Q: How do I sync my Messages between my Mac, iPhone, and my iPad?

You missed a spot.

Doh! so I did.

Michael - that's very interesting, as mine is working, albeit with some minor issues, but I don't have that setting.

That's because you only have one email address configured. So you're good to go. I sometimes forget not everyone will have more than one configured.

Actually, I have 3 email addresses configured, but that's the only one that's imap. Perhaps that has something to do with it?

Or, maybe I need to add them manually.

Looking at the screen shot you posted you have one email address configured in Messages, which is why you don't see the "caller ID" pull down menu. There is no requirement for you to have any addresses other than the one associated with your iCloud account.

Michael - thanks for confirming; that's what I thought. 

I have tried everything mentioned in this thread so far and I am still unable to get my iMessages to send to the Messages app. I have my Apple ID set up on Messages and I also have my caller ID set as my Apple ID on my iPhone. If it matters, my "Receive At" on my iPhone is set as 2 addresses... one being my Apple ID, the other my phone number. I only have one email address (my Apple ID) set on Messages, so there shouldn't be any conflict there.

Anyway, like I said, I've followed everything already mentioned in this thread and I still can't get iMessages to send to the Messages app on my Mac. In fact, I already had everything configured properly before I even read this thread so I didn't need to change anything.

For what it's worth, I used the Messages beta on Lion (10.7) and it worked perfectly fine. In fact, it impressed me so much that it's one of the reasons I upgraded to Mountain Lion (10.8). Ever since performing the upgrade though, I have been unable to make it work. I am still able to send and receive messages via chat services like AIM, but iMessages will not "talk" to my Messages app. Can anyone shed some light on why my service doesn't work anymore but used to?

Tatanko wrote:

 

I have tried everything mentioned in this thread so far and I am still unable to get my iMessages to send to the Messages app.

I'm afraid I don't know what this means. Can you be more specific? To send a Message between devices (iPhone to Mac) you send the Message to the registered AppleID. Is that what you are doing?

I guess I'm not sure if I am now that you mention it. What I want to happen is for friends of mine with iPhones to be able to send me an iMessage and have it appear on my Mac. That's exactly how it worked for me when I was using the beta on 10.7. Those friends only have my cell phone number, they do not have my Apple ID (email address) on their phones. Likewise, I do not have their Apple IDs (email addresses) on my Mac. But again, during the beta, I didn't need to; all that needed to happen was for them to send me a "text" to my cell phone number like you would do on any cell phone, but in this case because we both have iPhones we are using iMessage automatically and it forwarded that cell-phone-number-only iMessage to my Mac. This no longer happens on 10.8, and I have not changed how I do anything since moving from the beta to 10.8 (in addition to all of my settings being as you say they should be in this thread).

I guess what I'm asking is, why does something that used to work automatically during the beta no longer work at all for me during the final version?

I think you may be misunderstanding how it worked. You say:

Tatanko wrote:

 

But again, during the beta, I didn't need to; all that needed to happen was for them to send me a "text" to my cell phone number like you would do on any cell phone, but in this case because we both have iPhones we are using iMessage automatically and it forwarded that cell-phone-number-only iMessage to my Mac.

I'm sorry, but this did not happen. Nothing was ever "forwarded" from your iPhone's phone number to Messages on your Mac. The service simply doesn't work that way.

To have your messages show up on all your devices the message must be sent to your registered iCloud account AppleID. There's no other way to do it that I am aware of.

Not to be rude, but I know what I saw and how I used the service. I used it exactly as I described in my previous post. I have nothing to gain from lying and I am not technically incompetent.

Just in case this may be part of the confusion, I am not implying that anybody sending me a text had their message forwarded to my Mac -- ONLY others using iMessage (on their iPhones) were able to be forwarded.

I used the service this way all the time at work because it was incredibly convenient. I will say that about 90% of the time the messages came to both my iPhone and my Mac simultaneously (or with one or the other slightly delayed). Unless my friends are adding my Apple ID email address to my contact info on their phones unbeknownst to me, then they are only sending messages to my phone number. This is highly unlikely because most of the people I know with iPhones would never understand that distinction and simply wouldn't go out of their way to do that when they could just send messages to my cell number like they would anybody else. In fact, I'd wager to say most of them don't even know what iMessage is or how it works.

If in fact what you're saying is correct -- that my friends need to add my Apple ID and send their messages there -- then why did I not have to do this during the beta? Again, there is no way my friends are sending messages to my Apple ID... most of them don't understand the difference between a text and an iMessage.

What do you know, OS X 10.8.2 is being released as a beta today and includes updates to Messages that allow the use of phone numbers. Looks like my problem will be solved with just a little patience!

Tatanko wrote:

 

Not to be rude, but I know what I saw and how I used the service. I used it exactly as I described in my previous post. I have nothing to gain from lying and I am not technically incompetent.

I wasn't trying to imply you were lying or technically incompetent, Just that you may have misunderstood what was happening behind the scenes.

At any rate, in my experience, I have never seen Messages work in the way you describe so I can't really offer any more advice. As to the upcoming iOS and OS X updates I will be very interested to see how Apple handles whatever they are going to do with phone numbers and AppleIDs. Hopefully it will make the entire process easier to use.