Losing iMessage when leaving screen before sendingbefore

Where does an unfinished iMessage go if you leave the screen? This doesn’t seem to happen with the Message app. If iMessage opens when I tap my Messages icon, how do I get to the Messages app to prevent losing an unfinished message? I have an iPhone 11

iPhone 11, iOS 16

Posted on May 31, 2023 9:09 AM

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Question marked as ⚠️ Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 23, 2024 5:17 PM

I-phone text not completed. How can I return to it?

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Aug 23, 2024 5:22 PM in response to pers—immon143

Please read the other posts in this thread, but note that Messages does not save text until sent, so if you leave the app your partial messages may be lost if iOS needs additional RAM for the app that you switch to. The workaround is to compose a message in another app such as Notes, then cut and paste into Messages. Or select and copy the text before leaving messages.


Changing the way that it works sounds like a good idea, but the best place to suggest something to Apple is 

here→Product Feedback - Apple

This is a user-to-user forum, with minimal Apple participation. 

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May 31, 2023 9:15 AM in response to WonderingWhy1

You have no control over that, other than to select and copy the partial text. The messages app does not save partially entered posts to storage, it just saves them in RAM. If you then open another app that needs RAM iOS will repurpose the RAM used by the Messages app.

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Jan 8, 2024 10:30 AM in response to BGSunshine

BGSunshine wrote:

That just happened to me AGAIN! It's EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING. I spent a very long time gathering facts and composing the textthen it gone and nowhere to be found! When I remember, I copy what I have written so far then have it to paste if it disappears. This time I couldn't even paste the beginning part I thought I had copied. Aggrevating!

If you leave the Messages app and the phone needs the memory it is using for other things, it will suspend the app. This may mean that anything not saved will be lost. I would advise that, if you're going to spend lots of time composing a long message, you start it in Notes. It's very easy to use the "share" button in Notes to send something to messages.


Or, even better, use email for long, complex messages.

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Jan 8, 2024 10:21 AM in response to WonderingWhy1

That just happened to me AGAIN! It's EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING. I spent a very long time gathering facts and composing the textthen it gone and nowhere to be found! When I remember, I copy what I have written so far then have it to paste if it disappears. This time I couldn't even paste the beginning part I thought I had copied. Aggrevating!


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Aug 6, 2024 8:17 PM in response to WonderingWhy1

Apple, sometimes I forget to create my messages in another app that saves them or I start a message with the intention of it being short and the next thing I know, all my effort proofs into cyberspace. It seems ridiculous that a premiere phone, developed by a premiere company would not offer a sub-standard texting app, like Messages, that doesn't automatically save the draft. It’s bad enough that I suffer from deleted material already just by accidentally hitting the wrong button because the guilty button happened to be right next to a character I needed to type. PLEASE, PLEASE FIX THIS SUBSTANDARD APP! 🙏Additionally, all apps with autosave need to save a minimum of 3 past copies, but preferably all saved drafts in order and time-stamped, in case an autosave occurs before we are able to get back to the previous draft before it autosaves the copy with the deleted text on top and becomes the only copy. This is a major problem that I never had on an Android. Apple, you are better than this—please stop avoiding fixing this problem that your customers have repeatedly complained about. Please respond. We deserve an answer in addition to fixing the problem. Thank you!

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Losing iMessage when leaving screen before sendingbefore

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