Text Message Forwarding Multiple Device? MacBook Air is fine, Mac Mini is Not.

Interesting observation! I also restored from a Time Machine backup. So, does anyone know how to fix this? Or do we just wait and hope Apple discovers this bug and fixes it?

One thing that I found in some other Apple discussions surrounding issues with text message forwarding mention deleting the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ids.service.com.apple.madrid.plist file. I'm currently in the process of restoring settings from my Time Machine backup so that I can try to do that but in case anyone was wondering what might help, that could be it. I've been thinking that there has to be a unique ID that identifies the machine with an iPhone and there is certainly a unique ID in that file but I had previously just wiped my old MacBook Air clean. The location that I found this possible solution was here >> My Messages application on my Mac stopped working suddenly. It won't receive or let me send messages from my computer. What should I do to fix this problem?

Well that file didn't do it. I'm going to keep trying different plist files until I can hopefully find the right one.

Thanks for trying. What a frustrating issue. My Migration Assistant certainly didn't work.

Hi all,

Same problem... really frustrating. Anybody figure anything out since last month??

Thanks.

Keep this thread alive! I have this problem too and no fix in sight!

Working this bug / issue too...

This was a keychain issue for me... Working now….

You may want to make a back up before deleting those entries just incase…

This is the entry to look for in Keychain Access "com.apple.ids: localdevice-AuthToken” delete all entries with that listed. But not yet…

Step by step:

• Create new admin users on any Mac or Mac(s)

• Sign out of the Messages app (sign out of your Apple ID / Messages) on your iPhone

• Then sign into the new, admin-test user account(s) on your Mac(s)

• From there, sign into iMessage in Messages (sign in to your Apple ID in Messages) on your Mac(s)

• Sign in to the Messages app on your iPhone (sign in to your Apple ID in Messages on your iPhone)

• Then on the iPhone, for the first Mac, see if you get the hand shake with a confirmation code

• If so, sign in on the other Mac(s) and see if it pops up as well…. Good so far? Proceed

• If both work then log out of the Mac(s) test account(s) and back in to your main account(s)

• Sign out of the iPhone and iMessage in both accounts. Main and Test accounts, Mac(s) and iPhone

• Now, delete the entries in keychain in both user accounts, test and your normal user account(s)

• Reboot the Mac(s) and iPhone…

• Now, sign into the iPhone Messages account with your Apple ID

• Lastly, sign into iMessage in Messages (sign in to your Apple ID in Messages) on your Mac(s)

You should be good to go :-)

The above post is the only thing that worked for me... thanks!

No problem r8er,

There may be less steps to get it fixed but those worked for me. Once I got it all working, I did the step-by-step just to keep it all strait in my pea-brain

My Text Message Forwarding is still working across 3 Macs with my iPhone. So it DOES appear to be a keychain issue...

In my humble opinion, Apple has to many different places that you have to go to on the Mac and in iOS to make all this magic happen...

On the Mac there is:

• Syst Prefs - General
• Messages - a couple places
• FaceTime - a couple places
• Remembering to log into iCloud...

Then there are more of the same places in iOS...

Way to hard for the user to even know about or figure out. It all needs to be brought together in one place. Possibly in iCloud / settings / both Mac and iOS and simply called "Continuity / Hannd-off" or something... "Turn On - Turn Off"

Continuity / Hand Off / Text Message Forwarding truly is GREAT once it all works! I text and make phone calls from my Mac nearly as much or more as from my iPhone during the day when I'm working at my Mac

Glad I could help 🙂

I broke my iMessage on my Yosemite mac yesterday. The only thing I did that was unusual is I created a new Yosemite VM on the mac (for testing) and signed in to that VM with my iCloud account.

I tried your fix:

1. Create a new admin. Do not sign that admin into icloud

2. Log in as new admin

3. Go to Messages app

4. Try to send a message to an icloud account

See: destination is in red box, message could not be sent

Another clue:

On my iPhone 5s, the option to Forward Text Messages is NOT present in Settings | Messages.

I deleted the two keychain items.

The name is still red, and the forward option is still not present.

Hello, I am new here, but I'm going to be the best 😁

I've solved the problem and you helped me. I've got 2 macs and the second mac was restored from time capsule from the first mac. But first let me to tell the story.

So when I'm created a new test-user admin I saw that new keys in keychain was created. I deleted them on all accounts and re-login to imessage at all devices. But it was not helped. Then I started to think about mac user id... I opened the Settings -> Users & Groups, selected my admin user and right-click on it and then "additional settings". And then I saw UUID! And I clicked at the "create new" button and UUID was changed. Click OK, and then I delete imessage keys in keychain (for sure). Then I was re-login to mac os x and imessage. And when I go to Message forwarding I saw 2 different macs! it makes me happy all day long! I can use this feature on all my devices!

So the main idea is to change UUID of the mac user after you restored from time capsule or whatever.

If the UUID of mac users is both the same the iphone imessage cant see different forwarding devices, because their ids are the same!

So I hope you are not so big frustrated at my english grammar 😉 (I'm from russia)

Im glad your solution worked for you.

I spent a little time googling UUID and I hope no other harm was done to your system in the process. Deleting the keychain entries may be a safer way to troubleshoot this issue for most folks...

Agreed, but in my case deleting the keychain entries wasn't help. iMessage created new keys after their deletion, but there was UUID the same as it was, so the iPhone doesn't show different devices.

Keychain entries may be important and their deletion will be like a pain also. And in your manual no info about what keys need to be deleted. Because not all entries are responsible for iMessage magic.

Like I said, I'm glad your method worked for you. It however could do harm to others so I would be sure to backup first...

The order in which you proceed is very important or my method will not work. I was also specific in which keychain to look for: "com.apple.ids: localdevice-AuthToken"