iChat after Lion--Messaging Agent keeps wanting password

Hi,

You have linked to a post near the beginning of the thread dated around the 8th of August.

The Thread continues up to the 26th August with various ides.

I have no clue as to what you have tried, what you have read of this thread.

In fact I can't even see a question in your Post.

The Thread is also marked as Solved (Correct Answer).

Were you just commenting or did you need some help ?

8:43 PM Tuesday; September 20, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hello Ralph,

I was simply making a note in the discussion that I was also having the issue.

I attempted to follow the instructions of the "solution" for this issue, but it did not resolve it. In instead introduced some other problems, such as the background color of my Instant Message bubbles was no longer adjustable (the background was stuck orange), nor was the color of the font (it was stuck black). The color adjustment menu was also not working correctly afterwords.

I had saved a copy of the com.apple.ichat** files that were suggested for deletion, and restored them afterwords. When I did, I was able to change the font and background colors again. Simply put I was not able to stop the issue. As I described above, this issue is not consitent for me. Sometimes it occurs, many times it does not, but it never happened before with Snow Leapord.

Apple will surely address the issue with a patch in the future. I'm not sure if they monitor these forums and look into issues that are discussed; but if so, I decided to chime in and report I was also experiencing it. Sorry for being vague in my original post (I didn't want to go overboard with details).

Thank you for the follow up and the offer to help. I appreciate it.

Hi,

There do seem to be two variants of this.

One is that the Mac User has lost access to the Keychain

~/Library/Keychains to follow the method used before.

This should show your (Shortname) as the Owner and with Read and Write permissions.

The other seems to be the various .plists

If these are deleted then new ons should be recreated from Defaults (like the Orange Bubbles/Balloons).

However if you don't have access to change these or the changes don't stick it would seem that you do not have Read and Write access to the new ones.

Some people have reported success in deleting not only the com.apple.ichat **.plist items but also the associated .lockfiles

Mostly iChat uses the Keychain to access the Password when it is needed.

iChat is only used to Write it in the first place.

Some of this is now linked to the System Preferences > Contacts, Mail and Calendars pane (It showed have the iChat details in there).

9:42 PM Tuesday; September 20, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi Anthony,

I had a quick scan of the thread but did not see it.

Have you tried deleting the account in iChat and re-adding it ?

9:45 PM Tuesday; September 20, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

To summarise then.

iChat randomly asks for the Passwords now and then.

These are in the Keychain and iChat has Access.

You own and and Read And Write Access to the Keychain.

I am also presuming you have tried Keychain Repair.

The Original Answer marked as correct suggests deleting the com.apple.*.plists which you have done with partial success.

You also Own and have Read and Write permissions to the .plist

From that we can presume, as they are being rewritten, that you Own and have Read and Write permissions for the enclosing Folders (Home folder and Library and Preferences).

This on Lion and therefore iChat 6
This means that the details also appear in System Preferences > Contacts, Mail and Calendars

You have tried deleting the accounts in iChat and Re-adding them as well.

I would be tempted to try deleting the accounts in iChat and then adding them in Contacts, Mail and Calendars to see if it makes any difference.

Also check that in the Hard Drive (the top level folder) that there is not a Folder called Previous System.

This should not store any info relating to this even if it is there, but it may provide some clues.

Did you create a Lion Disk before installing Lion ?

8:23 PM Wednesday; September 21, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Umm,

Without the Install Disk as a physical copy it is not possible to Reinstall any of the Apps in the ways that used to work before.

The Lack of a Previous System is mostly a good thing - it means there are not two copies of iChat floating about.

It also makes it very difficult to try a Reinstall or make progress from here

6:43 PM Tuesday; September 27, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Same for me. problems hasn't been resolved yet. I Set up gmail account today. The username and password that logins to gmail is the same I'm setting up in iChat. All settings are what has been described in bunches of websites, etc. Tried @gmail, tried @googlemail... When I try to login it says jabber login unable because screen name or password was incorrect. That's not true: they are correct to login to gmail!!

I've deleted com.apple.plist.ichat.Jabber, plus all the other plists, restarted, still stuck with the very same stupid problem.

I created another Gmail account and it worked just fine! AWESOME! Now elaborate on that!

;(((((

Hi,

This thread does list all the ideas we have had on this.

Some people have found that in updating to Lion they have either lost Permissions on their keychain or the .plists themselves.

Otherers have found that open Activity Monitor and selecting IMAgent and then using the Quit Button (Confirm Force Quit) seems to sort this as well.

Checks on a Google account.

1) Must be Google Mail account.

2) The ending of the name should match the Google Mail web Page when entered in to iChat

3) should be entered as a Google option and not Jabber (If entered as Jabber go to Server Settings and change Server to read talk.google.com)

4) The Talk option to enable Chat on the Google Mail Page (And iGoogle) needs to be done on Your Account settings at Google.

General Checks on your Mac User Account

1) Check the Keychain has the item.

2) Check the access Tab allows the app you want to use it.

3) Check the Password is right and does not contain typos (on the Info Panel tick the Show Password and confirm in the Dialogue box)

4) Check Ownership and Read & Write permissions on Keychain.

5) Repeat for .plists for app.

7:40 PM Tuesday; December 13, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

HI,

Go to Applications/Utilities and open the Keychain Access app.

In here select the Login item in the top left panel and Passwords in the lower left.

Check all iChat/Messages IDs in the list on the right.

Double click them when you find them.

Then check the Access tab and check iChat/Messages has access.

If it does return to the other tab and tick the Show Password Box

Fill in your User Password and click Allow Once in the dialogue box that appears.

You password for that name should then appear in the text field.

Edit/Add as required

Repeat for all names.

There can be instances where you import/migrate an account from another Mac and this Mac does not think you Own the Keychain to be able to write to it.

This can also apply to the .plists (held in the Home Library/Preferences)

10:39 PM Sunday; February 19, 2012

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.3)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously