Messages Blank in Apple Messages (Yosomite)

Hi,

Open the Font Book app.

Scroll down the list and find the AppleGothic item (It is all one word)

Check it is active, Validates (Use the item in the File Menu) and is not duplicated.

This one is the most likely but also check Helvetica Neue and Lucida Grande.

8:46 pm Friday; March 20, 2015

Hi,

OK. So these are iMessages as they are blue.

Does the Scroll take you "back" past the start of the current Session of the chat/Conversation ?

The pics are odd as I see no Scroll bar and also in both you appear to be in the middle of sending an iMessage that has made little progress between the two pics.

Logging in and out of iCloud (System Preferences > iCloud) does nothing as there is nothing in this setting to do with the Messages App.

Messages uses an Apple ID which may be the same as your iCloud ID (All iCloud IDs are Apple IDs but not all Apple IDs and iCloud ones)

Check this:-

In the Finder (Have a Finder window on view) go to the Go Menu whilst also holding down the ALT key.

Select the Library that appears.

Navigate to Messages.

In here should be three chat.db items (the names vary slightly)

Highlight one and then use the CMD+i keys together (Get Info)

In the panel that opens scroll to the bottom.

It should list your shortname (the same as the Little House icon folder) and you should have Read and Write permissions.

Highlight your Name and then unpadlock the item.

The use the little Cogwheel type icon under the List.

It should be greyed out and state "make yourshortname (me) the Owner" - Being greyed out means you already are the owner.

Repeat for the other two items.

You should also use the Access ALT > Go Menu so you can see the Messages folder and select that and do a Get Info and Check you also Own and Can Read and Write to the Folder.

9:08 pm Sunday; March 22, 2015

I have the same problem -- disappearing messages. Once a message comes in, I can see it, and then it immediately disappears once I try to scroll the message. Once it disappears, it never comes back. I tried the two fixes suggested in this thread: validating fonts, and ensuring I am the owner of the folder and chat dbs.

Any other solutions?

Hi,

Try this:-

Quit Messages.

Open System Preferences > Accessibility.

Click Displays (Left hand pane) and then Reduce Transparency on the right hand pane.

This changes the Dock the action of some window to show the colour of the underneath item or Desktop.

Open Messages > Preferences > General Section.

This will now show a Font choice:-

The Summary and the Text in the right hand pane are the same.

It does not tell you what the default is (I thought is was Helvetica Neue)

Perform the same checks on Optima and Palatino.

If this does not work use the "Other" drop down and chose a Font that you like the display of (I like the thicker types like Arial Black rather than the spindly default).

8:43 pm Friday; May 29, 2015

Thanks for the suggestion. I did exactly as you wrote -- and still no change. I also cleared the pram, booted in safe mode etc... and all of the messages in the Messages app are still gone. I can see the user/text names in the left column.. but no message content. So very strange.

Hi,

From Steven Evans Pics it seems the Preview is also missing when this happens.

He shows one with some Messages and a preview of his last "send".

His second pic just shows the names in the List.

It was for that reason I sought to check other ways to solve this.

Were you able to see an iMessages that you sent with a new font selected ?

9:15 pm Friday; May 29, 2015

Preview messages shows up temporarily. But once I scroll, or close/re-open the app, everything disappears except for the users name.

I DID try creating a new user account, and set up Messages, and it worked fine. I sent new text messages and they all showed up on this new user account. But I don't want to use this new user account... I want to use my current user account, with all of my preferences and files.

Why does this work on one user account, and not the other?

Hi,

To be clear I was talking about the text under the name, in the list on the left, that normally shows the first few words of the iMessages (Or IM of other accounts)

The last messages I had was a SMS from my iPhone carrier about price changes.

In the Pics above with the yellow scribbles to hide info the second one contains no such preview.

A Mac User account stores all it's own settings.

This can be the whole Contacts List (Address Book) if it is stored On the Mac.

It can include which Fonts are On and Off

Fonts can be in three places on a Mac

System/Library/Fonts is where the 'System fonts' are kept.

Library/Fonts are where all the other Fonts that can be used by everyone are held.

In Users/Your account/Library/Fonts are ones installed just for your use. (the Library here is normally Hidden)

If You have Added Fonts and kept them in the Users folder then they may conflict with others.

Also they would not be available to the Other User account.

To see the contents of this folder hold down the ALT key whilst using the Go Menu in the Finder and select the library that appears and then Navigate to Fonts.

9:51 pm Friday; May 29, 2015

You can see that I do not have a preview or a message. As soon as a text comes in, both exist.. the preview AND the message, but as soon as I click on it, it disappears. That's the primary issue. The text message shows up, and then disappears immediately when I click or scroll. I have full read/write privileges in all font folders. I've cleared the pram. I've verified all fonts. Etc. My new secondary user account that I just created works just fine.... my primary does now.

Hi,

In that case go to ~/Library/Preferences and delete (drag to Trash) the com.apple.iChat.plist and restart Messages.

7:17 pm Saturday; May 30, 2015

Hi Ralph -- Thanks so much for continuing to offer possible solutions. I just deleted the .plist file, and it did not fix the problem. I saw in a previous thread that one user had to reinstall Mavericks due to a corrupt Library file. Wonder if that's my problem...

Hi,

The .plists are in the ~/Library (and then a sub folder) so could be described as a "Library" file.

Having been messing with iChat and now Messages for the last 15 years I have come to know which files that can be deleted on their own to have the most effect with the least destructive effective cause by their removal.

That said there can be thousands of .plist in the Preferences alone.

There are many for files in ~/Library/Containers as there are nearly 1 for 1 sub folders for every Apple App for the Sandboxing process that protects one app from bring down the whole computer when it has an issue.

Do you use Time Machine ?
And do you know the date this started ?

IF so try this:-

Open the Finder's window in to the ~/Library (the bit where you used the ALT Key to view the change Menu list and selected Library.

Highlight the Preferences so it is sort of pinned to this point.

Now use the Time Machine icon in the Dock.

This will change to the galaxy background and possibly a smaller window that looks stacked above others.

On the right are dates and arrows (the dates will be each update that has been made)

If you use the arrows to go back in time it will scroll though the windows to the last update of the Library.

Go back to a date before the issue arose.

Then use the Restore button whilst still selecting the Preferences Folder.

It will move to the first window and bring forward that older file to the "present".

When this is done Quit Time Machine.

Restart the whole computer.

8:50 pm Monday; June 1, 2015

Hi s3raphim. Were you able ever to figure out how to fix your problem? My MacBook Pro recently has done the exact same thing, and I wanted to know if reinstalling OS X and restoring from Time

Hi,

Reinstalling the OS which would include Messages and then using Time Machine to move over the Mac User account is unlikely to help in this situation.

It tends to be caused by the save settings somewhere in that Mac User account.

Try opening the Contacts App > Preferences > Account and make sure it is only using one account to Sync to other devices.

7:26 p.m. Monday; June 15, 2015