Level 1

51 points

iMessage not working on Big Sur

Just updated to Big Sur from Catalina on a 16" MBP, and now my iMessage doesn't work. On launch it prompts me to sign in, and when I do, it displays the iMessage interface with all my chats for about 10-20 seconds before it quits and gives me that same prompt again.

If I try to send a message while the interface is displayed it gives an error message about iMessage not being enabled :/

Weirdly enough, the iMessage preferences windows does not open nor is iMessage or FaceTime listed under the services using my iCloud account.

Does anyone know what exactly is happening here, and if there is a fix?

ps: iMessage works fine on my iPad which uses the same AppleID

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.0

Posted on Nov 12, 2020 9:39 PM

Top-ranking reply

zheng181

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Feb 10, 2021 12:12 PM

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.

View in context

Similar questions

77 replies

Nov 23, 2020 10:41 PM in response to BigSuck

You mean "You're Welcome"? Yeah, no that didn't help. Big Suck is funny tho.. my Auto Proxy Discovery was already unticked.

But, still iMessage not working. I guess the joke is on us.. brand new computer or brand new OS and things don't work. Oh well, waiting on a fix or update.

Nov 25, 2020 8:30 AM in response to ruchira918

So when I tried to boot messages this morning in Big Sur, wouldn't open, got a kernel panic, but the notifications for them are showing.

Tried these steps to no avail:

boot to safe mode
reset nvram
moved to trash the .plist file in Library
reset SMC ( even thought I didn't expect this to help as it is used for power issues)
booted to recovery, ran Disk Utility (first aid) on all containers
reinstalled macOS from Recovery

Issue still persists, I understand that there are bugs, so hoping that Apple sends out an update to fix these bugs.

Dec 7, 2020 12:10 PM in response to Alababala

How did you resolve the issue? I tried all of the above and wasn't able to get it to work:

Booting into Safe Mode
Reinstalling Big Sur
Completely wiping the Mac, restoring it to the OS it shipped with, (Mojave) and reinstalling Big Sur
Deleting the Messages DB items in the Library
Deleting the Login Keychain and creating a new one

Thank you!

Dec 8, 2020 3:17 PM in response to knightvsbishop

Thank you david.ross392 and knightvsbishop,

I reset my login keychain and deleted the local items keychain. Restarted and logged back in.

Unfortunately it didn't work.

knightvsbishop, I don't have any failed messages so I'm unable to try what you've suggested.

A Christmas miracle would be nice. I've been working on this for over 20 days now. Apple hasn't been able to resolve the issue and I still have an open ticket with them.

If you guys or others have ideas, I'm willing to check them out.

This is an incredible pain.

Thanks again.

Dec 9, 2020 12:11 PM in response to knightvsbishop

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... :)

Dec 9, 2020 8:41 PM in response to Yijingman

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.

Dec 14, 2020 7:51 PM in response to ruchira918

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...

Dec 16, 2020 8:09 AM in response to SargeantsTechTips

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

Dec 20, 2020 5:14 PM in response to Sujith_Subramaniam

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.

DJLW

Level 1

4 points

Dec 26, 2020 3:23 PM in response to Sorrythatailias

How on Earth can you call this a Christmas Miracle? You erased your main user account, created a new account (started from scratch) and lost all the data from your main account? That's not a miracle, its suicide for anyone with massive amounts of user-localized data! NOT a fix!

Dec 26, 2020 4:00 PM in response to DJLW

All I can say DJLW is if it worked for him then it is a fix. Everyone has to assess the impact of their actions. I did it too because I don't have my life on my devices except my MacBook so not to worry.

Dec 27, 2020 3:32 PM in response to ruchira918

I contacted Apple after I tried many of the fixes listed here. My "FIX" was that I was told imessage is no longer an app. It is now just called Messages. Nothing is different except you have to "two finger swipe" to delete (which was apparently enabled in imessage, I just did not know). However, I did not have trouble sending or receiving messages, so this might not be the answer for you if that is your case. Just wanted to help those who were searching for the lost "imessage app". Good luck to all.

Feb 10, 2021 11:38 PM in response to jian144

Thanks so much, I’ll contact them! I saw someone else said they created another user so I tried that and my iMessage works perfectly fine on the new user. I told that to the 4th rep I spoke to and they still want me to reinstall the OS!

Feb 11, 2021 12:51 PM in response to zheng181

Now I'm more worried about it... sadly my MacBook Pro 16 inch doesn't have any software support from apple in my country (Colombia) I only have hardware support and I can't access to support page for my device and this is weird because I actually have support for my iPad Pro 2018 12 inches (both bought new on the same apple retail store Mac Center Colombia).... so as far I could see I would start to say good bye to iMessage on my MacBook Pro ... very bad thing....

Nov 20, 2020 1:49 PM in response to Mardl

can you tell me what they did to resolve this for you @Mardi

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

iMessage not working on Big Sur