Fix iPhone messages not forwarding to Mac on macOS Tahoe

Go through these troubleshooting tips if SMS, MMS, and RCS texts from your iPhone running iOS 26 are not forwarding automatically to your Mac running macOS Tahoe.

For starters, there are two ways to get your iPhone texts on your iPad or Mac, so all your messages are available everywhere, ensuring seamless communication:

• The first option is to turn on Messages in iCloud, which backs up all your iPhone SMS, MMS, RCS, and iMessage to iCloud and makes them available on all your other iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. This counts towards your iCloud storage space.
• The second option is to turn on Text Message Forwarding in iPhone settings to forward SMS, MMS, and RCS texts to your iPad, Mac, or Vision Pro. This doesn’t count towards your iCloud space.

Usually, your iPhone texts appear on your iPad or Mac without issues, provided one of the above features is enabled. But several users, including iDB founder Sebastien and me, faced this problem where SMS and RCS texts from our iPhones won’t show up on our Mac after updating to iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26.

If you’re in the same boat, here are the solutions to fix this issue.

Note that the second last tip mentioned here worked for both Sebastien and me. But I encourage you also follow the initial solutions before getting to it.

Check your Apple Account on each device

Go to iOS 26 Settings and macOS Tahoe System Settings and ensure your iPhone, iPad, and Mac are using the same Apple Account. If you’re using a different one, sign out and sign back in with your main account.

Connect all devices to the Internet

Both Messages in iCloud and Text Message Forwarding require your devices to be connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or cellular data. Check that these are working properly, and turn off VPN if you’re using one.

Restart everything

If you have not restarted your devices in a while, do that now and wait for all iPhone texts to sync to your Mac. Oftentimes, it’s temporary system glitches that cause such issues.

Update all devices

If your iPhone, iPad, and Mac are running an initial build of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, or macOS Tahoe 26, update them to the latest version.

Make sure message forwarding is enabled

As mentioned earlier in this guide, iPhone texts will appear on your Mac or iPad only if you have enabled Messages in iCloud or Text Message Forwarding.

Now, one important thing to note is that the ‘Text Message Forwarding’ feature is already built into ‘Messages in iCloud.’ Therefore, you don’t need to enable both.

But if you don’t use Messages in iCloud as you’re low on iCloud storage space or if messages are not syncing reliably, you should turn on Text Message Forwarding.

Messages in iCloud

You need to ensure it’s activated on your iPhone as well as your Mac/iPad.

iOS:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap your Apple Account name at the top.
3. Tap iCloud > Messages.
4. Make sure Use on this iPhone or iPad is enabled. Tap Sync Now if the last synced date is old.

macOS:

1. Open System Settings on your Mac.
2. Click Apple Account name > iCloud > Messages.
3. Make sure Use on this Mac is activated. Click the Sync Now button if needed.

Text Message Forwarding

1. Open Settings on your iPhone and tap Apps from the bottom.
2. Select Messages.
3. Tap Text Message Forwarding.
4. Turn on the switch for your Mac and iPad where you want to receive your iPhone SMS, MMS, and RCS messages.

If a particular Mac or iPad isn’t showing here, make sure iMessage is enabled on that device using the correct Apple Account.

• iPad: Go to Settings > Apps > Messages and check if iMessage is ON. Then, tap Send & Receive and make sure the same Apple Account as your iPhone is signed in.
• Mac: Open the Messages app and click Messages > Settings from the top menu bar. Then, go to the iMessage tab and check that your correct Apple Account is being used.

Refresh iMessage

This simple workaround seems to miraculously fix the SMS forwarding issue between iPhone, iPad, and Mac running iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26. Follow them step-by-step as I have mentioned below:

1) Go to iPhone Settings > Apps > Messages and tap Send & Receive.

2) You’ll see your phone number, Apple ID email address, and any other email addresses you have added for iMessage and FaceTime. Tap your checked phone number, and hit Remove to deregister it from iMessage. Also, uncheck any other email accounts except for your main Apple Account email address (i.e., your Apple ID address).

3) Wait for about 15 seconds and then go back to the previous screen. Now, turn off iMessage and wait for another 30 seconds.

While you’re waiting, return to iMessage Settings in your Mac’s Messages app, and you’ll notice that your phone number is removed from here (as it was deregistered for iMessage on your iPhone; step 2 above).

4) Now, return to the iPhone Messages app settings and turn iMessage back on. You’ll notice that the Send & Receive section shows only your Apple Account email address.

5) Wait until you see an alert on your other iPhone, iPad, and Mac saying, “Device Added to Your Account. An iPhone now has access to iMessage. If you don’t recognize this device, you can remove it in Settings.”

6) Now, tap Send & Receive in iPhone Messages app settings and tap your phone number to register it with iMessage once again. You’ll have to wait a while until this is done.

7) With iMessage refreshed, ensure your iPhone, iPad, and Mac are connected to the Internet, and your iPhone phone number and Apple Account email address are checked in Mac iMessage settings.

Then, ask a family member or friend to send you an SMS or RCS text to your phone number, and lock your iPhone. This incoming text should appear on your Mac as well as your iPhone Lock Screen. You can click the notification on Mac to open the conversation and text back right from there, without having to touch your iPhone.

If nothing works…

The above steps should have fixed the problem. But in case they haven’t, consider signing out of your Apple Account on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and signing back in.

Which of the above solutions worked for you? As stated before, the iMessage refresh trick worked for my Editor in Chief and me.

Also, check out: 15 new things to try in macOS Tahoe 26

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2026/01/16/fix-iphone-texts-not-forwarding-to-mac/