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

All a server issue from what I read last.

Upgraded 2 MBPs a day later and did not run into any problems.

 

So I FINALLY got everything working on my Mac after two days. What I had to do was go in the iPhone..Settings..Messages..Text Forwarding..and select my Mac and enter the code that came up. Then quit the Messages app on the Mac, relaunch it and viola able to send and receive iMessages on my Mac just like before.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6603564?tstart=0

 

I experienced this issue myself and fixed it two days ago by removing all iMessage entries under "sessions" in Keychain. This led me to believe that this is not so much a server issue but more likely a certification issue. Apple's efforts to improve the security of their operating systems and online stores have caused most of their recent debacles. People will remember discoveryd in Yosemite and expired certificates with the App Store. The problem is not so much with Apple's software team in general but with their security team within (iTunes is a different story altogether).

Long story short, clean install causes users to unable to sign in FaceTime and Messages but not simple upgrade probably because there is a safety mechanism in place to require the key signer for these two programs to match the actual machine that is using these two programs.

It's the same way that clean install will produce a phantom set of bookmarks from your previous Mac OS X or iOS in Safari. Apple has no way of "unregistering" or "retiring" certificates and signed keys on iCloud. They probably just recently increase the security requirement so now simply having the right username and password isn't enough to get iCloud to work. The keys won't work if the original signer is different from the machine.

What's interesting is that simply deleting the current keys forces the iCloud server to regenerate a new set of keys. I hope Apple isn't planning on tightening the noose even more in the future by forcing users to not be able to do clean installs unless a master signing key is kept (much like how some financial institutions require clients to do for online transactions).

 

A year later and I'm facing the same problem. Although I don't have iMessages (Lion OS X) but I'm unable to log into FaceTime. The error scheme is following:

1. FaceTime is launched.
2. AppleID and the password are entered.
3. Success on logging in.
4. "Enter your e-mail address which you will use calling other people" (don't guarantee exact wording)
5. Entering the second e-mail (in fact optional for testing purpose as entering it changes nothing)
6. Displays "Verified" stamp with subsequent rejection. Alert text in red "Server was unable to verify your registration data" (not exact wording too)

After reading some messages in this thread I remembered that I was doing re-install (not "clean" one) of Lion a month ago. I did suspect this had to do smth with Keychain but failed to figure exactly what. I deleted some entries under "Login" section generally bearing "me.com" (there're lots of those still left), restarted of course, no result. What gives?

 

I gave up a while ago. I'm guessing the only solution for me is a clean install of OS X, problem is that I have a non-EFI graphics card so I'll have to wait until I acquire a legit Mac card for that. Oh well.

 

--- Post Merged, Mar 18, 2017 ---

Hi. In keychain access i did not find a heading "sessions". Can you please explain? THANKS. It's been a year since I could sign into iMessage!
DG

 

The language of my system is French so the terminology is probably different. It's the first item on the left, of the top panel. It's just above iCloud (your system configuration could vary) and has a keylock sign. It's called "login" in English I believe.

When I say "all entries", I meant all entries related to iMessage (iMessage Signing Key and iMessage Encryption Key). You should not remove other items. Do this at your own risk.

 

Probably should delete all items related to iMessage (iMessage Signing Key and iMessage Encryption Key) or its equivalence in Lion. FaceTime on all macOS versions uses the same certification system.

 

--- Post Merged, Mar 23, 2017 ---

It's March 23, 2017. One year after this article was posted.

And I'm having the same problem. I love Apple.

 

Hi, masonsturtle I managed to fix it. Though loathed this with all my heart (the more so because it was 5th time I did all this "re-install" OSX magic in 24 months, 4 of which was the share of Lion reinstall with 1 time gone to Mavericks) , seeking desperately for a solution and starting to suspect corrupted permissions on a deeper level (not within Disk Util's scope of powers) I opted for reinstall of Lion on top of my existing files: this is the one advantage to Apple's "It just works" - it's ease of installing and re-installing software. By mentioning deeper level of permission corruption I meant Access Control Lists that I might've have tweaked inadvertently causing confusion to the state of FaceTime.app: I remembered that trying to solve and issue with Disk Util's inability to repair permissions I downloaded exec file which was designed to remove ACLs and regretted doing this: on my part, having learned from such a bloody experience, I strongly recommend against any attempts at removing access control lists as it may lead to unexpected consequences and result in disrupted functionality. After I reinstalled OS X the system automatically reset (not just repaired) access control lists (not "permissions" which is overly simplified to becoming useless) and I regained the ability to use FaceTime again! You may want to follow my path and see what you get.
BTW, I was having a problem with iCal as it started behaving badly in the sense that all the alarms (sound alarms, mail alarms, display alarms) stopped showing up. I booted into Recovery mode, Launched Terminal from its menu bar's "Utilities" inset. In an appearing window I selected my home folder (your username, that is), then at its bottom I checked "Reset Access control Lists", it ran automatic reset operation and after reboot iCal went back to life again.

 

Looks like this is re-surfacing in 10.13.2 – all the sudden cannot login to iMessage.