iMessage on iMac not reliably receiving photos

Do have your display sleep after a certain time?

Check in

System Preferences>energy saver

I'm trying to narrow down the cause of this bug and display sleep setting seems to be the common thing.

To fix this, you can log out, or restart the computer.

Having the same problem. I can't seem to send or recieve picts using messages but the picts will be recieved and sent from my iPhone and iPad. This worked perfectly when I was using the beta in Lion.

Same thing is happening to me. No pics or videos come through

Noticed this today too. Bit annoying!

I have this problem on my mac, which had the iMessage beta installed. Never had issues in beta.

So now I am having a problem where the Messages window does not come up for me anymore. When I start the application I still get the menu bar but no window. I even go into the "window" menu and click on "messages" but no window comes up. I have even reinstalled the application. This is a mess.

Hi,

Full on Syncing with iMessages sent to the iPhone Number seems to be something promised in iChat 6

Like CPTodd my memory of how it worked in the Messages Beta was different (once you had the Apple ID on the Phone and either turned Off the phone or Cleared all old Messages to start Afresh) it would seem to sync both Apple ID messages and Messages sent to the iPhone Number (As if a link had been made between the two).

I was late getting to Lion so I went very quickly from iChat to Message Beta to Mountain Lion and Messages so my memory maybe a bit off.

11:23 PM Wednesday; August 1, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

I've been with the same problem for a couple of days, until finally today Messages simply stopped showing even a the window, so absolute inability to use it.

Considering that reinstalling the operating system is NOT a solution, I searched for something myself.

Pictures are controlled by xpcd, imagent and Messages, and it seems that when the problem arises is because they're using the wrong Apple server.

While this may be solved by Apple in a update (I hope so), in the meantime you can do a workaround (it worked for me on two different machines, and even days old images appeared).

In your Library, there is a folder called Preferences (that is /Users/<your_username>/Library/Preferences). There you should delete com.apple.imagent.plist com.apple.imservice.iMessage.plist and com.apple.imessage.bag.plist, with Messages CLOSED. Then reboot so Messages creates new ones. Also delete all file starting with com.apple.imagent, com.apple.imservice, com.apple.imessage and com.apple.iChat that end in .lock.

If even then it still is not working, deleting all files starting with com.apple.imagent, com.apple.imservice, com.apple.imessage and com.apple.iChat 100% for sure. But when you reboot you'll find you need to input again your login data for iMessage, FaceTime, Yahoo chat, AIM chat, Google Talk and Jabber (if you used them on Messages/iChat).

This is an annoyance, but less than a whole operating system reinstall or losing the functionality.

After all of this is done you should regain the ability to receive photos, send photos and drag&drop photos. Also if your Messages app only shows the menubar and no window at all, the same procedure solves it.

Regards,

Natalia Portillo

Claunia.com

Man. I made a whole new account and hand-moved data into it to fix this (didn't restore an account from time machine or anything).

Everything was great for a couple days then it stopped working again today. Bummer. Here's hoping 10.8.1 has a fix. 😟

Useful.

9:34 PM Friday; August 10, 2012

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Has anybody tried a clean ML install to solve this, with lasting positive results? 😟

claunia's tip worked for me. You won't have to do a clean install.

That's good news. I had that work for me too, but 2-3 days later the problem recurred, which was distressing.

@CPTodd How long has yours been good for, if you don't mind my asking?

OH mine has been working for a couple of days. SO now I am a bit afraid.

I just hope that Apple will fix this mess. I really love Messages very much. I have come to rely on it a great deal.

I hope you don't get the same issue! Perhaps let us know how things look in a week or so. 🙂