no banners nor sounds from Messages.app in OS X Mountain Lion -- only for open iMessage conversations

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no banners nor sounds from Messages.app in OS X Mountain Lion -- only for open iMessage conversations

This is driving me crazy, seriously.

I have problems displaying banners/alerts of incoming messages, as well as hearing the notification sound, when using the iMessage service with Messages.app on the latest version of OS X 10.8.

The strange behaviour only occurs when using the iMessage service. For all other im services such as GTalk/Jabber and the like Messages behaves as expected: that is, it play sounds on incoming messages, and display the banners in the corner as well as in the Notification Center side panel.

Here is what happens instead with iMessage:

First, when the app is closed and I receive a new message from somebody whose chat box had been previously closed (archived), or from a new buddy -- that is, the conversation is not in the left panel of the main Messages window, then:

- the app opens itself in the background -- so far so good;

- the FIRST new message does NOT make any sound, nor displays any banner or alert, although the dock's badge is updated with the "1" unread-message count -- the message is being downloaded, so it's not a server issue;

- then, for all the messages following the first one, if any, Messages DOES display banners/alerts and does play the "New Message" sound; moreover, each message is correctly shown in the Notification Center, as expected. Fine -- well, not really!

If I then click on the banner, or I activate somehow the application in order to reply to the messages, then if any new messages arrive hereafter in the active chat-box these will NOT play any sound, nor will they display any banner/alert -- no matter whether the application itself is active in the foreground, is hidden in the background, or its main window is closed -- whatever!!!

The only way to get sounds, banners and the Notification Center's updates back again, as I have discovered after various trials, is to actually do "Close Converersation" (in the File menu, CMD-SHIFT-W or click on the little close button).

After that, if another message is received, something still quite different occurs:

- the FIRST message of the new conversation plays the "Text Invitation" pop-like sound, do you remember that? Note that I have the default "Auto-accept.scpt" applescript set on this event, so all new text chats are automatically accepted. I have just selected it from the "Alerts" panel in the Messages.app settings, I havent' touched the script itself. By the way, a banner is also displayed and the NC comes back alive.

- similarly, all the following messages after the first play the common "New Message" sound and the banners get displayed correctly UNTIL....

- ... until I activate the application window! Then no more banners nor sounds just like the situation above, unless again I manually close the conversation (not the window itself but the specific conversation's tab only).

***

I believe this behaviour is altogether stupid, and if this was made by design then I will never use iMessage again and will discourage others to do until it's done right.

For one who is accustomed to Growl notifications, this is not the way a banner notification for a IM app should work. The banner (and/or sound) for incoming messages should be displayed whenever the app is not the frontmost one, that is, either it's hidden or its main window is closed and the app is not active.

And not like Messages.app seemingly do, that is, triggering banners/sounds only for new conversations and until the user engages with them, and after that stopping all notifications (except for the helpless dock badge -- I usually keep the Dock hidden), until the user deliberately decides to close the conversation.

I DON'T want to close a conversation to receive notifications every single time I activate another app do something else!

Please, if any of you is reading this, try to reproduce the bug (because it's a bug!) and let me know thant I am not alone in this.

thank you.

Cosimo

PS: Perhaps I should also mention that I am using iMessage on both my iPhone 4S and on my MacBook Air, and using the same iCloud email address as sender ID so that I can reply from both devices. Anyway, I have tried to disable iMessage on the iPhone while I was testing the bug on the Mac to see whether it might be related somehow, but the bug will occur in any case, whether I'm logged in or not from the iPhone. I did the test by sending myself imessages from another device of mine, an iPad logged with a different iCloud account which is not related to mine, i.e. it's not in my personal card in Contacts.app (I know there's a similar problem in Mail.app, which doesn't display banners for email sent to oneself).

OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 24, 2012 5:00 AM

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Answer 1

cosimolupo Author

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Aug 24, 2012 7:21 AM in response to cosimolupo

I have updated to OS X 10.8.1 today but nothing has changed.

chats via GTalk display the banner and play the sound while the Messages.app is in background whereas when receiving messages through iMessage it does the strange thing explained above. 😟

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Answer 2

Aug 24, 2012 1:02 PM in response to cosimolupo

HI,

That is one of the clearest summaries of the issue.

It is at least at the same point I have been able to test to myself.

iChat has changed over the years from an self contained app into one that relies on "plug-ins" for various functions.

The Yahoo functions added in iChat 6 are a basic Login and Text Chat.

It does not include access to the A/V chat side.

In fact the current Plugins include ones for AIM, Bonjour, Jabber, IMService, iMessage, Balloons, Compact and Boxes Transcript styles, iChat Theatre and File Transfers items plus the Buddy Pic item

I don't have any sort of "Fix" although an altered AppleScript that played a Sound (Which I would have to research how to do) would be one way of creating a workaround.

Although not the best route to report something I would use http://www.apple.com/feedback/ichat.html

9:02 PM Friday; August 24, 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

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Answer 3

cosimolupo Author

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Aug 25, 2012 2:33 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Thanks for acknowledging the issue, Ralph.

I feel somewhat relieved by knowing that it's not an issue with my particular setup but it's the default behaviour of Messages/iMessage.

I will follow your advice and send a feedback to Apple, although I'm rather sceptic they will listen to me.

I did try to use the applescript solution, but you know what? It does exactly the same: the "on message received theText from theBuddy for theTextChat" event is triggered as usual for the other IM services (e.g. Gtalk) _except_ for iMessage! It happens the same as with the default banner/sound from the Notification Center: that is, the applescript event is activated only when the incoming message is the first of a new conversation, and until the user has not brought Messages.app to the foreground. This cannot be a coincidence, I believe.

It really surprises me that there are only two small threads in here that discuss this issue with iMessage notifications in Mountain Lion (the other one is https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4225951?tstart=0 )

How come only a few people have come to realise such an utterly inconsistent behaviour? I mean, that the notification/sound (dis)plays correctly for _all_ the other IM/chat services if the app is in the background, whereas it does not for iMessage, and _only_ for iMessage?!

And what about Apple? Did they change this deliberately from the earlier beta version?

In OSX Lion I have been using Messages beta since its release, and I was completely happy with iMessage and my Growl notifications. I was hoping that with Mountain Lion and the new Notification Center things would change for the better, instead...

If other users reading this posts are also experiencing the same issue, please let us know!

I'll keep you updated if I find any workaround.

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Answer 4

Aug 25, 2012 11:35 AM in response to cosimolupo

HI,

There are two settings in the Alert Preferences

One is for Text Invitation and the other is for New Message

Part of the issue here maybe the way the Mac stores old iMessages and puts them up for view on a conversation starting with someone you have had spoken to before.

As you say sometimes the Alerts work if the existing Conversation is closed or cleared.

However at other times it does not even if the App is the Front App.

This suggests that Messages does not "know" when an iMessage is new.

There would certainly seem to be a blurring of lines between ongoing conversation over different session of Messages on the Mac and those that get closed before the app is quit.

I would also say I am not entirely sure that AIM chat invites (first IMs) also don't get the Alert sound they should.

I certainly think I have missed a conversation start whilst posting here at Apple Discussions.

This then presents a very haphazard appearance to the issue and there have also been other things going on with Messages that people have been trying to sort, such as not being able to register an Apple ID with iMessages, not able to send some iMessages, wrong delivery failure Exclamation marks and the like.

7:35 PM Saturday; August 25, 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

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Answer 5

cosimolupo Author

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Aug 25, 2012 11:50 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

I don't know what is causing the issue, but at least now I know with 100% certainty when Messages is NOT going to show me the banner notification and is not going to play the new-message sound, that is:

- if the incoming message is an iMessage, and the coversation is already open;

- if Messages is the frontmost app (the latter case is normal, I think).

but I agree that, in many other aspects, the app behaves haphazardly.

thanks Ralph for keeping this post alive 😉

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Answer 6

cosimolupo Author

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Aug 27, 2012 3:10 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

I kind of found a workaround -- but now, ironically, I can no longer replicate the bug!

If you "Delete Conversation..." (CMD-DELETE), or alternatively if you "Clear Transcript" (CMD-OPT-K), and then receive a new iMessage from the buddy whose conversation you have deleted, then the banner notifications and the sounds start working again for that iMessage buddy!!!

So it appears to be a caching issue -- maybe the permissions of the ~/Library/Messages/Archive folder or of the chat-log files were corrupted, I don't know...

I was about to make a screencast to show the bug, but now I don't even know how to make it appear again!

It's really strange...

And you, @Ralph, are the only one who has acknowledged the issue so far.

By the way, why there are two menu commands for the same action: "Delete Conversation", and "Clear Transcript"? Aren't they the same thing? That is, they both clear the history of that conversation (I can see the corresponding chat log file disappearing from the Archive folder).

The mistery deepens...

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Answer 7

cosimolupo Author

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Aug 27, 2012 3:38 AM in response to cosimolupo

Only one little problem still remains:

while the Messages app is closed, the very FIRST iMessage receveid in a brand new conversation -- that is, a conversation that has been deleted or one with a completely new buddy -- will NOT display any banner, nor will it register in the Notification Center or play any sound.

However, the SECOND iMessage received from the same buddy (if any), WILL display a notification, register itself in the NC, and play a notification sound.

So for the following messages everything seems to be working fine. Even with the app closed, I receive the notification as an iMessage arrives; and if I go to reply and then hide the app again, visual and audio notifications keep working as they do with the other IM services.

The problem affects only the first message that one receives from a new buddy while the app is closed; all the other messages will be notified, whether the app is closed or in the background -- well, unless the mysterious bug come back again.

I'll keep you posted 😉

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Answer 8

Aug 27, 2012 1:16 PM in response to cosimolupo

Humm,

By Default the Messages Beta Saves Transcripts.

In the full version in Mountain LIon a setting in Messages Menu > Preferences > Messages was added to Save History when Conversation Closed.

The Menu items seems to pint to a clearing of an Interim state (Clear Transcript) which seems to clear the window of the "history" it puts up on entering a new chat as well as anything in that chat in that session as well.

This tends to keep a Saved Version as far as I can tell (if the Save History on ending Conversation is active)

The other Delete Conversation does seem to be deeper as you say.

As I prefer to keep my transcript I have not investigated this as much (Not at all).

The wording seems to the same as when Message Beta was available and may be more of a hangover than intended.

The 28 minute past post.

This difference might be down to when Messages considers it to be a Text Invite and when it is a new Message

9:16 PM Monday; August 27, 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

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Answer 9

Sep 19, 2012 12:31 PM in response to cosimolupo

I finally looked into my missing sound problem on iMessage and just copied .wav sound files from Trillian and assigned them to 3 Message Received events and 1 Message Sent event. And they worked. Perhaps something is wrong with the new iMessage's original Sent and Received sound files.

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Answer 10

Mar 8, 2013 9:49 AM in response to cosimolupo

I'm still having problems with this. I've deleted all preferences, etc. Repaired disk. 10.8.2.

Has anyone figured out how to stop this bug?

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Answer 11

Mar 8, 2013 11:54 AM in response to ofMilwaukee

HI,

I have looked in to this further.

The Notification Alerts or Banners only show up if the App is not the "front" app.

The same seems to be true of the sound.

It also seems that if in the Messages Menu > Preferences > Alerts you have NONE set as the sound option for Invites and Received Message then this seems to override the Notification setting for sound and you don't hear anything.

7:54 PM Friday; March 8, 2013

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

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Answer 12

May 8, 2013 4:52 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

I am having this exact same issue. When sending an "iMessage" to someone's phone or email, there is sound that is played when sending or receiving. If I delete the conversation, and not just close the window then the sound comes back. This seems like a pretty steep fix as I like to have the "history" of the conversations. Has anyone found any resolution for this? I have deleted preference files, copied old preference files and still nothing. This just started happening to me about a week ago. Thanks

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Answer 13

May 8, 2013 12:42 PM in response to jordanwags

Hi,

I have re-read the thread as it has been some time since this was written.

In brief:-

The Sounds only play if another App is "in Front" of Messages (for example Safari is listed in the Menu bar)

Also they have to be set in Messages Menu > Preferences > Alerts and Notifications in System Preferences have to be on as well if you want to see the Banner or Alert type pop ups.

Setting No Sound for an action in Messages also overrides the Sound option in Notifications in System Preferences.

The com.apple.ichat.plist does hold the info on the sounds chosen for the actions.

It also holds the info on Sounds set individually for Buddies via the Buddy Lists.

None of the other ichat.plists, the IMAgent one or the two iMessages ones hold any info on this.

The majority of the Thread above deals with the Notifications sound and the different type of pop ups that alert you to things happening in Messages when it is hidden from view by another app.

Some sounds should still play even if the App is in "front" of others such as the Sound connected with Sending iMessages or Text IMs to Buddies.

Also the sounds for Buddies becoming Available or Going Off Line should still play if set.

You appear to imply you are losing the sound of one event without actually stating which sound and which action.

The Default sound for Messages Sent is s sort of "woowhit" where as the Message Received Sound is a more "woo" only noise.

If things have changed then some ideas about that might be helpful.

8:42 PM Wednesday; May 8, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.3)
 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