SOLVED After out of country vacation, iPhone and MaBook Pro not syncing.

[Steve Hope]

iPhone and Mac not syncing



iPhone 12 running 15.6.1



MacBook Pro 13 retina early 2015 running Mojave 10.14.6



Took both on a cruise out of NYC to Canada and Greenland. Ship had terrible wifi, 0.2Mbs Mac worked but iPhone developed “error occurred, iMessages off, please use password for Apple ID”. I tried many times to add password but there was not enough wifi for apple to verify. So phone became a glorified camera for 8 days until we got back to NYC. All of a sudden things started to work, somewhat, and here is my question. Before this trip my phone was synched with the Mac and messages showed up on both. Now we are back home, I can’t get the phone to sync with my Mac. Because I use Mojave, I have to try to sync with iTunes but it fails every time. I cannot see messages sent to my Mac on my phone and the reverse is true. When I try to sync on iTunes the process jumps thru the procedure and does not complete. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

Hope it was a nice trip otherwise!

How were the iPhone and Mac synced for Messages - using iCloud I assume? If so, you may have to remove and re-add Messages in your iCloud settings on both devices to get them to sync back up. Of course, it is always recommended to have a current backup of your iPhone and Mac data.

Did you use any form of international cell plan during the trip?
Have you verified the Messages settings on the iPhone and the Mac?

C

 

[Steve Hope]

///Did you use any form of international cell plan during the trip?///
No , we used a Princess Cruises wifi plan, which was weak.

///How were the iPhone and Mac synced for Messages - using iCloud I assume?///
Yes, phone and Mac have been synced for years, well 2 years at least before the trip.

///Have you verified the Messages settings on the iPhone and the Mac?///
Not sure what "verified" means nor how too .
When we returned I tried to sync using iTunes but it failed, as I mentioned : /// When I try to sync on iTunes the process jumps thru the procedure and does not complete.///

Generally we do not use ATT plan for data because it charges $10 per day and we already signed up for Princess Cruises awful $180 per 16 day wifi plan.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks.

Verified just means have you checked the settings for Messages on the Mac and iPhone and made sure they are using the same Apple ID, they are set to start messages from the iPhone, not an email, etc.

C

 

[Steve Hope]

Thanks, yes the 3 days in Manhattan and the subsequent cruise were excellent.

2 interesting things occurred.
1. As we cruised closer to a better wifi source (ie NYC) my iPhone suddenly began loading previously missed messages on iMessage . In other words it fixed itself.

2. The synching with my Mac problem suddenly went away yesterday and now messages show up on both iPhone and Mac and I have no idea why.

Will have to call this "Solved" but I don't understand why. Thanks.