iMessage on Mac Pro seems dead?

I have iMessage working great on my iOS devices, but on El Capitan it seems to me entirely disconnected from my account. When I type names into it none are shown as iMessage recipients (even though they are). I get red names in the "To" field indicating messages cannot be sent. I have attempted to log out of icloud, log out of imessage but nothing seems to re-connect my OS X iMessage account to my iOS account. Of course I am using the same icloud login for all.


Any siuggestions?


This was also broken in beta 1, 2 and 3 for me.

Replies

The lack of syncing may be on the iPhone side (even though iMessages is working fine for you there) and not a problem in the Mac Pro side.

Try:

  1. Close the Messages app
  2. On iPhone, In Settings > Messages > Send and Receive make sure the Apple ID and the iPhone Number is ticked to say they are active.
  3. If that doesn't initiate syncing, Close the Messages app again and:
  4. Sign out of Apple ID (Settings > Messages > Send&Receive > Tap Apple ID, Sign out)
  5. Turn off iMessage using toggle switch (Settings > Messages)
  6. Then the reverse... Turn back on iMessage using toggle switch
  7. Signed back in Apple ID

Nope, didn't change things. I have 2 laptops (El Cap beta 4); 2 iphones and an iPad all working fine. Only the Mac Pro not working.

Knowing that, you knew it must be the Mac Pro, fair enough.


Listed at the bottom of this post are the four plists on your Mac Pro that contain settings associated with Messages/iMessage. Repeat the following for each of them (the plists are in /Users/<your user name>/Library/Preferences/):


  1. Close Messages and move a plist to the desktop.
  2. Then open Messages again - the plist will be recreated using default settings.
  3. You may need to log out and back in again
  4. Un-check and re-check Messages for any Internet Accounts (System Preferences) you want active.
  5. Test if syncing is occuring before moving onto the next .plist


com.apple.imservice.ids.iMessage.plist

This .plist holds the Apple ID and any verified Aliases (the iPhone Number and any additional emails) linked to the Account.


com.apple.imessage.bag.plist holds the servers that iMessages account should be logging in to.


com.apple.ichat.plist holds most things set in the Messages Preferences (except the Accounts)

It also holds some of the menu settings.


com.apple.imagent.plist

This one for the Saved Status Messages you have made and another that deals with the Recent Items list:

I did this to no effect. I then created a new user account on the machine and logged imessage in to my account - same problem. I then totally re-installed El Capitan from beta 1 and upgraded step by step to 4. Same problem.


It seems that something is broken at the level of the machine. This thread seems to suggest this is not a El Capitan issue, but a broader iMessage issue. I tried everything in the thread to no avail - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6520346?start=180&tstart=0

Well, at least you have the slim satisfaction of knowing you've tried everything 😁

:-)

I've had the same issue, but found the solution.


if you go to your Imessage app on the Mac, and click on "Preferences" then to "Accounts", you might see that your Imessage account shows as "Inactive". Just have to sign in and it should work then.


Hope this helps you, it did for me.

I have done all the things you have tried on your Macbook Pro and am having the same issue. On top of that, I can't sign into Feedback Assistant to report the issue.

I am having similar problems with my MacPro after installing the Yosemite beta. I am up to 10.11 and still have not been able to resolve the issue. I am also using iOS9 beta on my iPhone 5. When I try to turn on Messenger it flashes Use Your Apple ID to Log On (or similar) and then that message disappears. If I quickly touch that message it opens the log in screen, but then nothing happens and Messenger doesn't connect to my account. On my Mac Pro when i click the Messenger icon in the dock it opens and prompts me to enter ID and password, but then never goes furhter after I click submit. It was working before I did the beta of Yosemite. Also, on my iPhone when I got to settings to install the non-beta iOS9 software update says my OS is up to date. Any suggestions?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

This solved it for me!

Resetting the PRAM didn't work for me either. I've tried everything in this post amd others, Apple has a real issue with Mac Pro and 10.11