Messages app not loading/opening on Sonoma 14.5

I have the same problem on the MacBook Pro M1 2020

Messages & Facetime apps will just bounce and not load, I have rebooted/restarted same as you and still not working.

I had another call with Apple tonight, did all kinds of stuff, nothing fixed it, scheduled a follow up for Sunday, then a few hours later...I get an imessage on my iMac...the tech said he has seen it before where it takes a bit of time for things to get back into order, but if you are still having issues, call support and let them do what they do, maybe something helped, I will never know, but its all good now.

I was hopeful and gave it a shot, no such luck on my side

Same problem on my 2020 iMac. Updated to Sonoma 14.5 yesterday and Messages app failed to load (and the icon would bounce for about 2-3 minutes before failing) each time. Just reinstalled Sonoma 14.5 in hopes that would solve the glitch, but the problem persists. I use Messages on my iMac as a primary means of communicating and coordinating things throughout the day, so I need to get this fixed, but don't want to step back to reformatting to do so. Hoping a 14.6 update will happen real soon that will help.

Yes, from habit I woke up and clicked on the Messages icon and responded to someone who had txt'd me on my phone. I literally just noticed, "Hey I'm on my iMac and using Messages again." Strange, and glad it's back.

I'm noticing this also! I thought it was fixed after I was on with support but I noticed that my iMessages are displaying out of order - for example if I message via my phone vs via my computer, the messages do not display correctly on my IMessage on the Mac. Hoping this is fixed soon! This is a real headache!

Same issue, Support was unable to go to SafeMode and went to a Recovery - neither Messages or FaceTime is functioning, but my iMac sees that there are activities on other devices so it is communicating (I think) on the backend. I'm going to ask about rolling back the OS or when 14.5.1 will be around to resolve this.

Same issue for me. I reinstalled Sonoma OS from the App Store. iMessage just bounced and fails to load. Icon always seems to show 1 message. MacBook Air 2020 M1 16gb ram. Please give this some attention.

Same here after reinstalling Sonoma 14.5 on an M1 Mac Studio.

Messages seem to come in - at least they appear in Notifications - but the Messages app will not launch.

Messages seem to sync OK in Settings/iCloud/Apps Using iCloud/Messages.

Messages still works OK on other machines - iMac, iPad, iPhone etc - so the service is fine.

When I try to launch Messages, the active app 'dot' appears beneath the Messages icon in the dock for a few seconds, then goes away - sometimes I get a crash report.

Same issue when booting in Safe Mode.

Same. Updated to Sonoma 14.5 and immediately Messages on my MacBook would not even open. Just bounced. Forced quit, restarted twice. Chatted with Apple online and they had no answers but seemed to know about the bug. Told me to try starting in Safe Mode.

So frustrating. Come ON. Don't release if you haven't tested for bugs!

***** SOLVED *****

To recap ...

I erased my SSD and reinstalled MacOS to resolve an issue with file sharing. After that, Messages would not launch.

I spent hours on the phone with Apple tech support - they were very obliging, but had no idea what was causing this problem.

I did all the usual troubleshooting steps - rebooting, safe mode, reinstalling the OS again, running Disk First Aid, resetting permissions - nothing helped.

I knew that the Message service was OK because it worked fine on my other devices - and I knew my Mac and the Messages app were OK because Messages worked fine on a newly created 'test' user account.

It had to be something in my Home folder.

Then I realised that my freshly re-installed MacOS was missing Microsoft's Calibri font. I reinstalled that, then Messages instantly started working again !!

This explains everything !!

I'd previously set the Text Size in Messages/Settings/General to Calibri 14pt, and this was embedded in the Messages preferences in my Home folder - which explains why Messages (which defaults to the System font) worked for the 'test' user, but not for my User account.

Apparently, Messages looks for the specified font - if it can't be found, then it just gives up.

Unfortunately, this makes it impossible to trouble-shoot - or to fix easily - because if Messages won't launch, you can't edit the font settings.

So - that explains the cause.

The solution now is for Apple to explain how to reset the font settings for the Messages app when the app can't be launched.

I hope that helps :)

Ditto, was on with apple support last night and they had me reinstall 14.5 and no help, will try them again tonight and see if enough have complained that they have a work around.

Today they have just started working again, opening fine with no issues!

Same issue occurring on two upgraded MacBooks to MacOS 14.5