Getting IMessage Blue Again

  • Sun, Sep 28, 2025
  • 2-minute read

We went to Europe a few months ago and set up temporary Europe-based eSIMs on our iPhones. They were simple to configure, worked great, and were definitely cheaper; it was totally worth the extra effort. The only hitch came when we returned to the States: a couple of us noticed that iMessage started sending and receiving texts as green bubbles (like when you’re messaging an Android user).

It turns out the switch back to your primary eSIM doesn’t always go smoothly. Sometimes Messages won’t fully re-register all of your identities (your phone number and email addresses). Here’s how we fixed it:

  1. Go to Settings → Messages → Send & Receive, tap on Apple Account (email address), and Sign Out.
  2. Go to Settings → FaceTime, scroll down, tap on Apple Account, and Sign Out there too.
  3. Go to Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Reset → Reset Network Settings. (This will erase saved Wi-Fi passwords.)
  4. Your phone will restart automatically.
  5. Reconnect to your Wi-Fi network.
  6. Go to Settings → Date & Time and make sure Set Automatically is toggled ON.
  7. Go to Settings → Phone and confirm that your correct number is listed next to My Number. If not, tap it and enter your full phone number.
  8. Go to Settings → Messages and toggle iMessage back ON.
  9. Go to Settings → FaceTime and toggle FaceTime back ON.
  10. Go to Settings → Messages → Send & Receive and confirm all the identities under You Can Receive iMessages To and Reply From are checked.
  11. Go to Settings → FaceTime and confirm all the identities under You can be reached by FaceTime at are checked.

In our case, the problem was that our phone number was unchecked—and grayed out—in the Send & Receive section. We couldn’t just re-check it. But after following all the steps above, the issue cleared up and everything started working normally again. Also note that sometimes we actually had to wait a bit for changes to propagate through the system. E.g., step 10 showed our identities as grayed out again at first but after a few minutes it was enabled again.