How to Fix iPhone 14 iMessage/Message Not Working

The iPhone 14 has been released to the public. Indeed, the new iPhone contains more features, however, we got emails from a lot of users complaining about their iPhone 14 messages/iMessages not working recently. Also, some may meet many update problems reported in Messages, Touch ID, and so on.

If you are in situations like messages/iMessages not sending/delivered, not received, or iMessages won’t activate, images not working in iMessage, iMessage not saying delivered, iOS 16 messages new effects not working, iPhone not alerting me of texts and some also find that messages disappeared after iOS update. No matter what kind of issues you are encountering and why iMessage not working, follow this post and get some potential fixes.

Part 1. iMessage/Messages Not Delivered/Sending After iOS 16 Update

You may be just chatting with your friends with iMessage but only to see iMessage not showing delivered/sending on your iPhone or iPad after upgrading to iOS 16.

How to Fix:

• Make sure you have connected to a Wi-Fi or 4G network.
• Tap the “!” alert option and try again.
• Turn off and turn on iMessage: Settings > Message > Turn off and turn on iMessage.
• Reboot your iPhone or iPad.

Part 2. iMessage Fail to Activate After iOS Update

After updating to iOS 16, you may see an iMessage waiting for activation error on your iPhone or iPad and fail to activate iMessage after trying again and again.

How to Fix:

• Make sure Date & Time are correct: Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically.
• Make sure you’ve connected to Wi-Fi.
• Make sure your Carrier support iMessage.
• Turn on Airplane mode and turn it off.

Part 3. iPhone 13 Message App Crashes or Freezes

If someone sends you a message and your message app keeps crashing or freezing, try the fixes below:

How to Fix:

• Use Siri to send a message to the person who just sent the message to you.
• Let that person text you again.
• Delete that message just sent to you.
• Reset your iDevice.

Part 4. iPhone Not Receiving Messages/iMessages

Apple allows you to send green bubble messages and blue bubble iMessages on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. If you can’t receive or send messages/iMessage on iPhone, try solutions here.

How to Fix:

• Reset your iPhone or iPad.
• Turn off LTE or use it for data only.
• Reset network settings: Settings > General > Reset > Reset network settings.

Further Reading: Why iPhone Text Messages to Another iPhone Changed Green?

Part 5. iOS 16 Messages Not Opening

After upgrading to iOS 16, some users complained on Twitter that the Message App not opening or the Message App is white and blank. If you also have the same problem after iOS update, you can try with the following solutions:

•  Restart your iPhone: Hold on the Power button until the “slide to power off” appears and then scroll to turn it off.
• Try a hard reboot: Hold down Home and Power button for 10 seconds at the same time until the white Apple logo appears, and then release your fingers.
• Reset all settings: on your iDevice, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. This would erase all your existing data.
• Restore your iPhone/iPad and then set it as new. Please make a full back of your iPhone iPad before starting restoring your iDevice.

Part 6. iOS 16 iMessage Features/Effects Not Working

If iOS 16 new features not working on your iPhone/iPad, try to fix it with the following methods.

Method 1: Disable Reduce Motion

To fix iMessage effects not working on iOS 16, the easiest way is to turn off Reduce Motion. About how to do it, you just need to on your iPhone/iPad: go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Tap it off.

Method 2: Turn off iMessage and then turn it on

On your iPhone or iPad, go to settings > Messages > iMessage > Tap on it to off > Turn it on again.

Method 3: Make sure iMessage is sending from your phone number

After trying the two methods above, if you still fail to fix this iMessage problem, you need to check and see if iMessage is sending from your phone number. About how to check it and set it up, you can follow the steps below:

Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive > Select your phone number in the column of “Start New Conversation From”.

Method 4: Disable 3D Touch and try again

If you still haven’t fixed this iMessage problem, you can try to disable 3D Touch on your iPhone, and then turn it on again if it works. Touch on your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch > Tap on it to turn it off.

Part 7. Messages/iMessages Disappeared

You may easily get into the dilemma of losing messages after iOS 16 upgrade, which can be worse if you didn’t make any backup in advance. Don’t panic, and PhoneRescue for iOS might be your last straw to retrieve lost messages. It is an all-sided iOS data recovery and iPhone backup extractor.

With PhoneRescue for iOS, you can get back lost or deleted SMS/iMessages, notes, contacts, call history, photos, and more from your iPhone 13/12/11/X, even the newest iPhone 14.

It supports 3 recovering modes: Recover from an iDevice, Recover from iTunes Backup and Recover from iCloud.

Step 1. Go to the download page of PhoneRescue and click iOS Data Recovery to download and install it on your PC or Mac. Run it and connect it to your device. Choose Recover from iOS Device and start to scan your iPhone.

Step 2. By default, all categories will be selected. Please choose Messages and uncheck other boxes. Click OK to start scanning.

Step 3. Select Messages and Message Attachments > Select the contacts with messages you want to retrieve > Preview the deleted text messages > Select the items you want to recover > Click Recover to iPhone or Recover to Computer button.

Further Reading: Fix iPhone Messages Not Syncing with Mac >

The Bottom Line

That’s all about how to fix iPhone 13 iMessage/Message not working. With the solutions we mentioned above, hope you can successfully solve this problem. If you have any other questions, you can leave your questions in the comments, then we will try our best to help you out.