iMessage on my mac says every contact is not registered with iMessage

I don't believe it's a coincidence either. The common theme seems to be VM on the same physical machine as the affected host. In my case, OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 had the issue after hosting Parallels VM OS X 10.10.3.

If "Feels" like even though we had it in VM, the Apple ID still used the host machine hardware (which is not cloned) to create as Ralph eluded the unique keys. Since we logged in basically twice on the same Machine but different versions it tripped a confusion on the iMessage server (the keys are made up of several things but I think the private side is from the Serial # of the machine as a contributing factor.)

Now, Ralph suggested deleting the IDS: xxx@xxx.xxx as the auth token. Presumably to get the iMessage server(s) to re-issue.

I posted in order of what i did. I think a contributing factor was existing failed messages. Clearing the chat transcript and then having that person Message you is the same scenario that suddenly fixed mine after following my steps above.

All i can assume is by deleting those files, signing out, clearing the chat transcripts (but especially clearing the failed messages transcripts) and then restarting and signing back in again, allowed *Something* to finally issue the keys and when the first received message came it it completed the handshake.

This of course, is not based on anything I know of Apples iMessage process. It just makes sense that we have Public and private keys using hardware and serial numbers for uniqueness.

Please do let me know how that works for you. Like I said, I hope it's a fix that helps everyone but it may only be a result of level 2 pushing a button on their end and coincidental timing on my end of those steps. I'm not willing to try to duplicate it again now that it's working :-)

I think it may have been a coincidence for you. I had tried everything you had and also completely re-installed OS X. After my support call to a tier 2 on Sunday my iMessages started working when I got home from work Monday night. On Tuesday I noticed that handoff was working again also. I think it is best to sign out of iCloud on all your devices then back in again to get everything back in sync properly.

I have not heard anything from support yet but we set up a call for Friday evening to see what progress had been made. Looks like they have already fixed it. I will try to find out exactly what was done to fix the issue and post here to help anyone else. Might save them going through the process of deleting files etc with the tier 1 support.

Ok - here's where I'm at...

I tried your suggestion, and got it to think the contacts were logged into iMessage again. But I'm still in the twilight zone...

1) If I have another device also logged in, then when I try and send a message from the main device, the recipient sees the ellipses thinking I'm typing. I think the message is delivered. It never gets delivered.

2) If the recipient tries to send me a message, it says delivered, but only because the other device that I am logged into is valid, and receives it. The main device is still not receiving anything.

3) If I log out of the other device, and am logged in on only the main device, then if I try to send a message, I get the red exclamation mark of doom. Similarly, if the recipient tries to send me a message, they get the red exclamation mark too.

SO your suggestions seem to have gotten me half-way there - I'm back to communicating with the servers in terms of availability, but messaging is off the air.

As far as FaceTime goes, if I try to call someone, it now rings on their end, but unable to actually connect. I still don't get notification if someone tries to call me.

Pretty frustrating... eager to hear what Apple has to say to gogomilo77...

Just curious...

What happens if you log out of iMessage on all devices, power them down then log in on the affected Mac? As gogo said, it may have been coincidence for me and that may be true.

However, I feel there is physically an issue (meaning missing cert, etc.) that needs to be corrected.

Ralph also pointed out that iCloud has nothing to do with messaging. Maybe just log out of message on all devices. Re-delete all the files on the mac, then log back into your iMac messages first... then other devices. I literally had to re-connect Text forwarding between phone and iMac. Once one message came in as Blue, the others were just deleting and re-sending. I eventually just deleted all conversation transcripts and started over. I agree with Ralph, no reason to keep them for long periods of time and maybe as he suggested the file sizes were getting too large as well.

So I just got a MacBook Air today, and I was having the same issue. I ended up FaceTiming the recipient, they ignored it, then clicked the "Message" button from FaceTime. I can now successfully iMessage them. Hope that helps....

Just saw this thread. Similar problem has just started with me. In my case, only some of my contacts show up as red. I can send and receive from them on my iPhone but not on my Power Book. I'm sure I was able to message them in the past. Not sure when this started. I noticed it tonight because I got messages from 3 people. 2 showed up on my phone and PowerBook … 1 only on my phone. More curious is that none showed up on my iPad but did as of a few days ago. As I mentioned, this just started for me so I haven't figured out totally what's working and what's not. But clearly some contacts I sent messages to days ago are now showing up as red … but only some.

I did contact Apple support as I have all of a sudden as of this past Tuesday, been having all kinds of bizarre things happening with Messages on my Mac. These include things like "...not registered with iMessage", my Mac only sending iMessages as SMS messages, and etc.... I have 3 Senior Advisors, 1 iOS, and 2 Mac, involved, plus engineering, I am now awaiting a response. I have tried everything under the sun they told me to try, and some things on my own, like messing around with my Keychain, and signing out, along with de-registering and what not, and nothing is working. I am not having issues it seems on my iPhone, just my Mac.

Hi all,

I am not sure exactly when it happened but it seems like the issue (contacts not registered) got fixed in my Messages as well.

I installed a few updates on my Mac, but for OS it was only Safari 8.0.6 and Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update ver. 6.04. I don't think that has anything to do with fixing Messages.

Just thought I'd mention it.

Hopefully, this fix is now to stay - enjoy you all ;-)

Bronco

Now it's my turn to have iMessages issues. It appeared yesterday, but I didn't use Messages the day before...

On my Mac Pro running the latest Mavericks, contact names show in red and are no longer available for iMessages. I logged into a new user after resetting the NVRAM, checking the time zone, DNS, logging out and back into iCloud, to no avail.

The contacts are still available on my MacBook Pro, but it doesn't seem to send messages (but it happens sometimes, messages are sent with a long delay, which is another issue I have).

Oh well...

My wife and I are having the exact same issues with both of our iPhone 5s and MacBooks. We can send iMessages from our phones but the Messages app on the MacBooks will not sync up or send. As far as I can tell it started around the middle of the day yesterday. We use it all the time so I would have noticed it happening sooner. Very strange because no settings have changed on any device and they are all up to date. I have tried everything mentioned in this thread and still coming up with the same issues where Messages will not sync or send an iMessage to anyone. All contacts are either red and showing not registered with iMessage, even though they are, or it will default to send out a text which works some of the time. However, when I type and send an iMessage on either of our phones, I will see the typing "..." bubble pop up on the Messages app, but the message will never go through. I have had something similar happen before when my wife gets out of data range on her phone but connects to her office wifi and iMessages won't go through. That turned out to be a DNS issue and/or something to do with the Apple ID not being able to verify over her office wifi. A quick reset of the Network settings solved that one, but every time the office wifi changes passwords it screws it all up again even though she can connect.

Here is where I stand:

MacBook Pro Early 2008 - Yosemite 10.10.4

MacBoo Mid 2009 - Yosemite 10.10.4

iPhone 5 (both) - iOS 8.3

•signed out of iCloud everywhere on both the phones and the Macs

•turned off FaceTime and iMessage on both phones

•checked automatic timezone

•checked for duplicated contacts or wrong contact info

•checked both Apple IDs for wrong info

•reset network settings, PRAM, location services, where applicable (the typing "..." bubble on the Macs Messages app reappeared after the location services reset but still did not send all the way...progress I guess)

•removed and added the apple accounts on both Macs and phones

•deleted keychain items associated with iMessage

•deleted that Library>Preferences file, can't remember the full name

•tried adding Apple ID on the phones first before the Macs, and then again with the Macs first then phones

•re-activated text message forwarding with the code that pops up (I have noticed that the text message forwarding option will disappear sometimes, but a network reset brings it back

•tried defaulting to email or phone number and all combinations under send and receive on both mac and phone

•checked DNS servers

•reset modem and router

•disabled/enabled mac messages account, along with a full sign out

Related issue? - On both iPhones if I go to settings>messages>send & receive then click on the apple id>view account it will ask for the password twice then says unable to connect to the iMessage server, but iMessage seems to work just fine. This only happens about 50% of the time. If I try it again 5 minutes later I can view my account details with no problem.

I think that was it. I have tried all of those things multiple times, but nothing worked. This might be worth noting...we occasionally FaceTime with each other during the day and usually have no problems connecting, but the day before we started having iMessage issues FaceTime would not connect completely. I would answer the call, then it would just get stuck on connecting without ever actually going through. Tried calling from both phones, on data, on wifi, and any combo of the two, but would just stay stuck on connecting. I tried it again yesterday after I noticed iMessage wasn't working and it connected to FaceTime just fine. Anyway, it makes me feel a little better I am not the only one experiencing these issues (thought I was going crazy or screwed some setting up), so it kind of eases my mind that I am not missing a step somewhere and the problem is on Apples end. Hopefully it gets fixed soon.

Ok I can easily prove that the problem is on Apple's end. My Mac Pro has issues with iMessages, but my MacBook Pro is fine. So I booted the latter off the Mac Pro disk (in FW target mode), and I could send iMessages just fine (after I was asked my apple ID password). I rebooted the Mac Pro off the same disk and it still could't send a message. I got the usual emails that my Apple ID was used to connect to iMessage from a MacBook Pro.

One thing to note though, my Mac Pro doesn't officially support Mavericks, and it has a modified boot.efi file for that, a file I had to change to the original version in order to boot my MacBook Pro off the system. I doubt this is the direct cause of the issue related to iMessage, but it's possible that the Apple messaging servers reject my Mac Pro because it's not supposed to send iMessages (it doesn't support OS X 10.8).

But for people who have access to a Mac that works with iMessage, it's an easy check that can save a lot of time with Apple support. Just boot the Mac that works with iMessage off your problematic Mac's startup disk (in target disk mode, I'm not sure if it can be done with Macs that don't have a firewire port though). If iMessage works again, it means that your particular Mac is rejected by the iMessage servers.

I FOUND THE FIX.

Go on your iPhone. Settings> Messages > Text Message Forwarding > .... Turn it OFF. Exit settings. Re-Enter Settings> Messages > Text Message Forwarding >.... Turn it ON. (You must have iMessage open on your mac) It will say that it needs an access code from your mac. You should see a pop-up in iMessage with a code. Enter that code into your iPhone. Close Settings. Close iMessage on Mac. Restart iMessage on Mac... and voila!

Hope that helps.

This is some crap!

I synced my mac, iPhone 6 plus and my iPad and now I can not use iMessage from my macbook pro. I'm being told that all my contacts are NOT registered with iMessage and mean while I have tons of conversations that I can no longer reply to because of this issue.

What's the solution?

This is the fix! It worked for me also. What a relief!

However, I'll add as a note, that when I disabled and reenabled text message forwarding I was supposed to get a code in imessage but it didn't appear. After a hard restart of both my mac and the iphone then the code did appear and this fixed my problem.

As a side note, I was having the exact same problem on my apple watch and this seems to have fixed it somehow also.

Add me to the list of Non-working Message on a macbook people.

I've been working on it with a senior apple person, she's sent info to engineers who seem to think its a router issue (??) and said something about the security certs not making it through the router (again, ?). I could have mis-phrased that, so don't jump on me lol.

So far I have tried the basic Pram reset, deleting files listed earlier, did a complete erase and reinstall of Yosemite, did a complete Zero erase and install of snow leopard from the DVD, upgraded to Mavericks where I am currently. I've signed in and out of accounts, checked my Apple ID via the webpage (all verified). I've done safe boot and disk repair.

My specific issue is my messages are not going out or coming in, I get the Red Highlighted Name and the "they are not a registered iMessage user". If I send to myself I get the ! Not Delivered.

I do not have an iPhone, but my messages on my iPad works perfectly. (and it has always worked perfectly on my macbook until a few weeks ago). FaceTime works, as does my internet and mail etc.

I'll keep updating here 🙂