A specific contact won't stay pinned in Messages on my iPhone

I am having the same issue, the contact is an android user on a Pixel 7 device. We can no longer text since I updated to iOS18…calls only 😭

Additionally, they have two contact numbers assigned, one is iPhone, one is their Google voice number. They are also muted (notifications disabled).

I removed their Google voice number, then unpinned them. I pinned the (now unassigned) Google voice number and it put up the old contact, as if it was still assigned to the unassigned Google voice. That’s not supposed to happen (cache issue?).

Somehow, also, I was temporarily able to make their contact stay and another contact was unpinned. But it didn’t stay that way and the original contact eventually unpinned itself again.

Also noticed while searching Google for this problem that this issue has lingered throughout iPhone’s older iOS systems so

Additionally, they have two contact numbers assigned, one is iPhone, one is their Google voice number. They are also muted (notifications disabled).

I removed their Google voice number, then unpinned them. I pinned the (now unassigned) Google voice number and it put up the old contact, as if it was still assigned to the unassigned Google voice. That’s not supposed to happen (cache issue?).

Somehow, also, I was temporarily able to make their contact stay and another contact was unpinned. But it didn’t stay that way and the original contact eventually unpinned itself again.

Also noticed while searching Google for this problem that this issue has lingered throughout iPhone’s older iOS systems.

I resolved the issue by unassigning their contact information(s), adding it to a dummy contact, and reassigning it to their original contact. Despite reassigning to new dummy contacts, their messages glitched and appeared in their old contact. The preview text showed up but disappeared after exiting the dummy contact. The contact disappeared, and all content loaded into the old contact.

Adding their contact information back to their original contact card resolved the issue before upgrading to iOS 18.1.

ps: they had an iPhone, iCloud email, and Google voice number I unassigned and reassigned, thanks

I'm having the same issue with only one person who has an iPhone 14

I’m on 15PM - updated to iOS 18.0.1 and the contact that won’t stay attached is on a 13PM.

this recently happened too, in last two days

I deleted 3 of my contacts and now the one person who was unpinning stays pinned. 2 iPhone users and 1 android user.

Same issue. The contact is an iPhone user