<Sigh> iCloud is SO unreliable now...

[donawalt]

Every week it seems something stops working with iCloud - usually Photos, well-documented in this thread - but also Messages, they are the worst for me.

Today, someone put 24 photos in a shared album that I own - got them fine, This afternoon, they put 2 more in - never got them or the notification on my primary Mac. I got them on my backup Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Now I'll either have to do the Photos Rebuild, turn shared folders off/on, or both to get it working again.

Also today, a weird problem with Messages, between my MacBook Pro and iPhone:
- Both get all text messages/Messages fine but --
- If I read a message on my Mac, the blue dot is removed on the Mac , but not from my iPhone or iPad. But --
- If I read it on the iPhone or iPad, the blue dot is removed everywhere. In addition --
- If I delete a thread on my iPhone/iPad it is NOT deleted on the Mac;
- And if I delete a thread on my Mac, it is NOT deleted on my iPhone/iPad

I even tried deleting the thread from all devices, thinking it's corrupted, but it's multiple threads (but not all!). I turned off Auto-delete verification codes, thinking that may be corrupting something, no help. I turned off Messages iCloud on Mac and iPhone, shut down, restarted, turned it back on, ensured both were Sync'd. Still same behavior. I am on the latest versions of iOS and MacOS.

I am really starting to despise iCloud, yet it is the glue that keeps data sync'd on all these devices. Thanks for reading this, probably nothing can be done that won'y entail a ton of time moving to different apps and workflow for photos and messages - plus everyone else in my bubble uses those apps.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Always has been an issue. iCloud with iOS/iPadOS is fine cause it’s basically the same but once you add MacOS in completely screws a ton of stuff up. I turn off everything on my Mac concerning iCloud, it’s just bad especially iMessage!

 

[donawalt]

Actually I think I found something else out that could be a clue - since it's just the read/unread notification dot that is not sync'd - it only seems to be threads of those verification texts from places using 2FA - which I bet means it's only SMS messages, not true iMessage format messages. That should work though, right? I have been doing some searching and so far only came up with (a) make sure all devices logged into iCloud and (b) make sure Messages in iCloud is turned on - both of which are ok here.

 

[donawalt]

Found a fix for the Read/Unread dot not syncing!

1. Under Settings/Messages on iPhone, unselect phone number as a place to send & receive Messages. You should only have your Apple ID/email address selected.
2. In Settings/Messages, turn off iMessage for 5 - 10 seconds, just long enough to be sure it registered everywhere. I verified on my iPad that my phone number was no longer active to receive messages on it either, meaning the phone number is completely removed from the account.
3. On iPhone/Settings/Messages, turn iMessage back on. At this point only your email address should be selected as the sender/recipient of Messages.
4. Wait until you get the pop-up notification on another device (in my case my iPad) that “your APPLE ID is now being used for iMessage on a new iPhone”. If it says your phone number is being used, you did something wrong - go back to step 1!
5. After you get the notification that your iPhone is using your Apple ID for iMessage, go into Settings/Message settings to add your phone number to send/receive iMessages. You can even make it the default. Just don’t unselect the email address and only leave the phone number.

It's working like a champ now!

 

[JamesMay82]

I’ll have to give this a try. My iCloud messages have always been out of sync. Mine is linked to my mobile phone for iMessage but I got a iPad cellular a while ago which has its own number and ever since my messages have been out of sync. I think the number assigned to the iPad might be confusing it all.

Will try your method and see. 🤞

 

[pransu]

I have been having same issue with iMessage on my MS where the read/unread and deleted messages are not synched between MS and iPhone. No issue when receiving new messages.
My workaround so far is by signing out from iCloud on the iMessage setting on MS, reboot MS, then log back in. The sync works OK for couple days then it happens again.

I'll try @donawalt method hopefully that does it.

 

[mikethebigo]

Photos sync has been borked for weeks

 

[pransu]

Unfortunately it does not seem @donawalt method works for me. Oh well. 😭

 

[donawalt]

Unfortunately it does not seem @donawalt method works for me. Oh well. 😭

yes if I read it right, mine was just the read/unread dot was not syncing, messages were - yours has messages not syncing too? if true that's different, and may require getting out of messages on all devices or other measures I am sure you have read about.

 

[Wando64]

Whenever I’ve had problems with iCloud (and they have been very rare), following the Apple recommended troubleshooting has resolved the issue for me.
Do not take any shortcuts in following the troubleshooting steps though.