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SMS texts not syncing between iPhone and Macbook Pro & iPad

Hi there,


I've been having SMS problems between my iPhone, which receives SMS messaging fine, and my Macbook + iPad Pro. To be clear: I am having no issues with iMessage, only with SMS.


For the past 2-3 months, I have intermittently had an issue where my iPhone would receive SMS messages, but my iPad and Macbook would not receive it. Each time, I would frustratingly look up help articles and solve the problem. I'm not sure exactly what it was that worked, but I think it was turning text message forwarding off and then back on plus restarting my phone. That seemed to nip the problem in the bud.


The issue above happened about 3 times in the past 3 months. Each time, enough time passed between the issue that I forgot how to solve it. Between solving it, things would work fine again....until it stopped working fine.


This has been frustrating.


Well now I'm currently experiencing a new, frustrating situation. Right now, all 3 devices are receiving text messages. The issue is that when I read an SMS text message on my iPhone, both the iPad and Macbook do not mark it as read. I have to manually open the SMS on my iPad or Macbook as well to get them to mark as read. (The Macbook and iPad are syncing together, though. So when I read an unread SMS on my iPad, it marks as read on my Macbook.)


What can I do?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jul 13, 2022 12:52 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 13, 2022 1:10 PM

It sounds as if Text Message Forwarding has gotten disrupted. I would suggest that you turn it off by going, on your iPhone, to Settings>Messages>Text Message Forwarding and turning it off for all of your devices. Just for kicks, power them all off and then back on again. Set up Text Message Forwarding again.


See here for detailed instructions:


How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support


In order for messages status to be synced across all of your devices, you also have to enable iCloud Syncing for Messages:


Use Messages in iCloud - Apple Support

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7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 13, 2022 1:10 PM in response to boldleigh

It sounds as if Text Message Forwarding has gotten disrupted. I would suggest that you turn it off by going, on your iPhone, to Settings>Messages>Text Message Forwarding and turning it off for all of your devices. Just for kicks, power them all off and then back on again. Set up Text Message Forwarding again.


See here for detailed instructions:


How to forward SMS/MMS text messages from your iPhone to your iPad, iPod touch or Mac - Apple Support


In order for messages status to be synced across all of your devices, you also have to enable iCloud Syncing for Messages:


Use Messages in iCloud - Apple Support

Jul 13, 2022 2:01 PM in response to boldleigh

If it doesn't, you might want to consider turning off Text Message forwarding, signing out of iMessage on all of your devices, resetting the network settings on all of the devices then signing back into iMessage on your iPhone. Once it's reactivated there, sign in on the other devices. Then, turn Text Message Forwarding back on. It's possible that some of that is just magical thinking but it seems to work a fair bit of the time.

Jul 15, 2022 12:52 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Just reporting back that turning off text message forwarding, restarting devices, and turning them back on did not fix this. As I type this, I have a read SMS on my iPhone, but both my iPad and Macbook are reporting it as unread. Ugh.


I'm signing out of iMessage and resetting network settings on each device, per your instructions above. Here's hoping. 🤞

SMS texts not syncing between iPhone and Macbook Pro & iPad

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