what happened to iChat in mountain lion?

Dec 25, 2012 12:40 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Whenever I click the icon for messages in my dock, a window pops up that wasnt there when it was just ichat. It is the window to create new messages but I just find it big and annoying. Is there a way to just view my buddy list and not have that separate window pop up?

Reply

Dec 25, 2012 12:03 PM in response to jamiepowers

HI,

A sort of yes and no answer really.

You can't get away from using the Messages Window (See Window Menu CMD+ 0) when doing any sort of Text chat.

However it does not have to be on view.

Buddy Lists are not on View by default and when you show them they are, also by default, combined into one list.

When you add and AIM or Jabber or Yahoo ID to the Account parts of the Messages Preferences or Enable the Bonjour account then an item is added to the Window Menu that reads "Buddies" with CMD + 1 as the keystrokes.

They can be unlinked in the General Section of the Preferences by unticking the "Show All Accounts in one list" (It is misleading as it implies the iMessages account will be in there as well).

The Red button can then be used on the Windows Menu leaving you with as many buddy lists as you have logged in.

The Green icons still start A/V chats like they did in iChat.

Double clicking a Buddy will bring back the Messages Window as the Chat window. (You will probably need to make sure you save chats on dismissing them and then close the Window again)

There is not a perfect answer and this is about as close as you can get.

8:03 PM Tuesday; December 25, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply

Dec 27, 2012 8:56 PM in response to drquinndsa

Hi,

I'm directing this post to Ralph.

I just got a new MacBook Pro and am having trouble with Messages (obviously, or I wouldn't be posting on a "Messages" thread). I transferred all the data from my old computer to this new one through an external hard drive and Time Machine. I have several years of iChat conversations saved from my old computer on this new one. When I open up one of these old iChat conversations, Messages launches and the conversation pops up on my screen -- all is well. But I have a serious problem in that I cannot use the "Find" feature to locate a specific word or phrase. So if I have a long iChat document and want to search for something like "on that tuesday the 14th..." then i would have to read through the entire document just to find the phrase. How do I enable the "Find" feature (which worked on iChat by simply pressing Command>F, as I'm sure you know) for old chats on Messages? Thanks for helping me with your previous posts on this thread, and thanks in advance for helping with my specific question.

Reply

Dec 28, 2012 12:20 PM in response to speedymank

HI,

In some ways I preferred the Messages Beta way of filling the chat Window with all the History from one person which did make it searchable.

Group chat took a little more work (identifying the one person who was in the Chat but not in any single 1-1 chats) to get the whole chat to pop up.

Messages itself now deals with those files in (Default) ~/Documents/iChats as separate entities and only displays the chat.

The best you can do is scroll the chat.

If you access the ~/Library then Messages then Archive and open a chat this way it also appears as a separate chat (Not in the main Messages Window even though save by the App.).

Neither pre-Messages Chats or Messages saved items are searchable by this method.

CMD + E also does not work from the Edit Menu > Find.

Spotlight obviously looks in ~/Documents/iChats

What is less clear is that it also searches ~/Library/Messages/Archives and can display older chats from either location.

The thing I tried after that was to use Open With and use TextEdit to open the chat.

This is not a very "clean" method of opening a chat as you see all the info that makes up the balloons and backdrops to Chats.

However you can then use Find. (If you can be that specific about the search phrase).

8:20 PM Friday; December 28, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply

Dec 28, 2012 1:55 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hey Ralph,

Thanks for your help. I tried the Text Edit method you described and it does work, but like you said its also very messy. Do you know of a place I can download the latest version of iChat from?

Reply

Dec 29, 2012 12:00 PM in response to speedymank

HI,

You would be out of luck with that method as well.

Messages 7.0.1 will only work if you have OS X 10.8.2

Messages 7.0 will only work in OS X 10.8 and OS X 10.8.1

It has been like this since iChat 3 (OS X 10.4.0)

There were two stand alone Updates to iChat during iChat 3 the rest came with the OS updates.

In Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) there are 9 updates to iChat before we finally get to iChat 4.0.9

This is why the most common method of Reinstalling the iChat app in early OS version involved "running the COMBO" installer of the last OS update to update the App.

This would mean asking at http://www.apple.com/feedback/ichat.html to have the "feature" returned to the App

You will notice the OS versions and the iChat versions (Drop Downs) do not match and you will have to add that info to the Free Text area.

7:59 PM Saturday; December 29, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Reply

Jan 25, 2013 1:40 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Ralph,

You seem to be the lifesaver here, can I trouble you for some advise as well? I would be happy to make and send you a t-shirt ;-)

I am on a newer Mac running Mountain Lion and using Messages.

My elderly father is on a Macbook that is one generation too old to be able to go past Lion, so he still only has iChat, not Messages. He has a MobileMe email address.

Screen sharing is the BEST way for helping an 84 year old ... believe me!

I don't seem to be able to figure out how to get his MobileMe email registered for Messages. (My impression is that once I do this, he can use his iChat and I can use Messages and we can screen share again ... correct?)

Everything I see about doing this seems to refere to if you are using a iMobile device or are on Mountain Lion, not how to get the old iChat from Lion to work with the newer Messages.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated! and really .... I would be thrilled to get you a Super Mac Genius shirt made!!

Reply

Jan 25, 2013 2:31 PM in response to David Gnotta

HI,

This is about what an Account in either app will do against what it will not do.

Messages can have the iMessages account to Connect to iMessages users with either iPhone Number or Apple IDs

You can still have AIM (Or AIM Valid names) and Jabber IDs (Which include GoogleTalk and Facebook IDs)

As with iChat you do not get service cross over. It is AIM to AIM, Jabber to Jabber or iMessages to iMessages.

Now he has an Apple ID that is also a Valid AIM Name (and could be an iMessages ID IF he had Mountain Lion).

However he can only use it as an AIM name in iChat.

In turn that means you have to use an AIM Buddy list to contact him and do Screen Sharing.

If you have an @me.com, @mac.com or @icloud.com name then it is also an AIM valid Name and can be entered as an AIM account in Messages Menu > Preferences > Accounts > Press the + icon lower left and chose AIM in the drop down.
That might mean you have entered it as the iMessages Account and the AIM account (i.e. Twice)

NOTES