Did the 18.5 update last night and now iMessage is totally weird on my iPhone 13. Some messages show up, others don’t. A few friends told me they texted but nothing came through. When I reply it just sends green SMS. I signed out of iCloud, back in, even removed my number — still broken. Anyone else or is it just my phone?
Leave an answer
Verified Solution Summary
Community-analyzed fixes that actually worked for Users
💬 In Progress
📝 Current progress and working solutions so far from this thread
Quick recap for anyone landing here after updating to iOS 18.5 and finding iMessage broken:
What’s happening:
-
A lot of iPhone 13 users (and maybe others too) are seeing iMessage act up since the update.
-
Messages go missing, replies get sent as green SMS, or the app just sits on “waiting for activation.”
-
Signing out/in of iCloud or removing the number hasn’t helped much for most.
What users have tried (and said actually fixed it):
-
Switching iMessage off and back on: Several people said this forced it to re-register their number after a few minutes.
-
Checking Send & Receive: Quite a few realized their number wasn’t ticked anymore — just their Apple ID email. Selecting the number fixed it right away.
-
Adding another email: One user got it working again by adding a second reachable email under their Apple ID.
-
Force restart: The full button combo (vol up → vol down → hold side button until the logo shows) cleared out glitches for some.
-
Apple Support: In one case, the number itself was flagged on Apple’s end. Once support cleared it, activation worked instantly.
-
Turning off Contact Key Verification: At least one person said iMessage wouldn’t enable until this was disabled.
Bottom line:
Most fixes came down to re-activating properly either making sure the phone number is selected under Send & Receive, toggling iMessage, or adding another email. If that doesn’t do it, support may need to reset things on Apple’s side.
Keep an eye on this thread, because more people are jumping in with what worked for them.
What worked for me when iMessage broke after the 18.5 update: I went into Settings > Messages, toggled iMessage off, waited ~10 seconds, and then turned it back on. It said “waiting for activation” for a bit but then finally re-registered my number. Also make sure your number is checkmarked under Send & Receive. Mine had defaulted to just my iCloud email.
I fixed mine by adding another reachable email under Apple ID. For some reason my phone number alone wouldn’t work, so I went to Settings > [My Name] > Name, Phone Numbers, Email and added an email. After that, iMessage started working again.
If toggling iMessage and checking send/receive doesn’t fix it, try a force restart:
This clears up a lot of network glitches.
In my case iMessage kept getting stuck on “waiting for activation” for days. Nothing on my end worked resets, sign out/in, network settings, all useless. When I finally contacted Apple support, they checked their system and told me my phone number was flagged by mistake. Once they cleared it, iMessage activated within minutes.
What fixed it for me was super simple I went into Settings > Messages > Send & Receive and realized my phone number wasn’t even selected. It was defaulting to my Apple ID email. Once I check-marked my number, iMessage started working again.
Yep, same here. Number wasn’t chosen. Selected it and iMessage is fine now.
Thanks a lot this fixed it for me too. My number wasn’t selected under Send & Receive. Once I ticked it, iMessage started working again.
When I was trying to toggle iMessage back on, I tapped the addresses section right below by accident. I noticed my number wasn’t ticked, so I selected it again and boom it started working.
For anyone stuck like I was make sure Contact Key Verification is off. iMessage wouldn’t switch on for me until I disabled it. After that it worked right away.