Help - OSX El Capitan - iCloud won't login & Other Issues

[Jon0149]

Probably Best off to start with the background to the issue.

- Mac Mini Late 2012 was behaving oddly(explained below) in El Capitan so I have:

• Reinstalled El Capitan - Completed Successfully
• Done a Disk First Aid - Completed Successfully (No Problems)

Now El Capitan is reinstalled when I log into my user account Mail & Microsoft AutoUpdater keep opening even though neither is set to open at login, which I have confirmed by checking:

• System Preferences > User Accounts > Login Items
• User and System > Library > LaunchDaemons & LaunchAgents & Startup

Also iCloud keeps prompting for a password repeatedly even after the correct one has been entered (checked using icloud.com & another user account).

So I signed out of iCloud in User Preferences and Restarted, now I cannot sign back in. (Interestingly I can login to the account if I create a new local user account and then login?).

Current Situation

- When I Log In, Mail and Microsoft AutoUpdater Open without being told to.

- I cannot login to iCloud because I get "Unknown Error Occurred", "This iCloud Account Already Exists in Internet Accounts" (Internet Accounts is empty), and "This iCloud account already exists" (i'm not logged in?).

I think the issue is due to remnants of the existing iCloud login being present on the machine, how do I fully remove them, I've tried deleting the iCloud Library Folder and Resetting my Keychain to Default and deleting the Accounts.sqlite file?

Etre Check also reports no issues and ive done a full Onyx Automation.

Thanks for your time!


Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), 16GB RAM, Aftermarket 1TB SSHD

 

[rigormortis]

things to try

backup to time machine and verify it



make a new user account, log onto iCloud , if successful move your downloads , documents, desktop, music, movies, etc folder to the new user account

or

remove all microsoft products



or

erase the hard disk , reinstall os x from scratch, and try to log onto iCloud, then import your time machine using migration assistant

if you do erase the hard disk, clear the pram and smc also
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063


erasing would be considered drastic. put os x on a sd card if you want to try this as a last resort
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

i say sd and not usb because sd is faster
[doublepost=1461060812][/doublepost]i don't know what else to try. sorry, the only other thing i can think of is to start deleting caches , clear the dos cache, reset pram , reset smc,
[doublepost=1461060845][/doublepost]have you tried something simple , like changing the iCloud password?
[doublepost=1461061631][/doublepost]oh, another thing, i did not mention. El Capitan no longer fixes permissions in first aid. if you want to check and repair permissions hoping it will fix your issues, you have to do this in terminal

http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/04/verify-repair-permissions-mac-os-x/

 

[Jon0149]

things to try

backup to time machine and verify it



make a new user account, log onto iCloud , if successful move your downloads , documents, desktop, music, movies, etc folder to the new user account

or

remove all microsoft products



or

erase the hard disk , reinstall os x from scratch, and try to log onto iCloud, then import your time machine using migration assistant

if you do erase the hard disk, clear the pram and smc also
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063


erasing would be considered drastic. put os x on a sd card if you want to try this as a last resort
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

i say sd and not usb because sd is faster
[doublepost=1461060812][/doublepost]i don't know what else to try. sorry, the only other thing i can think of is to start deleting caches , clear the dos cache, reset pram , reset smc,
[doublepost=1461060845][/doublepost]have you tried something simple , like changing the iCloud password?
[doublepost=1461061631][/doublepost]oh, another thing, i did not mention. El Capitan no longer fixes permissions in first aid. if you want to check and repair permissions hoping it will fix your issues, you have to do this in terminal

http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/04/verify-repair-permissions-mac-os-x/

---------------------
I tried making a new user account and reassigning the home folder but when unlocking the system prefs panel it gave an error about Apple Authorization which lead me to deleting var/folders/ (recommended by another site) which broke everything and prevented startup so Im now reinstalling El Capitan.
-----
Most likely going to have do an erase and restore from scratch, seems such a shame as I have never run into any other apple products this mac mini is the only one that never worked well from the beginning

If i restore from Time Machine wont I just put back the offending files/applications/issues?

Thanks,

 

[richard2]

if you do erase the hard disk, clear the pram and smc also

[…]

oh, another thing, i did not mention. El Capitan no longer fixes permissions in first aid. if you want to check and repair permissions hoping it will fix your issues, you have to do this in terminal

You should also wave a magic wand over your Mac.

I tried making a new user account and reassigning the home folder but when unlocking the system prefs panel it gave an error about Apple Authorization which lead me to deleting var/folders/ (recommended by another site) which broke everything and prevented startup so Im now reinstalling El Capitan.

Firstly, OS X is unable to boot because you deleted the folder /var/folders instead of just its contents.

Secondly, you can recreate the folder /var/folders by entering the following command in single-user mode:

mkdir /var/folders

Thirdly, don't ever enter console commands provided by untrustworthy sources!

If i restore from Time Machine wont I just put back the offending files/applications/issues?

Yes, it's certainly possible; therefore, you should manually restore your files:

1. In Finder, press shift-command-C and then open the volume that contains your Time Machine backups.
2. Navigate to Backups.backupdb/Computer name/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/Username.
3. Press command-N, shift-command-H.
4. Copy the contents of the following folders from the first window (your previous home folder) into the corresponding folders in the second window (your current home folder):
   • Applications
   • Desktop
   • Documents
   • Movies
   • Music
   • Pictures
   • Public

 

[Jon0149]

I ended up backing the home folder up, zeroing and formatting the disk overnight (took so long haha!), now el capitan is installed again i'm going to attempt migrating the data manually without time machine or the migration assistant to reduce the risk of the problematic files being transferred over!