How-To Unlink a Phone Number from Apple ID, iMessage and Facetime
I received a new iPhone with a new number so I wanted to cancel my previous iPhone and number. I wanted to remove this number from my Apple ID so that it was removed from being used in iMessage and Facetime on all of my devices.
UPDATE : NOVEMBER 18th, 2014
Apple has released a web-based tool to help de-register your phone number from your Apple ID/iMessage/Facetime which replaces a lot of the “older” methods found on the web.
The web-based tool can be accessed by going to: https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage
The nice part about this web-based tool is that you can still de-register, even if you don’t have your iPhone any longer.
Hope it helps!
50 Comments
Did not work, all devices are signed out. But the old number is still visible. Thanks for the try.
Thanks for the comment. I’d retry as I’ve done this a couple of times now and it’s worked every time. So perhaps a step was missed? Or there might be something else going on..
It says the deregister code is sent to the number which i no longer have
I have the same issue. I cannot deregister because I no longer have that number (phone was stolen in a different country than my own and now it keeps sending the verification code to that number. My phone is on lost mode and the erase option is pending – until it goes online again.
Thanks for posting this – it really helped me out.
The method works! I had the same problem, but after checking again, I realised that I hadn’t signed out of everything. Try signing out of both iMessage and FaceTime on all devices where your Apple ID has been used – and that includes Macs. In my case I was still signed in to FaceTime on my Mac.
Take the sim card out of your old iPhone/iPad 3G, and use “restore all settings” feature.
best advice ever. thank you
It initially didn’t work for me. My wife iphone was using the same apple ID than me on my iPad.
I disconnected from all devices imessage+facetime, but the phone number still reappeared when I was logging again on my ipad.
In order to have it working, I had to disconnect from all devices, reconnect on my wofe’s iPhone with another appleID, and then reconnect on my ipad with my own apple ID. Then the phone number of my whife’s iphone did not appear anymore.
Thanks a lot to Memoo and Carsten for their help !!
I think it worked! Thank you so much
It worked for me. Thanks for posting.
It worked for me too..thanks so much
I just switched from an iPhone 4s to a Note 3 and I could not get iMessage to release my cell phone number. My wife and kids also share the same Apple ID with their devices. I tried logging out of the other devices completely, signing in as an alternate ID on my old iPhone, nothing would release the number. The iPhone was purchased through my company so it did not appear as a device of mine when I would log in to the Apple support site.
To get iMessage to release my phone number, I made sure that my phone old iPhone was logged in to iMessage as my account and then did a factory reset on the iPhone. When I did this, the number was release from iMessage. I was running iOS 7.0.2 on the device. I did not want to factory reset the device yet but it was the only thing I could get to release my number from iMessage.
Thanks for the comment Brad!
Not working for me. Don’t have the iphone any more, so I changed my apple ID password. I’ve also removed my number from there on the apple id site as well as imessage and facetime on my mac. Oh boy. Thanks for posting, though. Hope it helps others.
Thanks for posting what worked for you!
Go to settings then phone then my number delete it add new number then save, prob have to do it twice
No access to Phone Settings when No SIM Inserted.
I have a personal iPhone and a work iPhone. Initially I had installed my personal Apple ID on my work phone and then decided that I should have a work related account. I did the above and the number was released…however, facetime calls still come to my work phone from my personal apple ID account. I have signed out of my personal apple ID on the work phone and even reset the phone to factory settings. Thoughts on how to fix that?
And you signed out of all devices that use your Facetime account? Including Mac (if applicable)?
yes, I have previously signed out of all devices and was hoping that would work…but it didn’t.
Doesn’t work. Thanks anyways
I dont have the iphone anymore and destroyed the old sim card because my new phone uses a mini sim. Change my appleID password and unregistered all my old products on my apple support profile. I dont think anything worked. PLEASE HELP!
Sounds like you’ve done everything that you should, especially since you no longer have the phone and changed your password.. Did you sign out of all devices and then sign back into the devices you want active? That’s the only thing from the article that you didn’t mention.. Hope it helps!
I am trying to do this and on phone with apple. Told it could take up to 24 hours for Apple to release my numbet
Resetting the password worked PERFECTLY!! Even called Apple to deactivated the number but they said that had already been completed… SMS wasn’t working thought.
Reset the password and BOOM!!! it works!!
though*
I am able to deregister my phone number and get text messages to come through to my Samsung Galaxy S5 from iPhone users, but group messages are not coming through from everyone. I set up a test with my kids and some of them get it to go through as a green text message automatically and I get it and some don’t and it shows blue like it is going through as an iMessage. How do I fix the group messaging issue when moving from iPhone to Android so they come through like text messages do?
might be a great article and advice…however, most people (like myself) don’t know this is going to be an issue in switching from Iphone to Android (or other), until it happens. the sales people don’t mention it and should be the ones telling the buyer of the new phone what to do. we’ve already switched…noticed we were still getting messages on the iphone from iphone users but no messages to the new phone…called Verizon and asked what the heck that was about. of course they knew. glad we’re out of the Iphone borg. will be happier when we can get texts on our new phone from iphone contacts. Thanks for the post…explains well what was happening and would have been great to know in advance…but of course, that isn’t your fault. went ahead and did all the steps you listed, but after the fact. now will try calling apple and hoping that’ll work.
I changed my phone numbers in Apple Support on apple.com, and then signed out of apple id on my phone in both iMessage and Facetime. When I signed back in it was fixed. Thank you for the article.
worked a treat. thank you!!!!!!
If you don’t have your iphone anymore then you must call 1-800-MY-APPLE, When the automated voice asks say “Technical Support”. When you are asked what device press “0” then wait through the menu options and press “5”. When a real person answers tell the them you’re switching to a smartphone that isn’t an iPhone and you can’t receive messages so you need them to manually unregister your number from the iMessage servers. They will transfer you to a tech that probably has done this dozens of times and will unregister your phone number from the iMessage servers. Getting through to the right person is the hardest part. It took me about 4 tries to figure it out. Good Luck!!
I know this post is old but this was the only thing that resolved this imessage problem for me today. The web-based tool was not working for me because the text messages never got to my phone. I also had to talk to a couple people before one transferred me to a higher tech person who was able to manually unregister my number.
I have 2 i phones on one apple account. They both get all my text messages. How do i unlik them? Or deactivate this without turning off my imessage?
You’ll need to sign out of iMessage/Facetime on the phone you don’t want to receive messages anymore and use a different iCloud ID on that phone. That should stop the texts from going to both phones. You can still “share” the Apple Store ID so you can still use purchases, or setup Family Sharing if on the new iOS 8.
I bought an iphone4s from a friend but his phones number/contacts are still there….how. Do I delete them
I would just reset the phone to make sure everything from the old user is wiped, and so you can set up the phone new.
I am just changing my sim, as this is a company phone and my position changed. How do i gaurantee that the new ‘owner’ does not gat any i messages and facetime calls.
Are you changing your number along with the SIM? It wouldn’t matter unless you are changing your number, which is what iMessage goes by.
I have just purchased an Android phone after many years of using iPhone. Now i can’t receive texts from people using ios devices…
I want to de-associate my phone number.
I do however still have an iPad that i wish to continue using for imessage and face time
I have tried the web based method mentioned above and turned off imessage on the old phone but now my messages go to my iPad?!?
Still nothing coming through on my new phone
That might be a bit tricky, as people iMessaging you might not know to use your email address (which would be linked to your iPad iMessage) and not your phone number (which would be standard text message).
At any rate, I’d call Apple on this one.
i have done the same but my problem is , my friend gave me his spare phone and when i logged into my imessage account my number went onto his new phone which means he can now see all my imessages and i want to remove my number from his phone but there is no delete button how do i do this
It worked!! I realized at first why it didn’t work was because all of my devices weren’t logged out.
Ridiculous. It sends a code to the phone I said I didn’t have. WtF
Alright so I created my Apple ID a couple months ago with the number I had back then. I then switched numbers on the same phone, but never put it in as my trusted number on my Apple ID (just forgot it). Now I have a new iPhone and I don’t receive the verification code they sent to my old number, since this number basically doesn’t exist anymore. I therefore can’t choose to get a call instead either and when I click on account recovery it asks me to put my old number in first, which I don’t have anymore and I asked many many people if they still have it saved anywhere but everyone only has my new number. I also don’t have my recovery key because I just learned about that a couple minutes ago. Is there any way I can still get into my account ? Or at least get it delete it somehow so I can create a new Apple ID with my email address ??
Hey Sophie, I’d call Apple or stop by an Apple store to assist.