If you can’t send or receive messages on your iPhone or iPad
Fin out what to do if iMessage doesn’t work, you can’t receive text messages or you see an alert when you send a message.
Issues with Messages after you’ve set up a new device
Not receiving messages on a device
Issues with photos or videos in messages
If you experience issues with Messages after you’ve set up a new device
If you experience issues when you set up a new device, such as conversations in Messages showing up as separate threads or sent messages appearing as green message bubbles instead of blue message bubbles, update your settings using the following steps:
Update your device to the latest version of iOS or iPadOS if needed.
In the Settings app, tap Mobile Data. Make sure your phone line is turned on. If you use multiple SIMs, make sure the phone number you want to use is selected and turned on.
In the Settings app, tap Apps.
Tap Messages, then turn iMessage off and then back on.
Tap Send & Receive.
Tap the phone number you want to use with Messages.
If you have issues when you try to receive a FaceTime call after you set up a new device, you can also update your FaceTime settings.
Find out what to do if you can’t sign into iMessage or FaceTime
Find out what to do if your messages are green
Find out what to do if you see a Waiting for Activation alert
If you see a red exclamation mark
If you try to send a message and you see a red exclamation point
with an alert that says Not Delivered, follow these steps:
Check your network connection.
Tap the red exclamation mark
, then tap Try Again.If you still can’t send the message, tap the red exclamation mark
, then tap Send as Text Message. Messaging rates may apply. 
iMessages are texts, photos or videos that you send to another iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac over Wi-Fi or mobile data networks. These will appear in blue bubbles. All other text messages use RCS, SMS or MMS and require a text-messaging plan. Those will appear as green bubbles.
What’s the difference between iMessage, RCS and SMS/MMS?
Contact your provider if you can't send or receive SMS messages
You can set up Messages so that it automatically tries to send messages as an SMS when iMessage isn’t available. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages and turn on Send as Text Message.
If you receive messages on one device but not the other
If you have an iPhone and another iOS or iPadOS device, like an iPad, your iMessage settings may be set to receive and start messages from your Apple Account email address instead of your phone number. To check if your phone number is set to send and receive messages:
In the Settings app, tap Apps.
Tap Messages.
Tap Send & Receive.
Choose the phone number or email address you want to use with messages.
If you don’t see your phone number, you can link your iPhone number to your Apple Account so you can send and receive iMessages from your phone number. You can also set up Text Message Forwarding so you can send and receive text messages on all of your Apple devices.
If you experience issues with a group message
If you’re in a group message and stop receiving messages, check to see if you left the conversation:
In Messages, tap the group message you can’t receive messages from.
If you see a message stating that you've left the conversation, then either you've left the conversation or you were removed from the group message.
You can only rejoin a group message if someone in the group adds you. Find out how to add or remove people from group messages.
Open Messages and tap the Compose button
.Enter the phone numbers or email addresses of your contacts.
Type your message, then tap the Send button
.
If you experience other issues with a group message, you may need to delete the conversation In iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1 and later you can recover a message if you’ve deleted it within the last 30 to 40 days.
If you can’t send or receive photos and videos in messages
Make sure that your device has enough space to receive images and videos.
If you use SMS or MMS messaging to send photos or videos, your service provider may set size limits for attachments. Larger files may take more time to send, and your iPhone can compress photo and video attachments when necessary. If you experience an issue when you try to send full size images, you can manually send lower quality images:
In the Settings app, tap Apps.
Tap Messages.
Turn on Low Quality Image Mode.
Other steps to try
Check your network connection. To send a message as iMessage, RCS, or MMS, you need a mobile data or Wi-Fi connection. To send an SMS message, you’ll need mobile network connection. If you turn on Wi-Fi Calling, you can send SMS messages over Wi-Fi.
Check with your provider to see if the type of message you’re trying to send, like RCS, MMS or SMS, is supported.
If you’re trying to send group MMS messages on an iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Messages and turn on Send as Text Message. If you don’t see an option to turn on Send as Text Message or Group Messaging on your iPhone, then your provider may not support this feature.
Make sure you’ve entered the correct phone number or email address for the contact.
Contact Apple Support if you still can’t send or receive iMessages
Contact your provider if you still can’t send or receive SMS, MMS or RCS messages
Deactivate iMessage if you’ve switched to a non-Apple phone and experience issues with messaging
