Mountain Lion and iOS6 iMessage Sync Issues

[bagpussuk]

Hi, i have seen a couple of threads on this but not answering my query.

At first, post ML install, my messages were not syncing. Both were working but the individual conversations were left on either the MBP or my iphone which made it difficult to pick up conversations. To fix this, i went into (on iPhone) Messages>Send & Recieve> and then made sure my apple ID email was selected. (it wasn't). That fixed that.

But, although this seems to be fine for me, if i message from my iPhone, my friends get a different conversation thread started to when i start one in ML. On my devices, they are all together so it reads well, but on my friends, if i pick up the conversation on my other device, it goes onto the other thread. This doesnt help them keep up with the conversation.

On iOS6, i have my mobile number and my apple ID (gmail email) selected. On iOS6 i also have 'start new conversations from' selected as my mobile number. There is a option here to change it to my gmail (Apple ID). But if i do this, surely people without my email address and only my mobile, will get unrecognised messages.

A little confused

Regards

Barry

 

[hafr]

Hi, i have seen a couple of threads on this but not answering my query.

At first, post ML install, my messages were not syncing. Both were working but the individual conversations were left on either the MBP or my iphone which made it difficult to pick up conversations. To fix this, i went into (on iPhone) Messages>Send & Recieve> and then made sure my apple ID email was selected. (it wasn't). That fixed that.

But, although this seems to be fine for me, if i message from my iPhone, my friends get a different conversation thread started to when i start one in ML. On my devices, they are all together so it reads well, but on my friends, if i pick up the conversation on my other device, it goes onto the other thread. This doesnt help them keep up with the conversation.

On iOS6, i have my mobile number and my apple ID (gmail email) selected. On iOS6 i also have 'start new conversations from' selected as my mobile number. There is a option here to change it to my gmail (Apple ID). But if i do this, surely people without my email address and only my mobile, will get unrecognised messages.

A little confused

Regards

Barry

You're not alone to have this problem It's been like this ever since iMessage came out, if you send messages from different devices the recipient will get multiple conversations. Even if you're using the same Caller ID on the computer, the iPhone and the iPad...

Considering messages goes through to for instance your iPhone even if you switch SIM cards, my guess is they're using a device specific ID (UDID?) as the 'real' sender and the Caller ID of your choice is just there so that the recipient will know who sent the message.

 

[matrix07]

my guess is they're using a device specific ID (UDID?) as the 'real' sender and the Caller ID of your choice is just there so that the recipient will know who sent the message.

That's really dumb if true.

 

[bagpussuk]

Thanks hafr,

So have i got it set up the best way i can i take it?

In old Lion, it had to be from a email address i believe so i understood the dual messages at the receiver, as one was from a mobile number (iPhone) and the other from my MBP (email) so i got that. But i thought in ios6 and ML, the idea was it was combined. It seems to be working fine for me, its just the person i am messaging.

Thanks

 

[bagpussuk]

Just to confuse the issue more... i have been testing with a mate.

If i instigate a iMessage from iPhone with 'send from' set at mobile number, then it doesn't show on ML.

If i instigate a iMessage from iPhone with 'send from' set at apple ID, then it syncs to ML.

Seems to be half way there. I am guessing that i will have to use 'send from' as my apple ID. 2 small problems with this is that initially, contacts without my email address will get unknown messages and 2) when i am out of WIFI/3G coverage, a text will show in a separate conversation box...

Still not that slick if you ask me!

 

[JReinn]

I'm having the exact same issue, as does one of my friends. The solution is to, as you said, change the called ID to your Apple-ID, but contacts without your email wouldn't know who you are. So I don't want to do that.

Another problem is that not all iMessages sync to my mac, unless I start a conversation with a person that I've had a conversation with before. Then some previous messages (not all, because some were sent as SMS) sync to my Mac. I think Apple should add a "Sync" button to Messages on Mac, that would gather all iMessages sent to & from ones mobile phone number AND email address and combine them in 1 thread/person. I hope this will get fixed with an update very soon. I thought it would get fixed with Mountain Lion, but apparently not.

 

[curt92]

I just upgraded to Mountain Lion on my iMac and was excited to start using Messages. I was also wondering how to sync messages on my iMac with those on my iPhone. I gather you have to switch your messages Caller ID on your iPhone from your phone number to your Apple ID. But I was hesitant to do this as I was worried messages I sent wouldn't come up as the same contact on the other end.

I haven't been able to test this yet, but what I'm gathering from this thread is this is true. I don't think any of my friends with iPhones have my email address under their contact for me. Therefore, when I send messages from my iMac they come up as an unknown sender when they get to my friends (possibly as my email address?). The same will happen from my iPhone if I switch the caller ID to my Apple ID (in order to sync messages)? If so, this makes Messages for Mac kind of useless, or at the least a bit painful to begin using in the proper way. I guess all my friends would have to add my email address to their contact for me, and then messages would come up as the same contact whether from my iPhone or iMac?

My assumption from this is that Apple wants their users to begin exchanging Apple IDs to message each other, rather than phone numbers, which would be a bit of a painful transition.

 

[JReinn]

My assumption from this is that Apple wants their users to begin exchanging Apple IDs to message each other, rather than phone numbers, which would be a bit of a painful transition.

You might be right. In the beginning it will be a real pain in the a**. And it will continue to be a pain in the a**. I, myself, don't use email for friends. I use it for websites and newsletters. Thus my friends & I don't have each others email addresses. And if Apple won't "fix" this, then each time you exchange a phone number with a person that owns an iOs or OSX device, you'll be "forced" to exchange emails too, if you want iMessage to work properly.

 

[curt92]

I did some more research and apparently this is going to be solved with iOS6. You will be able to link your Apple ID and phone number from your iPhone running iOS6. Once you do this you will be able to send and receive iMessages under your phone number on your Mac, iPad or iPod. Apparently you can already get this working between your iPhone and iPad using a beta version of iOS6, but not with your Mac yet. I assume there will be an update to Messages for Mountain Lion when iOS6 is released to make this work. Until then, Messages on my Mac will probably go unused. I was about to go through the painful transition of using my Apple ID for all outgoing iMessage from my iPhone, glad I didn't start down that road haha.

http://www.cultofmac.com/172969/ios...umber-and-apple-id-for-imessage-and-facetime/

 

[aajeev]

I did some more research and apparently this is going to be solved with iOS6. You will be able to link your Apple ID and phone number from your iPhone running iOS6. Once you do this you will be able to send and receive iMessages under your phone number on your Mac, iPad or iPod. Apparently you can already get this working between your iPhone and iPad using a beta version of iOS6, but not with your Mac yet. I assume there will be an update to Messages for Mountain Lion when iOS6 is released to make this work. Until then, Messages on my Mac will probably go unused. I was about to go through the painful transition of using my Apple ID for all outgoing iMessage from my iPhone, glad I didn't start down that road haha.

http://www.cultofmac.com/172969/ios...umber-and-apple-id-for-imessage-and-facetime/

Thanks for the find, I have read about the same thing as well. Although, I was already kinda hope that this problem would have been taken cared of in ML. I guess we will just have to wait until iOS6 for the solution.

 

[bagpussuk]

I kinda thought that too, about iOS6 but i have the beta and its no different.

Maybe the gold version will have a additional fix. Fingers crossed!

 

[Frado]

Anyone that has the issue where you reply to a person via iMessage on ML, but then don't see those messages(and replies) on your iPhone? Having this issue now, very irritating..

 

[JReinn]

Yes... Sometimes it does sync, and sometimes it doesn't... I sure hope it'll be fixed with iOs 6.

 

[JReinn]

Sorry for double-posting, but I felt that the subscribers to this thread should get an update to the situation!

I believe that our problems will be fixed with the release of Mountain Lion 10.8.2:

- iMessages sent to your phone number now appear in Messages on your Mac

[...]

- FaceTime now receives calls sent to your phone number

 

[genarrow]

SOLUTION to iMessage Sync Issues

I did it and I hope this solves your problems too!! My wife's devices would NOT sync imessages the way we think iMessage should sync intuitively. I figured it out and it's now working perfect from what I can tell.

Go to https://appleid.apple.com and make sure under phone numbers you have your cell phone number filled out! I deleted prior threads before testing (not sure if that was necessary) but now it's working like a charm.

On a separate note regarding text messages... My iPhone capacity "other" category was over 3GB - this was annoyingly taking up space on my phone. On a hunch I deleted all my text messages (some went back to 2008) and freed up over 2GB of "other". Also freed up a ton of iCloud storage space. Think about it... every text, photo or video ever sent and not deleted is stored in "other" and on icloud. Seems so obvious.... NOW!

 

[sjsherratt]

Cell Phone Number in Apple ID Account

THANK YOU genarrow !!!!