iMessage not working after Big Sur update

[JustAnotherCarGuy]

Just updated to Big Sur from Catalina on a 16" MBP, and now my iMessage doesn't work. On launch it prompts me to sign in, and when I do, it displays the iMessage interface with all my chats for about 10-20 seconds before it quits and gives me that same prompt again.



If I try to send a message while the interface is displayed it gives an error message about iMessage not being enabled :/



Weirdly enough, the iMessage preferences windows does not open nor is iMessage or FaceTime listed under the services using my iCloud account.



Does anyone know what exactly is happening here, and if there is a fix?



ps: iMessage works fine on my iPad which uses the same AppleID

 

[donawalt]

I have a similar problem but not quite - I have Big Sur installed on my backup MacBook Pro. The messages preferences shows I am signed in to my Cloud account, Messages are enabled in iCloud, I click the sync and that comes back right away with no errors, yet a few messages that came in on my iPad, primary MacBook Pro, and iPhone are not showing up, and I just tried a test messaged which I got a "failed to send" error. It was working fine through last night, but nothing coming in or out since the upgrade. I just signed out of iCloud from within Messages/Preferences, and then back in, and closed/reopened Messages app, we'll see if it gets working. I am not hopeful, I just sent another test message and it's not showing up anywhere else - I bet it comes back with a fail. I'll report back...

 

[JustAnotherCarGuy]

I have a similar problem but not quite - I have Big Sur installed on my backup MacBook Pro. The messages preferences shows I am signed in to my Cloud account, Messages are enabled in iCloud, I click the sync and that comes back right away with no errors, yet a few messages that came in on my iPad, primary MacBook Pro, and iPhone are not showing up, and I just tried a test messaged which I got a "failed to send" error. It was working fine through last night, but nothing coming in or out since the upgrade. I just signed out of iCloud from within Messages/Preferences, and then back in, and closed/reopened Messages app, we'll see if it gets working. I am not hopeful, I just sent another test message and it's not showing up anywhere else - I bet it comes back with a fail. I'll report back...

Oh yes please do. I really hope it’s an error on their end or something that could be fixed with the next build update...not too happy with how they handled the public release tbh. The worst transition I’ve seen thus far.

 

[Jekalpin]

Same issue here. When I send a message via Messages on my MacBook Pro, they don't always appear in iMessage on my iPhone. I've rebooted everything and turned iCloud off/on on all devices and its still doing it. My gut tells me that iCloud isn't syncing messages properly right now.

 

[donawalt]

I have since tried turning off Messages using iCloud, signed out of iCloud, shut down and restarted, and turned everything on/signed in again. It seems to know I am in the same iCloud account as I see "Your Apple ID and phone have been used to sign on to a new Mac" message on other devices, but I have gotten no Messages in from today, and outgoing Messages still fail. I guess this is DOA until Apple can deal with it on their end either via server or software issue resolution.

 

[Jekalpin]

I have since tried turning off Messages using iCloud, signed out of iCloud, shut down and restarted, and turned everything on/signed in again. It seems to know I am in the same iCloud account as I see "Your Apple ID and phone have been used to sign on to a new Mac" message on other devices, but I have gotten no Messages in from today, and outgoing Messages still fail. I guess this is DOA until Apple can deal with it on their end either via server or software issue resolution.

Seems to be working for me now. It appears to be a bug with the iPhone and iOS iMessages app. I noticed that I kept getting a message at the bottom of the iPhone iMessage app saying "Uploading iMessages to iCloud" or "Downloading iMessages to iCloud". What's weird is the text of the message isn't formatted properly on the screen and the text sorta goes outside of the box and looks like a bug. At one point it said something like "Can't sync with iCloud. Connect to wifi and plug in the iPhone" (similar to what you get when you turn off iPhoto syncing with cellular). I plugged the iPhone into the charger and its now working for some reason. I think its an iCloud bug between Big Sur and iOS 14.2.

 

[donawalt]

Hmm. My Catalina MacBook Pro and iPhone are plugged in, and my iPad Pro is not - but none of them have any iCloud syncing messages and are all properly current with iMessages in iCloud. I just tried an off/on with "enable Messages in iCloud" under Big Sur, and now I see a "Downloading messages from iCloud" progress line at the bottom - no progress yet. We'll see how that goes, maybe they fixed something!

 

[Jekalpin]

I see a "Downloading messages from iCloud" progress line at the bottom - no progress yet.

I think this is exactly the issue. I just also I went through the same process with my iPad. I turned off iMessages. Turned off iMessages in the iCloud settings. Turned both back on again and its giving the same messages "Downloading messages from iCloud" and then 10 minutes later "Uploading messages to iCloud". It's done now and I'm hoping its fixed on both the iPhone and iPad.

 

[JustAnotherCarGuy]

Hmm. My Catalina MacBook Pro and iPhone are plugged in, and my iPad Pro is not - but none of them have any iCloud syncing messages and are all properly current with iMessages in iCloud. I just tried an off/on with "enable Messages in iCloud" under Big Sur, and now I see a "Downloading messages from iCloud" progress line at the bottom - no progress yet. We'll see how that goes, maybe they fixed something!

From where do you toggle that setting? I cant seem to find it :/

 

[donawalt]

Messages/Prefs on macs, settings/Messages on iDevices.

 

[JustAnotherCarGuy]

Messages/Prefs on macs, settings/Messages on iDevices.

Oh right. Messages/Preferences doesn't launch on this for some reason :/ thank you for trying to help though

 

[donawalt]

If you have the Messages app up on your mac, then there is a messages menu item at the top, and prefs is a menu option there. You don't see that?

 

[JustAnotherCarGuy]

If you have the Messages app up on your mac, then there is a messages menu item at the top, and prefs is a menu option there. You don't see that?

It’s greyed out while the iMessage login prompt is displayed. When I do manage to login momentarily, the preferences menu option is made available but doesn’t launch the pref window when clicked.

 

[donawalt]

I came home tonight and it's fixed! I guess a combination of restarts and toggling iCloud off and on fixed it. Hopefully this will be improved in the next MacOS update.