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10.11.6 iMessage will not sign in!
- Thread starter ben824
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I was using iMessage fine yesterday and all of a sudden I noticed that when I would get iMessages they would come in fine as an iMessage but they would not go out as an iMessage, they would have to be sent as an SMS, still on my Mac remember. So I log out of the account to log back in thinking that might help and now I am completely logged out of iMessage and I get the window as if I had never signed in before. I use my Apple ID and password just like I always have and I get "An error occurred during activation" message. This happens every single time no matter what.
This has been affecting me at work and at home so two different routers. And yes I have restarted the app and the computer and I updated from 10.11.5 to 10.11.6 thinking it might be an issue there and nothing worked.
I was hit with this bug. The only way that I managed to get around it since the update was to erase and setup the Mac as new again. Given all the cruft that I got rid of I can't quite complait but alas...
Thats not reassuring. I have prided myself for the last 5 years on the fact that I have never had to reload my operating system where with my old Windows computers I felt like I had to do that once a year.
Don't worry, it's not a reassurance at all. Apple really have been tanking in the software department for the past few releases. I have had constant issues that while minor in nature are annoying due to the frequent occurrence. Have talked to Apple support regarding this issue?
Not yet, don't I have to pay for help over the phone since I am out of warranty? I know I could go to my local Apple store but I work in car sales at a big Jeep dealer, I have very little free time to deal with this unfortunately.
I am with you on seeing a decline in their software. My Mac has been feeling ever so increasingly slow and buggy that past 3 releases, especially El Capitan.
They say about paying but I have discovered that it's not enforced at all when I contact them either via phone or chat. I never purchased AppleCare for any of my devices and all of them are beyond the 3 month mark. All however are within the one year warranty so not sure if that helps
Did you try this : create a NEW account.
Now, try to login in Messages.
If it does not work, and if the problem also affects Facetime, iCloud, and App Store, there is NO other way than erasing the Mac and reinstalling the OS from scratch.
I say this because I had the same problem 2 months ago, and after trying to solve the problem myself, i called Apple assistance, spent 1 hour with a senior advisor, using screen sharing to delete some files in the system's library, to no avail.
We came to the conclusion that erasing and reinstalling was the only way to go.
That said, I must say that I used this issue to run some tests :
First, I updated my clone.
Then, I reinstalled the OS without erasing the disc : problem not solved
Then, I erased the disc, installed the OS, used Setup assistant to import ALL : problem not solved
Then, I erased the disc again, installed the OS, used Setup assistant to import all EXCEPTED system settings.
Problem solved : i could login in Messages, FaceTime, iCloud and App Store as usual.
Now, try to login in Messages.
If it does not work, and if the problem also affects Facetime, iCloud, and App Store, there is NO other way than erasing the Mac and reinstalling the OS from scratch.
I say this because I had the same problem 2 months ago, and after trying to solve the problem myself, i called Apple assistance, spent 1 hour with a senior advisor, using screen sharing to delete some files in the system's library, to no avail.
We came to the conclusion that erasing and reinstalling was the only way to go.
That said, I must say that I used this issue to run some tests :
First, I updated my clone.
Then, I reinstalled the OS without erasing the disc : problem not solved
Then, I erased the disc, installed the OS, used Setup assistant to import ALL : problem not solved
Then, I erased the disc again, installed the OS, used Setup assistant to import all EXCEPTED system settings.
Problem solved : i could login in Messages, FaceTime, iCloud and App Store as usual.
iMessage and FaceTime are still affected but iCloud is fine. Initially, however, iCloud was affected and I couldn't access the iCloud pane in settings. But I found some info online on another thread that told me to close down some activities in activity monitor and that got that up and running again and I have signed in and out of it probably 3 times since then trying different things and it hasn't given me an issue since.
IMO, you need to create a new account and test in that new account.
If it works in the new account, then the problem is in YOUR account (exactly in your account's Library) only.
If you have the same issue in the new account, then the problem is in the system and you will need to reinstall the OS from scratch.
If it works in the new account, then the problem is in YOUR account (exactly in your account's Library) only.
If you have the same issue in the new account, then the problem is in the system and you will need to reinstall the OS from scratch.
I tried with a new account and still nothing. I got the same message. Strangely it did seem to sign in, it popped up the messages window where I would normally chat from. It brought up the one last conversation with my wife and left off where we were when it stopped working. I could see no other conversations. I went to go look at the preferences for iMessage and it was greyed out and said "(inactive)" next to it. I quit out of iMessage and when I opened it back up it was back to the sign in screen and then began giving me the same error message as before.