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

Apple Advocate wrote:

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.

My problem was twofold:

1. For some reason my phone number was not listed in Messages or FaceTime account preferences on my Mac. I fixed this with the troubleshooting steps here: iOS and OS X: Link your phone number and Apple ID for use with FaceTime and iMessage - Apple Support

2. Then, I still found that I could not send text messages from my Mac via my iPhone to friends who are not registered with iMessage (particularly people without Apple phones). I fixed that with the solution posted by Apple Advocate above.

This worked for me!

"Check your messages setting on your iphone, where it says "Text Message Forwarding" , turn it on and then you'll have to enter a code that generates on your computer. Once you do that you may have to shut down and restart messages on computer, but you should be good send to everyone at that point."

Thanks to this guy!

SMS in Yosemite messages not working. "Not registered with iMessage"

Hi,

+44 is the International Dialling Code that is needed in some updates on OS X 10.12.5

Technically the Mobile Service's lead five digits are the "Area" code of a British Phone number. The bit you list as 71234.

Whilst the symptoms are similar to the Original Question in this 17 page Thread your issue is in fact different.

Yours relates to how Messages handles (or rather does Not) the info from the Contacts app when the lead Country Code is missing.

See this Thread Re: iMessage not displaying international dialling code instead of contact name

Previously the iMessages account had a separate Pane that slide out to say which Country you were is and this caused the Code for your country to be added to those numbers not given one in the Contacts.

Later versions relied on how th OS found out where it was and this was passed to Messages.

There seems to be an issue at OS X 10.12.5 and for some people the method on how they got there.

The issue does not exist in Mavericks.

Recently while I was running the Dev Previews for Yosemite I lost the ability to send iMessages from my Mac. No issues exist on my iPhone 6 (8.0.2). Even updating to the public release of 10.10, I still have issues. My messages receive the "!" error and always look like they're trying to send the messages via SMS, even when its an iMessage account.

So far I have:

• Changed my iTunes password several times
• Reset Network Settings on my iPhone
• Did a clean reinstall of Yosemite (no backups were restored, out of box new)

And when I do my initial add of my iCloud account onto my Mac, everything works except iMessage. The error states that the phone number I'm trying to message is not registered with iMessage, but I know for a fact they are iMessage numbers that work. I can't even send a test message to myself.

My phone number and email addresses are both listed as ways to reach me, the same phone numbers and email addresses I have listed under my iPhone's settings. I don't understand why this issue persists on just the Mac

So, I've yet to hear back from Apple. But the latest on that front is they sent an app to collect data which was provided.

iMessage is now fixed this morning but I think it might be related to activities I performed. Here is what I did, using some of Ralph's advice (thanks for the other response as well Ralph)

In Key Chain,

• Delete all references using 'iMessage' Search
• Delete "IDS: yourAppleID@someEmailServer.com"
• Delete "IDS: message-protection-key"
• Delete "IDS: message-protection-public-data-registered"
• Delete "iMessage Encryption Key"
• Delete "iMessage Signing Key"
• Delete "Apple ID <your apple id (xxx@xxx.com)> Key
• System Preferences -> iCloud -> Sign out and choose "Delete from mac for every option"
• Restart
• sign back in.

Now, the funny thing is that messages that i had were still showing red. However, someone messaged me shortly after and iMessages started working. I'm not s sure if the new incoming message finalized the handshake or not but i could then iMessage to that person with no issues. Others were still having problems so I Right-clicked the existing messages to "Clear Chat Transcript" then deleted that conversation (hover over the conversation, click the x... confirm.)

I was then able to create a new message to that person and send it. Also, simply by deleting the existing conversations (and failures) by clearing the transcript I was then able to leave the contacts and start using iMessage with them again.

I can not say that this completely resolved my issue on it's own. Apple Support may have done something in the background but considering I have not heard from them I'd say the issue is not resolved from their doing (they don't have a resolution yet or they would have emailed me.)

Hope this fixed it for me and consequentially works for anyone else.

Thanks Ralph for the insight and guidance that got me here.

From your iPhone go to:

Settings » Messages » Text Message Forwarding

• Select the device from where you want to be able to send messages from
• Enable it
• A code will be displayed on the device you want to send message from (e.g. Your Mac or iPad)
• Type that code on your iPhone
• Close iMessage on the device you want to send message from and open again
• Done ;-)

When it turns red, it means it is not an Apple device, iMessage needs to be linked to your iphone forwarding. You have to go into settings on your iPhone and set up forwarding for your desktop or laptop in messaging.

Your Mac can now receive and send SMS and MMS text messages through your iPhone when you set up text message forwarding. For example, if a friend sends you a text message from a phone other than iPhone, the message appears on your Mac and iPhone in Messages.

SMS messages are green. iMessage messages are blue.

To receive and send SMS and MMS messages on your Mac, your iPhone needs iOS 8.1 or later, and must be signed into iMessage with the same Apple ID as your Mac.

1. On your iPhone, tap Settings > Messages.
2. Tap Text Message Forwarding.
3. Enable your Mac in the list of devices.
4. On your Mac, open Messages.A six-digit activation code appears.
5. Enter this code on your iPhone, then tap Allow.

You can now send and receive SMS and MMS messages on your Mac.

Hi,

If the issues continues across all Mac Users on your Mac then the most likely scenarios are:-

The Mac Serial Number is missing. This is used to create a valid IDS: AppleID@iDserver.com-Auth Token

The iMessages server is not recognising the Auth token for your Mac (no matter which Mac User Account). This is the Most likely.

Or there IS something wrong with the app.

7:38 pm Friday; February 6, 2015

Hi,

Each Messages app and then iMessages accounts needs the Serial Number of the Mac to be Present to create the Auth token needs to login.

In the Keychain (Applications/Utilities and open the Keychain Access App) is an IDS: yourAppleID@someEmailServer.com-Auth Token item.

If it is not there the iMessages Account cannot login.

Whilst you may use the same Apple ID in iTunes/App Store, FaceTime and iMessages, Game Center or even iCloud itself they all login in to different servers.

If you use a VM like this iTunes/App Store will regard it as one of your 5 "registered" computers.

However as iMessages creates the Auth Token duplicates can be an issue.

Each Device has a specific Registration with the iMessages servers (it means the iMessages are sent individually to a Device - which in turn means the Read and Delete type "syncing" people expect does not work.

You can check the Serial Number is on the Computer by going to the Apple Icon Menu top left and then About this Mac.

In Mavericks click twice on the line that tells you the OS X version.

The first click reveals the Build Number (another way Apple Counts the OS Versions) then the second will show the Serial Number.

A Clone as the VM version might have this details but this will cause issues at the iMessages server as it will appear the same device is trying to login twice - which in some senses it is.

A Fresh Install as the VM version is likely to be missing this info and the Login will be rejected.

7:48 pm Friday; March 6, 2015

i have the same problem as mentioned and this suggestion did not work 😟 any other ideas? this started a couple of days ago, with me making any changes, and most importantly it WAS working fine

thanks in advance,

eric

I've been experiencing this same issue for the past week and have tried all these things, but to no avail.

Any other suggestions?

I can't even send an iMessage to my own phone number from my computer -____-

I have no other active accounts in iMessage.

I do see iMessage in the text box while it is unselected as you described and pictured.

However, I am unable to locate that file you specified. It is not in ~/Library/Preferences/

Hi,

I just wanted to chime in here and say that I have been having this problem for MONTHS. I have had my mac for about 4 years and have never had a problem. Then all of a sudden about 6 months ago it stopped working. It has also stopped working on my iPad, but works fine on my iPhone 5. I have taken it to the Apple store, where they even tried messaging the store's iPhone, and still received the same "User is not registered with iMessage" error. They couldn't figure it out and told me they had to "Escalate it to the engineers". I waited about a month, until I finally called and they told me to try "logging out on all devices and logging back in" as if I hadn't tried that. They then assigned me a "Senior care rep" who asked me to try a bunch of things with no success. The Senior care rep then told me he would go back to the "Engineers" and call me in a week. I haven't heard from him in at least a month - just haven't had a chance to call back and devote every evening to talking to people on the phone trying to fix this problem. I really just don't understand how a basic feature could just not work for some people, and Apple has no idea how to fix it. If ANYONE out there knows how to fix this problem I would be so incredibly grateful.

I've been having this issue for a couple weeks, an another one of my friends is, too. Facetime is working perfectly on my computer, but I cannot send or receive iMessages from. When I look at the app, it shows me a one-sided conversation of the messages that I have sent, but does not show me anything sent to me from other iPhones (although it does sometimes show the blue dots indicating that someone is typing, but never shows me a message from someone). The contacts are all red, "not registered with iMessage" when I know they are. It is working fine on my iPhone and iPad. I have deleted the 4 files that Ralph suggested in this and other threads and double checked my account and signed in and out a million times. Apple will not help me because I have downloaded Yosemite beta (the problem started before the download, and I downloaded it hoping to fix it). The only "solutions" I have seen are when people say it magically got better overnight. Does anyone know what I can do?

I just tried both kinds of reboots, and neither worked. There are actually several people in my class who all started having this problem at the same time. Is it possible that our school wifi connection somehow did this? It seems far-fetched, but I'm just trying to figure out why this happens, and no one, including Apple, knows how to fix it.