Continuity, Handoff, Instant Hotspot and iMessage stop working

[demeeder]

2013 iMac with 10.10.2
- Beginning two days ago, I think..(maybe coincidental with update to 10.10.2, but I thought things were working fine following) iMessage stopped syncing with other OS X and iOS devices on the same iCloud account. All on the same network.
- Instant Hotspot, Continuity and Handoff also do not work on the iMac...(worked great a couple days ago)
- iMac is primary ethernet, but wifi is on also.
- I have cycled power, turned on and off wifi, turned on and off handoff settings, turned on and off iMessage, cycled iMessage "enable account", logged out of iCloud, logged out of iMessage (on all devices). When I turn on iMessage on the iMac - I do not get any notice on any other device that I have done so, like I do with all the other devices.
- I did get notice on the other devices when I turned iCloud back on and wanted my keychain restored.
- MPB is also updated to 10.10.2 and no issues. All features work.
- iPhone and iPad are at iOS 8.1.3
- iPhone only sees MBP and iPad for "text forwarding"

When I send an iMessage on any of the three (MBP, iPad, iPhone) they each sync nicely. No message received on iMac. Before I realized I was having problems with the iMac I did see that more messages were going out as "text". Also, when attempting to send to know iMessage account holders I was not getting the blue, rather the red highlight on the names and the "not registered with iMessage" notice.

I did a time machine restore to a point where I knew everything was working (3 days ago and on 10.10.1). No joy. I do see the handoff wanting to work, but when i click on the icon it takes me to a blank page. The MBP however takes me to the correct page. I have since gone back to 10.10.2 in hopes it would work itself out.

Thanks

Dave

 

[simonsi]

Is iMessage set to receive at both your iPhone Mob and and email address?

Same for Facetime - both your iPhone Number and an email address setup?

Both of these are under the "enable AppleID" sections in their Preferences.

 

[demeeder]

Yes. iMessage and FaceTime are set to receive at phone number and three email addresses.

FaceTime also does NOT receive calls but is able to make a call.

both are "enabled" in their settings.

 

[simonsi]

Yes. iMessage and FaceTime are set to receive at phone number and three email addresses.

FaceTime also does NOT receive calls but is able to make a call.

both are "enabled" in their settings.

Ok, I would suggest you slim down to only the phone number and a single, identical email address across the iMessage farm, just to rule out an unforeseen "email address sequence" issue.....also check all your ios devices have "start new conversations from" set to the iphone mobile number, not an email address.

 

[demeeder]

Thanks. That may help, but I have been using that setup for quite some time with no issue (and all other computers seem to not be affected). Not sure that would explain Handoff, FaceTime and Instant Hotspot also not working. Will try nonetheless.

 

[simonsi]

Thanks. That may help, but I have been using that setup for quite some time with no issue (and all other computers seem to not be affected). Not sure that would explain Handoff, FaceTime and Instant Hotspot also not working. Will try nonetheless.

They all seem to use the same iCloud email referencing mechanism to contact each other, your symptoms all <look> like you don't have an email address configured, if you have several email addresses and several devices, I can only surmise that the changed device is somehow presenting the list of email addresses in a different order and that is causing the setup for that device to be outside the group of devices that is working.

All I can suggest....

 

[loxxol]

You are not alone... Spent ages troubleshooting this in every manner possible... If you can, log this as a support case with apple - spent around 4 hours with the techs today - case is with engineering team. All iCloud services work with exception to continuity/handoff/Messages/FaceTime on nMP, but work fine on cMBP (late 2011 - no handoff here anyways)

 

[demeeder]

Thanks loxxol. At least I know that I am not alone. I have spent the last two days pulling my hair out and doing everything short of throwing the iMac out the window. I will log as suggested.

 

[demeeder]

So, I spent the same 3+ hours on chat and phone with Apple techs. Great people.. very pleasant, but ultimately unable to fix this issue. We did everything in the book and even went so far as an erase and reinstall. It may come down the fact that I have a hardware issue. Really? What kind of hardware issue does this? Upon erasing and going into the recovery to install the new OS, mine came up with Mavericks. Tech said it should have been Yosemite (that the Yosemite update should have updated the recovery). That seemed odd, but ok.

Once I got back into the computer, set up a dummy account and logged back into iMessage..... nothing!! it shows that I am using the right account (my number and email show up correctly). But nothing!! FaceTime is also doing the same thing (not receiving calls).

Very interesting....

 

[hendrilei]

Is there anyway to delete message on macbook and iphone at the same time ? Double deleting is so annoying

 

[loxxol]

@Demeeder:

yeah pretty much the same outcome - long before logging the case with AppleCare id been through the whole gamut of removing all devices from iCloud, un-configuring everything on iPhone & nMP & cMBP.

also did a complete fresh install on the nMP. Its 99.995% not a hardware issue, but to me seems more like something is blocking the nMP from completing the login process to iCloud correctly.

Apart from none of the Handoff / Continuity features not* working, there is never a notification pop-up on any of my working devices to advise that a new device is using iCloud / FaceTime / Messages - although all other iCloud services such as Mail / Calendar etc etc all sync & work as expected.

Its a little frustrating, but not a deal breaker for me right now - although i feel that far too much time has been spent troubleshooting the issue.

No amount of rolling back time machine backups will help.

One question i have for you - have you participated in the Yosemite public beta, and happen to have built a Yosemite beta vm (fusion) on your iMac?

 

[simonsi]

So, I spent the same 3+ hours on chat and phone with Apple techs. Great people.. very pleasant, but ultimately unable to fix this issue. We did everything in the book and even went so far as an erase and reinstall. It may come down the fact that I have a hardware issue. Really? What kind of hardware issue does this? Upon erasing and going into the recovery to install the new OS, mine came up with Mavericks. Tech said it should have been Yosemite (that the Yosemite update should have updated the recovery). That seemed odd, but ok.

Once I got back into the computer, set up a dummy account and logged back into iMessage..... nothing!! it shows that I am using the right account (my number and email show up correctly). But nothing!! FaceTime is also doing the same thing (not receiving calls).

Very interesting....

Did you try cutting the iMessage config down to iphone number and a single email address on all devices?

 

[shenan1982]

2013 iMac with 10.10.2
- Beginning two days ago, I think..(maybe coincidental with update to 10.10.2, but I thought things were working fine following) iMessage stopped syncing with other OS X and iOS devices on the same iCloud account. All on the same network.
- Instant Hotspot, Continuity and Handoff also do not work on the iMac...(worked great a couple days ago)
- iMac is primary ethernet, but wifi is on also.
- I have cycled power, turned on and off wifi, turned on and off handoff settings, turned on and off iMessage, cycled iMessage "enable account", logged out of iCloud, logged out of iMessage (on all devices). When I turn on iMessage on the iMac - I do not get any notice on any other device that I have done so, like I do with all the other devices.
- I did get notice on the other devices when I turned iCloud back on and wanted my keychain restored.
- MPB is also updated to 10.10.2 and no issues. All features work.
- iPhone and iPad are at iOS 8.1.3
- iPhone only sees MBP and iPad for "text forwarding"

When I send an iMessage on any of the three (MBP, iPad, iPhone) they each sync nicely. No message received on iMac. Before I realized I was having problems with the iMac I did see that more messages were going out as "text". Also, when attempting to send to know iMessage account holders I was not getting the blue, rather the red highlight on the names and the "not registered with iMessage" notice.

I did a time machine restore to a point where I knew everything was working (3 days ago and on 10.10.1). No joy. I do see the handoff wanting to work, but when i click on the icon it takes me to a blank page. The MBP however takes me to the correct page. I have since gone back to 10.10.2 in hopes it would work itself out.

Thanks

Dave

Wow, I just posted another thread about this and then found this thread. As soon as I updated to 10.10.2 I am now experiencing the same thing.

iPhone and iPad work fine... but iMac (brand new one) won't get\send texts, when I try to add it on my phone it won't sync (doesn't even show as present)... when I try to create a new convo it won't send because it says contact isn't registered with iMessage.

We're going back in time here apparently.... and I'm so tired of spending hours and hours on the phone with Apple support .... I pay for this stuff to work, and for them to fix it when it doesn't. It seems like lately I end a lot of several hour long support calls without resolution.

Dunno where to even go with this at this point...

 

[demeeder]

Wow, I just posted another thread about this and then found this thread. As soon as I updated to 10.10.2 I am now experiencing the same thing.

iPhone and iPad work fine... but iMac (brand new one) won't get\send texts, when I try to add it on my phone it won't sync (doesn't even show as present)... when I try to create a new convo it won't send because it says contact isn't registered with iMessage.

We're going back in time here apparently.... and I'm so tired of spending hours and hours on the phone with Apple support .... I pay for this stuff to work, and for them to fix it when it doesn't. It seems like lately I end a lot of several hour long support calls without resolution.

Dunno where to even go with this at this point...

Yeah, not sure how comforted to know that I am not the only one with the issue knowing that others are also pulling their hair out and wasting time... I am taking it in tomorrow for the next level of troubleshooting/repair. No idea, but like you I am frustrated over all the time I have committed to this. Tech folks aren't convinced it is hardware, but wonder if the 10.2 upgrade zapped the airport card. The fact that handoff and Instant Hotspot are also dead makes me wonder.


Simonsi... yes.. current setup is one email, one phone number for iMessage and FaceTime.. no change.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Yeah, not sure how comforted to know that I am not the only one with the issue knowing that others are also pulling their hair out and wasting time... I am taking it in tomorrow for the next level of troubleshooting/repair. No idea, but like you I am frustrated over all the time I have committed to this. Tech folks aren't convinced it is hardware, but wonder if the 10.2 upgrade zapped the airport card. The fact that handoff and Instant Hotspot are also dead makes me wonder.


Simonsi... yes.. current setup is one email, one phone number for iMessage and FaceTime.. no change.

Does Airdrop work? Have you tried clearing the bluetooth cache?

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Seems so silly and basic; my apologies, but did you repair permissions AND restart from the Recovery partition, resetting ACL's?

To do this:

-Restart into the Recovery partition.
-Click Utilities on the menubar. Click Terminal.
-Type: resetpassword; enter.
-See the 'Reset ACL's' on the bottom of the dialog? Select your user account and click that. Wait. Should only take a second or so.

Also, delete ALL WiFi/bluetooth *.plists from ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Preferences.

Hope that helps. Believe me, I know. I went through so many issues with Mavericks and many calls, many reinstalls, even three fresh installs. A lot of hair-pulling, dead-ends, and mounting anger against Apple got me nowhere. After the disaster that Mavericks was, Yosemite is a relief so far (on 10.10.2). It's unfortunate that your experience isn't the same.

 

[simonsi]

Simonsi... yes.. current setup is one email, one phone number for iMessage and FaceTime.. no change.

Bugger, was hoping that would snap the iCloud sync status oddity back to normal for you...

 

[demeeder]

Does Airdrop work? Have you tried clearing the bluetooth cache?

I believe we did clear the BT cache. But great question on AirDrop... did not check that. BT keyboard and mouse work fine (FWIW).

----------

Bugger, was hoping that would snap the iCloud sync status oddity back to normal for you...

Me too!!

----------

Seems so silly and basic; my apologies, but did you repair permissions AND restart from the Recovery partition, resetting ACL's?

To do this:

-Restart into the Recovery partition.
-Click Utilities on the menubar. Click Terminal.
-Type: resetpassword; enter.
-See the 'Reset ACL's' on the bottom of the dialog? Select your user account and click that. Wait. Should only take a second or so.

Also, delete ALL WiFi/bluetooth *.plists from ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Preferences.

Hope that helps. Believe me, I know. I went through so many issues with Mavericks and many calls, many reinstalls, even three fresh installs. A lot of hair-pulling, dead-ends, and mounting anger against Apple got me nowhere. After the disaster that Mavericks was, Yosemite is a relief so far (on 10.10.2). It's unfortunate that your experience isn't the same.

I don't think we reset the ACL but did several repair permissions/disk/etc... Yes, restarted into the recover several times, also did a safe mode restart. I may give this a shot before I head into Apple today.

Thanks.

 

[shenan1982]

Does Airdrop work? Have you tried clearing the bluetooth cache?

AirDrop works fine.

The continuity history shows up on my iPhone.

The issue is more broad than just the wifi\bluetooth. And the issue seems to be with the iMac, because in my iPhone under Text Forwarding, I have the option to enable on my iPad, my other iPhone, my MacBook air... everything except my iMac...

Furthermore, on my iMac, I tried to re-enable iMessage and it just won't work... it's like it's detached from the apple Id (even though it's clearly not, my phone number and apple ID email are showing)... but when I try to create a new convo with someone with iMessage it says that contact isn't registered with iMessage (even though they clearly are), and if I try to reply to an existing convo it goes through, but doesn't sync that message with my iPhone, and when they reply it only goes to my computer, not my phone.

 

[demeeder]

AirDrop works fine.

The continuity history shows up on my iPhone.

The issue is more broad than just the wifi\bluetooth. And the issue seems to be with the iMac, because in my iPhone under Text Forwarding, I have the option to enable on my iPad, my other iPhone, my MacBook air... everything except my iMac...

Furthermore, on my iMac, I tried to re-enable iMessage and it just won't work... it's like it's detached from the apple Id (even though it's clearly not, my phone number and apple ID email are showing)... but when I try to create a new convo with someone with iMessage it says that contact isn't registered with iMessage (even though they clearly are), and if I try to reply to an existing convo it goes through, but doesn't sync that message with my iPhone, and when they reply it only goes to my computer, not my phone.

My symptoms exactly.

Are you able to confirm that messages actually goes through? I did the same with messages to my wife (iPhone). They say "delivered" as an iMessage but she never actually got them.

 

[loxxol]

The issue is not local. its a problem with the way a machine logs into iCloud, and is something that needs to be fixed from apple's end.

As an example, my issues now seem to be resolved, as i was sitting at the previously (non-working) fresh 10.10.2 install on my nMP, logged into iCloud/facetime/messages which had been confirmed as non working, only to get SMS messages mid-afternoon yesterday. also tested FaceTime calling and this is now working.

After logging out of all iCloud services on the previously non-working nMP, and logging back in all Continuity/Handoff is now working.

no amount of enabling / disabling the continuity or handoff features will change this as it looks like there is, or was some esoteric account issue, only fixable on Apple's server end.

During all this, handoff between my existing cMBP and iPhone were working 100%.

I believe (but not confirmed with apple engineering yet) that the issue is a locking mechanism on 'icloudpairing', which allows a device to pair with the relevant iCloud services, and once successfully logs the device in, sends notifications out to all other devices paired with the iCloud account that it is now available for use.... think of it as when you sign into FaceTime on a new device, your other devices receive a pop-up to say 'new machine is now using <facetime|messages>' - this is something that was not working, and now is.

Hope that helps.

 

[shenan1982]

My symptoms exactly.

Are you able to confirm that messages actually goes through? I did the same with messages to my wife (iPhone). They say "delivered" as an iMessage but she never actually got them.

Just tested it.. I'll be damned... it doesn't go through, so yes we're in the same boat. Clearly there's an issue with 10.10.2

----------

The issue is not local. its a problem with the way a machine logs into iCloud, and is something that needs to be fixed from apple's end.

As an example, my issues now seem to be resolved, as i was sitting at the previously (non-working) fresh 10.10.2 install on my nMP, logged into iCloud/facetime/messages which had been confirmed as non working, only to get SMS messages mid-afternoon yesterday. also tested FaceTime calling and this is now working.

After logging out of all iCloud services on the previously non-working nMP, and logging back in all Continuity/Handoff is now working.

no amount of enabling / disabling the continuity or handoff features will change this as it looks like there is, or was some esoteric account issue, only fixable on Apple's server end.

During all this, handoff between my existing cMBP and iPhone were working 100%.

I believe (but not confirmed with apple engineering yet) that the issue is a locking mechanism on 'icloudpairing', which allows a device to pair with the relevant iCloud services, and once successfully logs the device in, sends notifications out to all other devices paired with the iCloud account that it is now available for use.... think of it as when you sign into FaceTime on a new device, your other devices receive a pop-up to say 'new machine is now using <facetime|messages>' - this is something that was not working, and now is.

Hope that helps.

So literally log out of all iCloud services, not just iMessage and FaceTime? All iCloud services on the laptops too?!?!?

 

[demeeder]

The issue is not local. its a problem with the way a machine logs into iCloud, and is something that needs to be fixed from apple's end.

As an example, my issues now seem to be resolved, as i was sitting at the previously (non-working) fresh 10.10.2 install on my nMP, logged into iCloud/facetime/messages which had been confirmed as non working, only to get SMS messages mid-afternoon yesterday. also tested FaceTime calling and this is now working.

After logging out of all iCloud services on the previously non-working nMP, and logging back in all Continuity/Handoff is now working.

no amount of enabling / disabling the continuity or handoff features will change this as it looks like there is, or was some esoteric account issue, only fixable on Apple's server end.

During all this, handoff between my existing cMBP and iPhone were working 100%.

I believe (but not confirmed with apple engineering yet) that the issue is a locking mechanism on 'icloudpairing', which allows a device to pair with the relevant iCloud services, and once successfully logs the device in, sends notifications out to all other devices paired with the iCloud account that it is now available for use.... think of it as when you sign into FaceTime on a new device, your other devices receive a pop-up to say 'new machine is now using <facetime|messages>' - this is something that was not working, and now is.

Hope that helps.

Ok... really glad to hear you got it working . That said, I have logged out of iCloud, iMessage and FaceTime on the iMac many times. I am not having the same joy. Ughh!

 

[loxxol]

@shenan1982:

Certainly logging out of all iCloud / FaceTime / Messages services on all devices will be a good troubleshooting step.

What i am trying to say is that if you have a device that does not send/receive Messages or iPhone calling features, there is nothing you can do except for log a support call with Apple.

The reason behind this is that your non-working device is effectively locked out of SOME of the iCloud services. The only folks that can fix this is Apple, on their server end i am afraid.

Look in your Console logs. sign out of iCloud & Messages & FaceTime. Sign back into iCloud. watch logs for 'identityservicesd' your logs should be full of 'Broadcasting no devices for account IDSDAccount.....'

*This seems to have been introduced with 10.10.2, no amount of re-installation / rolling back to pre 10.10.2 will make any difference once the device has been locked out.

 

[demeeder]

Is this something that the folks at the Apple store will be able to address or should I try to bring this up with tech support again?