I have messages from unknown contact enabled in macOS Messages app as well as in iPhone but still not getting them forwarded to the Message app from the phone. No matter how many times I reenabled it or login/out. Known contacts are forwarded.
macOS Sierra (10.12.1)
I got this after upgrading to a new iPhone.
I'm disappointed, because it's happened to me before with IOS 9.x a couple years ago.
I don't think there is a fix.
In my case, none of my messages were recovered from my local backup or the iCloud backup.
And, when messages started coming it, 1 out of 10 were assigned to the right number but wrong contact.
I suspect local corruption and just deleted the entire message thread.
There may be a preference file you can delete, too.
Fortunately, it hasn't happened again. Only after the effort to restore from my backup.
It was forwarding unknown contacts in the El Capt. now with the Sierra is not. iOS device was the same for both Mac OSes.
Hi,
Where are you setting this ?
messages from unknown contact enabled in macOS Messages app
I am not aware of such a setting.
9:27 pm Monday; November 14, 2016
Hi, preferences - general - application - Notify me about messages from unknown contacts
Humm,
I don't have that set and still get "unknown" Contacts sent to my Mac (mostly SMS Forwarded items)
As fas as I am aware all it does is make more of a "Song and Dance" from the Notification side of things rather than being a Block or not.
I have this set on my iPhone
I don't filter Unknown Senders and Text Forwarding sends them to my Mac.
9:50 pm Monday; November 14, 2016
Me neither. I have the same setup as you do (also tried enabled/disabled that) and still not getting those facebook, validation code etc. sms messages, only "known" ones.
Hi,
With those settings my iPhone is where I saw two SMS threads start.
One is identified as coming from my Bank, despite me not having an entry for my Bank in the Contacts app.
The other is from an sms number that the Bank said they would be sending me a text from.
Both these conversations appear on the Mac.
I manually checked the Saved Chats folder and found this Spam SMS
As you can see it says it is SMS with... less than a month ago.
There is no Recent Chats item in Messages any more to make this simpler (the amount of items is any Recent List is set in System Preferences > General and I have mine set to 30)
From what you have said so far I cannot see why your versions are behaving differently.
7:50 pm Tuesday; November 15, 2016
Thank you for your feedback. I did not have this problem with El Capt., only with Sierra. No matter what I turn off/on (even the whole messages apple ID account) its still the same. Seems like a bug.
Hi,
So these are the ones:-
facebook, validation code etc. sms messages
I do know that Facebook used to use a Jabber server and gave everyone a Jabber ID to work with that and that ID could be used in Messages.
Facebook took the Jabber server down and created a Browser page to use along side your regular login instead.
I don't have a Facebook account so I am not aware if it can send SMS to phone numbers or not. (it would make some sense if it did)
I take it validation codes are one off items that are sent as SMS to your iPhone ?
They sound like they may be non standard SMS items sent to the SMS system from non Carrier based apps.
For instance AIM has a method in the United States only where you can add a mobile phone number (from certain carriers) to your Buddy List (as a Buddy) and you can use the AIM able app (in this case Messages or iChat) to send SMS back and forth
See this page https://help.aol.com/articles/aim-mobile-im-forwarding and then the "Does My Carrier Support... " expansion bit.
I am just wondering if the effected items are non standard SMS items in some way ?
It would seem to be a bit far fetched as there have been many computer based apps for doing this sort of thing for years.
9:22 pm Wednesday; November 16, 2016
It is a standard SMS message I guess, at least some of them totally are. Did not have to do something special to receive them before (old system), do not think it is any different now. These validation codes come as a standard SMS message so system should definitely forward them without any special setup like the "unknown contact".
Hi,
It was an idea from way out on the left of field - I couldn't really see that it was the cause.
From everything you say your settings are the same as mine and I have received SMS items on my Mac as well as my iPhone from people or services that are not in my Contacts app on either device.
I would say that on both Mac and iPhone version the Contacts apps have an item set to "Find Contacts in Apps".
My Contacts apps also sync via iCloud - although the service used should not matter.
I can't think of anything else to try.
10:01 pm Wednesday; November 16, 2016
I deleted a known contact from my contact list and then received an SMS message from the deleted contact. The message was forwarded even when I disabled that in settings of the app on mac, so it was acting as it shouldn't. After I re-enabled that and giving it up I have received for the first time the unknown contact SMS message that was forwarded to my Mac app. So It was a bug. Anyway thanks for your time and effort.
Hi,
Now I am confused.
There is no setting on the Mac for turning Off Text (SMS) Forwarding from the iPhone.
You can deselect the iPhone number which will stop iMessages to the number appearing directly.
However the link to the Apple ID created by adding the Apple ID to the Messages setting on the iPhone will mean you get a "sync" copy.
On the other hand unless the Mac is deselected on the iPhone in Text Forwarding or Text Forwarding turned Off then the Mac will continue to get SMS (Text) Forwarded items.
If whatever you have done has seemingly cured the issue I am glad to hear it.
7:39 pm Thursday; November 17, 2016
Messages from unknown contact in Messages app
