If you’re experiencing difficulties sending or receiving iMessage on your Mac, don’t worry! I have some helpful solutions that can fix the problem and get your iMessage working smoothly again.
1. Check if the recipient has iMessage
Before you get all flustered about why iMessage isn’t working on your Mac, check if the recipient you’re trying to send a message to has iMessage. The app only works with other Apple devices that have iMessage enabled. Try sending messages to a few people you’ve already communicated with via iMessage to see if your messages will pass through. If the issue is limited to a single contact, the problem may be on their end and not yours. But if you can’t send a message to your connections, the issue is with your device. You may also check if the issue is limited to your Mac or affects your other Apple devices.
2. Check your internet connection
It may seem obvious, but it’s surprisingly common for users to overlook checking their internet connection when iMessage isn’t working properly on their Mac. Sometimes, a poor or unstable internet connection is the fundamental cause of these problems. So before diving into more intricate troubleshooting steps on how to fix iMessage not working on Mac, ensure your internet connection is reliable and robust. If you’re using your iPhone’s hotspot, avoid alternating between your iPhone and Mac. In my experience, using your iPhone for several minutes causes your Mac to disconnect from your iPhone’s hotspot, which may affect the performance of iMessage.
3. Check if iMessage is down
A temporary outage can also prevent Apple Messages from working properly. You can head to Apple System Status to see whether iMessage is down for everyone else. Check if there’s a green circle beside iMessage. If you see something else, Apple may be experiencing technical issues, and you may need to wait until Apple’s technicians fix it.
4. Sign in to the same Apple ID
If the messages from your iPhone aren’t appearing on your Mac or the other way around, the typical issue lies with your Apple ID and iCloud. This is a common problem among people with multiple Apple ID accounts and those sharing devices. To add, if you’re using an iPhone and a Mac, ensure that Message Forwarding is enabled so your Mac can receive and send messages through Messages. To enable it, do the following on your iPhone:
5. Check if iMessage is enabled
It’s also possible that there aren’t any issues with Messages, but you simply haven’t configured your Mac to receive your iMessages. To enable iMessage on your Mac:
6. Check Time Zone settings
Your Mac organizes messages in your chat history based on their time stamps. Consequently, if it perceives that a message is from an earlier time, it might position it further back in your conversation history, even if it was intended for the present moment. This could lead to missing recent messages. This issue often happens when the time zone isn’t set to update automatically. So if you’re seeing notifications of new messages but don’t see them appearing in your convo thread, then this might be the cause. Here’s how you can correct it:
7. Restart your Mac
It’s not uncommon for Mac’s Messages app to get clunky, and we all know a quick restart is all it needs. First, quit all your opened apps, including Messages. Then do the following: Once your Mac reboots, restart Messages and see if this solves the problem.
8. Update your OS
If restarting didn’t clear the issues, the next step would be to check if your device is due for a system software update. Updating to the most recent OS not only ensures that your Mac runs smoothly, but updates also fix glitches and bugs.
9. Try a different way of sending and receiving messages
If iMessage still isn’t working, check which phone number or email linked to your Apple ID account you’re currently using and try a different option.
10. Clear Messages cache
Like any other app, Messages also store data and files called caches. Over time, this can build up and make the app sluggish. Deleting the cache may help the app run smoothly again and eliminate existing issues. Note that for iMessage, clearing the cache means losing your message history across all your devices. Here’s how to do it:
11. Sign out and sign back in on iMessage
It’s also worth signing out and signing back in on iMessage to get the app working properly again. To do so:
12. Create a new admin account
A few users on forums suggested creating a new admin account and deleting the old one. There’s no harm in trying. Contact Apple Support If none of the methods work, you may want to ask for help from Apple Support. Alternatively, you may want to try some iMessage alternative apps to help you move forward. Wrapping up… Sending iMessage via your Mac is a very useful feature, so it’s understandably frustrating when it doesn’t work. Did any of the methods above work for you? Share them below! Read more:
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