iMessage has merged 2 conversations of 2 different contacts

Turns out it was an issue with the two people sharing an Apple ID. Check their iMessage send & receive settings if this is your issue too.

I am having the same problem. I am messaging my girlfriend and imessages are getting mixed up between her and her son's phones. They are sharing the same itunes account, but on imessage they only have their individual phone numbers accepting the imessages.I havent found a work around for this. Were yall able to resolve the issue?

My theory is whoever you are messaging is using the same apple ID, even if they are using different numbers for messaging. I'm hoping this is a bug, because you will have alot of upset people if not.

Just a heads up to anyone reading this thread, the issue still exists in public beta 4, any help would be appreciated

I am having the same exact problem and after beta 6 still not resolved still merging.

Did you file a bug report ?

This has been a problem for me too! My brother in law and sister have different phone numbers and both have the setting "Start New Conversations From" set to their unique phone numbers. I've opened a bug report for this weeks ago but haven't heard back from Apple yet. I'm checking with my sister to see if they share an Apple ID (for iCloud and/or iTunes). Right now I'm trying to verify if it was fixed in the latest beta build (16A5364a) released 8/23. I deleted the previous conversations and I have two separate conversations appearing in the list right now but I'm checking to see if they merge like they have in the past.

This issue has gone away for me, not sure if it happened in beta 8, 9 or 10 but the conversations that were giving me issues appear to have straightened themselves out.

Hi DizzleDom,

For the bug you submitted, any word back? Especially now that we are on GM release and I still have the problem. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rich

I’m having the exact same issue. Deleting the conversation works for me, but then I lose 8+ years of meaningful text messages and photos with my dad :(

This just happend to me today. Updated to IOS12 two days ago. Really annoying. How do we report and what is the hope that it gets fixed?

Found this which explains the cause of the issue and possible remedies.

https://appletoolbox.com/2018/08/imessage-not-working-ios-12-fix-message-app-problems/#Share_an_Apple_ID_With_Someone_Else_and_Messages_Combining_Into_a_Single_Thread_Conversations_Grouped

I have been having this issue since updating to ios12. The problem is that even a few of my family members that have their own apple id and are on the family share are also merging together in iMessage. Any additional fix for this?

This only worked momentarily for me. It started to happen again a few texts after the deleting of the thread. And yes - same problem with me I had to delete multiple years of awesome texting with my family.

I have had this happen twice and Apple IDs are not shared. It happens only with messages between my daughter and me. My daughter’s phone ends up being merged with a commercial vendor and I get spammed with “we can’t reply” messages. The fix to delete the conversation works but deleting all my texts (even if backed up) is a terrible workaround.

I might have found a solution

1. Delete one of the merged contacts
2. Delete the thread
3. Add the deleted person’s contact

Idk if this will work for others but it worked for me and just in case turn off group messages in settings - messages.

Yeah I recently got the iPhone 14 pro and it merged my contacts between my mom and one of my friends... now anytime I text my friend it says my mom's phone number and her contact photo at the top. Anyone else have this issue?

This has just happened to me so can confirm is still an issue and none of the fixes seem to be working. Messages between my mum and my boyfriend have been merged and they do not share an apple ID

I am having the same issue on my 11 iPhone plus. I got out of a movie and turned my phone on, and my texts between my boyfriend and one of my friends had merged. Every time I try to text him, it pulls up my text with her instead. I’ve tried everything from deleting both their numbers, block them, add the contact back or unblock, toggle off iMessage, but nothing is working. Is there any update for anyone else?

I am having the same problem where I can not text my mother and it always goes to my coworker. One has an iPhone and one has an Android and they have different numbers. I can call them separately. I have tried deleting text messages and contacts and nothing is working. I also do not receive messages from my mother only my coworker. Even if I type in her number to text not the contact it will go to my coworker, not my mom.

I had this problem this morning. iMessage merged two conversations from two distinct contacts with no history of shared conversation or shared Apple ID.

One contact had been merged from an old Android phone. Somehow, this number got associated in Contacts as a second number for the other contact. Once I sorted that out and corrected the information in Contacts, iMessage sorted itself out.

Posting this here in case it happens to someone else sometime. Maybe you'll find this useful.

I’m experiencing this problem with my mom and grandmother merging. It’s not because of their Apple ID being the same because grandma doesn’t even have an Apple phone. What happened is my mom sent a text of my grandmas number and copy pasted it from her messages. It said “this is my number” so Apple got confused and added her number to my moms. Ive deleted that message and I’ve fixed both of thier contacts and made sure they’re seperate but grandmas texts are still in my mom’s thread. I can’t text my mom or grandma anymore without texting both at the same time. please help!

This is also a problem for my wife and I. Wife has 2x iPhone (one personal and one her employers) with 2x numbers, 2x Apple IDs. I had both sets of details under 1 contact. Recently, Messages formed a "group" of me, and my wife's two phone numbers - not something we asked it to do. At that stage, messages would go to the wrong phone. I deleted all her work details and made a fresh contact, and yet there are still problems, with most of the personal messages associated with the work contact.