Apple ID (Unknown error occurred) FIXED

If you have this issue, then try this solution because nothing ever works for me and this did!

I have spent three days figuring out the Apple ID sign-in issue. It happened to me after upgrading from Mojave to Catalina. I searched the internet and found too many people have the same issue but there is no help at all.

I have tried the following and did not work for me:

1. Reset password
2. Reset Keychain
3. Sign out and quit the Mac App Store
4. Log out of your Mac, and log back in and try sign in
5. Restart your Mac, and try sign in
6. From the Finder, choose the “Go” menu and select “Go To Folder” and then enter the following path: ~/Library/Application Support/iCloud/Accounts/
7. Remove the files from the ~/Library/Application Support/iCloud/Accounts/ folder so that it is empty and reboot
8. Clearing cookies and cache
9. Try a different network
10. Make sure the iCloud server is working
11. Make sure you don’t have internet connectivity

Did you notice you cannot add Google, Yahoo or other accounts too? I could not and after noticing this I realized the problem has nothing to do with iCloud or Apple server. It’s just my local machine which needs a fix.

After days of investigation, I found the Accounts/ iCloud local database is damaged and I have to reset it.

Solution:

Open Terminal and type the following:

1. sudo -v ; killall -9 accountsd com.apple.iCloudHelper ; defaults delete MobileMeAccounts ; [press enter]
2. mkdir ~/Library/Accounts/Backup; mv ~/Library/Accounts/*.sqlite* ~/Library/Accounts/Backup/ ; [press enter]
3. killall -9 accountsd com.apple.iCloudHelper ; sudo reboot [press enter]

Your computer will restart and you will be able to sign in or add accounts.

[Edited by Moderator]