventually get sorted out.
For instance, despite everything I have tried I cannot receive original iMessages on my iPad. If I send a message and the person replies, I get it with no problem. But original messages go to my iPhone only.
On my wife's iPad, however, everything works as intended . . . Go figure.

02-23-2012, 06:23 AM

RazorMac: the reason for your problem is simple: your iPad CANNOT use a phone number as its contact address for iMessage. It MUST be an email address.

02-23-2012, 08:14 AM

Originally Posted by chas_m

RazorMac: the reason for your problem is simple: your iPad CANNOT use a phone number as its contact address for iMessage. It MUST be an email address.

Agreed. Make sure you have the email address you're using for iMessage on the iPad as an additional 'receive at' entry on the iPhone along with your phone number

02-23-2012, 08:36 AM

Also, once you have verified that additional email, remove the default email. I just got done setting up iMessage on my iPad in order to test out for setting up my mom's iPhone and iPad to talk to each other.
iPhone has my Apple ID Email and Phone Number set up
iPad has a secondary email different from the Apple ID email.
Both work perfectly now.

02-23-2012, 09:28 AM

I just tried this, unfortunately it will not allow me to set the iPad eMail address for receipt on the iPhone because it says that it is already in use. I tried turning off iMessage on the iPad and it still wont do it.

EDIT: I tried adding it as an alternate eMail and won't do that either. FWIW I had no problem setting up my wife's iPhone and iPad which is why I say iMessage and iCloud is still a bit buggy. We have identical equipment, same steps in set up and hers works but my doesn't.

02-23-2012, 09:36 AM

you have to verify the new email for the iPad. You cannot have the same email showing on both devices, not even as a secondary. One email address only for each.

02-23-2012, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by Deckyon

you have to verify the new email for the iPad. You cannot have the same email showing on both devices, not even as a secondary. One email address only for each.

I guess I got confused by what seemed like conflicting advice. My iPad has had from the beginning a verified eMail address.
What I did not do on my iPhone is set an eMail address as an alternative. I have done this and verified it (different from the one on the iPad). Will have my wife Message me and see if it works.

EDIT: Did not work (or at least not like I think it is supposed to). Both of us can message and receive from our iPhones and iPads, but the crosstalk doesn't seem to work as I understood it was supposed to.

02-23-2012, 10:23 AM

without hands on, I dont know man.

02-23-2012, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by Deckyon

without hands on, I dont know man.

Agree.

And, Sawday, my apologies for hijacking your thread - wasn't my intention.

I'm not complaining, it just seems to me the entire move to the Cloud was rushed a bit (perhaps so Steve Jobs could see part of his vision come to pass). This isn't the first small glitch I have run into. My expectation is that by the time IOS 6 or 7 and Mac OS X 11.x rolls around things will "Just Work" seamlessly accross all platforms and native APPs.
But, we aren't there yet. At least in my experience.

02-23-2012, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Razormac

Agree.

And, Sawday, my apologies for hijacking your thread - wasn't my intention.

No problem - it's interesting to see the problems people have in this area. Presently we have been using my appleID and my email address on the iPhone. It will not let me change the 'receive at' email to my wifes real email as it says it's already in use (thinks - of course it is - it's her email doh!). I'm hoping that once we get it all working and get my wife her own Apple ID (Though trying to avoid this as we also share an iPad which mas my Apple ID set up on it) this may resolve itself. Perhaps we should just enter a dummy email address that is never used in order to go through the hoops that Apple have put in our way???

Regarding my original problem, it would appear that when the iPhone is connected to my home network it WILL receive iMessages, but when not on the network it just does not receive then even as an SMS, yet the sender still sees that it has been sent.

Haven't tried the factory reset yet as it's a busy time for my wife and we cannot afford any down time fora few days. ButI will report back...