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MacRumors has been receiving a growing number of complaints from customers who are unable to log into iMessage and FaceTime after updating to OS X 10.11.4, which was released to the public on Monday. There are threads covering the issue on the MacRumors forums and the Apple Support Communities, along with user complaints on various social media networks.

The majority of the complaints are coming from users who did a fresh install of OS X, requiring them to log into the FaceTime and iMessage services. When attempting to sign in, an error pops up or nothing happens after entering an Apple ID and password, as seen in the video below. Customers who have recently purchased a new Mac also appear to be affected, and while most customers with login problems seem to be running OS X 10.11.4, there are also reports from those using earlier versions of OS X.

@AppleSupport upgraded to 10.11.4, now imessage wont sign in. pic.twitter.com/UP97cYsmOy - Ase Deliri (@AseDeliri) March 23, 2016
Apple support has been advising users to try logging out of iCloud and disabling two-factor authentication, but these fixes have not worked for most users. Apple's system status page is not listing any outages, but it appears there may be a problem with the iMessage and FaceTime activation servers. One customer who purchased a new Mac was told that Apple's engineering team is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

messagesactivationerror-800x493.jpg
Yesterday I bought a new 15-inch macbook pro from the Apple store. Out of the box, 10.11.1, computer would not sign in to my iCloud account with my Apple ID. So I skipped this part of the initial setup. Managed to sign in to iCloud in system preferences, and managed to see my Notes, Reminders, Safari bookmarks. But I have the same problem: I cannot sign in to Messages or FaceTime.

Today, after a couple of hours talking to Apple on the phone last night, I returned to the store to see if there was a fix, or whether the problem was specific to that machine. For an unrelated reason, I wanted to switch models: from the 15-inch to the 13-inch.

So I got a new 13-inch macbook pro this morning and decided to set it up in store. Same issue. I had a lengthy chat with one of the Apple Geniuses who could not figure this out. He did his best, but he could only give vague answers to my questions. He said it seems like an Apple server issue that "engineering" is aware of and are hoping to fix.
Affected customers have been unable to log in since first upgrading to OS X 10.11.4, and so far, there is no reliable fix available to solve the problem. Not all customers who did a clean install of OS X 10.11.4 or who purchased a new Mac are affected, and it is not clear if there is a pattern between users who are experiencing problems.

Article Link: Some Mac Users Unable to Log Into iMessage and FaceTime Following OS X 10.11.4 Update
 

swingerofbirch

macrumors 68040
I had an issue like this a while ago when I got my computer back from repair and they replaced the logic board which somehow made iMessage not work.

Went through so many levels of tech support and never figured it out.

I finally deleted stuff from KeyChain and it made it work again. I can't remember what I deleted. It was either the iMessage certificates or the AppleID ones.
 

gforce216

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2009
591
192
I'm in this exact scenario! Just bought a new 13" MBP and I couldn't log into iCloud on whatever build was on it. Updated (totally fresh build) to 10.11.4 and now just can't get iMessage or FaceTime. I spoke with Apple Support for 90 min but no luck.
 

YSP

macrumors newbie
Oct 22, 2014
8
2
I've been struggling with this issue for two days now. Decided to do a fresh install to get rid of all the garbage that have accumulated in the system. 'Perfect' timing... Tried every possible thing. Glad to know they are at least working on that
 
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smacrumon

macrumors 68030
Jan 15, 2016
2,683
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As a developer it's always curious to me what kind of changes have been made to an OS to cause this kind of difficulty in a new release, what changed since the previous version.
 

nt5672

macrumors 68040
Jun 30, 2007
3,288
6,942
Midwest USA
Don't see the problem. This is perfectly normal with Apple services. Marketing said deliver, worker bees pushed the ship button. It's innovative, its, new, it just may not work right. But they'll fix it. Probably, to make some people happy, we'll see another 8 betas since people seem to think that solves all problems.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
34,291
49,549
In the middle of several books.
User PaulyB80 posted the following in a thread a little while ago. Maybe someone can try it and see if it works.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cant-sign-in-to-imessage-in-10-11-4.1962799/#post-22709673

Just bought a MacBook today, same issue. I've had a browse on the official Apple forums and come across the following post which has solved the problem for me:

Reply Helpfulby aPenguin on Oct 25, 2015 9:10 AM


The following procedure worked for me. Please note that it will delete your Apple ID account information for the current user and you will need to log in again.

  • if the App Store is opened and stuck in the login process, force close it

  • open the Terminal

  • issue the following commands:
    • sudo pkill -9 -f Account

    • sudo rm $HOME/Library/Accounts/*
  • open the App Store and log in
 
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pat500000

Suspended
Jun 3, 2015
8,523
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This only happens on fresh installs. If you upgraded from a previous version, you won't see this problem
OOOOhhhh. wait a minute....what do you mean fresh install? Do you mean erase your whole hd and reinstalling it? or just reinstalling over your current hd? I did fresh install as well.
 

glknpn

macrumors newbie
Mar 23, 2016
1
0
Also having this issue. Fresh iOS9.3 install no iMessage of FaceTime activation
 

pat500000

Suspended
Jun 3, 2015
8,523
7,515
The list of issues that I'm having with Apple products is growing. This isn't a good sign.
Did you do feedback at apple website? If so, do you have a backup to previously version that worked?
[doublepost=1458769008][/doublepost]
Command-R on boot, erase HD, then install OS X
exactly what i did. hmmm...okay okay. I guess i haven't had a problem. Are you gonna reinstall again?
 

Richard Berkley

macrumors newbie
Mar 23, 2016
1
0
I did not have that issue but it did take a good deal of time to accomplish the download and install. In the end really no serious problems. I did have issues with my iTunes library on the iMac not coordinating with my iOS devices and had to go into iTunes Preferences and recheck the iCloud Music Library box. That done, all is going well with this new OS X 10.11.4
 
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