I am missing many important messages because my Mac is on all the time, and I'm nowhere near it most of the time. I'm getting messages on my Mac, but they aren't being forwarded to my iphone or iPads. Why? how do I fix this?

Note: all devices have the same user/email/phone number registered and the iMessages app is fully closed on my Mac.

I'd hate to completely remove my phone number from my Mac imessage, but it seems to be my only choice...

Thanks in advance for any responses

Is it turned on and do you have the address setup?

Yeah, on all of them. Earlier today it worked fine, got the messages on all devices. I check my computer in the last hour, I have 8 messages from 6 people that haven't gone to any other device.

If someone messages my phone by number it only goes to my phone but if they use my address it goes to my pad too. Could it be anything like this?

With iOS 6, it goes to all devices (the phone number can be added to all devices under this update)

Cool, I haven't upgraded yet, another reason to consider it

I've cleared this up on my devices by turning off my Apple ID for each device and computer (in Settings iMessages), waiting several minutes, then turning it back on one device at a time.

You get a slew of notices, starting with the second device, telling you each address those new devices will receive messages at.

Even so, I've noticed that larger messages can come in to each device and/or computer minutes apart. Mostly videos of my 4 mo old niece. There was at least a 10 minute spread beginning to end when I received three videos today; a minor tsunami of notifications with all my devices and computer right next to me.

My experience is not extensive though. Other than my sister I have no relatives that use SMS or Messages regularly.

The same thing seems to help FaceTime (Settings > FaceTime).