I used to have iMessage enabled but I turned it off several months ago. Now when I try and send a message using the Messages app, it recognises those recipients who DO use iMessage and tells me I can only send a message to them if I have iMessage enabled.

Other than turning iMessage on and then off again, what can I do? It’s driving me potty.

Thanks

Settings>messages> send as SMS when iMessage unavailable

Thanks Jam bo but that doesn’t do the job (I already have that enabled).

The issue is not that I want to send SMS when iMessage is unavailable; I simply don’t want to use iMessage. Why? The reason is that recipients may not have access to iMessage. If my wife, for example, is out but with no mobile data signal, I want to be able to send her an SMS. It’s happened so many times and it’s a pain, especially since the iMessage will get delivered to her iPad which is on the wireless but not with her, so I never get the option to force send it as an SMS.

I think existing conversations come out as SMS if they’ve started as such.

Usual way is to hold on message as its sent; that makes it go green from blue and gets sent as text. Or at least gives the option.

Edit – you’re almost looking for an SMS app on the iOS I guess..

The reason is that recipients may not have access to iMessage. If my wife, for example, is out but with no mobile data signal, I want to be able to send her an SMS.

That happens automatically doesn’t it – if the recipient isn’t an iOS user the message automatically sends as SMS, if they are an iOS user it’ll try and send as iMessage first then automatically resend as SMS if they are out of signal. Either way anyone will get a message you send them no matter what phone they’ve got.

{edit} actually I see what you mean – the problem is your wife has iMessage running of several devices. I wonder if its something you can do with her contact in address book- so that you only send to a phone no. for her rather than an apple ID. Simiarly maybe iMessage can be switched off on the iPad when she’s not using it.

Ask the wife to turn the ipad off when she’s not using it?

This is the settings page on my 6s. I send SMS messages to my son, who is on a Nokia and iMessages and it does everything automatically
(moustache can be ignored 🙂 )

hm, but I think the problem as OP highlighted is the message may get delivered to an iOS device (say, iPad at home, because its active) while in reality, the message needs to go to another non-iOS device which is with the recipient..

so as far as iMessage is concerned, its delivered, but it isn’t really as the recipient hasn’t seen it on the iPad.

[list][*]Tap and hold on the message being sent[/*]
[*]Select “Send as Text Message”[/*][/list]

Note, you have to be fast!

When I moved from an apple to an android phone I did all the de-registering on the apple handset and then went to https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage and de-registered the telephone number as well.

As has been said isn’t this just the case you need a new contact for your wife with just her phone number on it and use that when you need to send an SMS (although not sure if iOS stops you creating multiple contacts with the same number or tries to be too clever and links them if you do).

I think your wife needs to de-register her phone number as an iMessage recipient on the iPad?

This is a ball ache isn’t it! I have the same problem as my wife works in a bit of a mobile coverage black hole so if I send her a message it will look like it’s been delivered but it’s sitting on her iPad at home and never made it to her phone. Might as well disable iMessage on the iPad as its not really what we use it for.

bear in mind I used my wife as an example, but in reality it could be any recipient who has iMessage enabled but on multiple devices. I can’t ask all of them to turn off their other devices.

I don’t even get an option to press and hold to send as SMS because I have iMessage disabled on my phone. My phone wants to send an iMessage because the previous messages for the contact have been iMessages.

Frustrating.

although not sure if iOS stops you creating multiple contacts with the same number or tries to be too clever and links them if you do

You can have more than one contact for a given phone number – the only consequence is the caller / texter from than number ID doesn’t show up when they contact you

My phone wants to send an iMessage because the previous messages for the contact have been iMessages.

Delete them maybe

Try deleting the conversation on your telephone and start a new one – not ideal I know as you lose all the history but you should also lose the remember iMessage setting.

bear in mind I used my wife as an example, but in reality it could be any recipient who has iMessage enabled but on multiple devices. I can’t ask all of them to turn off their other devices.

No but if they’ll have the same problem with all their incoming messages if they have multiple devises – so they’ll have taken steps / gotten into habits to mitigate against that won’t they?

Just send your messages – its their problem to figure out how they receive them.

Your frustration is you’re trying to find setting on your phone that solves a problem with other people’s behaviour 🙂

I use an iPhone and contact people who have multiple devices – its never (to my knowledge) been a problem (or anything I’ve had to give thought to) for them to get their shit together and receive them. 🙂

iMessage is not as good as Apple would like. Me and mine have had numerous issues with it, some self resolving, some requiring messy work arounds. My sisters iPhone suddenly decided to stop receiving iMessages the other day; got it working again by switching various options on and off, but everyone had to start new conversation threads with her to get iMessages flowing again. Whatsapp is popular for a reason.

I think the problem is at your wife’s end, or, it’s her account that’s routing messages to the wrong place.

Your frustration is you’re trying to find setting on your phone that solves a problem with other people’s behaviour

This sums it up perfectly.

I wish there was a setting on my phone that would stop people from using the last of the bog roll and not putting a new one in the holder. But there isn’t.

Your frustration is you’re trying to find setting on your phone that isn’t available to you.

And you’re looking for a solution to problem that doesn’t exist. It will send a message to any device your wife is using in iMessage not just her iMessage devices.

Just send your messages – its their problem to figure out how they receive them.

This is not just about my wife; it is about sending a text message to anyone who has an iDevice. I simply can’t do it and it appears to be because I don’t have iMessage turned on. When I say I can’t send a message I mean I get an error on my phone that says

“Cannot Send Message. iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message”

I don’t want to turn on iMessage for the reasons mentioned, buy my hand is being forced. All I want is to be able to send SMS messages. As someone said above, I want an SMS app on my phone. I had one and now Apple have taken it away to all intents and purposes.

ANYHOO, using a combination of suggestions I’ve sorted it. I had to delete the contact AND the conversation then start from scratch typing the phone number in. Not the most elegant of solutions but I appreciate all your input. I’ve not turned iMessage on 🙂

ta

The problem exists in the situation the OP describes.

And you’re looking for a solution to problem that doesn’t exist

*Feels like trolling but he’s a moderator so can’t be* 😕

I’m very much looking for a solution to a very real problem that very much does exist and I’ve explained that above.

Are you by any chance texting them on an email address?

Turn iMessage off, and create a brand new message, choosing your wife’s phone number.

Are you by any chance texting them on an email address?

That was my first thought too on reading the OP!

Are you by any chance texting them on an email address?

No. This has caught me out before, but not in this case.

Make sure iPad is turned off when she goes out so its not seen by the iMessage server either? Then it will send by txt.

I have the same problem* with my communications with my wife. We’ve resorted to using email most of the time. It’s a problem exacerbated by the fact I often run out of 3G either signal or data and it won’t deliver the message until I get home into wifi.

*First world obviously

i’ve just turned off imessage, and sent myself an SMS. it worked.

and then I sent one to my wife on an imessage thread. it worked and sent as an SMS.

not sure what the problem is.

I’m not trolling the problem isn’t with iMessage as such it’s an issue with your setup. Turn on iMessage and it’ll sort what it needs to send, mine works off or on. However if it’s on all 4 of my apple devices receive messages and can send them even from and to none Apple devices. It’s magic.

Like jambo says it also works the other way I’m not sure why yours isn’t of course but it could be your provider.

We had a similar issue. My wife had iMessage turned off on her phone but her new laptop had it turned on.

When I texted her the message would go to her laptop only. She turned off her iMessage on all devices and now it works.

I appreciate the suggestions to get my wife to turn off the iPad, but I can’t do that for all the other friends, family and work colleagues I have with iDevices.

I’m sure the root cause of my woes – which is that I cannot physically send a message to a contact who has previously received iMessages – is because I have since turned off iMessage. I don’t want to turn iMessage back on again

not sure what the problem is

It’s up there in another of my posts

“Cannot Send Message. iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message”

I can assure you doubters that I am genuinely having this issue and not imagining it 🙂

I’ve found a solution for now, but if anyone has a more elegant solution that doesn’t involve deleting contacts and message threads I’m all ears.

Are you by any chance texting them on an email address?

I had a mate trying to send me MMS to my email. I was getting them as emails with .txt attachments. Told him to delete the thread of messages and start again to my phone number, works fine now. If you start a conversation to an appleID with imessage, you cant send as an SMS/MMS.

If a person has an appleID signed in on a number of accounts, but is often out of data range then they should really not associate their phone number with their appleID, or (as the OP found) they will not receive messages.

A simpler way of course is to turn imessage off on the iPad and then none of this would have been an issue 😆

Why not just call rather then test?

Genuine question for those who find that iMessage works for you. How do you deal with this scenario?

– You have iMessage turned on
– You send a message to someone who also uses iMessage
– You have mobile data signal as does one of the recipients devices so the iMessage gets delivered (it shows blue)
– The contact you’re trying to message is somewhere with their iPhone but with no mobile data signal so doesn’t get the iMessage on their phone
– You want to send them a message that doesn’t rely on them having mobile data i.e. SMS

Lots of us I’m sure still live in areas where mobile data is not great so SMS still serves a purpose.

The answer used to be to send an SMS but with iMessage that seems to be getting more and more convoluted.

Why not just call rather then test?

They might be at work, putting the kids to bed, otherwise occupied…

With that scenario it’s never happened it just sorts itself out and either waits for a signal or sends it as an sms.

Might be worth checking if you have the right email address linked to your wife’s iMessage it can fail that way.