User profile for user: gfMeMyself
gfMeMyself Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

iMessage not working after sharing photos or documents

I cannot send iMessages anymore and get error saying that for sending to an e-mail address iMessage must be activated. However, iMessage is activated and worked fine until recently. I have only linked my iMessage with my email not with my phone numbers (in order to avoid unintensional sending as SMS). That was never a problem.

Since a couple of days it seems that iMessage stops working if I try to share a picture from photos or a document. In the message field "iMessage" is still indicated so both me and the recipient should still be ok. With one address I was later able to use iMessage again after I have received an iMessage from the other side that was sent from a Mac.

I cannot 100% confirm but it seems this error came up after updating to iOS 18.4

iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Apr 17, 2025 1:38 AM

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User profile for user: gfMeMyself
gfMeMyself Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Apr 17, 2025 3:44 AM in response to gfMeMyself

I was now able to reproduce the bug (I think it is a bug in iOS 18.4):

  1. I chose any picture (in this case a screenshot .png) in Photo App and click the Share button
  2. from the suggested contacts I chose the recipient and press send in the iMessage window
  3. I get the error message "message cannot besent - for sending to an email address iMessage must be activated" (The original German error is "Nachricht kann nicht gesendet werden - Für das Senden an E-Mail Adressen muss iMessage aktiviert sein")
  4. I cannot send any iMessage to this recipient anymore from my iPhone
  5. I then send an iMessage to this recipient from my MacBook and everything works again fine
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iMessage not working after sharing photos or documents

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