Having yrouble with iMessages

[Puzzled]

iPhone 5, iOS 7.1

I seem to be having issues I did not have before. I have the iPhone 5 (as mentioned above), and iPad Air and iPad Mini (my husband uses it now that I have the Air). We have 1 Apple Account. We share apps.

A daughter who lives downstate has an iPad2 and a new iPhone 5S. She sent me two iMessages yesterday from her phone and they showed as having been delivered on her phone. I never received either message. She tried again last night and this time I got a message,my it it was. It on both of my devices. I had not changed anything in the settings. I used to be able to use either device and if I started on the phone with a "conversation" I think I could switch to the iPad Air and continue and be able to the conversation from the beginning on that pad. Not happening now.

Also, I have an iCloud account, but I hate the cloud and do not use it. But, she said my messages are received as having been sent from the cloud. I was using my phone, BTW. I checked the settings and after the 7.1 update my setting was changed to the having been sent using the cloud address. I have changed it to the email I want it to use.

I also noted that in the section where you select the emails and phone numbers you want to use, that it shows my cell phone number but it is grayed out and not checked. I cannot out a check mark on it. I have Googled and many sites say it is grayed but you tap it to check it. When I tap it, it does nothing.

I have turned my phone completely off, closed all apps, everything that is always in the set of instructions to troubleshoot everything.

How do I get my phone number on my phone to be active (checked) in iMessage settings, and how should I have all settings involved with iMessages on both the phone and pad set? In Googling, I found odd info, contradicting info and upon clicking a link - the info had nothing to do with the search.

After I get mine set up the way it needs to be, I will message my daughter and see what devices it shows up on and if it says it came from the proper email address. I will have her message me back and I will see what devices the reply shows up on.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Puzzled]

I found the answer to my iMessage issue.


Rather than put the solution at the end, I will put it here and then the explanation after so if you need to redo your iMessage settings you don't have to read this whole thing unless you want more info.


If your iMessage is no longer using your cell phone number, or simply not working properly, go to Settings/iMessages. Click the Apple ID Box that has the email address and log out. Exit out and go back there and sign back in and follow the prompts. For more info read on. This is the quick and dirty explanation..


My thought was, I would start over from scratch. Here is what I did. I went to the iMessages in Settings. Clicked the option for send and receive list. I then clicked my Apple ID account section and signed out. I then closed settings and went back into settings. Then I signed in and entered the information to log in.


I was hoping it would ask for the information as to how I wanted to be contacted by others and start a conversation. It did not. There was no option to go back or to continue. Basically no way to exit that screen so I pressed the home key. I went back into settings. I selected the iMessage and then proceeded to the add send and receive info. It asked me for my Apple ID info, which I entered. All of a sudden, my phone number was there with the check mark and so were the email addresses. I didn't have to re-enter them.


Take note: It seems to default to your iCloud address for starting a new conversation every time you do anything (or at least updating or signing out/in), so I changed it to what I want to use. If you ever make changes to the iMessage or update your phone, as a precaution, check your iMessages to see if the option for how you want to start a conversation has changed.


I then checked my iPad and lo and behold, it is back to where it was from the get to. My phone is listed as an option to receive, along with some email addresses and all are checked. The phone number is also the option that is checked for starting a conversation. Everything is well in iMessage land in my house for now. I just need my daughter to message me when she gets home from work to test. Works from my Phone to iPad.