iPhone creating group texts on its own
For almost a week now, when my husband (iPhone 14 Pro Max) sends a text to me (iPhone 12 Pro Max) it automatically adds a 3rd party from our contacts as if it’s a group message. It doesn’t show it that way in his phone. It just looks like a message to me, OR it will have a “not delivered” red exclamation mark next to it (even though I’ve received it). When I respond back, it does the same for me. It looks like I’m sending it just to him, but he receives it as a group message that includes our friend.
We’ve tested out creating the texts a lot of different ways (deleting and going back to our original thread of just me and him; sending a message directly from Contacts; typing in the phone number manually) but it keeps reverting back to the group text with this person (same person each time. He’s an Android user. I’ve never texted this individual before now, but my husband has).
And yes, the 3rd party IS receiving these texts. We’ve apologized and he’s been understanding. But this is terrible! Especially the fact that the sender doesn’t see it as a group text. Only the recipient.
When this started last week, I thought maybe it was because I hadn’t updated to iOS 16 like my husband had, and there’s the new “unsend text” option. Thought maybe it was some sort of glitch between the 2 operating systems communication. But I updated right away (iOS 16.2) and it’s still happening. I’ve also done hard resets on both phones. Not sure what else to try.
UPDATE: I called Apple support and they say the only fix is to factory reset my husband’s phone as a new device from a computer. (They’re saying try his phone first because that’s how it originated) He can’t use the iCloud backup, because something is corrupted (they said maybe an old app). He’ll have to download everything individually. WHAT?! The more people I tell about this, the more I’m finding have the same problem. The Apple employee said hers started cc’ing her husband on every text. Then it progressed to cc’ing her father. That’s when she had to set it up as a new device and was completely annoyed about it. For now we’re using What’s App to text. My husband doesn’t want to reset his phone right now. But is this really the only way?
iPhone 14 Plus
