No stable Facebook Chat connection via OS X Messages

It just started working for me again.

Thanks for letting us know.

6:58 PM Saturday; April 27, 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

For me, today, the miracle to get Facebook Chat working was to deselect Use SSL on the Server Settings tab of the Accounts pane of Messages' Preferences. As soon as the check was removed from the checkbox, chat connected and Facebook friends poured into the Buddies list like a free beer announcement at Spring Break.

Just great!

When I thought things were going smoothly (my connection has, for the most part, remained stable ever since), along pops up another stupid bug…

Now, though I am always on-line, my buddies' names disappear and are instead converted to the “-xxxxxxxxxx” Facebook serial number format… Thus rendering OS X Messages useless, once again.

I can clearly see activity (people signing in and out) but no buddy names, except in some rare cases when buddies for which I configured special alerts for sign-in/sign-out events do so, which sometimes trigger a reaction and “resurrect” buddy names.

I know this use case is unsupported (it's up to Facebook to do Jabber support properly, which they clearly don't), and that we'd be better off using Adium… But with all this Facebook integration shenanigans in iOS and OS X, how hard would it be for Apple and Facebook to pull it off decently? Sheesh!

Hi,

You have picked a thread to add to that is about the last lot of Facebook mayhem and not the current issues

See this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5190710?answerId=22561264022#22561264022&ac_cid=tw123456#22561264

9:36 pm Thursday; July 25, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 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

Hi Ralph,

Chris here, a new mac master in training.

hey boss found this as i've been having the same problem, seemed relevant. I to believe my wowe's have been priority related. Its the only kinda hole ish i can poke.

Cheers

'When you sign in to the same account from different computers at the same time, the priority and your status determine the computer that receives messages.

For example, assume you’re signed in to Messages as Available on an iMac with priority 5, as Away on a MacBook with priority 15, and as Available on a MacBook Pro with priority 10. If a message is sent to you, it goes to the MacBook Pro. The MacBook is Away, and between the iMac and MacBook Pro, the MacBook Pro has the higher priority.'

HI Chris,

Not sure that I got everything you wrote about there.

It is true that for Jabber accounts you can set the Priority of each device that might log in to that server.

You might have a home computer with a low priority, an iPhone with a slightly higher one (or even the highest) and then a work computer with a middle setting.

If you leave the Home computer On and only turn on the computer at work when you are there then the work computer gets the IMs when it is logged in.

If the Phone is set to a higher Priority then it can be used if you leave the Office but wish to remain in touch.

You would log the phone out of the Jabber server when back at the Office.

In the case of the Facebook server though it did seem the issue might be related to How Many Times you could login and from where rather than the Priority setting.

Most people are likely to use a Browser to Login.

Most people stick to the same Browser.

Cookies can be used to identify the Computer to some extent (that cookie being linked to that Browser and therefore that Computer)

Facebook seem to have put in place a Browser (possibly App) Check on when and where you login.

If it is not from a recognised "browser" it seems the person can get rejected (or could at the time of this thread start)

9:26 PM Thursday; August 1, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 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