Can't login into iCloud account in App Store, iTunes, iMessages etc. At my wits end.

[chopburnz]

Model: 2011 Macbook Pro 2.3ghz, 8gb ram.

Long story short: A week or so ago I tried updating to El Capitan which caused my hard drive to crash.

I replaced the hard drive with a OWC SDD. Had a few issues getting El Capitan installed but after some troubleshooting everything is up and running. My computer runs much faster now with the SDD and the clean OS X install so that's nice. Except I can't login into every app associated with my iCloud account.

When I try to log in to iMessages, I get this error message:

This Mac can’t connect to iCloud because of a problem with [my email]. Open iCloud preferences to fix this problem.

When I go to iCloud preferences and try to login, I get this error message:

The password for [my email] needs to be updated. An unknown error has occurred.

When I try to login in the App store, I get this message:

An unexpected error occurred while signing in. Your device or computer could not be verified. Contact support for assistance.

Note that I have no issues logging into the iCloud web app or on my iPhone. It is strictly an El Capitan problem.

I have tried practically everything suggested in the Apple support community. I've changed my iCloud password, reset the computer, signed out of iCloud in preferences and signed back in, tried deleting the account files in /library/application support/icloud (or whatever the extension is). I've tried a few other things but honestly after the past few hours it's been a blur of troubleshooting. Some people have had similar issues after changing their hard drive and it was somehow related to El Capitan not being able to verify my computer's serial number but my SN is not missing.

Any help would be greatly, great appreciated....

 

[mikzn]

Did you make sure you have logged out of iCloud in system preferences? may be reboot and try again?

Also do you have multiple emails associated with the iCloud account / try logging out of itunes store as well

At least if you can log in and out of the iCloud.com web site you know that your user and password work.

 

[chopburnz]

Did you make sure you have logged out of iCloud in system preferences? may be reboot and try again?

Yep, did that multiple times. Didn't work.

Weirdly enough, I just tried logging into iTunes with my Apple ID. That worked, but iMessages and the App Store still don't.

 

[Ravenis]

check system profile and if it shows your serial # if its not available you need to go to Apple Retail

 

[Timjoakley]

Been searching for solution to same problem. I know that after an in guarantee replacement of several components on my MacBook, my profile now advises serial number unavailable. So what will Apple Retail do?

 

[Ravenis]

they will reassicaite the serial number to the machine and that will resolve the sign in issues

 

[Steve121178]

I had a similar issue when I changed my Apple ID password. iCloud kept prompting me to enter my password. Everything that relied on iCloud was broken and after trying everything possible with no success I just did another clean install and that resolved it.

 

[BaggieBoy]

they will reassicaite the serial number to the machine and that will resolve the sign in issues

I think the lack of serial number is a red herring, my rMBP has no serial number in "About This Mac" but I have no issues signing into any Apple service.