eh0608

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

When I type a contact to send an iMessage to from my mac, it turns red and says "message could not be sent, contact is not registered with iMessage"

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Sep 5, 2014 12:24 PM

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

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  • by groove-agent,

    groove-agent groove-agent Feb 13, 2015 10:53 PM in response to groove-agent
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 13, 2015 10:53 PM in response to groove-agent

    When both my phone and computer are awake and someone texts me, the conversation shows in iMessage and I can reply.   However I cannot start a conversation on my Mac.

  • by julianporter5,

    julianporter5 julianporter5 Feb 15, 2015 4:28 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (27 points)
    Feb 15, 2015 4:28 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    All seems to be sorted this morning. It did ask me to get an application specific password which is new to me. Others have reported that the problem is fixed now on another thread.

  • by hoopesr,

    hoopesr hoopesr Feb 15, 2015 9:45 AM in response to eh0608
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 15, 2015 9:45 AM in response to eh0608

    iMessage works for some of my contacts, from my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.9.5, but not all of them; I have never had any problems, however, messaging any of my contacts from my iPhone 6. 

     

    Obviously nothing is "fixed", wherever the problem is originating.

  • by Hwy6AandM0,

    Hwy6AandM0 Hwy6AandM0 Feb 17, 2015 12:42 PM in response to groove-agent
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 17, 2015 12:42 PM in response to groove-agent

    This is exactly the situation I have.  Only iMessage conversations show up.  Regular SMS (text) conversations do not.

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Feb 17, 2015 12:47 PM in response to Hwy6AandM0
    Level 9 (73,348 points)
    Applications
    Feb 17, 2015 12:47 PM in response to Hwy6AandM0

    Hi,

     

    You may need to go back to the iPhone and check it is still set to Text Forward.

    If it is you need to check it is pointing to the Mac.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    8:47 pm      Tuesday; February 17, 2015

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 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
  • by gideon4,

    gideon4 gideon4 Feb 19, 2015 7:17 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 19, 2015 7:17 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

     

    and Ralph.

     

    "You may need to go back to the iPhone and check it is still set to Text Forward.

    If it is you need to check it is pointing to the Mac."

     

    THIS WORKED! AFTER ALL THESE MONTHS. Now non-imessage contacts show up green and messages can come and go from my iMac.

     

    THANKS!

     

  • by jenbarsf,

    jenbarsf jenbarsf Feb 27, 2015 10:48 PM in response to eh0608
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2015 10:48 PM in response to eh0608

    I just solved my issue.

    Hope it works for others.

    Just to clarify, I wasn't able to send iMessages on my Mac without the not delivered red exclamation mark symbol.

    I searched for Keychain Access in Spotlight, and deleted everything in "All Items" that had iMessage, and/or Apple in the keychain.

    I rebooted my Mac, and after that, I was able to send from iMessage with no problems.

    I hope it works for others.

  • by gogomilo77,

    gogomilo77 gogomilo77 Mar 5, 2015 3:30 PM in response to julianporter5
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 5, 2015 3:30 PM in response to julianporter5

    I have just had a similar issue as well. My Mac Mini no longet seems to register iMessage. All of my contacts now show as not being registered with iMessage and the Mac no longer appears in SMS forwarding on my iPhone. I have an iPad and MacBook and both are fine. I have tried deleting my Keychain, doing a complete reinstall, signed out of iCloud and iMessage on all my devices, but still no luck. Did anyone get this working in the end. I installed OSX 10.10.3 beta as a VM in parallels on my Mac Mini and the issue seemed to appear after this.

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Mar 6, 2015 11:48 AM in response to gogomilo77
    Level 9 (73,348 points)
    Applications
    Mar 6, 2015 11:48 AM in response to gogomilo77

    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.

     

     

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    7:48 pm      Friday; March 6, 2015

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 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
  • by YFinder,

    YFinder YFinder Mar 6, 2015 7:58 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mar 6, 2015 7:58 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    Same Issue as Gogomilo77.

     

    Created a new Parallels OS X VM from the Yosemite.app, not a clone of the current desktop.  This was a clean setup and install in Parallels VM

     

    installed the beta app.

     

    Downloaded OSX 10.10.3 beta to test new photo's.

     

    It may be coincidence, but as soon as i logged in with my apple ID to test out the photo  updates, my messages on my desktop (host for parallels and VM's) stopped working.  All contacts numbers are red and the messages that they are not registered appears.

     

    I'm not sure there is an issue with the Apple ID or not but it seems there might be and if so, there would be no files to delete or settings to change that would fix it.

     

    Gogomilo77, if you find a fix please let me know.   I've spent way too long on this already.

     

    It's frustrating that we used VM to test in order to prevent an issue and ended up with one lol.

     

    You can see here that the email from a contact is showing registered for iMessage but not the phone number any longer and the name is now red.

    Screenshot 2015-03-06 22.51.37.png

    Screenshot 2015-03-06 22.54.46.png

    Also trying to send to the email shows this but the name stays blue.

    Screenshot 2015-03-06 22.56.53.png

     

    One final note, This is not about SMS Forwarding I don't think.... but I can not receive the code to turn on SMS forwarding (don't care as I don't use it) but not being able to receive the code could also be possibly causing the issue with messaging right?

  • by gogomilo77,

    gogomilo77 gogomilo77 Mar 8, 2015 1:40 PM in response to YFinder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 8, 2015 1:40 PM in response to YFinder

    Just an update.  I have been in contact with Apple Support and it has now been raised to their level 2 support and passed to an engineering team.  I have also noticed that handoff is no longer working across any of my devices as well.  Have you noticed this?  I'll add updates when I hear more.

  • by YFinder,

    YFinder YFinder Mar 9, 2015 7:45 AM in response to gogomilo77
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mar 9, 2015 7:45 AM in response to gogomilo77

    Same here.  Spoke with Level 2.  Waiting for them to contact back.  Case # Assigned.  They tried to send a screen share via iMessage platform and of course it failed.


    Yep, Continuity broken across all devices. i'm left with whatever i had in handoff before this started.  Changes don't propagate between iPhone and iPad or MBPR & MBP.

     

    iMessage still works though on everything else.

     

    They did confirm that a fresh install would not resolve this.

  • by YFinder,

    YFinder YFinder Mar 11, 2015 9:21 AM in response to YFinder
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mar 11, 2015 9:21 AM in response to YFinder

    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.

  • by paintedlemur,

    paintedlemur paintedlemur Mar 11, 2015 10:51 AM in response to YFinder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2015 10:51 AM in response to YFinder

    Just wanted to confirm "cause" in case someone is looking for the root of all of this...

     

    I got myself into the same state as everyone else on this thread, and started down the path with Apple Support (haven't gotten to level 2 yet ;-) ) who had me reset PRAM, re-install OSX, and try a restore from previous time machine back-up, all to no avail.

     

    When I saw your post regarding a parallel's VM, it all clicked. I, similarly, have a vmware VM running OSX that I started up yesterday, and that is when all of the goofiness started for me. I don't think it's a coincidence YFInder! I will run down your list this evening and report back whether it worked for me too. If there's a particular order, or methodology that you would like me to try, let me know.

     

    I also noticed that FaceTime will not call out or receive incoming calls correctly, although there is nothing indicating that it is not functioning properly.

  • by YFinder,

    YFinder YFinder Mar 11, 2015 11:22 AM in response to paintedlemur
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mar 11, 2015 11:22 AM in response to paintedlemur

    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 :-)

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