By Conner Carey Updated 04/16/2023

Why is iMessage not working? If your iMessage is not working, it could be for a number of different reasons. We'll cover how to fix iMessage when it's saying the text was not delivered or if your iPhone is not receiving texts. Whether you're on iOS 16 or an earlier software, the solutions are roughly the same. If your iMessage isn't working or won't activate, we’ll figure out how to fix it.

Sometimes when iMessage isn’t working, it’s a problem on Apple’s end. But most of the time, iMessage not working is the fault of some buggy iOS or a faulty internet connection. If you’re wondering, "why does my iMessage not work?" each of the following steps will help fix it. I'll start with small simple solutions, so go through each part of the article until your iMessage is working again.

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Common iMessage Problems:

iMessage Not Activating
iMessage Saying Not Delivered
iMessage Sending from Email
iMessage Is Greyed-Out
Messages Not Sending After Switching to Android
iMessage Not Syncing on iPhone

If the problem you’re having with iMessage isn’t listed above, it’s worth following the steps below anyway. Most iMessage problems can be fixed with the following steps. If you’re trying to stop iMessage sending from email, you can skip to this part if your iMessage is otherwise working.

How to Know You’ve Sent an iMessage vs. SMS

Text messages, also known as SMS, are sent through your cellular data provider (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc), but iMessages are automatically routed through Apple’s servers, saving you data if you’re on Wi-Fi. If you aren’t connected to Wi-Fi, the message will count towards your monthly data plan. But if you are connected to Wi-Fi, the iMessage will be sent freely and won't count toward your data plan. Since you can send iMessages using Wi-Fi alone, you can also send iMessages from your iPad or Mac computer.

You can visually recognize the difference between an SMS (text message) and iMessage by the color of the message bubble. iMessages send as blue while SMS text messages send as green.

The person you’re speaking to must also have an iPhone in order for iMessage to work. If they don’t, the message will send as a text message.

Fixing iMessage? Try This First

All or One Contact Not Working?

If your iMessages aren’t sending to any of your contacts, continue to the next bullet point. If iMessage isn’t working with just one contact, make sure that contact hasn’t changed phones recently. The problem is likely on their end.

Check Your Wi-Fi

iMessage needs an internet connection to work. iMessages sent over Wi-Fi don’t count towards your cellular plan, which is why iMessage can be awesome. To check your Wi-Fi connection:

Open Settings and tap Wi-Fi.
Make sure you're connected to a network.

Is iMessage Down?

Like most technological services, iMessage sometimes goes down. You can quickly and easily check to see if iMessage is down on Apple’s support website here: System Status.

Is There an Available iPhone Update?

If iMessage isn’t working, check to see if there’s an iPhone update you need to install. To check if there's a software update available:

Open Settings and select General.
Tap Software Update.

If there is a software update available, tap Download & Install.

Auto-Set Date & Time

This seems like an odd solution but it has worked for some users in the Apple support threads. Apparently, it’s very important that your date and time are correct for iMessage to work. It’s easiest to simply turn on auto-set date & time to make sure this is never a problem:

Open Settings and select General.
Choose Date & Time.

Toggle on Set Automatically.

How to Fix iMessage When It’s Not Working

If you've tried all the steps above and iMessage still isn't working, here are further troubleshooting steps.

Step One: Reset Network Settings

Before you do this, make sure you know your Wi-Fi passwords. Resetting Network Settings won’t affect anything on your iPhone. It’s not going to delete anything or restore your iPhone to factory settings. It’s simply going to reset your iPhone’s internet network settings, which means it will discard the Wi-Fi passwords your iPhone remembers.

Open Settings and select General.
Scroll down to the very bottom and tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.

Tap Reset
Tap Reset Network Settings.

You may be asked to enter your iPhone's passcode.
Confirm Reset Network Settings.

Step Two: Turn iMessage Off & On

If iMessage or Facetime isn’t working, turning each off and on will, more often than not, fix the problem. Just like turning your iPhone off and on usually fixes any problems you’re having, turning iMessage or Facetime off and on will usually do the same. Also, in order to send iMessages, iMessage needs to be enabled, and sometimes it got turned off somehow, so you'll want to go in and check.

Open Settings and tap Messages.
Toggle iMessage off.

Wait five minutes.
Toggle iMessage back on.

If you’re having trouble with FaceTime, select FaceTime in Settings and toggle FaceTime off, wait a few minutes, and turn it back on.

Step Three: Set Phone Number in Send & Receive iMessages

This step fixes two issues in particular: if your iMessages are sending from your email instead of your phone number, we’ll fix that with this step. Users have also reported issues with iMessage appearing grayed out. To fix these iMessage problems:

Open Settings and tap Messages.
Select Send & Receive.

Choose where you can be reached at with iMessage.

If your iMessage problem is that it’s grey-out, delect your emails, redo step two, and return to make sure your number is checked. You should also be able to reselect your email, if desired. If your iMessage problem is that they’re sending from your email, locate Start New Conversations From and select your number, instead of an email.

Step Four: Sign Out of iMessage & Back In

If iMessage still isn't working, try this last step. The last resort I recommend trying is signing out of your Apple ID and signing back in. This might help give your iPhone the reset it needs to get iMessage working again.

Avoid Future iMessage Interruptions

If iMessage isn’t working, you can set it so that your iPhone automatically sends an SMS instead. Of course, SMS text messages will count towards your cellular plan, but at least your conversations won’t be interrupted by bad Wi-Fi or problems with iMessage not working. To allow Messages to send SMS text messages when iMessage isn’t working: