Can't sign out of iCloud on Catalina

here you go Eric,

in addition, on my ipad i used the option to sign out of icloud on all my devices, didn't help get icloud signed out of the macbook.

worst thing is the macbook still shows my name and appleid once i should be signed out. Shouldn't be like that.

So the other day when i was researching this i happened upon a blog that mentioned deleting mobileme plist and the ~/Library/Accounts contents

spent some time finding that article which i thought was at appletoolbox or https://eclecticlight.co

anyway this page references the procedure

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/328818/icloud-sign-out-not-possible-on-high-sierra

before doing anything ensure you have backups, also go into system preferences -> internet accounts and take pics of all the account names and details.

i then created a compressed archive of ~/Library/Accounts then opened the folder and copied the contents into a new folder (belt and braces, i have 3 backups of the whole disk from last weekend too). i then compressed and then deleted ~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist, i also moved ~400 plists from before mid 2015 the oldest being from 2009!

mail was open and i was immediately asked for passwords for my email accounts, restarting mail all my email accounts where gone. system preferences -> internet accounts showed no accounts.

i then restarted the mac.

on login imessage was asking for my appleid password, i ignored that and went to system prefs -> appleid and i was no longer signed in.

I clicked sign in, entered my appleid & password. after a few minutes i was getting pop ups that email accounts had been added. I then opened internet accounts and all my email accounts where listed, i then had to enabled all my accounts, no passwords where asked for.

all seems happy at the moment.

Safari had no windows when i opened it despite it being set to reopen all windows from last session (likely from the plist move?) I simply went to history and opened windows from there. I'm sure there will be other issues too.

Mail is also re downloading all my email.

sign out and sign in now work as expected to.

Will be interesting to see what apple come back with, i assume i can go back to how things where by restoring the ~/Library/ folders to the previous states.

I'll assign/Mark as solved once i've spoken with apple again

Hi Eric

i get the same issue in safe mode but all works great if I create a new admin account log into that and then sign into iCloud from system prefs in that.

I’m not running any AV.

will send an etre check later if still needed,

i will definitely report back if anything fixes this.

so far we have:

tried signing out and update apple id settings

moved all launch items, keychains & rebooted, still see the issue

recovery mode repairhomepermissions and reinstall os, still see the issue

i was sure it was a keychain issue but assume it can't be as removing keychain folder, permission repair and os reinstall didn't fix it.

my guess is that i will be migrating my files to a new admin account, permission repair and bin the old one!

i'm expecting an update within 7 days.

Thanks donv,

i have an apple support case open for this now.

Thanks Eric,

no adware and don't forget not all unsigned apps are harmful, just apps not signed by apple for various reasons, including sometimes age.

i may bin the M$ license helper though.