iOS 26.1 - SMS read/unread status not syncing across apple devices

Spent some quality time with Apple support on this issue. There definitely is a difference in read state synchronization between iMessages and standard text messages which now use the RCS standard.

If a conversation is *all* iMessage participants, read status is synchronized via iMessage protocol. If it's not working for you, a debug step is to turn off iMessages on both your phone and your Mac and then turn it back on. I, for example, am using the "set up Text Message Forwarding separately" instructions and do not have Messages turned on in iCloud. After the debug step, my iMessage read statuses are synced.

Forward text messages from your iPhone to other devices - Apple Support

Standard RCS text message read state is controlled by your phone carrier. So if a conversation is *not* iMessage (the incoming bubbles are green not blue) and your read status is not synchronized, you need to have a conversation with your phone carrier. I've not done that yet because I ran out of time today. I'll follow up once I have that resolved.

The secondary problem I was having was that one time codes sent via RCS were not showing up in my Mac Messages client. I'd get a notification of the code coming in and the code would be available for autofill in Safari but the message with the code would not appear in the Messages client. That, as it turns out, was because of the feature to automatically delete one time codes. That feature can be found by going to System Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords > Verification Codes. It is a simple toggle switch. Once I turned "Delete after use" off, the messages with the codes were once again appearing in my Mac client. Now, I don't know when this switch got thrown for me. All I can say is that *I* never changed it and the codes used to appear in my Mac Messages client so I don't know if the issue is that the default changed or that the behavior changed.

So that's all I know for now.

After doing some more research, this seemed to work for me at the moment:

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

Glad I’m not the only one experiencing this issue. iPhone 17 Pro, MacBook Pro, watch ultra. Prior to 26.1 everything worked great. Immediately after updating to 26.1 read state of messages stopped working properly.

Initially it was all messages but after some combination of turning iMessage on/off, rebooting devices, signing out of iCloud and back in, or turning messages in iCloud off then back on. iMessages began syncing.

I still have trouble with SMS/rcs messages not syncing across the devices.

I do need to check and confirm the delete one-time code setting on all devices after reading the authors posts. But I’ll have to do that in the morning.

I had a big wish that 26.2 would fix the issues, but it did not.

I'm curious if the folks experiencing this do or do not have Messages turned on in iCloud. I do not and until recently, synchronization always worked but in everything I'm surfing up when this started happening, all the articles *start* with making sure that Messages are on in iCloud. This was never a requirement before in as much as it *has* worked for years without iCloud synchronization. I have no desire to rent as much iCloud storage as I'd need to handle my Message history.

For me, it seems that if I view the message on my iPhone first, eventually, it will appear on my iMac and iPad but not necessarily on my iWatch. If I view the message first on iWatch or iPad, it is my experience that the message will appear only after the person who sent the original message, sends me another message. Hope that this is not confusing. All devices are operating on Apple's most current versions. And now, even when I use "Sync Now", the issue continues.

After updating to iOS 26.2 iMessage read status is syncing properly. Now just SMS/RCS is not syncing. I'm not sure how this is dependent on the carrier as I've had iPhones since 2017 and have never experienced this before. It started immediately after updating to iOS 26.1.

I wanted to circle back. Ensuring that the delete after use setting was the same on all devices did not make a difference for me.

In my case, it was "enabled" on my macbook and disabled on my iPhone. I set both to disabled and SMS/RCS messages are still not syncing read status.

Extremely frustrating to have to clear multiple messages read status on multiple devices, constantly.

Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

I have messages turned on in iCloud. So far, I have been using the minimum storage for several years.

I do have messages turned on in iCloud . And have had it since it was available . I do have messages I wish to keep. I did sign out of all my devices but it still happens after I sign back in.

I have this issue as well. In the last 2 weeks my messages between my iPhone and Mac no longer sync read/unread status.

Thanks for the observation/confirmation. I was pretty sure that's what I was seeing too but I was doubting myself.

With any luck, somebody at Apple will take notice of this thread and weigh in.

When turning "Verifications Codes" to "Delete after use" off, people were not able to receive image messages in SMS/RCS. Having both set to on did not fix the issue for me.

I'm getting the same issue after updating to iOS 26.1. Doesn't matter if it's iMessage or RCS/SMS

Yea getting irriatating knowing when you sign into the Mac or iPad that you will have to go and clear the messages from yesterday . I just upgraded to a iPhone 17 pro from a 14+ just seems like this started after the update to IOS 26.1 and on the latest updates on my series 8 watch, iPad Pro M1 , Mac mini M4 .