iMessage not syncing across devices after macOS 26.0.1 update

All of my Apple products have been updated with the latest IOS - Tahoe 26.01, which i really like. With one exception.

Since these updates, my imessages are not syncing across devices continuously. On all of my devices (Mac Air, iPad, iPhone), when I go to Settings, Apple ID, iCloud, Messages, i see a "Status" that tells me when it was last sync'd and an option to "Sync Now". sometimes the "last sync'd" is from the previous day and they are most always different dates/times.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: IOS 26.01/Tahoe - Messages not syncing across devices

MacBook Air, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 9, 2025 5:49 PM

Top-ranking reply

dcmoody

Level 1

39 points

Posted on Dec 31, 2025 2:06 PM

I have had this same issue... this actually seemed to fix it for me:

1. Under Apps/Messages/Send & Receive on iPhone, unselect your phone number as a place to send and receive iMessages. You should only have your Apple ID/email address selected.

2. Turn off Apps/Messages/iMessage slider for 5 - 10 seconds. Just long enough for us to be sure it registered everywhere.

3. Turn iMessage back on. At this point you should only have your email address as the sender/recipient of iMessages.

4. Wait until you get the pop-up notification that (paraphrased) “your Apple ID is now being used for iMessage on a new iPhone”.

5. After you get the notification that your your Apple ID is now being used for iMessage on a new iPhone, you can change the iMessage settings to allow your phone number to send/receive iMessages again. Just don’t unselect the email address and only leave the phone number.

Found it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sms-messages-dont-propagate-their-read-status.2470463/post-34269593

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20 replies

TGWMO

Level 1

36 points

Nov 14, 2025 2:41 PM in response to App0724js

My issue is that SMS messages (I don't know about RCS because I have not received many lately) are all received on my devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac), but when I read on one platform so the message is marked as read, it is not marked as read on the others. I believe this started with iOS 26.1. It is not quite the same issue mentioned here, and I was thinking of creating a new discussion, but has anyone else seen this?

Dec 15, 2025 1:36 PM in response to Kenneth Close

Kenneth Close wrote:

For me, it mostly seems to be SMS/RCS messages that don't sync correctly. I chat with my brother daily and he's on an Android phone. I constantly have "unread" messages on either my phone or my MacBook depending on which device I've most recently interacted with him on.

You can try this. Log out of iMessage on all of your devices. Restart them. Log back in on your iPhone. When that has activated, log back in on the other devices. Make sure you have iCloud Syncing for Messages enabled on all of your devices. Settings>Your Account>iCloud>Messages. Then, on your iPhone, go to Settings>Apps>Messages and turn on Text Message Forwarding for your other devices. I've found this will often solve the odd messaging problem. But don't do it when you're in a hurry.

Set up iCloud for Messages on all your devices - Apple Support

hnolen16

Level 1

8 points

Dec 22, 2025 10:31 AM in response to App0724js

I'm also having this issue with Tahoe 26.2, and have had no success with any of the suggested fixes.

An interesting part of this is that on my iPhone (15, running iOS 26.2), I can no longer seem to toggle Text Message Forwarding off.

Hopefully we get a solution soon.

Artboy57

Level 1

6 points

Dec 16, 2025 7:33 AM in response to TuxP0wered

Doesn't work for me anymore.

Dec 24, 2025 6:50 AM in response to Artboy57

Thank you for this. Since purchasing a new M4 desktop and upgrading to Tahoe I have been searching for the answer to this problem for over 2 weeks and not even apple support online can answer it.

iMessage not syncing across devices after macOS 26.0.1 update