Q: How to stop iMessage notifications when stating up iMessage on Mac

Hi,

I have seen posts in the iChat area (some people still use that Community) and in Yosemite itself that say that there seems to be  subtle change to the way the app now deals with Notifications and the Sound linked to it.

In Messages 7 and 7.0.1 (Mountain Lion) there was no distinction between iMessage to the iPhone being synced to the Mac and "original" iMessages to the Apple ID (most likely aimed the Mac).

If you had an iPhone, iPad and Mac then all three could be making a sound to indicated some for of new iMessage.

In Mavericks (first versions of Messages 8 - they are not renumbered at build changes like earlier versions) it did seem that Sync iMessages to the iPhone did not sound the alert notification and the reverse on the Mac was true -it did not seem to chime when an iPhone sync messages arrived.

That is to say If I received an iPhone iMessage (sent to the iPhone Number) and read it there it did not chime on the Mac when I started up the computer and Messages.

It does seem somewhat related to whether the iMessages server has managed to "push" the iMessages to multiple devices.

That is to say If you are away from Home and the Mac is shut down - then the iPhone will chime for Apple ID iMessages as well.

In Yosemite it seems to have gone back to a somewhat Messages 7.x.x. type state where it chimes for each iMessages no matter where it might have been originally aimed.

I would supply feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I am not sure anything can be tweaked within the apps to make the function different.

Just to restate.

iMessages "Sync" is actually only "Display on all Devices"

This means if you have Read it on another device then the current device will not show it to be so. If you delete on an iPhone say it will not be deleted before it is shown on the Mac.

The response to Delivered and Read that might be seen under an iMessage tend to be device specific.

That is to say an iMessages to and Apple ID will show up as Delivered when a Mac Receives it and not an iOS device (same the other way round for iMessages to the iPhone Number)

9:46 pm      Friday; October 31, 2014

Yeh, this is absolutely insane! Do you think that every time Jony Ive gets back to his Mac and turns it on, he's inundated with about a thousand hellish *ding*s notifying him about a thousand messages he just read on his iPad, and then carries on with his day, absolutely fine with it?

Absurd bug, just absurd.

I agree.  I come home from work, open up my macbook (after already reading all messages via my phone) and.....

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

I have the exact same problem and it's so annoying. Apple, please fix this. We would love you all the more!

Hi Sieieb

I am curious as to what happens if you try leaving your computer switched on? That is, so you're not having to restart your mac all the time? (Not saying that this is a solution, but wondering how your system deals with this scenario, especially at those moments you receive messages on your iPhone).

Also, it's only an assumption, but I am guessing that you have iMessage set to automatically login when you boot your Mac. If so, is this what you want? I guess what I am getting at here is that unless you're actively wanting to always use iMessage on the Mac, then you don't need to have it running all the time. And assuming you're backing up your iPhone, then your iMessage history will be backed up as well, so while there is clearly unexpected behaviour going on here re how the syncing works, you may be able to take steps to reduce how much it annoys you in the meantime. I'm also curious as to what happens if you don't run iMessage on your Mac for two or three days and then launch it? Will it display all your messages in the sidebar, or only the ones from the last 24hrs?

Finally, I know our responses may not seem to be very helpful, but it seems you may get a better result by posting your question to the Yosemite community. This one is for Mavericks and I guess most people looking here will be running Mavericks and have no idea about iMessage in Yosemite and its syncing options (me included).

Anyway, hope this helps you progress your issue a little further.

Joe.

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

Hi,

If the Mac is  Off line for Sleep or Shut Down then the iMessages Servers keep the iMessages until it is back on line.

They are what is called Pushed to the devices that are registered.

This means that any iMessages sent whilst you are off line are all sent at once when it is back on line.

As each devices effectively gets it's own copy of the iMessage they are independent of the other devices having Received them or even Read them.

Sync in this case only means "Display on all other devices".

For NON iMessages accounts the setting in the Messages > Preferences > General section that refers to "When I Quit, Set my Status to Off line"  will turn off the support app (IMAgent) that "Listens" for new IMs (Instant Messages) on those accounts (AIM, Jabber, Yahoo and Bonjour).

It does not  effect the iMessages account.

Turing Off FaceTime also stops IMAgent "listening".

Ergo: there is a flaw in the settings.

There is not a convenient  way around this issue.

Using Eric's Link then the Messages one will take you here http://www.apple.com/feedback/ichat.html

This pages is somewhat out of date as it does not mention Messages.  It does not include any version of Massages in the Drop downs

Add everything you an about your Set up in the Free text area.

9:40 pm      Sunday; March 22, 2015

A year and a half later (well actually much longer than that) and Apple still hasn't addressed this!  This has always been a slightly-more-than-minor annoyance to me but never enough to make me do anything about it.  Well I finally submitted my feedback after starting my MacBook Air and getting hit with a 10 minute barrage of dings!  Why aren't more people complaining??  This should be one of Apple's biggest issues in my opinion!