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 JES132,

    JES132 JES132 Mar 14, 2016 6:02 PM in response to eh0608
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 14, 2016 6:02 PM in response to eh0608

    I'm having trouble with this since I updated iOS to El Capitan.

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Mar 15, 2016 1:07 PM in response to JES132
    Level 9 (73,087 points)
    Applications
    Mar 15, 2016 1:07 PM in response to JES132

    Hi,

     

    iOS = the Operating system on iPads and iPhones

    El Capitan = the name used for the Mac OS  version OS X 10.11.x

     

    You cannot have updated an iPhone or iPad to El Capitan.

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    8:07 pm      Tuesday; March 15, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
     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 jwq,

    jwq jwq Mar 15, 2016 2:01 PM in response to JES132
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 2:01 PM in response to JES132

    1. close iMessage on your Mac.

     

    2. on your iphone, go to setting- Message, turn off iMessage. Then turn it on again.

    (for some users, it will show you "waiting for activation....". it might take couples of hours to complete this process.

    it's normal.. just be patient and leave the switch ON because if you turn it off, it will restart the activation process.)

     

    3. after iMessage on iPhone get activated. open iMessage on OSX, it should work now..


    I hope this works.


  • by cecilia_tan,

    cecilia_tan cecilia_tan Mar 24, 2016 6:41 PM in response to djtodos
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 24, 2016 6:41 PM in response to djtodos

    This just happened to me! I had the logic board replaced via AppleCare through the Apple Store and ever since then iMessage from the Mac has not worked.... EXCEPT WHEN IT MYSTERIOUSLY DID. I have screencaps of a few IM conversations with my husband where all the sends change from green to blue and it works for a little while...and then bam, it stops working again, all during which I changed NOTHING. Literally while IM'ing him it began to work, then quit working again. it's been a few weeks and twice this mysterious behavior came about.

     

    All my other devices, phone, other macs, and my iPad all still work perfectly with iMessage. No amount of logging them all out, logging out Facetime also, etc... has fixed this. If there's some kind of a whitelisting problem wouldn't they know about it already? I guess I'll give tech support a call and hope they can do the reset that is necessary.

  • by cebruns,

    cebruns cebruns Mar 25, 2016 9:29 AM in response to cecilia_tan
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Mar 25, 2016 9:29 AM in response to cecilia_tan

    Cecilia -

     

    Your experience matches my identically.  I had the logic board replaced in my MBP on March 5th.  Messages worked for the first day and then it just stopped working.  FaceTime works fine, which apparently uses the same authentication/authorization server.  After several calls with Apple, they came back with "Reinstall the operating system again."  Everything else is working just fine and I have iMessage on my phone so I haven't taken the time to reinstall and then restore everything again.  I've tried everything in this thread to get it working again so let me know if you come up with anything that doesn't require a reinstall/restore as I'm cynical that will actually fix it.

  • by cecilia_tan,

    cecilia_tan cecilia_tan Mar 25, 2016 9:22 PM in response to cebruns
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 25, 2016 9:22 PM in response to cebruns

    Well, I got on the phone with Apple support, they had me do all the same steps including rebooting in safe mode and creating a new user, logging out of everything and back in again, etc... everything short of a new system install because I'd already upgraded from Yosemite to El Capitan earlier today. So they escalated me to another level of support, they had me jump through a few more hoops to eliminate a few more possibilities... and the latest thing they've told me is that it's being escalated again to "the engineers" who I will probably hear from Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. I'll post with whatever happens...!

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Mar 27, 2016 11:30 AM in response to cecilia_tan
    Level 9 (73,087 points)
    Applications
    Mar 27, 2016 11:30 AM in response to cecilia_tan

    Hi,

     

    Since you report the Logic Boards was changed can you see the Serial Number ?

    In Mavericks Use the Apple Icon Menu > About this Mac

    IN this panel click the OS X version line - it will change to the Build Number - click the line again and it will change to the Serial Number.

     

    If it cannot be seen then you need to go Back to the Apple Store and have it put back as iMessages will not work without it.

    It should match the label on the back/Bottom or in the Battery compartment of your Mac.

     

     

     

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    7:30 pm      Sunday; March 27, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
     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 cecilia_tan,

    cecilia_tan cecilia_tan Mar 27, 2016 9:27 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 27, 2016 9:27 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    Yep. Serial number is there and correct. Went through all that with support on the phone. They had me upgrade to Yosemite -- that didn't fix it either. Opening in Safe Mode didn't change the behavior, zapping the PRAM didn't fix it, creating a new user and logging in from scratch didn't work, etc. In fact the problem has gotten *worse* because before even if I couldn't send iMessages from the Mac I could still type SMS. Now the phone won't sync to the Mac at all in that when I go on the phone to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding > and from there choose which computer to sync to, when I choose this one where the logic board was replaced, the box pops up on the phone saying "Enter the code shown on your Mac to allow iPhone text messages to also be sent and received on ___." But the code never appears on the Mac. Nothing pops up. This same behavior is also evident when I try to sync the password manager 1Password--the code that is supposed to pop up on the Mac screen never comes up.

     

    And as of today latest deepening of the mystery is that in the Text Message Forwarding menu this mac is now listed there TWICE. That's new. And neither works.

     

    Supposedly an engineer is supposed to call me by Tuesday.

     

    Cecilia

  • by cecilia_tan,

    cecilia_tan cecilia_tan Mar 27, 2016 9:31 PM in response to cecilia_tan
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 27, 2016 9:31 PM in response to cecilia_tan

    Whoops, sorry, had me upgrade from Yosemite to El Capitan. So all the software is as up to date as it can get on phone and Mac now. No luck.

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Mar 28, 2016 11:37 AM in response to cecilia_tan
    Level 9 (73,087 points)
    Applications
    Mar 28, 2016 11:37 AM in response to cecilia_tan

    Hi,

     

    The issues is simple.

    The Apple ID and password also uses the Serial Number of the device to login (or phone number and serial number).

     

    IF the Serial Number is missing then iMessages will not login.

     

    Apart from that it seems that the Security feature that this then is gets triggered randomly, judging by Apple's response to this.

     

    The Fix is that your ID is reset on the Apple iMessages servers (as it is only iMessages that is effected)

    Level 2 responders at Apple Support used to be able to see the server and reset it.

    It was a major issue at the OS X 10.8.2 when the Serial Number were first used.

     

    That's not to say that can't look and have someone reset the ID.

     

    It seems that some also had the issue in Mavericks  and Yosemite when the Serial Number was on their computer - as if the "Security Feature" was being triggered.

     

    Some people had it happen at the Upgrade to El Capitan and others at the OS X 10.11.3 update.

    It seems the Level 2 people will involve the engineers and it can then take "24 hours" according to quotes t fix (normally most see an overnight improvement).

     

    There is no reset on the Mac end and you have to wait for Apple Support/Engineers to do their thing.

    Reinstalling does not work (we would suggest it if it did)

    Upgrading an non working iMessages account also does not work as you have found out.  (That also breaks the link to text Forwarding and an OS X Upgrade make it look like an "new" computer which happens to have the same name).

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    7:37 pm      Monday; March 28, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
     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 cecilia_tan,

    cecilia_tan cecilia_tan Apr 1, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 1, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    Tuesday was the day the engineers were supposed to look at my problem and voila! iMessage began to work perfectly partway through the day. The next day I got a call from someone at Level 2 tech support to say I should call them. When I got his voice mail I said "Hi, so, everything is working now and I assume it's because I was right and that my apple ID had to be whitelisted on the server side and that's what engineering did, but call me to let me know, OK?" I got a call back today that said, "Just calling to let you know you were completely correct."

     

    So that's solved. What's frustrating is that before that, none of the tech support people I talked to had ever heard of this happening and didn't know what I was talking about. So Apple hasn't documented this very well for them, unfortunately.

     

    Thankfully it's all working for me now, though.

     

    Ralph, thanks for your help! Reading this thread helped me put them on the right track!

     

    Cecilia

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Apr 2, 2016 12:52 PM in response to cecilia_tan
    Level 9 (73,087 points)
    Applications
    Apr 2, 2016 12:52 PM in response to cecilia_tan

    Hi,

     

    Good to hear.

     

    Thanks for coming back and letting us know.

     

    (Apple Employees denying anything  is fairly standard procedure. It is how quickly they move to a resolution and the steps they might have taken in the past in data gathering that they miss out that can be the key)

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    8:52 pm      Saturday; April 2, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
     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 cebruns,

    cebruns cebruns Apr 2, 2016 7:31 PM in response to cecilia_tan
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    Apr 2, 2016 7:31 PM in response to cecilia_tan

    Thanks Cecilia and Ralph!!

     

    I did the same support process - went through the first and second level support: sharing my screen, deleting keys for the keyring, signing out of messages, etc etc.  About an hour long process before they escalated to the engineers.  Within 2 days it started working completely again.  I never received a call back from support that the ticket has been closed, but everything seems to be working now for me.

     

    For anyone else facing this issue - it's highly likely not something that you can fix on your Mac - just call through support, go through the channels and try to get it escalated past the senior level advisors to the engineering team.

     

    Cheers.

  • by AllieR9,

    AllieR9 AllieR9 Jun 1, 2016 4:02 PM in response to eh0608
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 1, 2016 4:02 PM in response to eh0608

    I think I fixed this now so if it is the same problem this is what helped:

    iPhone Settings -> Messages -> Text Message Forwarding" then select your device that you want to send from and enable it


    Somehow my mac and phone seemed to get unlinked to each each so I had to reauthorize my computer and phone to get imessages from each other


    My old messages have not popped up yet but that may just take another restart of the imessage app on my computer. However, it was my boyfriend's number that it said was not registered to imessage and now it looks normal so problem fixed!

  • by Obscuranta,

    Obscuranta Obscuranta Jun 28, 2016 1:11 AM in response to eh0608
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 28, 2016 1:11 AM in response to eh0608

    I'm having this problem too. When I go to Messages - Preferences - Accounts, my iMessage account is grayed out and shown as inactive. No other buttons appear that might let me activate it. All other iCloud functions on my Mac, unrelated to Messages, seem to be working fine.

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