iMessage and FaceTime forgot my login, give me "error occurred during activation" message

Question

boop222 Author

Level 1

8 points

iMessage and FaceTime forgot my login, give me "error occurred during activation" message

I have an iphone SE 2020, a mac mini, and a macbook air.

The macbook air, all at a sudden, has forgotten my login for iMessage and Face Time.

If I try to enter my Apple ID and password I get "error occurred during activation"

I have Messages 12.0 and Face Time 5.0 on macOS Mojave.

The mac mini is OK.

If I go to https://www.icloud.com/settings/ I see all three of my devices listed.

It is strange that it complains about "activation" when I am just trying to log in.

Maybe that is the problem, ie, my macbook air is already "activated"???

Perhaps coincidentally, today I got this mail from Apple:

".......So far you’ve filled up over half of your free 5 GB of iCloud storage...."

Well that is not true...I store next to nothing on iCloud, and

https://www.icloud.com/settings/ shows that I have 4.78 GB free.

Could that be related?

Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

Mac mini, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 20, 2020 9:31 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Brian Lazzara

Level 6

10,137 points

Jun 20, 2020 10:49 PM in response to boop222

Perhaps this may help: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201422

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Answer 2

boop222 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 2, 2020 10:38 PM in response to boop222

Actually, it worked for about one day but then it stopped again.

Repeating the process of deleting the com.apple.apsd.plist file did not help.

Then I found this webpage

https://www.ikream.com/reconnect-imessage-if-its-not-working-on-your-apple-mac-32777

It says:

click the Apple menu then go to System Preferences-> Date & Time section. Select the Time Zone tab and check the option to Set date and time automatically. If it’s already checked, click the box to uncheck it, wait for a few seconds and check the box again.

The box was already checked. I unchecked it, waited a couple minutes, checked it again, and iMessage

started working again., ie, I could log on. (Who knows for how long it will work?).

Incidentally, when iMessage was not working the "Preferences" item in the Messages pull down menu was greyed out.

(maybe because I was not logged on?).

Oooofff. This is really unstable.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Jun 21, 2020 8:47 AM in response to boop222

Are you running any anti - virus programs? Using a VPN?

Will it work if you boot into the Safe Mode?

Safe Mode - About.

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply. Pastebin

Etrecheck – System Information

Web site version if required. https://etrecheck.com

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Answer 4

boop222 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 21, 2020 8:58 PM in response to donv_the_ghost

THANK YOU

I followed your google link for "error occurred during activation imac"

The 2nd hit that showed up was

https://appletoolbox.com/error-occurred-during-activation-for-imessage-or-facetime-on-mac/

I followed the instruction for

Delete your Mac’s Push Notification for iMessage and FaceTime t

Interestingly the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.apsd.plist was update today.

However, I took the plunge and deleted it anyway.

That fixed the problem.

What an ugly bug. (is anybody from Apple reading this?)

PS: I had been googling around for a solution before posting here, but

somehow I had not found this page.

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Answer 5

Jun 21, 2020 3:31 AM in response to boop222

The message you saw is common. I suggest you use my search link in trying to solve your problem: error occurred during activation imessage mac. You will see a number of links that are, or may be, related to your problem. But, I have not seen a definitive solution for it.

If you want to contact Apple Support for help with your problem, see:

Get a call from Apple support to help solve your problem using this

link https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=kbase&PGF=PGF63005&category_id=SC0245&symptom_id=23362

Apple ID Support https://support.apple.com/apple-id

Apple Support Twitter https://twitter.com/AppleSupport

Apple ID account security for country-specific and

region-specific help https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204169

Get Support: We’re here to help https://getsupport.apple.com/. Go through

the options to find the best one.

_________

I don' think the message about iCloud storage is pertinent.

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