Can't sign in on iMessage and FaceTime after upgrading to ML

Hi,

The use of all upper case letters is regarding as shouting on these Communities.

Whilst "the Issue" may be "still there" it would be useful to know what steps you have taken to try and solve this.

This thread has 75 replies (which for me is 6+ pages of replies).

The Thread was started in July 2012 which means there has been Updates to the OS since then so you may in fact have a different problem to the Original Poster (who has marked this thread as Solved).

The one issue that has been present the whole time since OS X 10.8.2 is the need for the Logic board to have the Serial Number in it's Memory.

If the computer has been Refurbished or Repaired and this involved replacing the Logic Board then the engineer should have "Flashed" the Serial Number back to the chip that holds that info on the board.

8:07 PM Friday; July 5, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi Ralph,

Ralph, I meant every emotion you may precieve in that previous message, why? Im frustrated, wouldnt you be?...I take it your typing your reply on

a computer that you have a lot of awareness about, the ins and the outs of it and how to configure and troubleshoot things, so your computer may not have ANY issues at all, so you may not be able to relate to a lot of us here because things are working wonderfully on your end, but on OUR end, the issue has yet to be handled SINCE July 2012, and any one, waiting that long for an product to work, that works on every other device, would be a little frustrated dont ya think? Come on here, lets stay realistic and empathetic rather than technical and emotionless..

however, I am VERY GRATEFUL (not yelling 🙂, just want to empahsize) that you have taken your time and energy to help, however, its gotten me and a lot of us here, no where. Mean while, calls and contact oppotunities go unanswered, our friends and families are wondering 'when will your facetime get fixed' and after continuous attempts to fix this, WE, the consumers are still made to feel as if WE are doing something wrong, because we cant troubleshoot this and fix it-even though the details to do so are VERY complicated.

I have done more fooling around with behind the scene Flashes, serials, codes, codecs, usernames, deletion of usernames, trash emptying, rebooting, reinstalling, uninstalling, upgrading, and still I log into imessage and get a password fail message...

Oh well.

I offered.

No concrete answer.

Moving on... ... to someone who can report what they have tried and does not want to sound like a lonely cowboy shouting up a canyon.

Just to be clear, think of this from my perspective.

Unrelated comment several months after the thread started with no real content towards addressing the issue.

In typing a reply I stated the most obvious cause that has lasted over the period of this thread.

I asked for precise information on what had been tried.

As a response I get a further rant about the problem and vague hints about what might have been tried.

Being a regular poster for number of years standing I am sympathetic to people's needs.

I would also say I am broadly empathic to the needs of those who use the Communities here at Apple.

However I am not looking over your shoulder, I have no access to your memories.

To be able to help I have to have an understanding of what you have tried and what you have seen as a result. (The same applies to any body else who is going to offer help)

Take for instance "deletion of usernames".

From Messages ?

From System Preferences > Mail, Contacts and Calendars ?

From the Keychain ?

Or do you mean User's accounts from the Users folder ?

You can be as emotional as you want. Without facts no one can help you.

6:44 PM Saturday; July 6, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi Ralph,

I've read the thread and you are definitively the Expert;

I run a MBA Late 2010 OS X 10.8.4.

Since the last OS X Update I'm unable to log in on FT on the MBA;

I've checked my ID, PW and FT works well on iPhone, iPad for me and not on OS X.

iMessage is fine.

I've deleted hosts file and recovered the OSX,

I've changed DNS,

and I've still the problem.

I did not modified "hosts" file, as I'm not sure about what should be the overall file.

I've currently:

##

# Host Database

#

# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface

# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.

##

127.0.0.1 localhost

255.255.255.255 broadcasthost

::1 localhost

fe80::1%lo0 localhost

Please let me know if I shall modify this file and how?

Cheers.

Hi,

The Hosts file is fine.

It is when it contains items that Block access to Apple or Verisign that the issue occurs due to that file.

As you don't seem to say that this happened before the OS X 10.8.4 update and also make no mention of Messages I presume you have a Serial Number showing in the "About this Mac" pane when you click the current OS level line twice ?

(I take it Messages is working and it is only FaceTime that is the issue).

Have you tried deleting the com.apple.imservice.FaceTime.plist item ?

7:26 PM Wednesday; July 10, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi Ralph,

Thank you for your care, truly appreciated.

Yes my Serial No is fine and I didn't do any maintenance on the MBA.

Yes only FT is blocked. I can open it, type my ID/PW and then it return to the same entry field without any error message. I've tried all ID email I have for AppleID.

Yes I've deleted com.apple.imservice.FaceTime.plist, and it has been regenerated at my next temptative to sign in FT.

I don't change yet hosts file. Shall I try? and how to change the code then?

Cheers

HI,

Your Hosts file is in the default unaltered state.

It is when it gets altered and what those things block that can be the issue.

It does not appear that yours is going to be the Problem.

As the Serial Number is Present and the Host file is Normal and Messages works it would appear the issue is the FaceTime App itself.

Unfortunately you cannot download and install it on it's own.

You can only Restore (reinstall) the whole OS and Apple Apps.

I can't think of anything else to try.

7:41 PM Thursday; July 11, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hello Ralph,

Thank you for your analysis and confirmation.

I've done everything (including OS recovery) before my first post, and I reached the same conclusion than yours before to ask for help.

I will do it again (who knows?) and let you know if this is successful.

Cheers.

Jerome

I was having same issue and it was driving me nuts. What worked for me was to sign into facetime first and let that log in then sign into imessage. For some reason that fixed the issue for me.

Hi Ralph,

Thank you for being such a huge commentor on these discussions. I've been reading your posts for about the last hour or so, trying to make heads or tails of them. I have a 2007 24'' Imac without a serial number in the "About This Mac" page or in the hardware section of system information. It's kind of a huge hassle to take this giant thing into the Apple store to get a serial on the logic board. Everything else ... (terminal and hosts files) ... goes over my head and I'm not even sure if it will solve the problem (???).

Do you know of any other solution to this?

Hi,

My understanding is that the Serial Number is held on an Eprom chip on the Logic/Motherboard.

Apparently, according to some posts this can only be done once.

I have not heard of anyone "doing this for themselves" at home.

Is there an Apple Authorised Service Provider that is closer ?

Although I understand you would want the people who repaired the Computer and didn't put back the Serial Number to "finish the Job".

8:04 PM Monday; August 19, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi,

I am having the same problem with imessage I upgraded my 27 imac to 10.8 and I can't it to accept my me account. I do not have the serial number in the settings, it was never there, always an issue for me. I do have the number via the sticker. Having to bring it in to be "flashed" is big deal. Will this likely fix the issue?

Thanks,

Jim

HI,

I have received an email informing me there is a new post in this thread but I cannot see it.

@ krimrepear1

Yes, having the Serial Number flashed to the Mother Board will sort this issue.

7:41 pm Thursday; October 10, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Same problem here. But I can't go to an Apple Store to flash the new MB

Hi,

There are also Apple Authorised Service Providers (AASPs)

8:29 pm Sunday; November 3, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad