When you’re in an area with sketchy cell service, there may not be enough of a data connection for iMessage to work. On the Mac, you add these addresses with the plus button in System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details > Contact. If they’re not right, fix them in iOS in Settings > Passwords & Accounts > iCloud > Your Name > Contact Information, by tapping Edit in the Reachable At section. On the Mac, look in Message > Preferences > iMessage > Settings. In iOS, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive to check. Make sure you can be reached at all the appropriate ones. SMS relies on a phone number, and you can be contacted via iMessage via a phone number or email address. Verify your phone number and email addresses are correct in Messages settings On the Mac, go to Messages > Preferences > iMessage > Settings and uncheck and recheck Enable Messages in iCloud. If messages from one device aren’t showing up properly on another device, in iOS, go to Settings > Your Name > iCloud and turn Messages off and back on. With the new Messages in iCloud feature, Apple syncs conversations through your iCloud account. Toggle Messages in iCloud off and back on On the Mac, go to Messages > Preferences > iMessage > Settings, uncheck Enable This Account, and then log in again. iMessage may take a minute or two to reactivate.

In iOS, go to Settings > Messages and turn the iMessage switch at the top off and back on. On the Mac, just quit and relaunch Messages.

Double-press the Home button on Touch ID devices or swipe up and to the right from the bottom of the screen on Face ID devices, then swipe up on the Messages app thumbnail to force-quit it. Relaunch the Messages appįorce-quitting in iOS isn’t something you should do willy-nilly, since it slows down your device and hurts battery life, but it’s worth trying if Messages isn’t sending or receiving messages correctly. In the case of a Mac, make sure it’s connected to your network. Make sure that your iPhone has at least cellular service (for SMS) and cellular data (for iMessage) and that your iOS device isn’t in Airplane mode. If messages aren’t flowing when you think they should be, the first “is it plugged in?” thing to check is connectivity. If you text with someone in this situation, get them to deregister from iMessage. Help Android-switcher friends turn off iMessageĭo you have a friend who previously used an iPhone but later switched to an Android phone? People like that can confuse your copy of Messages, which doesn’t know if it should send to them via iMessage (no) or SMS (yes). Here are a few of the most common solutions we’ve come across for problems with sending and receiving messages. Apple’s Messages app for iOS and macOS generally works well, but when it doesn’t, figuring out what’s wrong and how to fix it can take some doing.

How to set up sms on mac