nataliekate

Q: Why do iMessages disappear when I try to view them on Macbook?

When someone sends me a new iMessage and my Macbook is open/on, it flies in on the right hand side. I see a preview of the message. But when I click on it or go to the App, the text box next to that person's name is then blank - all our messages have gone.

 

Also before this started happening, whenever I wrote a reply to an iMessage on my Mac, my response didn't show up. It would send, and show on my iPhone, but not be on my Mac. Which led to lots of confusion.


I've now added every email address I have to iMessage, so that 5 addresses and my phone number are connected to iPhone and macbook. But this still doesn't seem to help.

 

I’ve Googled for hours too and no one else ever seems to have had this problem. Do I need to go and see a Genius? I don’t think I can, I’ll have to send someone else, it upsets me too much to go in there. If you have an idea, please help. Is it possible to uninstall and then reinstall? Will this delete messages from my phone? Because if it will I can't do it - I have messages from a deceased relative I can not afford to lose.

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Apr 28, 2015 11:08 AM

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Q: Why do iMessages disappear when I try to view them on Macbook?

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  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Jun 14, 2015 1:59 PM in response to nguyj066
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Jun 14, 2015 1:59 PM in response to nguyj066

    Hi,

     

    I understand that.

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    9:59 p.m.      Sunday; June 14, 2015

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     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 jlaketx,

    jlaketx jlaketx Jun 20, 2015 12:04 PM in response to jlaketx
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 20, 2015 12:04 PM in response to jlaketx

    Ralph:  Just checking in to see if you've had a chance to see my note.  I'm still struggling with this issue.  Any suggestions?

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Jun 20, 2015 2:05 PM in response to jlaketx
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Jun 20, 2015 2:05 PM in response to jlaketx

    Hi,

     

    I did miss this one somehow.

     

    You say they show Read and Write permissions.

    Highlight your name in the list and then unlock the Padlock.

    Now use the cogwheel type icon under the list.

     

    Is the info about you being the Owner greyed out ?

    If if Own it it will be greyed out (done as it were).

     

    Check the ones that have not updated.

     

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    10:05 p.m.      Saturday; June 20, 2015

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     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 jlaketx,

    jlaketx jlaketx Jun 30, 2015 4:54 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 4:54 AM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    For some reason I never saw this response on the 20th.  But this week I decided to take my chances with an idea and it worked!

     

    Shut down all apps, including Messages.

    I went into Finder/Go/Library and found the "Messages" folder.  I deleted the whole thing!

    Reboot Mac.

    Started Messages.


    All the historical content was gone as I expected, but this was not a big deal since it was all previously inaccessible anyway.

    The app immediately built a new Messages folder and sub folders and began to operated as it should.

     

    All messages sent/received from my Apple ID are now showing up on this Mac as expected.  YEAH!

     

    Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best ones.  Thanks, Ralph, for showing me how to access the hidden Library folder.  This was key to solving this one.

  • by eii_pi,

    eii_pi eii_pi Jul 1, 2015 3:50 PM in response to nataliekate
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2015 3:50 PM in response to nataliekate

    I was having the same issue and it started a week ago when I paired my iWatch to my iPhone and my iMessages on my MacBook Pro were disappearing like everyone is commenting here. So I am not sure if the iWatch was the issue. So here is what I did after ensuring I was getting data written to the .db chat files.

     

    I tried Ralphs technique (Command+Alt+P+R) and wait for the 3 dings and that didn't work . I did this instead . Restart your computer and hold down Command and "R" and once you pass the Apple log click on disk utility. You will have to "repair" your HDD from there. Once it's repaired exit and restart. All your messages will reload and yes they will pick up where you left off before they became corrupt. Mine was like a weeks worth.

     

    Here is the pic of the corrupt .db files.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-07-01 at 3.34.24 PM.png

     

    hope that helps. j

  • by eii_pi,

    eii_pi eii_pi Jul 2, 2015 6:44 AM in response to nguyj066
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 6:44 AM in response to nguyj066

    I was having the same issue and it started a week ago when I paired my iWatch to my iPhone and my iMessages on my MacBook Pro were disappearing like everyone is commenting here. So I am not sure if the iWatch was the issue. So here is what I did after ensuring I was getting data written to the .db chat files.

     

    I tried Ralphs technique (Command+Alt+P+R) and wait for the 3 dings and that didn't work . I did this instead . Restart your computer and hold down Command and "R" and once you pass the Apple log click on disk utility. You will have to "repair" your HDD from there. Once it's repaired exit and restart. All your messages will reload and yes they will pick up where you left off before they became corrupt. Mine was like a weeks worth.

     

    Here is the pic of the corrupt .db files.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-07-01 at 3.34.24 PM.png

     

    hope that helps. j

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Jul 8, 2015 1:16 PM in response to jlaketx
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Jul 8, 2015 1:16 PM in response to jlaketx

    Thanks for the info.

     

    Sorry about the delay at this but my wife was taken into hospital.

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    9:16 pm      Wednesday; July 8, 2015

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     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 Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Jul 8, 2015 1:20 PM in response to eii_pi
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Jul 8, 2015 1:20 PM in response to eii_pi

    Hi,

     

    Thanks for this info as well.

    It is interesting that using CMD+R and then Disk Utility repairs the Users folder as well as the system stuff.

    Using Disk Utility when Logged in normally tend only to look at the System Files.

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    9:19 pm      Wednesday; July 8, 2015

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     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 kayla2342,

    kayla2342 kayla2342 Aug 26, 2015 9:33 AM in response to jlaketx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 26, 2015 9:33 AM in response to jlaketx

    oh my goodness thank you so much.. I've been struggling with this problem for WEEKS and I've been trying to figure it out because I'm pretty tech savvy but i just couldn't. i even phoned apple support and they had no clue what to do!! so thank you!!!!!!!!

  • by jhtidwell,

    jhtidwell jhtidwell Feb 5, 2016 6:16 AM in response to eii_pi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 5, 2016 6:16 AM in response to eii_pi

    When you say all messages will load, do you mean the ones from the past too, before you repaired? It's important that I don't lose the historical ones that are there in the process. Thanks!

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Feb 5, 2016 1:45 PM in response to jhtidwell
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Feb 5, 2016 1:45 PM in response to jhtidwell

    Hi,

     

    In Applications/Utilities is Disk Utility and this can be opened by you.

    One of the Options is to Repair the Permissions.

    This looks at the Folders System and Library at the top level of the Hard drive.

     

    if you have other Mounted hard Drives then these Can be repaired from here.

    The Boot Drive cannot be repaired this way when mounted (And you can't Unmount it to do so as you are using it)

     

    The Method eii_pi suggests gets around that so that the Drive can get repaired.

    Whilst it is looking at the data on the Hard Drive it is not specifically the chat.db items that we were talking about.

    What it does show is that it happens to be in this case the one file that seems to be an issue is the chat.db-wal one.

     

    If it manages to Repair the file (if it is that one or one of the other chat.db ones) then you should not lose the older items.

    However you should have a back up where you can navigate to the folder and Restore an older version if required.

    This may mean that you lose newer iMessages.

     

     

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    9:45 pm      Friday; February 5, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
     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 TL1970,

    TL1970 TL1970 May 28, 2016 8:41 AM in response to Newmanity
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 28, 2016 8:41 AM in response to Newmanity

    Can't believe it, after trying everything, running the repair Disk Utility as suggested worked perfectly! Thnx!

  • by sophm,

    sophm sophm Jul 15, 2016 4:57 PM in response to Newmanity
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 15, 2016 4:57 PM in response to Newmanity

    Amazing fix. I've been working on this issue for  7 months. I finally found this thread. tried a few at the top and the other fixes didn't work, but THIS ONE DID! I lost 7 months of iMessages on my mac but my iPhone has them. so thank you thank you thank you! the mac store was gonna charge me a gazzillion dollars to find the "bug". but i just saved myself some cash. I'm so happy thank you.

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