[General Questions and Answers] bugman58:
Somehow my wife's phone number is stuck in a group with my sister's phone number, and I cannot get them separated.

Got a new Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus about 2 weeks ago, and restored all my existing data to it (including several years worth of text messages) from my old Galaxy S7.

All was great for about a week, I was sending & receiving text messages from numerous people - including my wife and sister - just fine.

Then, I THINK what happened was that on a text to either my sister or my wife, I added the other one of them to the message as an additional recipient, and I think that's when this issue started.

Now, whenever I receive a text from my wife, the message appears in my phone with my sister's number included in the sender field along with my wife's name as if it is a group message.

What's even MORE strange, when another person sends a text to me and to my wife (but NOT to my sister) - my sister's name appears in my phone as if she is in a group that sent me the message - even though the person who sent me the message doesn't even KNOW my sister!

Here is a step by step scenario:

1) My wife composes a text message on her phone TO ME ONLY (my number is the ONLY one shown on her phone as the intended recipient of the text).

2) She sends it to me, when I receive it on MY phone, the "sender" area at top of message shows TWO people - my wife and my sister. (My sister does NOT receive the message.)

3) If I reply directly to that message, both my wife and my sister get my reply.

4) If I compose a NEW message to my wife only (rather than replying to one she sent me), and send to her, only she receives it (my sister does not receive it), and on my wife's phone it shows as coming from only me.

5) When my wife replies to the message I sent to her only, on my phone it comes back as a group message with my sister

s name included in the group.

I have scoured my phone for text messaging Groups... I can find none set up. I primarily use Handcent NEXT SMS, but have also used the stock Messaging app in the Samsung phone, as well as Verizon Message+... same behavior in all of them!!

On my phone I deleted the entire thread of messages between me & my wife (over 1,200 messages going back couple of years), and also deleted all threads on my phone between me & my sister, deleted both my wife's and my sister's contact records in my phone, and also deleted all the forementioned from my WIFE'S phone, then also deleted my wife and my sister's contact records from the contacts in my Google account (to prevent them from being inadvertently restored to my phone that way), and restarted my phone NUMEROUS times during all this... then we start a new text thread between me & my wife only, and when it hits my phone it STILL shows as coming from a Group containing my wife and my sister.

THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!

I hope to be able to remedy this without doing a factory reset on my new S9+ as it's a RPITA to reload everything (all my data primarily), AND I'm not really convinced that will solve the problem anyway (wondering if the "group" they are stuck in together is in Verizon's mothership (cloud database, etc).

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!!!!!