imessage gives error "not delivered," even when sending to an iPhone and the message does get delivered

Hi,

Read this Users Tip. When the iMessages account will not Login

The last part is about phoning Apple Support (Apple Care).

Apple ID issues are free to fix.

You have to move up through the levels of Responders until one has enough Permissions to look at the iMessage servers.

There is an issue that can cause your Apple ID to be blocked at the server level.

As iMessages Server are standalone it is a App specific block. As it involves the Device's Serial Number it is Device specific as well.

This means other apps work that use the same ID as do other devices using it.

It is long winded to do this and we have not found a way to move through the levels of responders at Apple Support.

8:44 pm Tuesday; September 18, 2018

Simple fix for me...in the iPhone - Settings > Messages > Text Forwarding and that fixed it for me.

But this did fix the issue. I toggled off & back on forwarding, put in the new code and whaaaaaaa powwww messaging again.

Try turning off text forwarding in your settings under messages. Look at my above post for more details!

Same here. Late 2013 MacBook Pr, High Sierra 10.13.2 and iPhone 7 running 11.2.1. After sending the message it's status changes to "not delivered" immediately and to "read" after it was read. Also, sent messages are positioned somewhere between older messages until read. It appears not to be a time sync problem since the clocks of both the MBP and the iPhone have the correct time set.

Hi,

Mostly this can relate to the ID/Phone Number you are Addressing at your end and if that device is "available" at the other.

Lets say a Mac user turns his computer Off when he is not at home.

The Mac is effectively set to use the Apple ID as the "first" line ID.

It of course can be linked to the iPhone Number and list that as well.

The same is true of the iPhone although it's "first" Id in the number itself.

This means if you Addressed the iPhone Number that would be the device to Send "read" receipts back.

However if you addressed the Apple ID the Mac can't receive the iMessages (Not Delivered) and normally any secondary device like the iPhone would not send read Receipts but would be able to respond as it gets the sync "Copy".

I get the impression though you are expecting to Send SMS (texting) to these iPhones and that is reported as not being sent but the iPhone then shows them as blue bubbled items.

This would tend to mean the Mac is linked to the iPhone for SMS and it is getting passed to the iPhone but the iPhone is not sending them as SMS and converting them to iMessages.

On the iPhone check the Settings > Messages and see if Send as SMS is On.

If it is the SMS that is not working as it should then the issues about Read and Not Delivered will be more messed up between the two devices.

9:02 pm Friday; January 12, 2018

Thank you, Ralph, but I don't believe this is the right answer to the problem. This is a new problem many seem to be experiencing, including myself. It happens when addressing another iMessage device and has nothing to do with SMS. We are getting Not Delivered error messages, but the messages are in fact delivered. It is a new problem because we are experiencing it in conditions where we previously did not (same message recipients, eg). This is most likely a bug, and question is, can we solve it ourselves (say by logging out and in again on all devices) or must we wait for Apple to fix it?

I am having the same issue. It started immediately after I upgraded to High Sierra version 10.13.2. I never experienced it before this upgrade. The "undelivered" designation only happens on my Mac. I never experienced this on my iPhone. In fact, the following happens:

• I send a message from my Mac.
• The message shows as "undelivered" on my Mac.
• iMessage on my phone show the message I sent from my Mac as "delivered"

hi,

See my reply on the 12th Jan.

It can be about which ID or iPhone Numbers are active in Send and Receive compared to which ones are actually logged in.

Combined with this is the devices at the other end which may or may not be set to send Receipt and Read info back.

7:57 pm Thursday; February 1, 2018

Hi,

Before the release of OSmac 10.13 and iOS 11 we were "promised" that the syncing of iMessages would be brought in to iCloud.

This would mean that deleting an iMessages on one device would delete it across all devices.

It is likely to arrive are some point during the "life" of OSmac 10.13 and iOS 11 even though we are at the .3 subset on both already.

This will involve changes in the way the iMessages Servers deliver iMessages and the way each device can respond to further requests about them.

The Status of the servers are listed here Apple - Support - System Status

What we are probably seeing is crossover issue between changes to the way iMessages are being delivered AND the way the older issue has presented itself.

The Serial Number being missing was the one factor after the OS 10.8.2 update that caused issues for Messages version 7.0.1

If you are concerned it is covered in this User Tip When the iMessages account will not Login which deal with what to do if the App is not logging in at (total failure to send).

8:43 pm Saturday; February 3, 2018

Same issue here. It also started occurring for me with a recent update.

My devices:

1. iPhone 7 Plus w/ iOS 11.2.6
2. iPad Pro 10.5" w/ iOS 11.2.6
3. MacBook Pro, Mid-2015 w/ macOS High Sierra 10.13.3

All of the above have iMessage with both my cell number and Apple ID email under "You can be reached for messages at:", but with the cell number set for "Start new conversations from:"

Troubleshooting Steps:

• cycled the "Text Message Forwarding" feature for both of my non-cellular devices (iPad and MacBook), with no change to the issue
• removed account from MacBook Pro and logged back in
• power-cycled all devices (in sync, as well; i.e. all were turned off then back on simultaneously)

The only possibly unique aspect for me is that I have a very large, ongoing group chat with tons of attachments. I'm holding off from deleting the history of that chat because it's important and full of memories/conversations with friends - it'd be unfortunate to resort to that, but if this doesn't let up I'll probably figure out how to do a full backup of that thread and delete it entirely.

I should note that this issue occurs with almost any thread, not just the very large chat.

Nothing new to add, but adding my 'count' to this.
Never been a problem, but since iCloud Sync was enabled (currently am on 10.13.6), the 'not delivered' error has shown up consistently on my mac (2017 iMac). Messages of course do get delivered, and sometime the red exclamation mark disappears by itself after 20-30 seconds for past messages (the recipient nevertheless got them right away).

None of the fixed discussed has been able to address this so far, for me 😟

I'm having the same issue.

2017 iMac with Mac OS 10.13.6 and iPhone X with iOS 11 (latest). Message on iMac is showing red exclamation while it is delivered on iPhone and recipient received it.

Happens infrequently. Seems to be related to Messages in iCloud syncing.

After a while if I retry by clicking on the exclamation mark it goes through.

Hi All,.

I would use the Feedback page

https://www.apple.com/feedback/messages.html

You will have to type some info in the Free Text area as the Version Number drop down has slipped behind by three versions.

Some of the lower questions don't apply in this case.

10:00 pm Friday; July 20, 2018

Also appears that some related issues are due to changes in High Sierra. Messages received on other devices on 'your side' are not acknowledged to have been checked on a High Sierra device. Those messages remain in an unread state until viewed on those devices.