Why is Messages so incredibly awful?

tchec8 wrote:

But seriously. Allow me to elaborate:

Messages cannot order messages according to timestamp to save its life. I ONLY use my phone number to send and receive messages on BOTH my iPhone and on my desktop. I don't use an email address or anything else. I have deactived/reactivated iMessage on my iPhone as well as deactiveated/reactivated my Messages account on my computer in hopes of resolving the issue. It was not resolved.

Usually, if my computer and iPhone are both powered on and connected to the internet, my iMessages sync up beautifully. If I send a message on my iPhone, it shows it as my last message sent on my desktop (and vice versa). The same is true if I receive a message on my iPhone.

However, when my computer is offline, all **** breaks loose. For example, I will use my iPhone throughout the day to send/receive iMessages while my computer is shut OFF. At the end of the day, I will turn on my computer and open the Messages app. The app will place some messages (that I sent/received earlier that day) in the middle of conversations that occurred last week (why?!). Sometimes I cannot even find my messages in the application, but this could really just be because it placed them in some obscure location within a previous conversation. The strangest part about these out-of-order messages is that they are TIMESTAMPED all correctly, so I cannot figure out why the app is just placing them in a random order. If I send or receive a photo during the day, Messages almost ALWAYS puts the photo as the most recent message in the coversation (even if it wasn't). Oh, and Messages frequently says I have unread messages, but here's the catch: I don't. Sometimes it will even be bold enough to say that I have "–1" messages. That's probably the most amusing flaw.

This is the most flawed piece of Apple software I have ever witnessed. It renders the app completely useless at looking at past conversations because they are so awfully out of order. Further, this problem has been around since Mountain Lion was released. Is Apple just going to sit by and let this bug continue?

Any advice is appreciated.

It appears to be a known bug and perhaps the next update (10.8.4) which is currently being beta tested by developers, may fix the proble. We can't tell you, as we simply don't know. Although at the same time, I am not having many issues with Messages, but I may not use it as heavily as you.

Cheers

Pete

Hi,

As stated, it is a "Known Issue" to many a user.

I am sure Apple are aware of it as there was one update at OS X 10.8.2 that was supposed to "fix" the same issue on waking from Sleep on the Mac.

However there was not even any chatter about that particular fix being in the update - despite Apple's rules about Non Disclosure on these matters there is normally something somewhere.

8:19 PM Friday; May 3, 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

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

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