Oh great now I'm scared for when my iPhone 4 sells.....I going to have to sell it not activated.
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iMessage Major Problem that Apple can't fix!
- Thread starter xorjo
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I agree, I have to test this or if anyone has time to test it for me before I get home would be great. Basically, take off the sim card, be on wifi, see if you get the imessage without having your apple id on it. I did change my icloud id as well also I did the "find my iphone" app and my old phone was there but it couldn't locate it and I did a remote wipe and it said they would send me an email when it was wiped but... no email yet.
I suspect that once you register a device with iCloud, your username and pass are no longer required. This would explain how/why none of your previous efforts have worked.
So either the guy you sold your phone to is the culprit or someone got a hold of your user/pass and registered another device.
So either the guy you sold your phone to is the culprit or someone got a hold of your user/pass and registered another device.
So for someone who understands how iCloud and Apple IDs work...
Like the OP, I am about to sell both my wife's and my 3GS phones to nextworth.com. Before sending them I will wipe both phones and then remove the sim cards. While neither phone was upgraded to iOS 5, both were used with our current Apple IDs for iTunes/App store purchases. Also, , and these same ID's are still used for iTunes purchases, and are now being used with iCloud since we got our 4S phones. Can someone confirm whether or not wiping them will suffice to allow me to avoid the issues OP is having?
Like the OP, I am about to sell both my wife's and my 3GS phones to nextworth.com. Before sending them I will wipe both phones and then remove the sim cards. While neither phone was upgraded to iOS 5, both were used with our current Apple IDs for iTunes/App store purchases. Also, , and these same ID's are still used for iTunes purchases, and are now being used with iCloud since we got our 4S phones. Can someone confirm whether or not wiping them will suffice to allow me to avoid the issues OP is having?
I just tested it for you, and it works. I removed all of the iCloud stuff from my old iPhone 4. Under the messages settings, it just shows my phone number under "Receive At". I have no way to remove that phone number even though there is no SIM card in it. I can send and receive iMessages just fine. Regular SMS messages don't work though.
iMessages I send also show up on my new iPhone 4S, which is the phone with the SIM card in it.
iCloud isn't really related to iMessages. One doesn't even need to have an iCloud account to send and receive iMessages. A phone without a SIM card, and a wifi connection is all you need it seems.
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If the old phones never had iOS 5, you will be fine. This is an issue with iMessages, and that's a feature that didn't exist on iOS 4.
I would assume/hope that a "General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings" would take the iPhone out of the iMessage mix? The OP might have simply missed that critical step before handing the device over to the buyer.
Under Settings, try going to Phone and changing "My Number" without the SIM inserted, or try deleting the number (not saying this will work, but may be worth a try)
Thanks you so much. That has to be it, I already made an appoitment with a apple genius so I might as well go and tell him what's going on and see if there's any other choice besides changing my phone number.
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I did do that but, but I inserted my sim and made calls to show him the phone is working properly, after that, I just took the sim card, erased the calls I made and handed over the phone. And really, that's the way I've always done it since the first iphone for my wife and myself, we always sold our phones to get the new iphone and yeah, I missed a critical step I would have never thought this would happen
If there's no SIM inserted, you can't even go to Settings->Phone. It's grayed out.
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That's a good question. I have a bunch of photos on my iPhone4 that I don't want to lose, and I started clean on the iPhone 4S. So once I backup my photos, I will test this.
I wouldn't kick yourself. Stuff happens. For your new-found stalker to spy and interact further with you on iMessage, he's going to have to connect to WiFi - and when he does, your remote wipe command will kick in and probably render him "speechless" moving forward. You might check with the Genius when you talk to them, but I'd hope that's how it works. Remote wipe, and he's finished - I hope. Good luck!..yeah, I missed a critical step I would have never thought this would happen
I think the problem with "Erase all content and settings" is that buyers want to know the phone works--so we "Restore as new" (to current firmware) after doing that, so you can show them a fully functional phone. If you left it at the plug into iTunes screen, there might not be a problem, but I don't know that for certain.
Restore as New does seem to transfer some information from iTunes, which is why I asked about the OP selling his old phones in the first place. I did it to an iPad that was being handed down to a friend, and found my Apple ID was logged in to the iTunes store app AFTER the restore. God only knows what other marks it leaves on the OS.
Additionally, some devs take your UDID--and Apple allows this!--for various tracking purposes. There've been plenty of comments on this forum from people before, usually those using things like OpenFeint accounts for gaming--those systems use various tracking methods, and some are tied to the phone's unique ID, not yours. These are all potentially exploitable security holes.
To the OP--please make sure that Apple sees what you and those here have discovered so far. This is a big fat fecking security breach, and it's not something they should ignore.
Restore as New does seem to transfer some information from iTunes, which is why I asked about the OP selling his old phones in the first place. I did it to an iPad that was being handed down to a friend, and found my Apple ID was logged in to the iTunes store app AFTER the restore. God only knows what other marks it leaves on the OS.
Additionally, some devs take your UDID--and Apple allows this!--for various tracking purposes. There've been plenty of comments on this forum from people before, usually those using things like OpenFeint accounts for gaming--those systems use various tracking methods, and some are tied to the phone's unique ID, not yours. These are all potentially exploitable security holes.
To the OP--please make sure that Apple sees what you and those here have discovered so far. This is a big fat fecking security breach, and it's not something they should ignore.
This is either a completely made up story or the guys wife has actually made a fatal mistake in keeping her affair a secret. I could easily see how the new iOS has exposed or brought transparency to clandestine communications. He caught her , she informed her lover and they are playing along to the duped husband. My best guess. Sorry.
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I only have his email, we did through craigslist. I'm not sure what direction to take right now, I can tell him to stop texting and he might stop it, but that doesn't mean he won't be able to read what we write. I can go to the police but right now I haven't "proven" anything yet so I don't want to falsely accuse someone (although I'm like 99% sure that he's the one). I think if I can change my number and then make some "fake texts" having my brother send me some pics of women asking for my opinion. He has taken the bait so chances are he will take the bait again tonight. If he doesn't respond, then I might just let it go and save the trouble of going with the police and stuff.
I was wondering about this. I gave my old 3GS to my mom. I did the Restore as new thing because the internet connection at my house is much faster than at hers. Then we went to AT&T, had them set the phone up with her phone #, they put the SIM from her old phone in, and we were done.
When I started showing her how to use it, we went to the app store to download something, and I was logged in. I thought it was weird, but since it was just my mom I wasn't worried. Glad I didn't sell it to a stranger, though!
Im not going to read 3 pages to see if this was asked, but are you on AT&T? If so is it possible that someone copied your sim card and is using your phone ID to text people?
Search Facebook and other social networks sites using his email. Maybe you will find more information about this moron. Good luck!
With iOS 5 you can go into general settings / Reset / Reset all settings, it will wipe the phone to factory and go back to the setup screen. That should wipe your number as long as the sim is out.
I just wanted to add my 2 cents to this. Last night I fired up my old 3GS which has sat turned off since I got my 4S. I had upgraded it to iOS5 though before the switch. As soon as I turned it on it went crazy downloading all the iMessages I had sent/received over the last 10 days.
Granted I haven't yet tried any erase/restore yet, but now I will definitely have to clean it up before I sell it to make sure I don't get in a similar situation.
Apple needs to find a way to allow you to manage the phone number associated with your iMessages account and the devices it works on. Also, because I am getting iMessages sent to my phone number on what is essentially a WiFi only device now, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to receive them on my iPad. I would love it if all iMessages could sync to my iPad regardless of whether they were sent to phone or email.
Granted I haven't yet tried any erase/restore yet, but now I will definitely have to clean it up before I sell it to make sure I don't get in a similar situation.
Apple needs to find a way to allow you to manage the phone number associated with your iMessages account and the devices it works on. Also, because I am getting iMessages sent to my phone number on what is essentially a WiFi only device now, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to receive them on my iPad. I would love it if all iMessages could sync to my iPad regardless of whether they were sent to phone or email.