Why does my message say offline and how do i turn it back on to receive incoming messages??

Hi,

In Messages > Preferences > Accounts and the iMessages account what do you see ?

In the Side bar of Account names does it list it as an iMessages account ?

Does it list your Apple ID you are using as your iMessages ID in the side bar and across the top of the right hand pane ?

Is he Account Enabled according to the Tick Box ?

Can you see the Chat window (use the Window Menu > Messages (CMD + 0) if you cannot.) ?

If you type in the "To" space of a New Messages can you send to an iMessages Contact ?

9:35 p.m. Sunday; October 18, 2015

Hi,

This is the only place in the main chat window that says any account is Off line.

This is the box bottom left of the window.

It also give you access to the Status Messages that apply only to Buddy List Accounts (AIM, Jabber/Google, Yahoo and Bonjour)

It is very similar to the one from a Buddy list itself.

The only place in the whole app to "turn On" the iMessages account is here.

This item in the Messages Menu only works with Accounts that have Buddy Lists

There are situations where the Pane at Pic 3 looks very different if the account (iMessages) is not logged in and refuses to do so.

The Main chat window may show that an iMessage is about to be sent but selecting a Contact in the "To" spot turns it red or when sending an iMessages instantly displays "Not Delivered".

This example pic shows a Text (SMS) Number which goes green - Failure to login properly will show a Contact as red.

The original Poster implies that the Chat window looks normal but that the account says it is Off Line.

They are not clear where they are seeing this.

If the Account is not Enabled it looks like this

And the To Spot does not display iMessages Contacts as options.

If it fails to Login or your deliberately Sign Out it looks like this.

To be clear - Messages is the App. iMessages is just one account type and method of sending text based chats to Apple IDs and iPhone numbers that are registered with the iMessages service.

The iMessages account never says it is Off line.

It either fails to Login in the first place and tells you with a pop over the last pic or it reveals it only in actions you take in the Chat window.

It is not one of the accounts listed in the bottom left box.

As Buddy List account types and the iMessages account behave differently I did ask for what people are seeing and where they are seeing it.

10:18 p.m. Saturday; October 24, 2015

You're welcome.

9:27 pm Thursday; June 23, 2016

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Quit the application.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.iChat.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.

Restart the computer, open the application and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

If that doesn’t work, repeat the above but delete the com.apple.imagent.plist

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

I have the exact same problem as above.

For no apparent reason, I can't send or receive messages, and even when I select "online', the account sends itself offline.

I've checked all of the above and can tick YES to each one except the last one - if I try to send a message it comes up offline and doesn't send. Any more ideas for trouble shooting?

I've tried restarting, I've quit iMessage and reopened, I've shut the computer down and started again.

No idea what the problem is.

THANK YOU!