As I have frequently mentioned on the GonnaGeek Podcast, back in December I made the switch from an iPhone 4S to a Nexus 5. I had heard (and seen first hand) about potential issues with iMessage so I did what I was supposed to and a couple days before switching I disabled iMessage on my iPhone. Shortly after I made the switch I discovered people with iPhones were having issues texting me – they would get a Not Delivered error.

I tried a variety of things to fix this including putting my SIM back in my iPhone and enabling and disabling iMessage again, leaving my SIM in my iPhone overnight with iMessage disabled, restarting a bunch of times with the SIM in my iPhone (and iMessage disabled) and a bunch of other things in between – nothing work. Eventually I called Apple.

Apple told me they looked in the iMessage server and did not see my number anywhere. The rep told me that they would try something on their end and if it didn’t work after 24 hours to call back… 24 hours came and people were still having issues. I figured I would just leave it for a few weeks to see if it worked itself out and eventually those which I frequently texted with (my wife) stopped seeing the issue; however, it still remained for many. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason either as some people it started working fine and then a week later stop working again (my father in law had this happen over and over). For some folks deleting me out of their phone and re adding me fixed the issue, others it did not. A few weeks ago I found some people were still having issues (yes, five months later) so I decided to give Apple a call again. My brother suggested it might be related to my email address but when I talked to the Apple rep she confirmed my phone number and email both weren’t in the iMessage system. However, she had another trick to try and it was texting a specific number with a couple commands. I tried doing that, waited the 24 hours and still had some people have issues.

Once again there seems to be no rhyme or reason as I had 3 people I know who have never texted me before (all who have iPhones) without issue, but when my sister’s boyfriend tried — also who hadn’t messaged me before — he received the Not Delivered area (the picture up above is a photo my sister sent me of it).

I haven’t pursued further yet; however, I wanted to share this story now as it seems appropriate with the news that Apple is being sued over this error. Anyone who has taken a few minutes to search the internet will see this problem has been around for years, so while personally I don’t really see the lawsuit accomplishing anything, I’m encouraging people to share their stories below of having issues making the switch – whether you had it for a few days or ongoing like me. Post your experience in the comments below.