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Cannot send iMessages on my Mac but can receive them

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I changed my main Apple ID email address yesterday, and also changed from my iPhone 5C to a iPhone SE.

Once I did changed my Apple ID email address, I had to sign out of all my devices, and sign back in with the new email cause I was getting error since the apps were trying to log in with the old email.

After that, everything was working on all devices except 1 thing. I cannot send iMessages from Messages on my Mac. iMessage is working on my iPhone correctly. I can receive iMessages on both Mac and iPhone. I can even send SMS (non-imessage) messages on my Mac. Really, all I can't do is to send iMessages from the Mac.

What I did :

- Restarted my computer
- Log out and back in of Messages on the Mac
- Log out and back in of iCloud on the Mac
- Deleted Messages related Preferences files
- Deleted Keychain passwords that were using the old email

Not sure what else to try. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'm running El Capitan by the way (10.11.4) on a 2012 15 inches Macbook Pro.

MacBook Pro, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Apr 11, 2016 6:18 AM

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111 replies
Question marked as Helpful

Apr 11, 2016 10:43 AM in response to marclarin

Please take each of the following steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.

1. Open the Messages preferences window and select the Accounts tab. On the left is a list of the messaging accounts that you've defined. Select iMessage. Make sure that the Apple ID shown is valid. If it is, check the box marked

Enable this account

if it's not already checked.

2. Sign out of iMessage on all your devices and sign back in. If you've enabled two-step verification for the Apple ID that you use with iMessage, you must generate an application-specific password and enter it when prompted. Test.

Note: iMessage and iCloud are not the same, even if you use the same Apple ID for both. You must sign out of iMessage, not iCloud.

3. Take this step if you have an iPhone linked to the same Apple ID as the Mac.

Follow the instructions in this support article, under the heading

Set up SMS and MMS with Continuity

If text forwarding is already enabled on the phone, disable it and then re-enable it.

Quit and relaunch Messages on the Mac.

Credit for this observation to ASC member Apple Advocate.

4. There may be a problem with the Apple ID account.

Click the Support link at the top of this page to schedule a call from Apple Support. You might not be charged for the call if you select "Apple ID"—not the hardware model—as the product you're asking about.

Apr 13, 2016 9:03 AM in response to Linc Davis

Well, to be honest they kept transferring me, and it was always ending up by losing communication with them.

After trying 3 times, I stopped trying.


Being able to receive my iMessages on my computer and to send SMS, but not Send iMessages is something really weird.

I mean...if my iMessages were not working at all, I wouldn't be able to receive them on my computer, right?


One thing I've noticed, is that when I right click on the Messages app icon, my "status" is set to "Disconnected".

The other options in the menu are Invisible, Available, Current song in Itunes and Unavailable.

I tried to select any other option without success. Looks like I'm stuck on "Disconnected".


Any ideas?

Apr 13, 2016 10:01 AM in response to marclarin

Might be a corrupt .plist.


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 and Ralph Johns (UK)for some information contained in this.

Question marked as Helpful

Apr 14, 2016 12:12 PM in response to Eric Root

Another thing I've noticed, is that I can send iMessages from my iPhone, and they will be added in the conversation on Messages on my Mac right away. So again, really what's not working is that I can't SEND iMessages from my Mac, but that's it. Everything else works just fine on all devices.


It is really annoying. I don't know what to do. Anyone else can try to help? Thanks!

Apr 14, 2016 12:12 PM in response to marclarin

Hi,


From the first post.

There is nothing in System Preferences > iCloud that is anything to do with Messages or iMessages.

In fact I use two different IDs between the two places


On the Mac > Messages > Preferences > Accounts > iMessages Account.

On the iPhone > Settings > Messages > Send and Receive.


They should be the same.

Nominally on the iPhone the iPhone Number ticked and greyed out plus the Apple ID should be active.

On the Mac the Receive At list should also contain both.


The "Start Conversations From" can be different.

The Mac will only show this is both the Apple ID and Number are active.


What can sometimes happen is that one ID on one device is not fully logged in and you then only see the Syncs from the other option.

As the ID in question might not be logged in you may then have lost the ability to Send from the second ID as well as the first.


IN the Main Window on the Mac version use the "To" spot as a drop down.

It should make it clear which ID is send to you.


You may also see items like this in the chat text.

User uploaded file

Where the ID sending to you has changed between their Apple ID and iPhone Number (or the other way round like the pic.)


If your Contact can tell you if this appears at their End about your iMessages you may be well on the way to finding which ID or Number is an issue.



Your Settings for "Start Conversation From" on the Mac is not the ID that you might be sending an iMessages from as the App will default to the ID the incoming iMessages was addressed to.

There is not really a clear cut way of really finding out on your own Mac which ID or Number the app actually sent from.






User uploaded file

8:12 pm Thursday; April 14, 2016


 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 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

Apr 14, 2016 12:27 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Thanks Ralph.


I checked and both iMessages accounts are the same.

For the 2 different ID part...well I've send a message to myself from my iPhone.

The number that is ticked when I click the name dropdown is my phone number, and there's the iMessage icon next to it.

But I can't reply back from my computer, since iMessages are not being sent from it.


So you think the app is using another ID to send iMessages, and that's why it's not working?

How can I fix this?


Thanks again

Apr 14, 2016 1:20 PM in response to marclarin

Hi,


Sometimes on the iPhone the Send and Receive lists the iPhone Number but although it is greyed out and not changeable it becomes Unticked.

This means the iPhone Number cannot be used to Send and is in fact Not logged in.


What happens then is iMessages sent to your iPhone Number show up initially as the Sync to the Apple ID shows them.

After a while though the Number can become registered at the iMessages server.


IF...

At the same time the Mac version is set to only use the iPhone Number (Where the Apple ID is actually Unticked in Receive At) then the Mac will only get the iMessages send to the iPhone Number.

When the iPhone number becomes de-registered then the Mac can no longer Send iMessages if the Apple ID is effectively "Off" (if it is unticked in the Receive at list it will not appear in the "Start Conversations From" drop down (in fact the drop down might not appear if there are only the two options).


Now this scenario above does not quite match what you are saying.


I am pretty sure it is not a different ID.


I think it is about the way you have the two current IDs set up across the two devices.


I am presuming that the iPhone is set to Send iMessages (with SMS as a back up option) and that all the outgoing iMessages are blue.

As all incoming iMessages are grey it is not always clear which are are dealing with until you try to reply.

It is possible to have Text Forwarding (SMS) working on the iPhone and seeing them on the Mac when iMessages does not work.



I have my Mac version set to send from the Apple ID (my iPhone is set to Send from the iPhone Number)

I sent to my iPhone Number.

However the sync shows and being from the Apple ID

User uploaded file


It is quirky things like this that can make it difficult to pin down exactly where the issue is.



User uploaded file

9:20 pm Thursday; April 14, 2016


 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
 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

Apr 14, 2016 4:51 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Thanks for your input Ralph.

So basically there's nothing I can do except trying to call Apple once again?


I even tried to clear my whole Keychain, restarted my computer, and not working.

I got an error that my computer couldnt connect to my icloud account though. I just went to my System Preferences, entered my iCloud login info, and I was logged in. So...not sure why I got that error.


Since nothing was happening, I just replaced the newly generated keychain by the one I'm normally using with all my passwords.


Am I the only one who's having this issue?

Cannot send iMessages on my Mac but can receive them

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