Monterey: images no longer loading in text messages

BINGO!! I've had this issue since I got my 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro in October. THIS THREAD SOLVED MY ISSUE! After creating my admin account, I changed the capitalization of the username. Example: book > Book. After reading this thread, I know this is what caused the error. I am clearly listing the instructions (helps me to see it this way). To fix the iMessage glitch:

Note: If the affected account is an admin account, you must create a second admin account and log into that to complete the following:

1. In Finder, locate your Home folder in Macintosh HD>Users. Ensure the name of this folder is what you want the Home folder to be called. Right click and rename if desired (no spaces!).
2. Go to User Groups in System Preferences.
3. Right click the affected account > Advanced Options
4. Change Account name to match the Home folder name exactly. (Full name field is unrelated and can be whatever you want)
5. Next to Home directory, select Browse to locate and choose the Home folder.
6. Click OK. Restart Mac. Done.

I figured it out. Since the issue occurred after migrating to Monterrey on a new laptop, the issue was indeed the Home Folder Account. For example, my older Home folder were named JOHNDOE. Now, when you set up, it is johndoe, no caps. He permissions changed. As I fiddled with the HOME NAME from an alternate admin account, the issue started.

Reinstalling the MAC OS from scratch, then importing files/folder manually, solved it 100%. So basically if you install the MAcos, do not migrate, and fresh OS, login in, you will see it working. If it stops working post migration, it is an import and migration issue. I am not OS literate enough to explain it, but I made rapidly the correlation between migration, homefolder name and the pic issue. Once permissions are affected, iMessage cannot properly preview pics anymore.

Download and run Etrecheck.  Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the first window that comes up so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Also click the About… vurron and read the info to further permit full disk access.

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to include the report in your reply.

like this:

Then we can evaluate the report and see if we can determine the cause of your problem.

It was actually very easy. Just follow the steps here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548

Hope that helps!

Hi K P R,

Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities.

We understand that you do not see your images while in Messages. Be sure you're running the latest update in Apple menu () > About This Mac > Overview. Start Mac in safe mode and see if this issue persists. This will run a health check on your startup disk and limit login items that can run. How to use safe mode on your Mac. Check your message and restart to your normal user account.

Regards.

K P R...

I wrote to the Apple Support rep I've been working with over the weekend. I mentioned you're experiencing the identical issue and referenced this thread. See his response below.

Good morning Lew,

Thanks for your continued patience!

As of right now, our engineers are still trying to fix the issue,

and it is indeed something impacting several folks.

More than likely a fix will be implanted with one of the upcoming

updates of MacOS, so please ensure you keep your system

up to date.

I’ll be back in touch once I have a definite answer on a solution, or

If I come across another potential workaround, but sadly for now,

There is no further troubleshooting that will bring us closer to the finish line.

Again, I appreciate your patience and understanding!

I've been trying various fixes to no avail. As a result of the above message, I'm going to let it be and wait for the next macOS update while keeping my fingers crossed.

I’ve discovered a fix for this issue that worked for me; however, I’m not sure it will work for others. My M1 MacBook Pro Max came with macOS 12.0 installed and all worked well…including graphics in Messages. With the upgrade to 12.0.1 Messages' graphics took a turn for the worse that 12.1 did not address.

Two days ago, when restarting my Mac I was presented with the black screen of death on boot up with only ‘support.apple.com/mac/restore' and an exclamation mark within a circle on the screen. After a number of restarts in an attempt to get to the options screen it was obvious the computer was bricked.

I called Apple Support who referred me to a local Apple Authorized repair facility. I brought the computer in yesterday at 10am telling them rather than trying to save my data to do a nuke and pave to restore it to factory setup. (I had already decided to do this and had two clones of the hard drive and screenshots of all app preferences for that purpose.) They called me a little after noon to tell me the computer was ready.

This is the interested part... When I picked it up I was told there was an issue with the firmware that I could not have caused. They repaired/reinstalled the firmware along with macOS 12.1.

When I had a chance to boot it up and go through the initial setup process, the first thing I did was initialize Messages. Lo and behold graphics showed as they are supposed to and all is well.

One tidbit of interest... When researching the issue, I noticed the missing graphics were actually on my hard drive here ~/Library/Messages/Attachments. If you do a search using the file name of the graphic, you find it in a subfolder under /Attachments.

Hopefully you all will find a fix. Pursuing a way to reinstall the firmware would be a good starting point. Follow this link to get you started: https://apple.co/3qnVZb0

Good luck!

So I am having the identical issue on my MacBook, all since installing MacOS Monterey (I'm currently running 12.1). I've talked to Apple senior techs twice now, they also requested a ton of information from my system, and still have not resolved the issue. It is very frustrating and hopefully they'll get a fix sent out soon.

A workaround for me, albeit inconvenient, is when I click (e.g., spacebar) on the image, it will show, but otherwise, no images will load. Very frustrating.

Yes! Worked for me as well, thank you! Just the first letter of the user name was not capital letter, after changing it, it works!

This solved my problem as well. I simply renamed the home folder to that of the username (the capital letters were used in the home folder, but not the user name and of course, that's different). Once I renamed the home folder, did a restart for good measure, bam, that works!

Thanks for the tips!

BINGO! this is exactly what happened to me.. I capitalized my name and it caused the issue.. choosing my home folder again fixed it promptly! THANK YOU!

K P R,

This is an issue you would want to reach out to Apple directly to have them investigate further. Use the link below.

Contact Apple Support

Regards.

Exact same issue here. It started with 12.1 installation. I know others have said it, but I'll repeat:

-Signed out of iMessages

-Signed out of iCloud

-"Synch Now" on iMessages

-Toggled store iMessages in iCloud

-Installed latest update

-Re-installed MacOS

None of these actions have solved the issue. Will try the configurator at some point. I've been living with it for now. Would be great if Apple can get this resolved. It's happening just on my Mac Mini, not on my MacBook Pro.

Thanks a lot for this!

I did change my home folder name, but forgot to change the account name and the home directory name. I changed both to match my home folder name and… problem solved! Thanks!