iMessage Issues in iOS 17.0.2: Syncing, Pictures missing, History not loading, iMessage text threads not fully loading, iMessage search not working

[Maxell]

iPhone 15 Pro. 512GB (89GB in use so far) 2TB iCloud plan. Hey Apple, don't tell me it is a storage issue

iOS 17.0.2 iMessage does not sync and load with iCloud. Photos do not load in the iMessage photo gallery, there are no links and there are no documents previously shared with contacts.

I have tried wiping and reinstalling multiple times. Nothing works. I cannot use the new search function because iCloud sync will not load my text message threads to my phone fully and I have no access to them because iMessage is not part of the back up to iCloud.

Apple Support claim no knowledge of this issue. They ran diagnostics on my phone. I sent reports to senior tech for them to send to the engineers. Engineers say they have no fix. Come on Apple! This is untenable and unacceptable to not have iMessage sync fully to a new device or work fully in iOS 17.0.2

I found this article so we are not the only ones and Apple needs to fix this

iOS 17 iMessage Issues: Search History Missing, Not Syncing, and More - Deal N Tech

The Cupertino-based Tech Giant recently launched their iPhone 15 series. It includes

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Apple please fix this and make iCloud sync ALL my text messages, photos, links and shared documents in the iMessage gallery like it is supposed to.

 

[Morac]

Apple support is aware of the message search problem. Multiple people including myself were told the Apple Engineers are looking into it.

 

[Maxell]

Apple support is aware of the message search problem. Multiple people including myself were told the Apple Engineers are looking into it.

It’s not just the search function. My iMessage threads are not fully downloading from iCloud so the search is impossible. I have 13GB of messages but only 3GB on my device. Apple Senior tech support said they’ve never heard of this and told me to set up albums in Pictures and download iMessage photos going forward.

I want my old iMessage threads back, with the pictures and the shared links and documents and all those organized as they should be in the iMessage gallery section.

I have done screen recording etc and submitted to Apple. Waited three days. The engineers got back to me via my support tech and said they don’t have a fix and have never seen this. There was one other report of an issue with only recent photos (last 30 days) showing up.

Have to hope that if Apple send out a fix for search that that will include the syncing issue and allow a full download

 

[Morac]

It takes a very long time to download messages from iCloud and it’s not unusual for the phone to not download all messages. That’s normally what search is for as you can search for a message in iCloud and it will then download. Because search is broken though that doesn’t work.

For me I only have 650 MB of messages in iCloud but somehow I have 810 MB in messages and I still can’t find everything as it downloads new messages from iCloud.

 

[MonkeysDaddy]

FYI, this is only happening in iPhones, and all iMessage data is still available on iPads and MacBooks with all history search and photos available.
Not convenient but hopefully this will be fixed in an update soon.

 

[Morac]

FYI, this is only happening in iPhones, and all iMessage data is still available on iPads and MacBooks with all history search and photos available.
Not convenient but hopefully this will be fixed in an update soon.

I don’t think it’s iPhone only. The only reason it seems that way is it’s impacting people who got new iPhones and transferred data over or restored from a backup. That seems to be the trigger.

Of note, I did find one message on my iPad that I can’t find through search, but I don’t know if it could be found under iOS 16 as it is only 1 message (that I’m aware of) and I found it by accident.

 

[MonkeysDaddy]

I don’t think it’s iPhone only. The only reason it seems that way is it’s impacting people who got new iPhones and transferred data over or restored from a backup. That seems to be the trigger.

Of note, I did find one message on my iPad that I can’t find through search, but I don’t know if it could be found under iOS 16 as it is only 1 message (that I’m aware of) and I found it by accident.

Well, my iPad is running 17.2 and I see 90% more content the on my 15PM with 17.2, and my kid’s 12 once updated to 17.2 can only see 5% and his MacBook Air sees all photos and has no issue seeing searches in past years. Same thing with my daughters iPad, no issues with photos or search history, even on an old 7Plus she uses as a backup, but on 12 17.2 all truncated to a month past history. Makes me think this is iOS17.2 not iPadOS17.2 or MacOS

Would be interesting to see if anyone has bought a new iPad since the release of the 15 and not bought a new iPhone or even people with new Macs/Macbooks and not a new iPhone.

 

[NintendoFan]

Just noticed this today. Hopefully there is a fix soon... very annoying.

 

[twynne]

Exact same story here. Logged it with Apple after giving it several days to have fully restored. I spoke with them several times over a few days, tried toggling message sync and fully logging out of iCloud. iCloud shows I have ~3gb of messages, but my phone has only a very small subset. I can see all messages going back over 10 years on other devices, including iPad, Mac, and Macbook. The messages are clearly there in iCloud, but not syncing to this iPhone.

This morning I also logged it via Feedback app. Oddly it prompts at the end of that process to obtain a Photos diagnostic. Not sure if/how that's related, but I can see photos on the device going back to 2008

Despite now chasing them several times they still aren't saying much.

 

[Risco]

Happening for me too. All my history is available on iPad. I did a phone to phone transfer but 2 weeks later I am still missing history.

Can anyone confirm if setting up as new fixes the issue?

 

[manhattanmania]

No, it doesn’t, bc I set up as new and I am having this issue. Messages not downloading to my iPhone 15 Pro Max. Have toggled sync on/off, turned off phone. UGHH.

 

[Fantasigraphic]

There used to be a way awhile back to “kick start” it to download it all and it was something with Settings/Siri and Search.

One would turn a section off, reboot phone and turn it back on and it would start to load all missing pics, links, messages, etc

 

[sttrek341]

I got off the phone with Apple Support after being "escalated" to a higher tier. They said Apple is aware and "working on a fix" with no ETA.

 

[steinmb]

IPadOS17 and sync is broken. Turning Messages off/on in iCloud did not solve it

 

[foldpages]

I have this issue with my new 15PM / iOS 17.0.2. I'm having sync issues between my Mac/iPad and my iPhone. It seems Mac and iPad are fully in sync, while iPhone is not. Sometimes I will receive a group iMessage and it will show up on my Mac and iPad, but not my iPhone. Super annoying and caused me to miss some important messages.

 

[DDustiNN]

Did iOS 17.0.3 fix any of these issues? I’m on iOS 17.1b2 and still no luck with the search history.

More on that specific issue here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/search-cant-find-old-messages-on-new-phone.2404157/

But that thread is specifically regarding the search results, not iCloud sync, as we actually do have all our messages but they just don’t show up in search results.

 

[sttrek341]

@DDustiNN Nope. Just updated to 17.0.3 and everything is still behaving the same for me.

 

[DDustiNN]

@DDustiNN Nope. Just updated to 17.0.3 and everything is still behaving the same for me.

Have you plugged it in for a while? I think it might only index while it’s charging, and possibly even overnight. Hopefully you see some progress tomorrow. If not, definitely not fixed.

 

[Maxell]

@DDustiNN Nope. Just updated to 17.0.3 and everything is still behaving the same for me.

I did the 17.0.3 update too. Also no change. Have been on strong WiFi and plugged in for 4 hours and no change. Will leave it plugged in overnight but it doesn’t say it’s indexing or syncing with iCloud. Also car play issue with not being able to reply to or send a message still had not been fixed.

I think 17.0.3 was a patch for the overheating issue and some security issues but not bug fixes

 

[Maxell]

Did iOS 17.0.3 fix any of these issues? I’m on iOS 17.1b2 and still no luck with the search history.

More on that specific issue here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/search-cant-find-old-messages-on-new-phone.2404157/

But that thread is specifically regarding the search results, not iCloud sync, as we actually do have all our messages but they just don’t show up in search results.

Does 17.1b2 fix car play issues? I can connect but I cannot reply to or send a message. Apple Support said known issue and told me to get a car phone holder to use instead…!

 

[Maxell]

There used to be a way awhile back to “kick start” it to download it all and it was something with Settings/Siri and Search.

One would turn a section off, reboot phone and turn it back on and it would start to load all missing pics, links, messages, etc

That doesn’t work anymore

 

[DDustiNN]

Does 17.1b2 fix car play issues? I can connect but I cannot reply to or send a message. Apple Support said known issue and told me to get a car phone holder to use instead…!

I didn’t know there were any issues with CarPlay until just now. But come to think of it, I do recall not being able to reply to a message on Saturday. Siri said she was having trouble or something. Thought it was just a fluke. I haven’t tried since installing b2 though. Might be able to try it tomorrow.

 

[DDustiNN]

That doesn’t work anymore

Yep, I tried alllll of that, everything I could find online, and nothing worked.

 

[Maxell]

I didn’t know there were any issues with CarPlay until just now. But come to think of it, I do recall not being able to reply to a message on Saturday. Siri said she was having trouble or something. Thought it was just a fluke. I haven’t tried since installing b2 though. Might be able to try it tomorrow.

That’s what I thought too- a fluke. But it’s not. Siri can’t reply or send a message. Apple support told me to unpair, re- pair. Hard reset phone. Forget car settings etc etc. Did all that. Reinstalled it and it still isn’t working. The rest of car play works for me except for sending and replying to messages via Siri.

17.0.3 has not fixed this. Please can you test out 17.1b2. I’d love to know if this has the fix in it. Thank you so much

 

[Morac]

That’s what I thought too- a fluke. But it’s not. Siri can’t reply or send a message. Apple support told me to unpair, re- pair. Hard reset phone. Forget car settings etc etc. Did all that. Reinstalled it and it still isn’t working. The rest of car play works for me except for sending and replying to messages via Siri.

17.0.3 has not fixed this. Please can you test out 17.1b2. I’d love to know if this has the fix in it. Thank you so much

Can Siri send messages for you when not in a car? It should behave the same whether it’s in a car or not.