iMessage NOT syncing across iPhone and MacBook Air

I am currently synced with my iPhone 11 Pro to an iMac (no issues) a MacBook Pro (no issues) two Mac mini (both intel, no issues) and a new Mac mini (m1). The new Mac mini worked fine out of the box but the last update (3/31/21?) seemed to kill the message sync on only the m2 Mac mini. I can send iMessages but sms does not complete, the bar makes it 90% then freezes then I get told message failed. I can manually sync most of the time from preferences. Nothing seems to help.

I tried the above on my iPhone and now it will only send iMessages from my appleid email not the phone number though it will receive to the phone number and the appleid email.

This is a cluster and completely defeats the reason I have a Mac.

As I reflect it may not have been the update but the installation of rosetta that caused the issue on the Mac mini m1, done in same couple of hours so hard to distinguish.

the other thing that does not work with this and how I started to notice an issue, previously when texted a passcode to my phone it would appear in a blue bubble to be auto entered, that also does not work on this Mac, the settings seem right, it just doesn't seem to work. still works on my other machines though.

I have been struggling with this for months and nothing seemed to work, but I think I have solved it.

On the iPhone:

Settings>Send & Receive> Make sure you are logged into your icloud account & phone number here. I only had my phone number listed here.

On Mac make sure you have your phone number and apple idea as well:

In messages:

Preferences> Login with Apple ID, and check Enable messages in iCloud

I started experiencing this same issue a few days ago when I set up my new MacBook Air. Messages synced fine between my iPhone and old MacBook. One thing I've noticed is that it appears to be only texts from non iPhone users are not syncing between devices. Also, I can't send a text to a non iPhone user from my MacBook - they all fail. I've tried all the troubleshooting suggestions and can't get them to stay in sync. On my MacBook, when I go to System Preferences>Apple ID>iCloud, I noticed that Messages is no longer in the list of "Apps on this Mac using iCloud" where you can check and uncheck which Apps to sync. I feel like Messages was listed here as an option on my old Mac. My iPhone is on 14.5.1. and my MacBook Big Sur 11.3.1.

So I had it stop working for me again, after I signed in to iMessage and FaceTime with Apple ID. So the glitch is something with those.

What fixed this for me was going to my phone, going to Settings --> General --> Reset --> Reset All Settings. I did NOT sign into iMessage or FaceTime with my Apple ID, and did not check send as SMS under iMessage settings and have not had a problem in the last three or four days.

Hi ToddAfrica

I dont seem to have text message forwarding on Iphone XR - is that normal? Maybe I'll try this?

On the iPhone >> Settings >> Phone and look for Make and Receive calls on Nearby Devices >> Enable for the MBA

I've had this problem, among others for years. Apple is turning into Microsoft sadly. I've been a Mac user since 1999 and it's depressing. The love I used to feel when using Apple devices has been replaced by disgust. All the excitement is gone and nothing improves except the hardware. Things get broke and never fixed. Switching to Microsoft is not worth it currently. It's just a sad situation.

I am having the same problem. I tried following your directions and found I didn't have the same options available.

I was able to Switch OFF iMessages and Switch back on again. When I selected Send and Receive Addresses, it did not have the Mac option. It does list the email addresses I can be reached at, but no Message Preferences.

I am using Catalina 10.15.4

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

Three days ago, this problem started with my devices. I can no longer receive texts on my iPad, MacBook, or Apple Watch. Before that my iPhone lost its ability to print. I fixed that with a work around on the printer. It seems like with Apple products, it's always something that requires attention. Things just stop working, and the solution is never easy to find. I never have these issues with my Windows computers. The "solutions" presented here call for settings that don't exist on my iPhone, so they are no help. I'm so fed up with all of this until I'm giving strong consideration to getting rid of everything I own that is Apple. I'm just tired of dealing with it.

Agreed - I bought my current Macbook Air in June 2020- it was in and out of repair three times in September until they essentially gave me a new one; it wastes time and money with small dumb repairs and in the end spend more than the unit costs, wasteful practice in terms of time and money. But I guess thus far they are rolling in the money they can afford to waste it. Well let's see where it goes since now the Chinese have the upper hand in the Apple game there.

This happens occasionally when there is an OS X and/or an IOS upgrade. I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max, an iPad and an iMac. The iMac usually has the problem. Yesterday I think that I found the solution. The iMac has two things that need to be set to on for syncing BOTH messages and FaceTime. The key is that you need to have your email address and your phone number listed in the setting “You can be reached by FaceTime at”.

Update #3: OK. I rebooted my iPhone and now it is working again. But it still does not sync old messages the way mail does. iMessage interfaces are not robust. Apple needs to put some resources on fixing this.

This is also what worked for me ... I had already done everything on my own except this one step which turned out to be the key activity: deselecting the MacBook Air (iPhone: Settings: Messages: Text Message Forwarding: deselect the computer), restart the iPhone, then go back to same Settings on iPhone and (re)select the MacBook.

Previously missed messages were not synced :( but new messages are :)

okay first time I ever reply to one of these but I started by dong this

" iPhone>Setting>Messages>Switch OFF iMessage>Switch back on>Select Send & Receive Addresses

&

Mac>Message Preferrences>iMessage Tab> Sign Out/Sign In>Select where you can be reached at"

I still had the same issue so I I turned off my Apple Watch and I noticed that it solved the issue and everything was synced. Hope that works.

I finally got mine to sync between iPhone 12 Pro and a Mac Mini. The only thing I changed was selecting all of the accounts under "You can be reached at:" on both the iPhone and Mac. 

Previously I had only a few selected. Once I added all accounts (it was adding the Mac email addresses I don't use, @iCloud.com, @me.com) it synced. Still pretty sketchy....I noticed a few texts didn't sync if they were from people using devices other then iPhones. but overall it updated. 

This has been an issue under multiple OS's for me so nothing new. Thanks