iMessage on iPhone not working after updating to iOS 18.5

This also worked for me. Mine had a phone number and email address in the Send and Receive tab. I clicked my phone number to create the checkmark. It now works!

When I now send texts, I now get a message that a particular contact isnt on iMessage so I can’t text them. If it’s a group, I’m instructed to remove those. This happens on my iPad, not my iPhone.

Also, iPad now breaks up group texts so I’ll get standalone texts from members of the group. Again, only on my iPad, not my iPhone.

I hope that I also help others by posting this. I also experienced the same issues. My phone was fine except iMessages were not working at all. I wasted my time going to the Apple store, Verizon store, on the phone and chat with both companies. I even received a refurbished phone. All to find out my phone number was reported as spam too! Verizon said they were not able to help with this issue. One Apple agent first told me that it was not reported as spam. However, I gave this another try by speaking to a different Apple agent. And yes, my number was reported as spam. I hope this helps others!

After going back and forth with Apple and T-mobile I also learned that my number was blocked on Apples side and they refused to unblock it or help me further. Easiest solution given to fix the iMessage and FaceTime was to change my number. I my numbers for years but at least now I won’t be getting scam calls.

To everyone whom is still having issues with IOS 18.5 and newer. The simple solution is to change your number because Apple is blocking a lot of numbers due to a safety feature update and although it’s making a lot of iPhone users upset there’s no other way around it.

In all honesty my iPhone 16pro max has this issue from about May 2025. I called to have assistance trouble shooting every which way and nothing fixed the problem of my iMessage not working.

suddenly, just days ago I woke up and it was working. However, I no longer have screen recording option. But the iMessage suddenly worked.

my last conversation about 2 weeks ago with apple, they said they had to raise an individual case for my issue and they’d get back to me. But again, days ago iMessage began to work randomly. This was days after the latest update was done.

Seconding that it was because my phone number was blocked because it was reported as "spam".

My phone was not getting texts/ imessages while my macbook and watch were. I would go to settings and see my phone number was toggled off randomly a few times a day. I had to reactivate my phone number once and that worked for about a month. After reading these comments I brought it up to the apple support person and they checked and confirmed that my phone number was reported as spam. I submitted a request to undo this and hopefully that works!

Same issue here on iOS 18.6.2 — iMessage and FaceTime are totally unreliable. My phone number was even blocked for spam, and after 2h30 with two Senior Advisors it’s still not fixed. Number is missing on all my other Apple devices, only shows on my iPhone. Another call with support tomorrow… very frustrating!

Same issue here on iOS 18.6.2 — iMessage and FaceTime are totally unreliable. My phone number was even blocked for spam, and after 2h30 with two Senior Advisors it’s still not fixed. Number is missing on all my other Apple devices, only shows on my iPhone. Another call with support tomorrow… very frustrating!

Another hour today with a Senior Advisor. Logs and screen recordings sent, Apple engineer will investigate. They’ll also check with my SIM provider about possible SMS issues. I’ll get an update in 4 days.

carolcarper wrote:

I can not get my text from my android phone to my Ipad

That's because iPads, on their own, are not capable of sending or receiving SMS or RCS. The must be linked to an iPhone to do that.

Forward text messages from your iPhone to other devices - Apple Support

Multiple calls, this time two hours. Yes, the problem is on Apple's end. Yes, it's the SPAM problem.

Answer? Wait for next IOS and MAC OS update. There's nothing more to be done.

*sigh*

At least my email still works.

Yes, and I reset my phone today and iMessages have stopped working completely!

This worked! Thank you! Settings>imessage>send&receive>check your phone number