2014-01-02

iMessage i@j.je please

Update: Finally fixed - thanks to some reports in to Apply by various people - that you all - but still not rolled out and still causing issues. No need to send me a text/email/iMessage now - thanks everyone/


Update: Reward! If this gets fixed, the first person that emails me evidence that their complaint to apple got it fixed gets a free 6 character email address (forwarding to address of their choice).

Apple iMessage is broken, and lots of people are unable to iMessage me on my normal email address. Most of my family have similarly short email addresses. I have complained to Apple, and several of my friends have. We are getting nowhere with this. I even tried to convince OFCOM that Apple are a communications provider and so have to have ADR, but in spite of the wording in the Comms Act, OFCOM do not agree!

So, how can you help?

Note: Apple staff are welcome to send me test iMessages as well.

Step 1: Go to iMessage and start a new message and enter i@j.je and then put the cursor in the Message part.

The address changes colour, red, green or blue.

So, What do the colours mean on an Apple iMessage?
  • Blue means you can iMessage. Please do just message me the word "blue" so I know how many people can.
  • Green means you can text or MMS but cannot iMessage. It may be worth trying to message me the word "green" but I suspect you will get an error.
  • Red means you cannot message. Do try and send the word "red" anyway. This is normally an iPad or Mac which cannot text/MMS.
Note, green will mean sending by MMS which may have a message charge, so you may not want to do that. But please do complain to apple that iMessage is not working!


Step 2: Type a message, ideally just the word "red", "green" or "blue", followed by "iPad", "iPhone", "MacBook", etc, and try send. You may however see a message like this saying that i@j.je is not available.

I can't easily see which address you messaged, so do say you are testing if not just sending the colour. Happy to discuss this on iMessage.

If you would rather just comment on the blog to tell me what happened, feel free. I am not collecting email addresses and numbers, honest.

I'll update notes on here to say what I have discovered.

Step 3: If it would not send as iMessage, contact apple support and tell them you cannot iMessage i@j.je or for a real bonus, ask one of their genius's if you are going to an apple store. Do let me know the various crazy excuses why they say it won't work!

I am sure that if enough people do this they will, eventually, fix it.

The issue, it seems, from various tests, is that some parts of their system block 6 character email addresses. It is fine if 7 characters.

What is especially odd is that if I iMessage someone from a 6 character email address they cannot reply, but if I iMessage two people from a 6 character email address then both can reply to the group!

If someone wants me to iMessage them and someone else as a test to demo this to a genius, please do let me know.

If you are a registered apple developer, please file a bug report. See notes below for details - main issue is unable to sent to 6 character email addresses.

As you can see, I have i@j.je set up for receipt of iMessages.

Obviously, at some point, I'll turn off i@j.je - I'll update this post when I do. Lets hope it makes them fix it.


Notes.

  • The address typically fails to verify, coming up red or green and not blue.
  • On an iPad it seems that even when red, messages can be sent!
  • On an iPhone it will try MMS or fail.
  • On a Mac it fails to send as iMessage
  • Replying to a message from i@j.je has the same problems, but when they try and reply I see the "..." (typing) icon, but no more, and the sender gets an error.
  • If I message from i@j.je to a group of people then they can all reply to the group, and I get the replies.
  • Someone hassled apple who gave their iMessage. I iMessaged them and they could reply! But that may, of course, have been an iPad. They weren't keen to talk.
  • The best we have so far from Apple is that they recommend using a longer email address as a work around!!!!!
  • We have an apple developer account, and like several others, we have reported as a bug - but Apple have actually asked for debug logs (which we have no supplied). You never know, they may be finally working on it.
Stats:
  • "Green" arriving by MMS in my email: 38
  • "Red" arriving by iMessage (from iPad): 16
  • "Blue" arriving by iMessage: 1 (from iPad)*
  • "Blue" arriving by iMessage: 2 (from MBP / air)
  • "white" arriving by iMessage: 1 (from iPad touch)
  • "Green but blue after 30 seconds or so" via iMessage: 1 ?
  • Could not be sent: 1 (but I won't be told all of these)
  • FFS, someone sent "red green or blue", really?!?!?!
* I did not ask, and have deleted the address, but it is possible this is one of those cases where  someone has looked at the colour of the message text, which is indeed blue when sent from an iPad, even though the address is red.

24 comments:

  1. From a Mac:

    Your message could not be sent.
    i@j.je is not registered with iMessage.

    ReplyDelete
  2. iphone seems to have sent a message as text or MMS, which is interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've reported this to Apple's bug reporter (sometimes known as rdar or radar); id is 15739790.

    (I tried to send you a message saying 'Red'... but the address had actually appeared green. Ooops. It allegedly sent as a text message / mms)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've reported this to Apple's bug reporter (sometimes known as rdar or radar); id is 15739790.

    (I tried to send you a message saying 'Red'... but the address had actually appeared green. Ooops. It allegedly sent as a text message / mms)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Probably worth expanding a little on my previous comment:

    Apple have a bug reporter (radr / radar / https://bugreport.apple.com/ ) which is I believe only accessible to registered developers. Bug reports entered in there are "generally" reviewed by an engineer on the engineering team responsible for the relevant component.

    I suspect the most likely outcome is that I'll get told that my report is a duplicate of an already existing one; but that should still help boost it's priority. If anyone else is a registered developer, they could also make a report and mention the report id I gave so that they all get linked up together.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anybody who finds this post fires them up to chase much-loved but imperfect suppliers about unfixed bugs, might like to send a birthday card to this issue too... http://status.aaisp.net.uk/1703

    It's exactly a year old today. Happy Birthday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, fair point, but more of a feature we can't offer at present than a bug. We do actually have a plan to be able to start offering these again thought...

      Delete
  7. I turned off mobile data on my iPhone half expecting it to start behaving like an iPad (go red, but send as iMessage successfully), but no. Green and then "i@j.je is Unavailable" dialogue on send.

    Same with mobile date back on but MMS messaging turned off in Messages settings.

    Presumably validation (i.e. the colour rendering) is some ajaxey asynchronous live comms rather than a decision made offline by the device based on settings. i.e. there could be a server side application fix?

    ReplyDelete
  8. aha, and as to your asterisked remark on the Blue iPad message, I wonder if they clicked back on the To: field whilst composing?

    On my iPad that goes from red to blue on field change;
    On my iPhone it goes briefly blue (less than a second), then back to green, although I can't repeat that momentary blue flash now

    ReplyDelete
  9. Had no issue sending from iPod Touch 4th gen shows up as Delivered.
    p.s. Your copyright in the footer still says 2009-13

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can't send, the address goes red, using Messages on a MacBook Pro.
    Friend tried on her iPhone 5s (iOS 7) and it shows green, not sure if she sent anything.
    In terms of trying to contact Apple support, their site doesn't seem to give me an option for contacting them about (i)Message(s). I will keep trying to contact them to complain :D

    ReplyDelete
  11. I can't contact apple support directly, as trying to do it under Macbook support asks for my serial number which (seeing as the laptop is now almost 2 years old has no free support available) won't work. I can't seem to find an option anywhere else to complain to them about Messages/iMessage.
    I HAVE, however, suggested to them that they need to add that as an option under Apps & Software! :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. RevK, can you drop me an email (joseph@dusky-control.com) please? Your email address is surprisingly well hidden and I need to ask a question about this that an NDA prevents me asking in public...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Err, I hate to say this, but you may guess that, at least for now, the email address actually the subject of this post is "mine" and gets to me. i@j.je is an email address. Try that!

      Delete
    2. Hehe, will do. I'd guessed that you would not have disabled email on that address to avoid spam, but I guess I was wrong :-)

      Delete
    3. I have to - to see the MMS messages being sent :-)

      Delete
  13. Ah, actually I see that you've given Apple debug logs yourself (was that statement always there, I don't remember seeing it the first time I read this post? Maybe I was too tired that night...)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, this post is one that is being constantly updated, so I did add that later. Even so, please do give apple hassle, it will be appreciated, and I am more than happy to provide at least one, and maybe more, 6 character email address to people that help me with this. I am sick of my wife complaining that she cannot message me and people cannot message her.

      Delete
  14. I have complained on Apple's support forum, and apparently it has been re-posted in their Lounge area (for people who are level 6 and above), and the only 2 replies appear to be saying that there are no problems with iCloud and that you should use a 7 character email address!

    Seems like my complaint to them appears to be getting swept under the carpet as well.
    If you want, I can email you a link to the thread I have made. (I haven't explicitly used your email address in the support thread)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The reply "that there are no problems with iCloud and that you should use a 7 character email address" is contradictory. If no problem, then it would work with 6 character email addresses! Thanks for trying.

      Delete
  15. I've passed on the fact that you've sent debug logs, but that as of yet it has still not been highlighted as a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Two of my friends have tried for you.
    Both sent via iPhone and it went as text msg, one tried from his macbook pro and it failed totally.

    ReplyDelete

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