Mac Messages not syncing with iPhone after Big Sur update

Try logging out of icloud and messages on the mac. log back in to icloud and messages. ensure text forwarding is selected for the mac on the iphone, then resync the messages on the mac. I have found that some messages missed while the text forwarding was off arent recoverable.

This was solved (for me) by going to System Preferences on Mac then making sure my photo was up and after I set it up, it up, my messages automatically started downloading on my iPhone within the messages app. This could take up to 24 hours, however I had retrieved all my messages within about 10 min. Supposedly (from what the AppleCare Advisor said ) I was not fully signed in, even though I was, it was that last step that I had not yet done which was simply choosing a photo. Hope this helps someone!

I have done all that as well. Hard to believe Apple has not fixed this issue.

What I find is that if I had a bunch of texts on my phone without my macbook nearby then open my macbook the messages are not displayed on the macbook. What I do is send a message on my phone with just one letter and that pushes the entire message thread to my macbook.

It is a workaround and may be annoying to the receiving party but it is one way to get the messages on my macbook.

Thank you! I updated to Big Sur today and discovered my Messages were not syncing. When I checked, I discovered my Mac was disabled. After enabling it, everything is working now.

I just noticed that messages were no longer appearing on Messages on my Mac. I'm not sure how long it has been that way. I tried various things that people have mentioned here, starting with text message forwarded - that was turned off. I'm guessing that switched itself off after the Big Sur update ? I'm not sure. Anyway, I put that back on and did a few other things, and now my Messages and iPhone messages are syncing again. It's really annoying that messages that are to or from my iPhone during the time that the iPhone and Mac were NOT synced (apparently) do NOT show up though. Why not ??? That's so annoying ! Apple, please fix this ! I want to see all of my messages, even past ones, on both my iPhone (iPhone 11 Pro) and my Mac mini with Big Sur (latest updates always).

I have had this issue for a long time now. Two weeks ago after days and hours of working with senior level support and Genius Bar visit; reinstalling IOS and then creating a new User in my Mac(which made me loose some important information). I feel I was someones guinea pig. I gave up and turned off all icloud message syncing and message forwarding. Amazingly it all synced for a little over a week!! Then it stopped again, and I hadn't changed any settings. I have tried all the suggestions I have read, turning on /off imessage on cloud, in phone on Mac. Turning on off message forwarding. Which by the way I have three Macs listed in my message forwarding, I cant tell why or how to delete any of them. Photo below. I have tried enabling imessage in icloud and the synch button is grayed out and will not allow syncing. Nothing has worked for this issue.

Same here. Spent an hour on support and they never even asked about settings. Kept asking the weirdest questions that had nothing to do with the problem. Ended up terminating the chat out of frustration. Let's Apple, can we get some help with this issue.

I have this issue as well. Messages always synched up with my iPhone - I foolishly updated to Big Sur last night and now Messages do not synch when my Macbook is not online.

I was hoping it was going to be the "Text Message Forwarding" issue, but it is turned on for my iPhone.

Messages will synch up if my Macbook is open and messages are open.

If my Messages is not running on my Macbook or my Macbook is not online the messages do not synch.

It is incredibly frustrating to go backwards with the Apple "Updates"

This is my problem too! It has nothing to do with text forwarding. I've turned that on and off and no fix. Everything syncs fine while the phone and macbook are both on, but when the macbook has been shut down or even closed, when I wake it again messages do not sync.

I think there is an overall issue with iMessage in general, outside of latency issues in macOS Big Sur. I have a 5th Gen iPad, 2015 MacBook Pro and a 2019 MacBook Pro and an iPhone 12 Pro Max and Apple Watch. iMessage hits them all separately some times my iPhone is the last to get it and some times it is one of my other devices. If I have all of my devices powered on, the messages never hit in unison. It'll be one MacBook, then the other, then the iPad, then my iPhone or watch. It's more of an annoyance than anything, the overall functionality is still there but it needs improvement.

Similar issue here. Messages are showing up on my 3 devices (iPhone, iPad, MBPro) but they only completely sync on the iOS devices. I can see everything on the MBPro but if I delete a message on the iPhone or iPad, it remains on the MBPro. All settings are good on all devices, however the Messages app is not displaying as using iCloud on the MBPro. And I cannot find any way to correct this. The settings are checked off to use iCloud in the Messages app on the MBPro too. I've logged out of Messages, restarted, logged in again on all devices but still not working right. Does Apple have a fix to this??

for me it sems that the following "Text Message Forwarding " in settings>messages was somehow back to disabled. i enabled it again and it was solved.

Can you elaborate? Will it not sync at all through Finder? I have a similar issue, where the device will sync, but then apps on the iPhone will crash when starting. Several times has this happened and forced me to reset the entire phone.

Doing a restore doesn’t work, have to reset the phone from scratch. Also, uninstalling the app alone does not work either, the app, once deleted will not download and install without performing a fresh reset.

Same here, tried everything including signing out of messages on all devices and restarting, flipping forwarding on/off, etc. I can't even delete messages on my MAC let alone sync between devices. Whoever at Apple monitors this forum it would be nice to get an answer, tech support is unhelpful.

Text Message Forwarding on my iphone 12 is set correctly and it still won't sync messages between the iphone and mac. Both are logged into the same apple id, both have the same phone number and email addresses listed, forwarding is on, both are using icloud, I don't know what else to do.