Annoying iPhone X Messages Bug Crashes The App (Fix Updated)
Last updated on November 6th, 2021 at 07:23 am
Posted in News by Patricia on November 3, 2017It’s unclear yet why the problem hits only a part of new iPhone X owners. It’s certain though that the bug surfaces when the device is set up from a backup and not configured as new. So, if you just bought an iPhone X and want to upgrade from another iPhone you might be prone to experience this annoying Messages app glitch that prevents you from using the app at all, including sending and reading messages!

iPhone X Messages app instant crash. Source: iPhone-Ticker.de
Update 2: Apple’s support line recommends users to reset all settings after restoring the backup on the iPhone X. This is achieved from the iOS 11 Settings app. Browser for General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings. Now, try to open Messages and the app should work normally!
How To Solve The iPhone X Messages App Bug
Fix: At the moment the only solution is to set up the device as new and not from an older backup! Users have tried to hard restart the iPhone X to no avail. Some also attempted to open the Messages app with the help of Siri, with the same negative outcome.
The trick of asking a friend or relative to text you a new message with the hope that this might revive Messages, isn’t working either.
Update 1: Apple is now seeding iOS 11.2 Beta 2 exclusively for the iPhone X. Upgrade to it if your backup was done on the iOS 11.2 Beta 1! The device ships with iOS 11.0.1 pre-installed. Make sure that you upgrade to iOS 11.1 before you attempt to restore a backup. This could help you get rid of the Messages app crash!
This was extremely helpful, thank you for posting this! We had this exact situation last night after an upgrade from an iPhone 7 with 11.1.1 to an iPhone X with 11.1.1 We pulled the crash logs from XCode and iTunes and confirmed it was simply the Messages app crashing (duh.)
We tried everything imaginable including:
– Deleting Messages history beyond 30 days
– Logging into Messages app from a OS X MacBook and deleting messages
– Trying to use Siri to reply/compose (which was able to send/read messages, but otherwise didn’t fix anything)
– Trying to use the Photos (or similar apps) to “Send” via Messages (which WORKED to send, but otherwise didn’t fix anything)
– Tried turning on/off various keyboards and languages
– Tried enabling/disabling various emoji options
Nothing worked until we did the “Reset All Settings” options. Here’s a small snippet of the .crash file:
Incident Identifier: 702F7D63-EA6B-440E-AF5B-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CrashReporter Key: 53aa65d04f89e89c72fb92axxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hardware Model: iPhone10,3
Process: MobileSMS [384]
Path: /Applications/MobileSMS.app/MobileSMS
Identifier: com.apple.MobileSMS
Version: 1.0 (5.0)
Code Type: ARM-64 (Native)
Role: Foreground
Parent Process: launchd [1]
Coalition: com.apple.MobileSMS [500]
Date/Time: 2017-11-12 22:18:08.5718 -0500
Launch Time: 2017-11-12 22:18:06.6618 -0500
OS Version: iPhone OS 11.1.1 (15B150)
Baseband Version: 1.41.00
Report Version: 104
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY
Triggered by Thread: 0