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Can't send SMS


I had an iPhone 11 pro that was all working fine.

I’ve just upgraded to an iPhone 15 pro.

I did a factory reset on the new phone, then transferred data and settings directly and finally swapped the SIM card over.

I can make and receive calls on the phone and Whatsapp is working fine. iMessages are being sent by my apple ID rather than my phone number though so they show up with the recipient as from my email address. When someone sends me a message it arrives as a SMS if it’s to my phone number or as an iMessage if it’s to my apple ID.

My phone number is in the ‘you can receive iMessages to and reply from’ menu but it doesn’t have a blue tick beside it, toggling iMessage off and back on gives me ‘An error occured during activation’ dialogue box.

I’ve tried sending SMS messages with iMessage turned off and get an error message saying the iMessage must be turned on to send the message. I have ‘send as SMS when iMessage is unavailable’ turned on.

I’ve tried rebooting the phone with iMessage switched off  and then switching it on again and I’ve also tried resetting the network settings.

Any ideas what else I can try?

Cheers

Dan

Best answer by shoozpup

This is now resolved, it turns out that it was more strange than I originally thought.

SMS was working, though not to everyone. I couldn’t message my partner, but I could message my work colleagues, all of them on iPhones. 
I had two calls with Apple support with no apparent resolution. Their final suggestion was to call ID to check that my account allowed me to do international texts and iMessage, even though the SIM had been working perfectly in the 11 pro, this was Friday evening.

Anyway, the sim was installed in the 15 pro on the Tuesday evening but iMessage and FaceTime wasn’t authorised and working until sometime overnight Friday into Saturday. 

I have no clue why it took so long as Apple couldn’t find anything wrong during the screen share session I had with them.

Thanks,

Dan

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3 replies

Kash
iD Mobile Employee
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  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 8064 replies
  • March 18, 2024

Hi @shoozpup,

Welcome to the Community!

Please can you try the below:

1)    Turn off iMessage (Settings > Messages)
2)    Restart your phone (by pressing and holding the on/off button)
3)    Tap Settings > Phone > My Number and confirm that it is correct. 
4)    If it is not correct, please enter the correct number
5)    Turn iMessage back to On (Settings > Messages)
6)    Finally, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and see if the correct number is displayed under “Start new conversations from:”. 

 

Kash


  • Author
  • New
 Contributor
  • 2 replies
  • Answer
  • March 19, 2024

This is now resolved, it turns out that it was more strange than I originally thought.

SMS was working, though not to everyone. I couldn’t message my partner, but I could message my work colleagues, all of them on iPhones. 
I had two calls with Apple support with no apparent resolution. Their final suggestion was to call ID to check that my account allowed me to do international texts and iMessage, even though the SIM had been working perfectly in the 11 pro, this was Friday evening.

Anyway, the sim was installed in the 15 pro on the Tuesday evening but iMessage and FaceTime wasn’t authorised and working until sometime overnight Friday into Saturday. 

I have no clue why it took so long as Apple couldn’t find anything wrong during the screen share session I had with them.

Thanks,

Dan


Tom
iD Mobile Employee
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  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 7886 replies
  • March 19, 2024

Hi @shoozpup 

 

Glad to see this is sorted.

 

Tom