iMessage not syncing between Mac and iPhone

Thanks - this was a perfect description of what to do. My phone number on one of our iphones (mine) didn't show up as possible to be "checked" on the Messages app on my Mac until I did what Danlirong advised. It then became an option.

This worked for me,

on both mac and iphone, make sure "Start new conversations from:" is set to the same selection.

holy crap. easy. AND it worked

Hi all,

I also got my syncing to work again at some point having tried the advice shown above.

But now my concern is about previous iMessages, they do not seem to appear on my Mac in the Messages app.

Does this mean that they will never retroactively sync on my computer?

How did that work out for the people who could reactivate the cross-platform syncing? Did your previous iMessages started to appear on the Mac?

Hi,

I have had iMessages sync to my computer after sending from my iPhone whilst away from home, two days later when I returned.

I.e. I iMessaged my wife whilst at a hotel on a Friday evening and they synced to the Mac on Sunday evening when I got home.

However it does appear that longer periods are not coped with but I don't have a specific time that this applies to.

8:28 pm Wednesday; October 23, 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

iMessage is so completely buggy that I can't rely on it. My Macs don't sync, or maybe they do sometimes, or maybe they do a couple days later. It's pathetic. If I send from my iPad and the person replies immediately, I will get the message on the iPad, but maybe not on my iPhone and almost certainly not on my Mac. If I then reply on the Mac, they will receive the message and I will receive the next reply on the Mac, but probably not on my iPhone and definitely not on my iPad. I've tried every suggested solution and the bottom line is I can only bank on my iPhone receiving the message.

Google is MUCH more reliable in this regard.

If I am chatting over iPhone it works fine, but I cannot see the same messages over my MBP. So What I do is send like a test message from my MBP to the person I am chatting and then it starts to Sync. Try that?

Hi,

Just to be clear not all the Messages your phone sends are the sort that can be synced.

You iPhone will send SMS or MMS messages to non Apple Phones and these will not sync over the iMessages system.

It will also revert to SMS if you or your contact are not on an appropriate network.

If you have Green and Blue speech balloons on your iPhone then some are being sent as SMS.

7:46 pm Friday; November 15, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 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

same here, started experiencing this funky activity only recently between my mavericks and ios 7. Danlirong's steps did the trick for me -- all working as expected now! Cheers!

I have the same problem of iMessage not syncing, or syncing very slow between devices.

Also some devices will show a message as "delivered" while others will have marked it as "sent" or even as "read."

Additionally, I've noticed that when I look or try to change settings (undrer settings/mail,contacts,calender/iCloud) that the stored password does not match the current one. I can tell by the length of the stored password (i.e. the number of dots), my current one is much longer than the one stored.

When I change the password and press "done" then all the checkmarks appear, yet the updated password is not stored, and the next time the same occurs.

I wonder if this has something to do with iCloud/iMessage not correctly syncing between devices.

Hi,

The number of dots or stars seen in any password field rarely matches the number of dots/stars.

Some apps tend to show 8 and now more commonly 12 are shown.

The "Delivered" is feedback from the iMessages server that it has dealt with the iMessages you sent.

It will tend to read "Sent" until that happens.

If the person you are chatting to is allowing Read Receipts you may then get the "Read" status message at a later point.

The Mac Version has to be the "front app" and the particular iMessages conversation has to be the top conversation fro the Read Receipt to be sent back.

There are similar steps that someone on an iPhone might also make from unlocking the phone to opening the Messages app and the actual conversation.

Password Changes

These need to be done at Apple first if we are talking about the Apple ID.

Most apps that are using that ID and password are likely to pop an alert when you need to change it for the app (on launch).
System Preferences > iCloud, Mail and iTunes may show alerts before you get to open the Messages app.

If you are using the Sign Out button in Messages > Preferences > Accounts > iMessages account and then changing the password there it is not changing it at Apple.

Having said that I do not see a "done" button here and I am struggling to think where you might see one.

If you look in System Preferences > iCloud (or the Internet Account > iCloud) you will see there is not Messages item to enable the ID for either iMessages or AIM Logins.

iCloud has nothing to do with iMessages.

The Apple ID used in Messages for the iMessages account does not have to be the iCloud one.

If they are different changing the iCloud ID's password will have not effect.

If it is the same changing it in System Preferences > iCloud (by either Pane) will not change it in Messages.

You will have to change the password in Messages for the iMessages account separately (as described above).

8:20 pm Saturday; February 15, 2014

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 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

Same here after 10.9.2!

mac doesnt get my imessages all the time

Edit: for some reason my imessage wasnt signed in with my apple ID. maybe 10.9.2 signed me out :S

I'm having the same problem since upgrading to 10.9.2

I use my MacBook to text frequently, and nothing is fixing the issue. Very frustrating.

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one.

I have just stumbled accross this problem with 10.9.2, did a new discussion get started for this problem?