IChat Account Problems

Hey guys,

I have a problem with my iChat. For some reason, I cannot add any accounts to my iChat. Whenever I go into preferences -> accounts and then click the "+" button, nothing happens.

Hope you guys can help me solve this problem

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 2, 2009 6:21 PM

Reply
27 replies

Apr 6, 2009 12:38 PM in response to ToFuGuY

So you do not get this screen appear ?

User uploaded file

At this point I would delete one of two plists.

Delete com.apple.ichatAgent.plist
This is in Your Home Folder/Library/Preferences.
Put it in the Trash and restart/relaunch iChat.

This holds some of the account info and is the .plist for the Instant Messaging part of iChat.

If that fails you may need to delete com.apple.ichat.plist itself.
Unfortunately if you delete this one you lose all the settings you have made in the iChat Preferences (Fonts, Colours, Alerts, Save Transcripts, Menu Bar icon etc.) and any Save Status Messages you have.

Deleting the second will not lose the Accounts info you have as it gets pulled back from the Keychain when you restart iChat.

What this will do is force iChat to recreate the .plist from default s held in th app itself.

User uploaded file

8:38 PM Monday; April 6, 2009

Apr 7, 2009 11:57 AM in response to ToFuGuY

Hi,

iChat creates several .plists with com.apple.ichat..... in them.

I was very specific in naming the one you should delete and not naming any others.

You should have
com.apple.ichat.plist
com.apple.ichatAgent.plist (iChat will not function without either of these.)

It will then have one or both of the following
com.apple.ichat.AIM.plist
com.apple.ichat.Jabber.plist (if you have a Jabber Screen Name sand not an AIM or Apple one you will only have the Jabber one. The same is true if you don't have Jabber account - If have have both thn both will be there)

Lastly there is com.apple.iChat.Subnet.plist which only appears after you Use Groups, Order your Buddy list or use the Allow or Block options in the iChat > Preferences > Accounts > Security tab)

As there are many .plist in the Preferences Folder I would make sure that folder is either in List View, set to Name or Quick Look to view the list alphabetically.

User uploaded file

7:57 PM Tuesday; April 7, 2009

Apr 8, 2009 12:04 PM in response to ToFuGuY

Ok,

Two things (possibly three)

1) Open up Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities)
In here with the All Processes choice in the top drop down should show iChatAgent running when iChat is.
They will not be together but are likely to be close together nearer the top (most recently launched item)

Is yours showing iChatAgent ?

2) Whilst In Applications/Utilities also Open Console
Use the Log Icon to left to display the list.

Are there any comments in the Console or System Log about iChat and possibly Not finding iChatAgent ?

3) Navigate manually to Hard Drive/System/Library/Frameworks/InstantMessge.framework (See bar at bottom of Pic)
User uploaded file
Does iChat Agent appear in here ?

4) Open Terminal (Applications/Utilities)
Copy and paste the bold text below when you have Quit iChat

/Applications/iChat.app/Contents/MacOS/iChat -errorLogLevel 7

Hit enter.
This will cause Terminal to Launch iChat and create a log whilst doing so.

When iChat has logged on make a not of the line the log is up to. (Grab a Copy and Paste it to TextEdit).
Now start a IM Text chat.
As iChat is unlikely to do this Bit Force Quit if Required.
Grab the next part of the Log (Copy and Paste to another TextEdit).

Now Quit Terminal.

Post the two logs here.

A Repair Permissions (First Aid tab in Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities) and the Repair Permissions button) - may cure this if iChatAgent is there - so I would try that.

I suspect the Terminal Log will highlight a problem that will need a reinstall of the iChatAgent.
Of course it maybe the Link commend from iChat itself that is the problem.
We will come to that though after looking at the Log.

User uploaded file

8:04 PM Wednesday; April 8, 2009

Apr 11, 2009 12:23 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Hey, I finally got an opportunity to check back on this forum just barely today.

1) Yes, iChatAgent does show up.

2) Console does say the following:

4/11/09 12:02:28 AM iChat[2712] * -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (2147483647( or possibly larger)) beyond bounds (4)

3) Yes, iChatAgent does show up

4) When I entered the command in Terminal, it says the same exact thing as it says in console.
As for the "Now start a IM Text chat," I cannot even start a chat. So I am unable to display any log for that.

And finally, I just tried Repair Permissions, but ... nothing seemed to have happened?

Apr 12, 2009 4:02 PM in response to optifit

hi im having a problem with my ichat. one of my trusted friends sent me that silly ichat virus that changes your password, but when i got on keychain access it says that the password is the same. when i try to log into my email it says that the password is changed when i click on forgot password and try to fill in all the stuff i dont not remember what i put into for the birth place or the year i was born.so i was wondering if someone can tell me how i would be able to get back my password back?

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