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New M1 Mac mini / Big sure and iMessage

I just switched over to a new M1 MacMini running Big Sur, and my iMessage stopped syncing any text messages that aren't iMessage. I can't seem to find a fix for this. Any suggestions?

Mac mini, macOS 11.0

Posted on Dec 12, 2020 1:57 PM

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Posted on Feb 19, 2021 9:15 AM

@HowieDub, I am not certain why how it got turned off, but the fix for me was to make sure that on my iPhone Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding was turned on for my Mac Mini.


It was automatically set up for other devices I've added over the years and the initial setup of the Mac Mini synced from the cloud, but I guess I needed to turn this on for the new Mac Mini M1 to get the messages going forward to work.


Good luck!

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 19, 2021 9:15 AM in response to HowieDub

@HowieDub, I am not certain why how it got turned off, but the fix for me was to make sure that on my iPhone Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding was turned on for my Mac Mini.


It was automatically set up for other devices I've added over the years and the initial setup of the Mac Mini synced from the cloud, but I guess I needed to turn this on for the new Mac Mini M1 to get the messages going forward to work.


Good luck!

Jan 4, 2021 8:11 PM in response to line35

Sorry for the late reply. It's been a busy time for me here. :-/

A couple of things you have to make sure you have done...

On all your mobile devices, ensure when you go in to Settings>Messages that iMessage is turned on.

On your Mac, open iMessage, go into it's preferences, and make sure "Enable messages in iCloud" box is checked.

Click Sync Now to make sure everything is synced.

This will ensure all messages go through iCloud to all your devices.

Hopefully this helps.

Feb 4, 2021 11:06 PM in response to Kaijuman

Has anyone else found this fix to NOT work on M1 Macs (Specifically the Mac Mini M1)? I have unset, reset, turned things off/on, and everything else I can think to do; to no avail. My non-Apple Text messages synced once when I first setup. Unfortunately, not anymore. This is particularly frustrating when I've become very accustomed to having the two-factor verification TEXT messages fill in automatically for me on my MacBook Pro. Is there any local .plist file or such that I can delete and have the messages app rebuild again. Maybe that would help?


TIA!

-E

Feb 18, 2021 10:30 PM in response to eulkloss

The solution did not work on my Mac mini M1 either. Tried it all multiple times and iMessages still won't sync or even send for that matter. My convo with my wife is missing almost all of this year's messages and all of last year's (maybe that's a good thing). It was working earlier today and now it's completely stopped. And I haven't been able to send any messages, except to myself lol. Keep getting red "not delivered" notification. Very frustrating to say the least. I wanted to get this frustrated, I would have stuck with my 6 year old PC instead of spending $$$ on this one. At least I don't expect to send messages on my PC.

Feb 19, 2021 4:43 AM in response to HowieDub

What worked for me was logging on directly to my apple-id account at appleid.apple.com. Go down to devices, then remove my devices that I had problems with. And from there go to my actual devices, both iPhone and Mac, and log back on to icloud with my apple-id. And of course make sure everything is turned on and so on, like Kaijuman described. I had to validate my devices with different digits appearing on screen so they could connect together again, but that was easy, just follow instructions that you get. After some time, everything worked again, and synced like it's supposed to do. It may just be luck, but maybe this will work for others too.

Feb 19, 2021 11:54 AM in response to eulkloss

Thanks for the help @line35 and @eukloss. I made sure forwarding was on and I toggled it just to be sure. I went into the Apple ID website and deleted my Mac mini from the list, then adding it back, but still no luck. I figured out it's not with everyone, but certain contacts. The only thing that seems to work is if I delete the conversation, which I really don't want to do for every message that's affected. What's odd is when I delete the conversation, it's deleted from my other devices, but comes back on my Mac and I'm able to text that person again on the Mac. Something is wonky with syncing.

May 10, 2021 11:11 AM in response to Kaijuman

I have same problem. All old messages from my old Mini (Intel) came through. New Messages from Contacts come through but anything else unrecognised or from SMS (like 2 factor authentication codes) would only come through to the iPhone.


I plugged (usb) the iPhone into the Mini M1 and the iPhone asked if I wanted to trust the new M1 - so I did and immediately (some or all of) the missing texts came through to the Mini. But then, later, at least one message cam to iPhone and agin not made it through to the M1!??


I tried going to iPhone settings for Messages>Text Message Forwarding and saw two instances of Mac mini M1 - one was on and the other was off. Now switched both on to see what happens next!


!!

New M1 Mac mini / Big sure and iMessage

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