Messages very buggy re: syncing with phone

[ndouglas]

Anyone else have a frequent issue with messages syncing between phone and laptop? 1-2 years ago I used to attribute it to well one of my devices isn't the very latest model (2019 macbook pro, intel), but lately that's less likely since I got a Macbook M3 newest model in December. It's weird because it syncs most* messages, usually, or at least eventually but just several people's messages won't sync while others will, and then other times I'll open the laptop and, like today, I get a notification that I have like 29 new messages. Which aren't new, but it's adding up 5-10 from 3 people each, whom I've texted during the last 12 or 24 hours. And worse is how like right now, I got a text on my phone that I wanted to reply to on my laptop, and it's just not there at all. Maybe it'll show up tomorrow, if past events are any guide. But it sure is puzzling. Sometimes I can trigger the sync by text the person or myself a “test” message.

It's irritating how it occurs so often. I've made sure I have the latest OS on all devices. And between ipad and iphone it doesn't seem to happen, or at least not nearly as often, as between laptop and phone. If it helps I have an iPhone mini 13, and a Macbook Pro 16" late 2023. And I have iMessages enabled, and I've done the other usual troubshooting in Settings.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

It works quite reliably for me. See if maybe some device isn’t set to sync to iCloud? That tends to make it a bit “flaky.”

 

[ndouglas]

Flaky is the word for this behavior, for sure! If it didn't work most of the time, with most messages, I'd suspect there were some setting like that switched off, but I've checked all the Messages settings for all devices.

Glad to hear your experience is reliable syncing. Can I ask what devices you have this working on? for me it's an iPad, Macbook, Phone, and Watch.
And I didn't mention the watch in the OP but it's pretty flaky too. Not as bad as the laptop though. Very strange...

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I have iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, two Mac minis, and a watch. All up to date iOS/macOS (currently 17.4/14.4). Apple Watch doesn’t actually sync messages from iCloud as I recall; plus I only use it for message notifications so no idea what’s actually “on” the watch in terms of messages. But the others work quite well.

The only “issue” I see - in quotes on purpose, it’s not something I particularly expect to work differently - is that my workshop Mac is really only used on weekends. When I wake it from sleep after not having used it all week, it has to sync message changes from iCloud which can take a few minutes. That seems to delay inbound messages while it’s syncing, so if I go to the workshop, wake the Mac, and sign into a website requiring a SMS confirmation it doesn’t immediately pop in unless the sync has completed. So I have to type the code in from my watch, or worst case if the code isn’t within the first few characters of the message, dig out my phone. First world problems.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

As for “flaky” in thinking about it, it’s not iCloud sync that caused my flaky behavior… it’s message forwarding that was off. I had an issue with my iPhone where it wouldn’t reconnect WiFi automatically when I returned home, and when I manually connected it required the password every time. So I ultimately erased the phone & set it up fresh - figured once every 15 years, that’s a good thing to do 😉

Anyway, after signing in & letting iCloud sync and so forth - I noticed that NONE of my Macs were getting those SMS sign-in codes quickly. Normally it’s there within a second or five… but it was taking upwards of half a minute!

Turns out it was getting the code via my phone syncing it to Messages in iCloud and then syncing that to the Mac. I hadn’t enabled the Macs for “forwarding” in Settings > Messages on the phone. Turning that on, cured the issue.

 

[ndouglas]

As for “flaky” in thinking about it, it’s not iCloud sync that caused my flaky behavior… it’s message forwarding that was off. I had an issue with my iPhone where it wouldn’t reconnect WiFi automatically when I returned home, and when I manually connected it required the password every time. So I ultimately erased the phone & set it up fresh - figured once every 15 years, that’s a good thing to do 😉

Anyway, after signing in & letting iCloud sync and so forth - I noticed that NONE of my Macs were getting those SMS sign-in codes quickly. Normally it’s there within a second or five… but it was taking upwards of half a minute!

Turns out it was getting the code via my phone syncing it to Messages in iCloud and then syncing that to the Mac. I hadn’t enabled the Macs for “forwarding” in Settings > Messages on the phone. Turning that on, cured the issue.

Good to know, thank you for the input! I have checked that setting several times but I’ll check again. I’ve done web searches for the issue but so far nothing has helped it.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

There are several threads about this sort of thing. For me, I notice that sent mail won't sync. On the Mac, the sent folder will be as expected. On iDevice, last sent might be several days old. Resetting/restarting/etc won't do anything about it. However, it seems to "wake up" and catch up eventually... then repeats.

Curiously, on Mac, select mail will simply disappear- as if permanently deleted. However, search for that mail and the search box will see it... but it won't be where it should be. "Rebuild mailbox" won't resolve that one. It's simply as if the mail is lost but not deleted (so more like hidden- even from the composer of the mail).

I wonder if both issues may be related? Perhaps the "invisible" mail syncs with iDevices... but is invisible there too?

I miss "just works" Apple.

 

[ndouglas]

There are several threads about this sort of thing. For me, I notice that sent mail won't sync. On the Mac, the sent folder will be as expected. On iDevice, last sent might be several days old. Resetting/restarting/etc won't do anything about it. However, it seems to "wake up" and catch up eventually... then repeats.

Curiously, on Mac, select mail will simply disappear- as if permanently deleted. However, search for that mail and the search box will see it... but it won't be where it should be. "Rebuild mailbox" won't resolve that one. It's simply as if the mail is lost but not deleted (so more like hidden- even from the composer of the mail).

I wonder if both issues may be related? Perhaps the "invisible" mail syncs with iDevices... but is invisible there too?

I miss "just works" Apple.

Huh, I never ran into that with Mail. Perhaps it happens and I just don't notice. I thought about starting another thread about the Watch, where not just messages won't sync but the Stocks app and other apps seem to not update, regardless of how often I make sure "background app refresh" is on for it. Same with Pedometer, which I realize is a 3rd party app so maybe that's another can of worms, but perhaps most frequently Stocks, Messages, and sometimes Weather is off from where it should be and/or from what the iPhone displays.

Sorry if there are a bunch of threads on this already, if any you feel are answering my Qs please link one or more. I did search for "messages not syncing" or similar keywords before starting this thread. And I got some threads in the search results but they weren't very long, or recent, or perhaps not related to Messages also.

 

[jesseG]

Anyone else have a frequent issue with messages syncing between phone and laptop? 1-2 years ago I used to attribute it to well one of my devices isn't the very latest model (2019 macbook pro, intel), but lately that's less likely since I got a Macbook M3 newest model in December. It's weird because it most* messages, usually, but just several people's messages won't sync while others will, and then other times I'll open the laptop and, like today, I get a notification that I have like 29 new messages. Which they aren't new, but perhaps it's adding up 5-10 from 3 people each, whom I've texted during the last 12 or 24 hours. And worse is how like right now, I got a text on my phone that I wanted to reply to on my laptop, and it's just not there at all. Maybe it'll show up tomorrow, if past events are any guide. But it sure is puzzling.

I hope this makes sense, perhaps I'm not describing it super concisely, but it's fairly irritating how it occurs so often. I've made sure I have the latest OS on all devices. And between ipad and iphone it doesn't seem to happen, or at least not nearly as often, as between laptop and phone. If it helps I have an iPhone mini 13, and a Macbook Pro 16" late 2023. And I have iMessages enabled, and I've done the other usual troubshooting in Settings.

Thanks for any advice.

Thanks for posting this. I am having the exact same problem with iMessage.
Also getting "A new device has been added to your account" multiple times, days later.

Got the new m3 air last week, which I did add to my account. I checked Apple ID and I do not see anything that isn't mine.

What made me come here, is that my wife just got a notice from her very large, 150k employee, company that 14.4 is blocked from company devices due to issues. That issue is related to java apps.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

There are several threads about this sort of thing. For me, I notice that sent mail won't sync. On the Mac, the sent folder will be as expected. On iDevice, last sent might be several days old. Resetting/restarting/etc won't do anything about it. However, it seems to "wake up" and catch up eventually... then repeats..

I don’t think that’s related. Folders like Sent don’t seem to always “sync” with iOS unless/until you open that folder. Then they sync up at that point.

Perhaps there’s a way to set them to sync automagically- but I prefer the way it’s working for me now, since I very seldom need to go into my sent mail. No sense having it download a bunch of stuff I’m unlikely to need.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Yes, the point is that Mail is buggy... not that it is all one bug/one problem.

And no, opening sent on my iDevice Mail folders does not sync at that moment. That's how I notice the problem (opening them to discover they are not there and not immediately downloading either). Another day, open it and they will sync. So it works as expected some of the time.

Why do I sometimes need to check sent mail. I send clients information in email and then want to go over it with them in person. They'll have it in their inbox but I won't (always) be able to summon it in my iDevice sent folder.

 

[ndouglas]

Thanks for posting this. I am having the exact same problem with iMessage.
Also getting "A new device has been added to your account" multiple times, days later.

Got the new m3 air last week, which I did add to my account. I checked Apple ID and I do not see anything that isn't mine.

What made me come here, is that my wife just got a notice from her very large, 150k employee, company that 14.4 is blocked from company devices due to issues. That issue is related to java apps.

Any developments or improvments for you or your wife with this between your phone and new M3 air? It’s frustrating and isn’t going away for me. I guess it’s a known thing and as someone wrote above, there are other threads on it, but I sure haven’t found any helpful fixes in any of them. (Nor on other sites like apple.com, arstechnica, reddit, etc.)

To make it mildly worse for myself, I did what many sites advise, _again_, the whole log out of iCloud and then back in to it, on my M3 Macbook that still has this persistent behavior… no change at all with the poor syncing of iMessages, and now there‘s a bunch of “Local Desktop” folders, “Local iCloud”, “Local [this and that] … sigh.

 

[2square]

New air, os 14.5, long time apple user coming new to this from 10.11.6. Messages, they sync pretty much perfectly between my iPhone 17.5.1 and my MacBook Pro 10.11.6. However, on this new air, the settings are quite different and the messages do not come in on my air immediately and sometimes not at all. SMS messages come in fine.

Up to 10.11.6, iMessage had a check box "enable this account", which essentially enabled iMessage on the Mac. On 14.5, this setting has been changed to "enable messages in iCloud"; indicating that iMessage is enabled by default and this is a setting to upload messages to the iCloud server. Now, I don't want to upload any messages, I've got this unchecked. But, in iCloud settings via system settings>Apple ID, message in iCloud is turned on, even though in the messages app it is turned off. I've signed out of iCloud and then signed back in again.

What I want to know is, why do my messages not sync between my new MacBook Air and my iPhone/MacBook Pro correctly? And is this possible without this messages in iCloud setting, as it seems to be with my MacBook Pro 10.11.6, where this setting is nowhere to be seen, and my iPhone, where messages in iCloud is turned off?

All suggestions are welcome, thank you.

 

[match14]

I have noticed that iMessages on my iPhone only sync to the cloud once a day around midnight.

 

[ndouglas]

I have noticed that iMessages on my iPhone only sync to the cloud one a day around midnight.

Hm that sounds very strange! and frustrating. It’s so weird to me that I get this poor sync issue one one device (laptop) while other devices, phone and ipad sync very well, overall. The whole benefit of the “ecosystem” and things and apps just working well together is indeed enjoyable, when it works… but there are a lot of holes / gaps in the times that it works. : - /