iMessage not working on Big Sur

I had this issue as well after the OS was updated to Big Sur. Now it is finally solved.

I contacted the Apples support online chat, they're helpful but help is quite limited because the issue remained after trying their troubleshooting attempts. They advised me to do the following,

1) Create another admin account on mac.

2) Log into the new account and try to sign in message and facetime.

3) Because the issue persisted, they advised me to reinstall the OS.

4) System reinstall was not successful because it says "The volume can't be downgraded."

Then the online chat group scheduled a session for further assistance.

Apple called me thereafter and they found that my apple ID was reported as Spam and thus not functional on imessage and facetime. They removed me from the spam list and restarted my mac and IT WORKED!

So the solution is simple, reach out to the senior Apple support group and they can fix this. Hopefully, it helps.

I had this issue for a week. Only when I used Safari did I realise what the issue was! I could not connect to any website. All Apple products did not work for me, Facetime, iCloud, Messages, even the app store was sometime intermittent. It also prevented me from installing Sophos End Point correctly, as it was blocking the autoupdate that installs the extension.

Somehow the settings in Safari/ as part of the Big Suck update toggled the network Proxies settings 'Auto Proxy Discovery'.

Just go to the wifi icon, click Network Preferences, unlock the padlock, enter your Mac OS user account password, click Advanced, select the Proxies Tab and then untick Auto Proxy Discovery.

Your welcome.

So, imsg now works on my macbookpro... What I did...

1) Go to Messges app - Preferences - uncheck imessage on cloud

2) Sign out

3) Sign back in with your Apple ID password

4) Enable the settings again

Hope it starts working for you guys as well. It was so annoying when it didnt sync in real time...

Best wishes

-Farah

Update: Messages on my Mac mini has been working for about 5 hours now with no issues.

Here's what was done to fix the problem with the help of a very capable Apple Support Professional:

Create New Administrator Account (TestUserName)

• Created a new administrator account on the Mac mini (TestUserName)
• Logged out of my current account (MyUserName) out of iCloud on the Mac mini (Which is an administrator account)

Log in to the New Administrator Account on the Mac (TestUserName)

• Logged into the new administrator account on the Mac mini (TestUserName)
• Ignored all messages to add my AppleId during set-up (Clicked on Set Up Later)
• Logged into Messages using my existing iCloud ID name/password after set-up
• Logged into iCloud using my existing iCloud ID name/password

Test Messages on Mac mini

• Sent a text message from the new administrator account (TestUserName) logged into my iCloud account to a fellow iPhone / Messages user (Worked)
• Sent a text message from the new administrator account (TestUserName) logged into my iCloud account to friend who uses an Android device (Worked)
• Sent a Message from my iPhone to myself (Worked and displayed on the Mac)
• Turned on "Enable Messages in iCloud" in Messages Preferences for TestUserName
• Important Note: It took a long time to sync (30-45 minutes) - I did not touch the Mac until it was done with the sync

Final Clean-Up

• Deleted my current account from the Mac mini (MyUserName)
• Renamed TestUserName to a different name (MyNewUserName)
• Notes:
  • I did not use the same name as previous MyUserName for MyNewUserName
  • I didn't not change any of the folder settings, names or paths for MyNewUserName that were set-up or created for TestUserName

Potential Causes of the Issue

• Keychain Issue?
  • I deleted the Login and Local Items from the Keychain and turned off iCloud Keychain sync while trying to resolve this problem during prior attempts to resolve the issue
    • That did not help
  • Maybe it was corrupt Keychain value, certificate or account setting for MyUserName?
  • Maybe it was an issue with my iCloud Keychain?
  • Maybe an issue with something trying to block network traffic for Messages for MyUserName?
  • Maybe an issue with my AppleId and/or secure encryption used for iCloud Keychain?

In any case all of this happened after my upgrade to Big Sur. I had no issues before the upgrade.

I'm thankful for the Christmas Miracle!

i went to getsupport.apple.com and just messaged them and told them my problem and it ended up being that my my facetime and messages account had been banned so they just un banned it and within minutes it was solved.

Hi relon7979,

I know what the problem is. Please call them again, ask them to transfer you to a senior customer support. Then tell him/her that you AppleID was probably flagged as spam ID by mistake and they can unblock it from the server side. There is nothing wrong with the computer.

It will solve your problem. So many people have the same issue.

I had the same issue and talked with customer support.

HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED.

There is a chance your Apple ID was reported by someone as SPAM. So your further signing in was blocked on the server side. You have to talk to them to remove the blocking.

I had the same problem: 2019 MacBook Pro upgraded to Big Sur and iMessage stopped working. The problem was security preferences that changed due to new more restrictive settings in Big Sur. I had to enter the Privacy and Security settings and approve internet access for some of my filesystems and security systems before iMessage would work. If you have this issue, you will see a notification in the settings window that certain settings require your attention. Click the lock, accept the changes and that should solve the problem right away. The same issue also restricted my Spotlight search and resolved at the same time. Hope this helps!

Even if you reset your mac it wont be sorted out ...... contact apple support through chat or call even I faced the same issue and I have contacted them,i was told that my apple id for mac was blocked due to some reason they unblocked it and said me go through a powercycle and now it works as usual

I had the same problem on my MacBook Pro 16".

I tried almost anything I found on the different forums. The only viable solution for me was contacting official Apple support. They stated that my number and ID were marked as spam (however, iMessage worked perfectly on my iPhone). They tweaked something on their side and I was able to log into iMessage just in seconds.

I hope, this will help you out.

Check your login / local_items keychain. I was having this issue and it was ultimately because I changed my macOS password a few weeks before upgrading to big sur. It looks like when iMessage / Facetime try to login with the Apple ID, they get stuck because the keychain was created / locked with the *old* macOS password. So try this (from https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202860):

1. Open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. 
2. Choose Preferences from the Keychain Access menu, then click the Reset My Default Keychain button in the preferences window. After you enter your new password, Keychain Access creates an empty login keychain with no password. Click OK to confirm.
3. 
   
4. If you don't see a Reset My Default keychain button, close the preferences window and select the “login” keychain from the left side of the Keychain Access window. Press the Delete key, then click Delete References.
5. 
   
6. Choose Log Out from the Apple menu to return to the login screen.
7. Log in to your account using your new password. Your account password and login keychain password now match again.

I solved it by signing out of iCloud on my Big Sur iMac

Restarted holding SHIFT.

Restart from Big Sur drive.

Sign into iCloud.

iMessages began sending and receiving my tests.

I saw in this process Big Sur system post an error message, but I lost the error message. There was no error # on it. I can't remember the exact wording.

This worked for me. I had the exact same problem when upgraded to Big Sur. Do a full restart/or shut down, and then launch iMessage again. Solved the problem on my end.

As a few others reported, restarting the machine fixed the problem for me.

I had tried logging out of iMessage to address a different problem (you cannot use arrow keys to move around the message input field if Messages is on anything OTHER than the primary monitor, and “Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls” is enabled in the Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard preference pane), at which point I was unable to log back in to iMessage thanks to the mysterious “unknown error” error.

I was told to restart my Mac and it worked!