iMessage Not Working on Mac ? Here are 12 ways to Fix it

iMessage Not Working on Mac? Here are 12 ways to fix it. On your Mac, launch the Messages app and choose Preferences from the app menu in the upper left corner of your screen. Go to the iMessage tab and under your Apple ID, uncheck the Enable this account box. Reboot, then turn on again. To be more thorough, you can do this for every device you use with iMessage.
Once you dive into the Apple ecosystem, there is nothing like iMessage for incredible (and secure) instant messaging. But on Mac, in particular, it can be a fickle beast. You can often encounter undeliverable messages, login errors, and connection problems.
If iMessage isn’t working as expected on Mac, there are several ways to fix it. You will need your iPhone for some of the troubleshooting methods below, so be sure to have it handy before you start.

1. Force Message Exit / Restart Mac

If a few minutes ago you were able to use iMessage without any problems, then force quitting, and restarting the Messages app can help. To do this, open the Apple menu, hold Shift, and select Force Close Messages. Then try restarting Messages.

Restarting your Mac can also resolve various application-related problems that often occur when the system has been running for too long.

2. Check Apple System Status

IMessage can experience server-side crashes. If you’re having trouble sending or receiving messages in general (or trouble signing in if you’re setting up iMessage for the first time), go to Apple’s system status page using Safari or another web browser.
Check the status next to iMessage. You should see a red dot (along with a note) if there is a service failure. In this case, the best thing you can do is wait a couple of hours for Apple to fix the problem. Once the status changes to Available, you can start using iMessage again.
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3. Check iMessage Settings

If the Messages app on Mac can’t send or receive messages from certain contacts, you need to check your iMessage settings.
To do this, select Messages from the menu bar (open the Messages app if you don’t see it) and select Settings. Then go to the iMessage tab.
Check the box next to “You can be contacted for messages at” and include any phone numbers and email addresses that you want to use with iMessage.

The phone number or email address under Start New Conversation With must also match the one listed under Settings> Messages> Send & Receive on your iPhone.

4. Resend Messages

If your iMessage contact is not connected to the Internet, your messages may not go through. Easy to try again. Click the red exclamation mark next to the undelivered message and select “Try Again”.
You can also select the Send as text message option to send the message as a text message. If you don’t see this option, you must enable text message forwarding. The following troubleshooting tip should show you how to do this.

5. Enable Text Message Forwarding

Not everyone uses an iPhone or Mac. If the contact is displayed in green, then you must use regular text messages to communicate. However, the Messages app on Mac won’t be able to send text messages unless you’ve turned on the text message forwarding feature on your iPhone.
To do this, open your iPhone preferences, select Messages, select Forwarding Text Messages, and then turn on the toggle next to your Mac (Mac) name.

Your iPhone must also have an active internet connection. Otherwise, no text messages from your Mac will be transferred.

6. Log out and log in

If iMessage still doesn’t work on your Mac and you continue to experience problems with undelivered messages, logging out and logging back into iMessage can help fix this.
Open the settings panel in Messages and select the iMessage tab. Then select â€œSign Outâ€ and then press â€œSign Outâ€ again to confirm.

While you can go ahead and sign in to iMessage again, we recommend restarting your Mac instead. Once you’ve done that, open the Messages app and sign in to iMessage again when prompted.

7. Enable Messaging in iCloud

Is IMessage not syncing between your Mac and the rest of Apple devices? The likely reason is the disabling of messages in iCloud.
Open the Settings pane under Messages and then select the iMessage tab. Then select the checkbox next to Enable Messages in iCloud.

You must also set up your iPhone to sync messages. To do this, open the Settings app on your iOS device, tap your Apple ID, tap iCloud, and then turn on the switch next to Messages.
It takes a lot of iCloud storage space to sync messages between devices. You can regularly delete unimportant conversations and attachments to keep it under control.

8. macOS update

Recent macOS updates frequently fix known bugs and issues with most native apps, including Messages. If you haven’t updated your Mac in a while, try it now.
Open the Apple menu and select System Preferences. Select Software Update to install any pending updates for your Mac.

9. Check the date and time

iMessage may not work if your Mac has the wrong time and date.
To make sure everything is correct, open the System Preferences app and select Date & Time. Then select the “Set date and time automatically” checkbox. If it is already selected, uncheck the box and check it again after a couple of seconds.

You can also switch to the Time Zone tab and select the Automatically set time zone using current location check box. Restart your Mac and then try using iMessage.

10. Disable VPN

Have a VPN (a virtual private network) set up on your Mac? Disconnect from it and try using iMessage again.

11. Reset Wi-Fi Preferences

If you still have problems with iMessage, try resetting your Wi-Fi settings. To do this, open Finder and press Command + Shift + G. Then enter the following folder path:
/ Library / Settings / SystemConfiguration /

Select Go. In the Finder window that appears, select the following files (you may not see all of them) and back them up to your desktop. Then move the originals to the trash can.

com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
com.apple.network.identification.plist
com.apple.network.eapolclient. configuration.plist
com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist

Restart your Mac and it will automatically recover files. After that check if iMessage is working.

12. Change DNS

Switching your default DNS (Domain Name System) servers to a popular service like Google DNS can help resolve iMessage connection issues.
1. Click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar and select Open Network Settings.
2. Click the “Advanced” button.

3. Go to the DNS tab.

4. Paste the following as DNS servers.

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

5. Select “OK” and “Apply”.

Maintain Messaging

Since there are many root causes for any iMessage-related issue on your Mac, you might need to spend a little time fixing it. If all else fails, clearing the cache on your Mac might also help.
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