iMessage not syncing across devices, even with Mountain Lion.

until IOS6, your imessages on your iphone will have to be via your icloud account.

on your iphone

go to settings-> messages-> receive at-> caller id-> and choose your icloud email address

for your messages to sync, you will have to be sending AND receiving via your email address listed there instead of your phone number. imessages sent from and to your icloud email address (if linked with imessage) will sync across all your devices.

once IOS6 comes out, you will have the ability to integrate your phone number with your imessage account and not have to worry about this workaround. but for now, this is how we have been imessaging and syncing across our macs, ipads, and iphones

for more, the basic idea is listed below... although it is written for ios devices, it applies to messages on mac for now

http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/19/sync-imessage-across-all-ios-devices-iphone-ipad- ipod-touch/

My solution was harsh, but it worked with all my syncing issues (notes, calendar, imessage).

First, save old conversations, notes or calendard dates/events. Kill/delete all the old conversations/notes/data on your iPhone/iPad/Mac. make sure the Sync address on all devices' iCloud app is the same, enable sync on all of them.

Start a new message with your friend/family member, a new note or new calendar event. Suddendly, it will appear across all devices. It worked for me and five other friends I help them with.

You will not be able to retrieve old iMessage posts (so save them), and just cut and paste data from old notes/calendars to new one. There is no third party apps that can help with this problem yet (I looked).

Not as smooth as I expected for a new OS feature, but it works now,... 😟

Hi,

The first two replies state two methods (Of which one is to wait)

It has been suggested that turning the iPhone Off and then On again gets the iMessages to sync.

It seems this "Break" with the iMessages servers seems to be the trick - either by deleting those "old" or "History" or by isolating the iPhone.

There is some anecdotal evidence that this turning Off and On also seems to keep the Old messages and sync those as well.

10:30 PM Saturday; August 4, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

My suggestion is that reports suggest using either 1) or 2) (not both together)

In Messages Beta I cleared all my Messages on my iPhone after sticking in the Apple ID

When I updated Lion to Mountain Lion and the Full version of Messages I continued to sync the iMessages (I have not had to "restart" the sync process).

10:37 PM Saturday; August 4, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Make sure you have the Apple ID of the contact who you want to talk to on your iPhone and Mac.

Hey everyone, i've got an issue with Imessages not syncing between my Mac and IPod Touch. I have made sure the same apple ID is being used on both devices and the system has worked before.

For some reason the syncing just stops and 'Not Delivered' messages appear even though they arrive at my friends devices.

It's rather frustarting when it drops out and I have to keep up with 2 conversations...

Is there anyway of resetting messages on either the mac or ipod when this happens that will clear it?

Cheers

HI,

I would start by trying the turning Off of Messages on the iPhone and unticking the Enable this account Box in Messages (all at the same time)

Then turn things back on again so that there is a Definite "Start Time" as it were.

8:07 PM Friday; September 7, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Message was edited by: Ralph Johns (UK)

Thanks for getting right to the point; bonus points for providing a link...your solution worked instantaneously!

Thanks for the first notes. Restarting the machine from scratch seemed to help.

However after a few days i'm still getting that my partners email is not registered and so imessage chat can't start and I can't send messages either from my mac. If i try to send them to her from my Ipod Touch it just comes back saying 'not delivered'. Ive tried the restart of both 'apps' but this didn't help.

Might have to forget about using messages till the proper version is released.

I have upgraded to OS X 10.8.2 and iOS 6 and appear to be having sync issues. I've found that some iMessages go to the iPhone and not the Mac, and visa versa. There is also an issue I'm having where only iMessages sent to my mobile number since the release of iOS 6 and OS X 10.8.2 have sync'd, and none of the messages before it have sync'd (even though I have the rest of the conversation stored on my iPhone). This obviously leaves a gaping hole in my conversation streams!

I have tried the methods above, but with no luck 😟 Any other tips? Is there a way to force-sync on Messages for Mac (even if it means using Terminal)?

Hi,

I don't really use Terminal at all.

I have one set of "code" that create a full start up log on iChat/Messages that I posts now and then.

I did not expect Messages to Sync stuff before iOS 6 that had not already been synced.

Messages Beta did not sync messages prior to the Mac version being Installed and "Coming On Line".

The Full version up to OS X 10.8.1 and Messages version 7.0.1 only synced iMessages to and from the Apple ID and again from a "Start Point" that needed to be created (either deleting all current iMessages or turning Off the Phone and restarting).

I had an iPhone 3GS that I dropped and my son upgraded his iPhone 4GS to a 5 and I go the hand me down as a sort of replacement.

This has not synced the Messages I had on the 3GS.

iMessages is not like the AIM service of a few years ago when you could add yourself to your own Buddy List and text chat with two computers logged in to the same account which then shows both sides of the conversation.

Nor the current type that shows the incoming half of the conversation on a second computer when chatting to a Buddy (even that does not "sync" your replies.) if you are logged in twice.

The word "sync" tends not to mean the same thing in IM apps as it might do elsewhere.

9:42 PM Saturday; September 29, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Thanks for the reply Ralph, but I somewhat got lost in your response/answer 😕

Is there a fix for my problem or not? What is this "code" you speak about?

HI,

What I meant is although I don't use Terminal that often I do have one piece of info that gets Terminal to Launch iChat or Messages and create a log of doing so.

Other than that there were two points.

1) the word Sync and it's use in Messages is not the same as in other places

Although your devices are shown each messages that is where the sync process stops.

What you do to update one message does not get synced to other devices with regard to Deleting or Forwarding or it's Read status.

2) Along side of that I pointed out that Messages Beta that was available for Lion needed a "Starting Point" to be created - the most common of which was to delete all the previous Messages on the iPhone.

I linked this to my own experience of dropping an iPhone (so the screen broke) and having a replacement that did not sync the messages the other phone had on it.

7:07 PM Sunday; September 30, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously