An internal Messages error occurred. (tried everything)

I had (what seems to be) the exact same issue, where after upgrading to Mojave, my iMessages would not display correctly, and would get the "An internal messages error occurred" after attempting to sync. I tried everything, including the extensive troubleshooting instruction found in this thread (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7493929?answerId=29919807022#29919807022). Each time I restored to High Sierra (thank you time machine!)

While attempting to get iMessages to work properly on a clean install, I noticed that the data would download completely, just not display correctly. I also saw many errors in the console related to "invalid URL's", and referencing links I'd been sent in iMessages (specifically legitimate invitations to join "Band.us").

I deleted* the threads containing those links, as well as all the other unimportant or spam threads with sketchy links that I had ignored.

After testing with a virtual machine, I've upgraded to Mojave again and everything seems to be working properly. YMMV, but it seems iMessages being unable to parse certain URL's was causing it to ignore certain messages/threads. Hopefully this won't pop up again in the future, but cleaning them out fixed it for me.

* It seems that clicking the "x" when hovering over a thread only hides (or "closes") the thread, but doesn't delete it. Right clicking, selecting delete, and confirming the deletion, or swiping on an iPhone and clicking delete, are the only ways to actually get rid of them. Incidentally, anyone know how to unhide a thread if the "x" was clicked?

Here's how to get Messages working without reboots, safe mode, etc in macOS Mojave (I have 10.14.5)

• Close Messages app (one with error dialog..)
• Open Finder.
• Select your Home folder (the "House") [must be Home folder]
  • (If you don't see a house icon on the left side of Finder, select "Go --> Go to Folder", then enter "~/Library".
  • Danger.. If you go /Library that is admin territory (and affects all users)
• At top (Finder is in focus) select View --> View Options
  • (a "tall" dialog pops up with your username at top and and a long list of check boxes)
• Look for "Show Library Folder" and select.
  • (The Library directory appears but is dimmed (to indicate it is a system file not to be messed with)
  • If you aren't in your home directory you won't see that option.
• Open Library/Caches
• Select linphone_chats.db and drag to Trash
• Restart Messages
• Problem Gone.

You might want to turn off Show Library Folder (check box under View -->View Options).

I ended up resetting my system to factory settings. Did not restore from backup, but moved my documents to iCloud and iTunes library to an external drive to pull back once the computer restarted. Messages has worked since then. I do not have messages enabled in iCloud. I think that is where the problem exists. Hope this helps someone.

I was having this problem as well (10.14.6, MacBook pro mid2015).

I had deleted caches, plists, the whole nine yards. Still Messages would not start giving the internal messages error.

I signed out of iCloud on my machine and rebooted. Messages started up again, though of course it was blank. After signing back into iCloud it looks like Messages is working again, though of course I've lost all history.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have signed out of iCloud first, but experience is the thing you get just after you really needed it.

Hope this helps.

Hi All.

After my post a little over a month ago, I'm happy to say Mojave and iCloud iMessages are still (fingers crossed) working perfectly for me after having similar symptoms since its release. I believe that it is a bug in Mojave that prevents it from displaying the message database correctly if it contains material it can't handle. In my case, it was a text message containing a link it considered "invalid".

I wish I took better notes of what I did to diagnose the problem, but I encourage anyone with more experience than I to try setting up iMessage on a clean profile or install, and watch the console (filtering for the "messages" process) and see if any content is flagged as errors. I noticed a few during the initial download, after hitting the sync button, or when it gave the error message on startup (I don't quite remember). After deleting the specific messages that were referenced, and a few more for good measure, it's been working ever since.

Now, this is definitely a bug that should have been fixed before Mojave was even released, and my circumstances may be unique, but it worked for me.

I tried everything under the sun, except deleting most of my messages. Recently I got fed up enough to try this tactic. At some point, things started working and syncing correctly again. I had to delete probably 90% of my message threads - I did this from my phone. It wasn't a straightforward process, and lots of errors occurred while doing it. It seemed like some message threads just failed to delete. Some synced right away to my computer, some did not. I was even fed up enough to disable messages in the cloud on my computer just to avoid that internal error message. I then tried turning it back on, had to click "Sync Now" in the Messages preferences on my computer. This gave me a random failure error when I tried at first, and then was greyed out for a while. I rebooted, waited a while, and finally I don't get the "internal messages error occurred" anymore. So, I'm guessing there are some message threads stored in messages in the cloud that contribute to causing this error. Good luck finding them.

Interestingly enough, I have found a temporary fix. It’s not the greatest and it’s not the best but it is a fix. First I always keep my messages open and have it on my dock. If for some reason my computer restarts or I quit messages, I go to <TOOLS> and then <GO TO> LIBRARIES and I look for my container file and messages file. I pull them to my desktop and then empty them into trash. I start up my computer again and “voila” messages works again. I believe it’s a toss up of whether you want to be able to reply to messages on your computer or if you want to keep messages from way back when and never lose them. If something it really important I store it in NOTES.

Hopefully this method will be helpful to some folks. Although not ideal and certainly not what I would ever expect to have to do with an Apple product, apparently the ones that experience this have a literal bad Apple. 😉 Ridiculous, but it’s life.

had the same issue. i noticed that "fink" is probably the root of this problem. uninstalled it and error-message is gone.

cheers

b

http://www.finkproject.org/faq/usage-fink.php?phpLang=en

Okay guys. Few days ago I did a clean install of MacOS 10.15 Catalina Developer Beta and I can 100% say that everything is working as it's supposed to work now.

All my messages from iCloud are there and the sync between devices work fine. I no longer have the "An internal Messages error occurred." and the Messages app no longer quit unexpectedly either. All good like on High Sierra previously.

Now we just need to wait for the public release of 10.15 and we should be good!

Cheers.

Upgraded to Beta OS 10.15 and problem went away. So you can pay the $99 or wait for release. But the problem is totally fixed. Only took 9 months to solve... :/

Catalina solves it. A workaround for me was to not sync messages to cloud, delete chat.DB files, restart and everything worked pretty much the same before cloud was even a thing.

I’ve had the problem since September 2018. Sucked. Apple support was of ZERO help.

Try the instructions on this website:

⌘ Permalink

I tried EVERYTHING short of blowing the whole system away and this fixed it.

I noticed that while I received the same error you were getting, another error was flashing up quickly and then disappearing. I recorded the screen and slowed the video to see this error:

Basically, the Messages Database has an issue when it's trying to update.

A search on the database crashing led me to the link above, which worked in my case.

I hope this helps!

Yup. Catalina fixes the problem. I upgraded yesterday and fingers crossed so far it's resolved the problem. Pity Apple couldn't have provided an interim fix earlier to save us all the aggravation.

Thanks to UKiss & 99Ramon for their very useful help.

I just loaded MAC 10.14.6 update and (cross your fingers) no messages error yet. Will update this thread after a few days.

Catalina fixed it 100%. I did the beta and it was easy.