iMessage not working on Big Sur

That did it for me! But my iMessages was selective with certain correspondents. Only problem is that the blocked correspondent was my wife and when I deleted that thread so went over ten years of messages back and forth... With my daughter, and most everyone else, no problems. Win some, lose some... :)

I have the same issue on my mac including spotlight. I was troubleshooting the spotlight issue and one user said I do the following:

Go to System_Preference>Accessability>Display and check Reduce transparency. Surprisingly, imessage and facetime popped out on my screen out of nowhere just when I gave up. lol

I am glad that helped Yijingman! I am sorry you lost the years of messages 😢 that’s the same decision I had to wrestle with.

For sorrythatailis, sorryitdidntwork.

Like Yijingman, I was only experiencing selective correspondent “fail to send” errors. My suggested solution may only be applicable for this scenario.

There seems to be iMessage fix's in latest 11.1 Public Beta 2.

At least my iMessage is working now (I could sign in, but no sync no matter whatever I did) after installing that one, so there is hope out there.

The issue might be related to this. Contacted Apple Chat support about the same issue and this was the resolution. Unfortunately, you can't resolve this without contacting them. I recommend using chat.

Resolution: Apple Tech Response

"Great! So it seems that was happened here was there was a temporary block, possibly due to someone reporting the number as spam. But we were able to remove the block for you."

Good luck.

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!

I have the exact same issue on my MacBook Pro 16... and as far I see this is only affecting the same model, MacBook Pro 16 2019.... I tried everything and the system ask me to log in again an again and again... its painful... I tried refreshing my keychain, logging out from my Apple ID and iCloud accounts... restarting and shutting down... nothing worked, I was hoping that the issue was fixed with todays Big Sur update but nope..... I can't use my iMessage at all... but on my iPad Pro is working fine...

I have had repeated issues since installing Big Sur (and I am on a third reinstall now -- one being done with Apple Support). The most prevalent problem is related to iMessage and iCloud credential authentication (though I've also had issues with Safari, etc.) Last week, I was on the phone with Apple for more than 2 hours because I couldn't make any changes to preferences for iMessage because of a credential authentication issue. The reinstall temporarily fixed it, but I was on the phone with them again yesterday for the same problem. They have scheduled me for an in-store visit. I was optimistic that the overnight update would address this issue, but...no.

And...I have a 2017 MacBook Air.

Not to be a smart *** but I get calls from friends using Macs that all of a sudden they cannot text their android user friends.

I have to remind them their iPhones have to be on for this to work since text to Android go through your phone

Ok I am going to take a shot in the dark here.

When you have the messages app open under preferences @iMessage tab do you see both your cell number and your email? Does your number show down at the bottom where it says start conversation from? Under blocked is there anything?

I ain't the one with problem pal. I was only trying to be sure the dude had checked the obvious as the trick the other dude earlier didn't work for me. I got my problem sorted on my own with my new MacBook Air.

Really like forums where others feel free to abuse those who are only suggesting some ideas.

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 a similar problem: new Big Sur computer, not an upgraded one, and two SMS/green messages not going out from the Messages app on the new Mac. In searching for a solution this page was one of the first threads I found. Before I tried some of the involved steps others tried here, I found what seems to have been the solution for me on another web page (comment by Catalin Baciu) and it turned out to be SUPER-SIMPLE! I'll quote their solution here:

"Looks like text message forwarding was disabled on my iPhone.

On your iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding and make sure your Mac is an enabled device in this list.

Restarting the Messages app on your Mac might be required for this fix to work."

As soon as I found the "Text Message Forwarding" the problem (for me, at least) was immediately apparent. I had 3 devices listed, and only two were enabled, and the new Mac was listed but not enabled. One tap to enable it and suddenly the two messages I'd tried to send out were able to go!

Hope this helps others.

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.

The solution suggested is listed above in previous thread. However, i continued to have intermittent problems after my suggestion, and trying others. Here is something i tried yesterday and it seems to be working so far:

Under iMessage preferences, go to the second tab "@messages" settings; at the bottom, select to start all conversations from your mobile phone number and check the box with your mobile #, in the middle section "You can be reached for messages at."

Then uncheck everything >> so there are no boxes checked for any email addresses to receive texting on, the icloud and sync are also unchecked/greyed out. Now you should see a greyed out option for your mobile number at the bottom and in the middle. Now sign out and sign back in.

For whatever reason, this seems to be working for me thus far.

Good luck, and Happy Holidays!