Messages says Not Delivered

Hi,

I have found the iCloud listings of devices using iOS 8 and Yosemite very unreliable.

It lists an iPhone 4S for me that I did update to iOS 8 but then removed the Apple ID and turned Off iMessages as well as removing the ID from the Mail and iCloud settings before doing a Factory reset.

It still shows up

You are right that reinstalling Yosemite AND using the same Mac User account info is unlikely to tell you anything or achieve very much.

You could create a test Mac User Account on your Mac (System Preferences > Users and Groups) and then set up Messages there with the same info.

This will tell us whether it is something about the app or the original User account.

Whilst the iMessages Apple ID has to be an iCloud one (since Mavericks and the Original Messages Ver 8) and the fact the ID and password are checked via a central point the app only then deals with the iMessages servers. Logging in and out of iCloud makes no difference.

You can in fact use different Apple IDs in both places (some people do this for iTunes, FaceTime and iCloud as well as Messages, although iTunes and the App store tend to have to use the Same ID as the pot of money is the same)

So...

A MacBook Air did work but seemed to stop after adding an iMac to the list of devices.

Strangely it is keeping the SMS function which is linked and paired to the iPhone using the same ID (does not seem to need an iMessages login it would seem)

The fact an iPad only gets pop ups fro the iMac suggests the MacBook Air is not managing to Login to the server.

Can you check this:-

On the MacBook Air, in the Finder hold down the ALT key whilst using the Go Menu and selecting the Library that appears.

Then navigate to the Preferences.

Find the com.apple.ids.service.com.apple.madrid.plist one.

Either use Quick Look or open the item in TextEdit (Unless you have Xcode installed which will open .plists)

In Quick Look and TextEdit you can look through the info and see the "aliases" being used. (you might have to scroll Quick Look depending on your Screen Size.)

Xcode requires you to use the reveal triangles.

Repeat for the iMac.

Do they appear to be the same ?

The Xcode view

If so Quit the app on the iMac and then shut that computer down.

Restart the app on the MacBook Air and see if a "fresh" attempt to login produces different results when the iMac is Off line.

8:51 pm Thursday; November 13, 2014

I think you might have something here. It might be that my Macbook Air is having problems logging on to the iMessages server. Every so often (the frequency is difficult to document) when I boot my MBA, I get prompts to log into iCloud and FaceTime. Both apps I type in my password and the dialog pops up a second then I type in my password and it goes away. I am not confident that the login is successful, but there isn't a message saying that it was unsuccessful nor does it confirm that I was successful. Looked at the plist in Xcode and the entries are identical. I shutdown my iMac. Rebooted my MBA. Still have the same problem on the MBA.

Looks like I have no sync with iMessage for SMS or iMessage content on my MBA.

Now my iPad can't send or receive SMS texts. iMessage content still syncs.

I am not sure what I can do now. I suspect something is going on with the server. I think I am going to change passwords. I use two factor, but I am going to change.

Changed my password on the Apple system. No dice, everything is still broken. Something must be corrupted or wrong at the server end. Just wish I had visibility to it.

I think in my case things are getting worse. Now the repeated prompts to log in to FaceTime and iMessages are occurring not only on my MBA but on my iPhone 5S and my iPad Air. I believe something is really dorked up on my iCloud.com account. Now I just need to wait and hope that this becomes a systemic problem. Since, there is no way of getting support from Apple on the server end.

Hi,

Call Apple Support. Sorting out Account issue is free.

Having said that Level 1 support people are generally Script led and not all will know of the issues that some people are having logging in to the iMessages servers. (Generally they are looking for Software or Hardware issues that can generate charges. or be handled by existing Apple Care).

If you have problems ask to speak to a Level 2 person. These tend to be more knowledgeable about the oddities in certain areas.

There is in fact an error that can be seen in Messages with and error screen about the account not being able to Log in so there are precedents.

8:21 pm Saturday; November 15, 2014

Don't know if it helps, but I am not seeing the intermittent login problems, but am still having the issues with iMessage and FaceTime. At the moment, my mac running 10.10 believes that I am logged into the iMessaging/Facetime servers and does not keep prompting for me to log in again. The plist file appears to be fine and deleting any of the pref files or restarting the any of the services, does not have an effect. I have tried multiple different AppleIDs on this computer to no avail. However, my primary AppleID works just fine on a 10.9 computer and on my iPad and iPhone, it is just my 10.10 machine that is having issues. I have not tried to get in touch with Apple Support yet, but I am guessing that is my next best step unless anyone has any other issues.

Rob

Hi,

From later Messages 7 version in Mountain Lion through Mavericks and into Yosemite with their various version of Messages 8 have come several issues that do seem Account based but also seem linked to one Mac.

This led by this error messages can be Mac specific (most people can only compare it to iOS devices though).

It seems there are also similar issues where you cannot tell (at any point) whether the iMessages account is really logged in but you get a range of different issues that do look like they are account based.

I would Contact Support.

10:11 pm Sunday; November 16, 2014

Got sometime today to call Apple Support. I happen to have bought Apple Care for my Macbook Air, so I really did not have a problem getting though. I think I read in one of the posts here to create a separate account on the Mac then log into Messages from there. That is what the Senior Technician did and then he knew what he needed to do but needed to escalate to engineering first. The Sr Tech called me back and told me that I am experiencing a problem that existed in Mavericks and Yosemite was suppose to fix this. But they are seeing reports where some users are experiencing this problem. So here is the fix that the tech walked me through.

1) Open Key Chain Access

2) Select Login at the top left side

3) Select All Items on the lower left side

4) Search for entries of IDS.

5) Highlight and delete all entries that has IDS. (For me I am going to need to re-install my RSA SecurID Software Token)

6) Search for entries of FaceTime

7) Highlight and delete all entries of FaceTime

8) Search for entries of Messages

9) Highlight and delete all entries of Messages

Basically I had a "corrupt" KeyChain Access data entries (or something like that). I am able to get Messages working again.

The tech told me he was going to log my case with engineering.

Now without a technician on the phone I would be personally leery of doing this myself, because I do not have a deep understanding of the Yosemite operating system.

If you are able I would recommend that you log a call with Apple Support so that they are able to log the number of Yosemite users that are running into the problem. I am not sure if this will solve everyone's situation with Messages that we have in this thread.

If not have a good backup of your Mac.

Good luck.

I thought I would share my situation.

rh10024's response also helped me. I tried the specific steps outlined above, but that didn't quite get things working. So I went a bit more nuclear and removed my keychain file and all my iMessaging/Facetime related preferences and any pref files that contained the string IDS. After a restart, everything is now working. I am guessing there is an intermediate solution here, but in my case I knew I could rebuild anything I lost in my keychain, so just went with the approach of getting it working.

Robowen5mac, reading through your post, I think I forgot to mention that during process of deleting the entries in Keychain Access, I was signed out of iCloud, Messages and FaceTime. (I also had problems being able to dial phone numbers with FaceTime on Yosemite.

rh10023

Thanks for following up....I am guessing that was the main step I missed, but since I was feeling impatient, I just went a bit heavy handed in my case.

Can you go back and edit your response and add that bit to the start of the suggested fix? That would help anyone else that goes down the road of trying to fix it themselves.

Thanks again.

R

I tried to edit my post, but I could not find the function in discussions.apple.com that allows me to edit my post. Is there some special place that I can do this?

Sorry...my apologies, I don't see it either. I have not posted here much, but had remembered an option to edit right after I posted some of my messages. Looks like that is only an option for a limited time.

Sorry for any confusion.

Thanks

R

Posts can be edited but it is time Limited to 15 mins.

The link to do so appears bottom right of the Post.

You get told if you left the window open and the time limit has been exceeded when you go to use it.

Edit:

Post with pic

8:55 PM Monday; November 24, 2014