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Macbook won't send pictures through iMessage anymore

My MacbookPro will not send pictures through iMessage. Every time I try, it pops up with the red exclamation point and says 'not delivered.' It also will not let me view pictures that are sent to me. I've already tried turning iMessage on and off but it still won't send or receive pictures.

MacBook Pro, iOS 10.3.2

Posted on Aug 1, 2017 10:39 PM

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34 replies

Aug 2, 2017 12:59 PM in response to jhohenthal

Hi jhohenthal,


I understand that you are having problems sending and receiving picture messages through iMessage on your MacBook Pro.


First, verify that you are trying to send and receive the picture messages with your Apple ID or phone number associated with your ID.


I would then check to see if continuity is setup on your Mac: Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch


Set up SMS and MMS messaging

Use this feature with any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that meets the Continuity system requirements. Make sure that your devices are set up as follows:

  • Each device is signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.
  • On iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Make sure that the Apple ID at the top of the screen is the same Apple ID that you're using for iMessage on your other devices. Add a check to your phone number and email address, so that you can be reached by iMessage at both. Do the same on your iPad or iPod touch.
  • On iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding, then choose which devices to allow to send and receive text messages from this iPhone. If you're not using two-factor authentication for your Apple ID, a verification code appears on each of your other devices: enter that code on your iPhone.
  • On Mac, open Messages, then choose Messages > Preferences. Click Accounts, then select your iMessage account. Make sure that the Apple ID shown here is the same Apple ID that you're using on your other devices. Add a check to your phone number and email address.


Thanks for posting your question. Let me know if this takes care of the problem.


Have a nice day.

Sep 14, 2017 7:37 AM in response to 4nier

I am having the same issue for at least two weeks now. I can send and receive images on my iphone without issue both as imessage and sms/mms but on my laptop it mysteriously stopped working and every time I try to send an image it is met with a RED EXCLAMATION error.


User uploaded file


Again, nothing has changed with my setup between laptop and iphone... nothing. it just stopped working and I cannot find a fix anywhere.

Oct 14, 2017 10:35 PM in response to LaurenLB1997

I have 400+ GB of space, so that's not an issue. I also checked a few things on my iPhone as well:


1. settings > messages > text forwarding > made sure the Mac was toggled onto green (it was).

2. signed out/in of apple id in messages on the iPhone > same issue.

3. signed out/in of apple id in messages on the Mac > same issue.

4. Updated iOS to 11.0.3 > same issue

5. restarted Mac > same issue

6. FINALLY checked my Network Monitor and realized that my IMTransferAgent was being blocked.


* I unblocked outgoing connections to port 443 (https) and I was able to send jpeg, PNG and PDFs again.

Oct 19, 2017 1:24 PM in response to jhohenthal

I was able to resolve my issue of people not receiving the pictures and videos I sent via Messages on the mac. I did this by:

1. Deleting all the conversations from the Messages window.

2. Deleting the ~/Library/Messages folder.

3. I also signed out and signed back in to my iMessage account in the Messages preference window.


I may have repeated those steps two or three times. As a disclaimer, I was on doing this while on a online chat with apple support. The support tech was having me check settings on my phone such as whether "MMS Messaging" and "Text Message Forwarding" were enabled in Settings>Messages. He also suggested ensuring that on my phone the "Start New Conversations From" setting, found in Settings>Messages>Send & Receive, matched what Messages on my mac had set in the preferences window.


I'm not sure how the settings on my phone would affect the ability of my computer to be able to send images, or if it even does at all, but this is how I was able to fix my problem. Hopefully this helps all of you out. Good luck!

Sep 9, 2017 12:10 PM in response to darren.s

I started having this issue yesterday. I can send photos on my iphone but everytime I try to send an image on my Macbook's iMessage app it says "Your message could not be sent." With the red exclamation point. Looking into the app's file transfers it shows "put container(s) failed." I've restarted both my phone and macbook, toggled the wifi, logged in and out of imessage on both my phone and macbook, deleted message threads and images that were trying to send, ensured both are set up to the same apple id and everything, and even made more room for storage on my phone and macbook. I think this might be a larger problem. This is only happening with blue imessages, contacts I was previously able to send photos to via my mac, and am still able to send photos to on my iphone, but can no longer send them pictures via my mac.

Oct 26, 2017 2:18 AM in response to Awise292

The "~" is an abbreviation for your user folder. You can navigate to that by using the Finder "Go" menu and selecting "Go to folder…" option. You can either type "Macintosh HD/Users/YourUserName/Library/Messages" or "~/Library/Messages". Both will get you to the same place.


If you're trying to navigate to the folder manually, the Library folder is hidden by default. As such, I would suggest using Finder's "Go" Menu if you don't anticipate going into the Library folder much (which you shouldn't need to). If you want to permanently unhide the folder, open terminal and copy/paste "chflags nohidden ~/Library" and press enter. The Library folder will now be visible in your user folder.

Macbook won't send pictures through iMessage anymore

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