CJHdundee

Q: Can't activate iMessage on iMac with El Capitan

iMessage working fine on iPhone and iPads, but can't activate on my iMac after upgrade to El Capitan, despite having the correct Apple ID login details? Antone else with this problem? Thanks in advance

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 2, 2015 3:38 AM

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Q: Can't activate iMessage on iMac with El Capitan

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  • by Ba55et,

    Ba55et Ba55et Apr 29, 2016 11:15 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 29, 2016 11:15 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    HI Ralph

     

    Call it what you may but it resolved my issue and perhaps any other issues that may have been lurking around.

    It only took some 45 minutes so not too bad really...

  • by Ralph Johns (UK),

    Ralph Johns (UK) Ralph Johns (UK) Apr 30, 2016 1:15 PM in response to Ba55et
    Level 9 (72,994 points)
    Applications
    Apr 30, 2016 1:15 PM in response to Ba55et

    Hi,

     

    Yours was obviously a longer conversation with the Apple guy.

    However if the OS  and even the app work in another Mac User Account the issue is not with th OS or the App itself.

     

    Reinstalling the OS does reset many features back to almost Factory settings which might hide the issue by solving it.

    what it does not do is prevent you from making the same changes to the OS and your Mac User Account's settings that will cause  the same thing to happen again.

     

    That is to say that Font Book (or any Font app you have installed) can be used in any Mac User account but the setting only apply to that Mac User Account (if just tuning Off Fonts)

    On the other hand actually removing them from the computer will effect other Mac User accounts.

     

    Reinstalling is a Fix of sorts.

    It like changing the whole engine on your car because the throttle cable broke.

     

     

    3Sigcopy2.png

    9:15 pm      Saturday; April 30, 2016

     

      iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (El Capitan)
     G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
     MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
     Mac OS X (10.6.8),
     iPhone and an iPad (2)
  • by John Avelis,

    John Avelis John Avelis Jun 4, 2016 5:23 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 4, 2016 5:23 PM in response to Ralph Johns (UK)

    This thread seems to have many ramifications, as well as providing number of fixes. Some time ago, last Fall, I believe, I started to have a problem with Mail freezing up. After trying a number of fixes I read about in these forums, I resolved it only by unchecking "Mail" in iCloud Drive / iCloud / System Preferences. This enabled Mail to work, but was manifestly unsatisfactory for several reasons peripheral to this discussion.

    Today I discovered that iMessage was inactive and couldn't be activated- stated my user name or password was wrong. Also could not log in to Face Time. Tried a list of fixes outlined in this thread, none worked for what I had. So I assumed that the problem was on Apple's end, and got on Chat. I went through two chat people, finally got on a callback. They called me at the set time, but it was obvious that the first person wasn't going to be able to deal with this problem. She booted me upstairs to someone on a warbly-sounding IP phone connection, but this guy knew what he was doing.

    A fake account was created to determine that  iMessage was indeed working properly, so that the problem was some glitch in my machine. Screen sharing was set up, although it probably wasn't strictly necessary.

    Then, the fix: Finder > [Option] Go > Library > Keychain folder. Put Keychain folder into trash and Restart. The problems I outlined above then disappeared.*

     

    *NB: One will of course have to re-input all passwords....

  • by st7891,

    st7891 st7891 Jul 3, 2016 5:19 PM in response to CJHdundee
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 3, 2016 5:19 PM in response to CJHdundee

    I am having the same issue, just did a clean install of El Capitan, but cannot activate it yet.

  • by sleekdog,

    sleekdog sleekdog Sep 6, 2016 10:27 PM in response to John Avelis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 6, 2016 10:27 PM in response to John Avelis

    Yes! This, followed by a run of Disk Utility in Safe Mode, worked for me, after endless frustration. Miracles!

     

    Here's what I did:

     

    1) Trash the Keychain folder as John describes above

    2) Restart with Shift key held down. Run Disk Utility. All clear? Excellent. 

    3) (Optional) restart again and zap the NVRAM if you feel like it because why not. See instructions above or anywhere

    4) Restart one more time, normally, and enter iCloud password in Messages -> Accounts. Boom.

     

    Good luck

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