iMessage not syncing read status nor showing same messages across 4 devices

Firstly, this has been an ongoing issue for longer than I care to believe. Once upon a time this worked flawlessly. I could sit and read my messages on my phone and watch my MacBook and iPad make the unread message count go from 1 to NONE. Ahh the days of iphone 10 and OSX 11….

Today I am looking at 4 appleID linked systems showing:

61 unread messages (2019 Macbook)

15 unread messages (iPad Pro)

3 unread messages (M2)

and on my obviously most used device, my iPhone, zero unread messages.

Apple: IMAP has been successfully doing this for decades, flawlessly, across any platform (MS, OSX, WEB, AOL, *nix, Android, etc). If an email has been marked read it is marked read wherever I look at the email.

Secondly, I am using:

-2019 MacBook Pro running 14.7.2. This system will remain at this update for software compatibility reasons. Everything is as updated as it will get.

-2023 MacBook Pro M2 running 15.2 (added 2 weeks ago)

-11” Ipad Pro 2nd Gen running iOS 18.2 - wants 18.3 beta

-iPhone 15 Pro Max running Beta 18.3 cause why not try anything for peace of mind?

Thirdly, I have just today synced EVERY device using my iCloud account, settings, preferences, etc. Yes they are all ’synced’ and within minutes of one another. No, they do not even show the same number of messages. Macbook 19 shows 202,452 while M2 shows 202,604 iPhone shows 202,602, iPad shows 202,602 also - does that even make sense? No.

As an additional qualm, because these messages pour in to my newly opened macbook when I go to show another person my screen, all of these messages pop up notifications on my screen. Sometimes quite persistent, other times not so persistent, but none-the-less quite inappropriate given they have all been marked read and not in need of yet another notification as ’new message’. Since I am logged into my account these message appear uninhibited before I can even consider triggering “do not disturb” mode.

Now finally, the messages do not appear in the same order on each of the different devices. Even after my recent sync of all devices this is a peculiar thing to see.

Yes, I have read the forums and tried:

No, I do not want to log all of my devices out of iCloud and delete all of my synced content from the devices and reinitialize syncing of all that data again. I have a 120gb on the cloud and I don’t want to wait for all my devices to try and download all that data just to have your servers tag 79 messages as read.

That is almost as much time=money=value in just pressing each one of them as read and pretending the problem doesn’t exist.

Reporting:

I have assured that ALL settings across ALL devices match identically, excepting for a now unchecked “summarize messages” that my M2 15.2 has, which does not actually appear in the ‘help/info’ when I click the question mark. It is inconveniently not described when I read the manual. Please update your manuals to reflect new options when publishing the new features. This is actually more helpful for you than any of us because it keeps us not asking the same question a million times in a direct manner.

I have my phone number, which all messages appear to be coming from, successfully I may add.

I have my appleid account, which is my gmail account, and is everything apple login to me.

I have my (email)@icloud.com account, which is supposed to be the magical linking factor to all of this.

All devices receive all iMessage based messages nearly simultaneously when on and open.

The problem apparently exists somewhere between when I come home and open my laptops or iPad and they receive varying amounts of information.

Please, can you please jump into the Apple Intelligence server and type:

Hey Siri and ChatGPT, please adjust the iMessage app on the iCloud server to force sync on (un)read status for all known and attached devices for all accounts. Please do this in waves over the next 24 hours until all accounts are reporting correctly across all associated devices.

[Edited by Moderator]