Incoming iMessages not showing on computer

1. Restart your iPhone, as detailed here: Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
   
2. Test Messages on your Mac in safe mode. You can get information about safe mode, and instructions on how to boot to it, here: Try safe mode if your Mac doesn‘t finish starting up
   
   Even though the title of the article is different than the issue you are experiencing, safe mode is still a good step to take. During boot, safe mode will run a scan of your system, and then will disable certain softwares and processes that could be causing a conflict. Test to see if you are able to receive all your Messages on the iPhone and Mac while in safe mode, and make note of the results. Then, restart your Mac (by clicking the Apple  menu and selecting "Restart..." from the drop down) and test your Messages again.
   
3. Try your SMS text message forwarding in another user account. The following article will explain why this can be helpful, and walk you through creating a new account: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac
   

HI,

I am only going to add some notes at this stage.

Some of the info seems at odds with the way Messages works for both iMessages and getting SMS on the the Mac.

I am not disputing what you are saying - I am saying what is happening is outside of my experience with iChat and Messages over the past 12 years.

I know this bit is just semantics but I like to state it any way.

In System Preferences > iCloud there are no settings for iTunes, FaceTime, iBooks, App Store, Messages, Game Center and some other places you can use an Apple ID.

Whilst the Apple ID used in iMessage has to be an iCloud valid one it does NOT have to be the one used in the iCloud settings.

I do appreciate that you have reset the Apple ID in iMessages on the Mac and reset Text Forwarding by the sound of things on the iPhone.

The Process to set up based on the order in which the functions arrive on the devices/OSes

Turn On Messages on the iPhone.

Set the Send as SMS option to include SMS messages via the Carrier.

On the Mac version add the Apple ID (and password).

Test between the two (i.e. the Mac can only send from the Apple ID and the iPhone from the Number)

Add the Apple ID to the iPhone in Messages and make sure both are Send and Receive options.

Enable the WiFi on the iPhone to the same LAN the computer is on.

Enable Text Forwarding.

Select the Mac and that should produce the Code number on the Mac to enter back on the iPhone to link them for SMS

This is working like System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing where the computer gets Internet on one service (Ethernet say) and shares it via another (say Firewire).

IN this case the iPhone is Sharing SMS from it's carrier service to the Mac via WiFi at least from phone to LAN

If the Mac is WiFi and Ethernet connected try it with just one.

If it is WiFi then possibly it could drop out so I would try to exclude that by using Ethernet if possible.

iMessages are held on the server only until the device accepts them.

In the case of multiple devices it is flagged to be sent to each of them.

Once one has accepted it cannot access the iMessage again.

It can be easier to think of them as "Copies"

An iMessages sent to the iPhone Number will go there "first"as it were.

The Sync link caused by adding the Apple ID to the iPhone send a Sync "copy" to the Mac.

The reverse is true of the iMessages addressed to the Apple ID.

Which they are addresses to make a difference as to what the Contact can see regarding the Delivered and Read receipts if you have them set. (i.e. then may not see you have read it if the Mac is Off line and you have seen the "Copy" on the iPhone).

IF...

The Apple ID is not active as a Send and Receive option on the iPhone then this will not work properly.

Same on a Mac.

If for some reason the iPhone Number becomes Unticked in the Send and Receive section on the iPhone then the link for Sync can be broken. You get a real mixed state during this stage until the iPhone Number become de-registered.

There is no clue on the Mac version whether you are logged in or not to the iMessages servers fully or partially.

Only the "Not Registered with iMessage" for all contacts when it fails or Not Delivered feedback text on all iMessages sent.

If the link has failed SMS may still work as that is SMS sharing if looking for a name.

That leaves me mystified about this bit

That incoming text does not show up on my computer. It makes no difference if the incoming text is an SMS or an iMessage ... it doesn't show up on my computer.

As far as I can tell it should not happen that way.

There is obviously some quirk or set up that I have not come across yet.

SMS may sync sometime later depending on what your carrier does about messages being sent.

IT would thing that if the iPhone got them then you cannot get them again - i.e. there is no way to sync these.

If the iMessages server thinks a devices was de-registered for a time then those will not sycn either. They will have been deleted from the server when sent to all registered devices at that time.

10:36 pm Sunday; October 30, 2016

Hi,

I am not missing the fact that it works for most of the iMessages and SMS messages.

What is foxing me because I have never seen it before if the fact it is both that are not appearing on the ones it does not work for.

Yes changing the iCloud/Apple ID password for the Apple ID used in Messages will drop the connection and get you to re-enter a new password to Log back in again.

To be clear - iMessages is NOT part of iCloud. it is just that the Apple ID used in iMessages has to be iCloud valid. (All iCloud IDs are Apple IDs - but not all Apple IDs are iCloud IDs)

Using the Sign Out Button within Messages > Preferences > Accounts and restarting the app should normally be enough to "kick it into gear" so to speak.

Failing that deleting the "madrid" .plist will force you to re-enter ID and password

see IMessage Invalid

Leaving the app open and "pocket dialling" can cause the three Ellipses dots from an iPhone if seen on your Mac.

However the fact you go on to get a messages of one sort or another on your iPhone does suggest that you are logged in to the iMessages servers.

It does not mean that are addressing your computer as you get that "sync" where they are going to send to the iPhone Number or Apple ID (the dots should appear on both your devices).

Incoming messages of any sort are grey balloons on both an Mac and an iPhone so you can't really tell until you reply as to which was sent to regarding SMS (Green) or iMessages (blue).

On the Mac and the iPhone the Text Entry field should say what type of chat it is.

Of course the conversation can move between all of the services you have joined as this AIM part of this current iMessages chat shows:-

The grey text in the middle of the chat between you and the Contact along with the Time Stamp should tell you when it changes.

I realise this moves things forward in no way at all.

You are convinced that they are both iMessages and Text (Forwarded SMS) that you have this happening with but I cannot not see how at this moment in time.

10:08 pm Monday; October 31, 2016

Hi,

Sorry for the delay I was visiting my dad in hospital. (he's home now)

The pictures help a bit.

I reviewed the conversation between me and my wife which is me normally saying what time we are working to that day as overtime can be a late decision.

The Phone has this Text Message on the 8th May.

Then it is back to iMessages.

However on the Mac...

Then after several Pics involving the bear...

Now the iMessages sent when it was back to iMessage were from the iPhone (4.30 finish and so on)

The Pics were sent from the Mac to her iPhone number but do not appear to sync to the iPhone.

The 8th May was a Sunday.

Other than that I can't remember why I was not with my wife and why she would be chasing me or why it should have been an SMS item.

Also whilst it shows on both the iPhone and the Mac I may have been riding my motorbike to my mother-in-law's and the Mac would have synced later when I turned it On.

I did ask the wife to check her versions of the conversation and in fact she has a difference between her iPad and iPhone. The SMS bit does not turn up on the iPad - but then I checked and she does not have Text (SMS) Forwarding set up for that.

I checked further back.

in August 2015 I have an out of order SMS on my Mac

On the iPhone they are in Order as I was giving progress reports which only went by SMS on one message when the Carrier service was not good enough for iMessages.

Whilst this does show that syncing is not perfect and can be a bit random in order i certainly don't have anything like the issue you describe.

For the Out of Order Messages it is most likely I did a NVRAM reset

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

Whilst it may not have re-ordered the messages it seems to have stopped the issue happening from then on.

I can't explain the pictures of the bear missing on the iPhone version.

I think I must have deleted them as they were taken on the iPhone and sent to her Apple ID (And they were iMessages anyway).

In the first two pic (the fall asleep part) there is a change from them from your SMS to them to their eventual iMessages reply.

I am presuming that was on the iPhone and the Mac version is a sync of that ? (I can't see how you replied otherwise)

In that sense it still is not helping me to grasp why you are not syncing both iMessages and SMS part of the same conversations.

The second conversation selection shows Mac first but it is too small to tell anything (It is also a jpeg which does not help to when it comes to changing size (I downloaded it but couldn't make the "read ???" info)

The iPhone version again seems to show it is a change between your sending SMS and their iMessages response, although it starts at the SMS bit and not the preceding iMessages bit

From the pics I am not grasping which parts of the conversation are sent from that device and which are just sync "copies".

If the small Mac version pic does have a "Read" response then that would tend to say it was sent from there but then there seems to be the change to SMS but I can't read if it is a different date or time.

These conversations seem fairly fresh for you so perhaps you could spread more light on them ?

9:18 pm Wednesday; November 2, 2016

Hi,

Sounds like some progress has been made.

7:59 pm Friday; November 4, 2016