Photos not showing in Messages App

[myrtlebee]

Just a few days ago I purchased a 2014 MacBook Air and I set the entire thing up from a brand new install of Mojave.

I am having one issue - when I open the Messages app, instead of the photos sent and received in my messages, I see a small blank white page icon with round gray circle with an "i" in it (see the attached screenshot for an example). When I click the "i" a blank box pops up that says "File Transfers". I can see the photos sent and received with no problem on my other Apple devices.

When I send and receive a photo in the Messages app on the MacBook Air, the photo will appear like normal, but then when I close the messages app and reopen it, or when I shut down the computer and restart it and open the messages app again, the images are no longer there and I am shown the blank icons once again.

I chatted with Apple support who suggested I restart the Mac, install a new copy of MacOS Mojave, sign out and sign back in from iCloud in Messages - and I did all of those things but with no success. I also cleared my Attachments file in Library in Finder, made sure all files in the path to the Attachments Alias were set to read and write, all with no luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I would hate to have to wipe the machine and start all over again setting it up from scratch. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[smirk]

Boy, that is strange.

Are you using messages in iCloud? If so, I wonder if something is broken with that.

Otherwise, I don't have a solution, but I can suggest something to help troubleshoot things a little. You could try creating a new user account, then logging into that, setting it up with your Apple ID and seeing what happens. You said you reinstalled Mojave, but I couldn't tell if you also restored all your user data from iCloud or a backup, or if it was a clean install with no migrated data. If Messages work in a new user account, then you'll know that something is messed up in your regular user account, at least.

 

[myrtlebee]

Boy, that is strange.

Are you using messages in iCloud? If so, I wonder if something is broken with that.

Otherwise, I don't have a solution, but I can suggest something to help troubleshoot things a little. You could try creating a new user account, then logging into that, setting it up with your Apple ID and seeing what happens. You said you reinstalled Mojave, but I couldn't tell if you also restored all your user data from iCloud or a backup, or if it was a clean install with no migrated data. If Messages work in a new user account, then you'll know that something is messed up in your regular user account, at least.

Yes, I am using messages in iCloud. I never had an issue before on other Macs, even my previous Mac mini on Mojave.

When I chatted with Apple they had me create another account and log into Messages with my Apple ID. I was able to send a new message and see the photos in that new message, but all of my other message threads did not appear at all, so I wasn't able to even see if the images would show up. Maybe I will try it again. No, I didn't restore anything from iCloud or a backup - I started completely from scratch with nothing on the computer and I hand selected my settings, etc.

I think I'll retry creating a new user account now before bed and retesting what you suggested and what I did earlier with Apple. If that doesn't work maybe there will be another suggestion by the morning and if not I'll go ahead and contact Apple again. You're right - it's a weird situation!

UPDATE:
I just created a new user account again and enabled iCloud messages. It downloaded all of my message threads, but the same issue is occurring with the pictures not showing up. I am assuming it has nothing to do with the user account but is instead a systemwide issue or an issue with iCloud messages.

 

[smirk]

Yeah, it sounds like iCloud messages isn't working correctly, or maybe it's just taking longer than expected to sync all your messages. I've never used it, but hopefully someone who has can weigh in on this.

Good luck!

 

[myrtlebee]

Just an update - it is definitely something specific to the computer itself. It is not an issue with iCloud Messages because I turned off iCloud Messages and it does the same thing.

 

[smirk]

Since it's sort of a test system, if you have the time and inclination you could always install High Sierra to see if you get the same results. Although if you have access to AppleCare, I'd say that's the best route to go.

 

[myrtlebee]

Since it's sort of a test system, if you have the time and inclination you could always install High Sierra to see if you get the same results. Although if you have access to AppleCare, I'd say that's the best route to go.

It’s not a test system- it’s my main computer. I’d like to stay on Mojave. I’m thinking I will set up my old Mac mini I am about to sell as new and see if messages does the same thing on that machine running Mojave. If it doesn’t, I’m just going to wipe the MacBook Air, reinstall a new copy of Mojave and set up as new to see if that solves the issue.

 

[myrtlebee]

After speaking with 4 online Apple agents and one technician over the phone, the issue was not resolved after a few hours of troubleshooting. The technician said he would do further research and call me back another day, but I just decided to wipe the machine and start all over again. So far so good- the problem has not come back as of this morning. Didn’t want to drive the poor guy crazy over something like this, better off just doing what I did and spending the time setting up my settings by hand again even if it takes a couple hours.

 

[smirk]

Well cool, I'm glad you got it working. But I don't understand why the first time you wiped/installed Mojave this happened, then the second time it fixed it. Very strange.

 

[myrtlebee]

Well cool, I'm glad you got it working. But I don't understand why the first time you wiped/installed Mojave this happened, then the second time it fixed it. Very strange.

Because that’s not what I said I did. The first time I reinstalled Mojave without erasing the drive first. The second time I erased the drive and then reinstalled Mojave. The whole point was that I was trying to avoid having to erase the drive and lose my settings and content on the device.

 

[smirk]

Just a few days ago I purchased a 2014 MacBook Air and I set the entire thing up from a brand new install of Mojave.

When you said that you set it up from a brand new install, I guess I assumed that it was a clean install that you made, with no prior data remaining.

Regardless, good job resolving your issue.

 

[myrtlebee]

Just wanted to say, the technician never called me back that Saturday like he promised. This is not the first time Apple never called me back when promising to. Can't say I'm surprised.