All a server issue from what I read last.
Upgraded 2 MBPs a day later and did not run into any problems.
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Some Mac Users Unable to Log Into iMessage and FaceTime Following OS X 10.11.4 Update
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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
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).
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).
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A year later and I'm facing the same problem. Although I don't have iMessages (Lion OS X) I'm unable to log into FaceTime. The error scheme is the following:
- FaceTime is launched.
- AppleID and the password are entered.
- Success on logging in.
- "Enter your e-mail address which you will use calling other people" (don't guarantee the exact wording)
- Entering the second e-mail (in fact optional for the testing purpose since entering it changes nothing)
- Displays "Verified" stamp with subsequent rejection. Alert text in red "Server was unable to verify your registration data" (not the exact wording as well)
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[doublepost=1489863737][/doublepost]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.
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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.
[doublepost=1490302000][/doublepost]It's March 23, 2017. One year after this article was posted.
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.
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.
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
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 reinstalls with 1 going to Mavericks) , seeking desperately for a solution and starting to suspect corrupted permissions at a deeper level, not within Disk Utility's scope of powers, I opted for the reinstallation of Lion on top of my existing files: this is the one advantage of Apple's "It just works" - it's the ease of installing and re-installing software. By "deeper level of permission corruption" I mean Access Control Lists that I might've have tweaked inadvertently causing confusion to the state of FaceTime: I remembered that trying to solve an issue with Disk Utility's inability to repair permissions I downloaded an 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 of removing access control lists as it may lead to unexpected consequences and result in a disrupted functionality. After I reinstalled OS X the system automatically reset 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 too, as it started behaving badly meaning that all 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 the appearing window, I selected my home folder (your username, that is), then I checked "Reset Access control Lists" at its bottom, it ran automatic reset operation and after a reboot iCal went back to life again.
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Of all of the OS'es X I'm using I'm able to log in in Lion OS X. 2.5 years ago when I left my last post in this thread I ran Lion only however beginning with 2018 fall I lost FaceTime and have to use either iChat or Viber which still works with Lion. I'd prefer having it work in every of the OSes, though, because I still make of use of Lion a lot because it runs some older versions of the same apps better and has 32-bit support.
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