Messages not working properly on 10.15.6

Question

Messages not working properly on 10.15.6

Messages has stopped working in the last week for me. This is not resolved by the normal fixes.

The behaviours are:

Icon in the dock indicates there is a new message
On launching, no window is displayed. I have to go to the Window menu item to show a window
The window is blank of any content (and does not use the previous window size)
If I then click on the new message button I can pick someone I have conversed with I see the conversation history and can send a message.
I have reapplied the 10.15.6 combo update.
Console show no errors for the iChat process when launching Messages.
The only system updates that were applied prior to the issue were
1. XProtectPlistConfigData 2131
2. Safari 14.0

Any one seen this? My next step will be to wipe all Messages content and resync with iCloud.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 21, 2020 1:16 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 27, 2020 11:28 AM in response to John Holley NZ

Hello, John Holley NZ.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

From reading your post, it's understood that your messages aren't displaying correctly when trying to view them. We'd like to help. Try seeing if you encounter the issue with safe mode and another user account. This can help narrow things down:

How to use safe mode on your Mac

"Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS. It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility. And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed".

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Make sure to also restart your mac if you haven't done so already.

Do you have other devices using your Apple ID and iCloud Messages?

Keep us updated.

Cheers!

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Answer 2

Sep 27, 2020 11:58 AM in response to Matthew.S81

Done all that already. Confirmed with a second account that the issue relates to my account and not the machine. Did a clean install of Catalina as well (with a Time Machine recovery). (And works fine on all my other devices - iOS/MacOS)

I am now just trying to find all the locations Message/iChat stores user preferences. Relatively straight forward in ~/Library, but so far it would appear that there is a pref somewhere else.

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Answer 3

Sep 27, 2020 3:54 PM in response to John Holley NZ

Hello again, John Holley NZ.

Thanks for getting back to us with what you've done. You may want to contact Apple Support to further investigate your account.

Cheers!

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Messages not working properly on 10.15.6

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