I downloaded mountain lion 2 days ago and now can't log in to system preferences with apple id and password to access back to my mac. icloud is functional but when logging in to system preferences the little gear wheel just spins and spins interminably. Have tried it over and over and have changed password. I'm hopelessly stuck.
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
In iTunes or the App Store does your apple ID work? Can you view your purchases?
Can you log in at iCloud.com?
What about in a test user? Is it spinning there as well?
In iTunes or the App Store does your apple ID work? Can you view your purchases?
Can you log in at iCloud.com?
What about in a test user? Is it spinning there as well?
I apple id seems to work everywhere except in icloud preferences. I can view my purchases. I don't know about "test user" or how to do that. I will see if i can research that.
Thanks.
Well, try in a test user and we will go from there.
Go to System Prefrences>users and groups
Unlocklock in the bottom left and type in your admin password
Now hit the plus symble above the lock. Make this user's an admin.
Just put the user name as "test" and the password as "test"
Then hit create and turn off automatic login if it asks.
Now click the apple>log out.
Now login as the test user and try to sign into the System Prefrences> icloud.
Now all we need to do is note if it works or not.
Then we can delete the test user in reverse of how we created it.
Was able to access and sign in Icloud preferences as new user per your suggestion but still not able to get in under original user id
Okay cool, so now we know it's somthing in your user.
I would now try to boot into safe mode. (turn computer off, as soon as you hear the start up chime hold the SHIFT key untill you see the White Apple and the Spinning Gear)
See if it works in safe boot.
Did the safe boot but I'm still getting the same result. I read somewhere on on of the help pages that Icloud will not support my apple id with a .com in it but have no clue how to change that.
Nah, it WILL support your Apple ID with a .com.
Okay, we have one more step to take, but it removes all of your prefrences and they will need to be reset. (background picture, sleep settings...ect.) Anything that has been set inside of system prefrences.
This is what you need to pull. Go>Library>prefrences>com.apple.systemprefrences.plist
Drag that to the desktop> Restart.
Tried to do that but can't find library. Apparently it is hidden somewhere in my operating system and I have no clue how to retrieve it.
OK. Found the library and system preferences and dragged to desk top and restarted. I'm still blocked out of mobile me system preferences. Was I supposed to do something with it after i dragged it desk top?
Yeah, after going to "go" you have to hold the option key on the keyboard to unhide it.
So you pulled that plist to the desktop and restarted?
After it's on the desktop you can trash it.
So now you can't get into mobile me? or did you mean icloud?
Yes, I meant icloud. icloud system preferences will not accept my password. However, my password works in the mac store.
I was finally able to get signed in and resolve this issue after doing the software upgrade on my spouses ipad. I hadn't even considered that since I never use it.
Thanks for all of your help and patience.
I found the following post that identified that one possible reason for the inability to log on to iCloud and the constant spinning gear can be a missing serial number. In my case, I had a motherboard replacement and the Apple tech forgot to reinitialize the serial number. Restoring it with the software referenced below solved my problem with iCloud log-ons! For the record, I'm on El Capitan 10.11.3 on an early-2009 iMac.
Go to the Apple menu (upper left corner of your screen) and choose About This Mac. If your serial number is displayed, then this post isn't for you. If it's missing, here is now to fix it.
I want to stress that this worked for me, but you are fooling with firmware so be sure you feel comfortable with this process.
Read the page at the link below carefully before you proceed. The CD you create needs to be a bootable one, so you can't just copy the file to a blank CD.
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Previously, I was never able to login to use iMessage from my desktop Mac, but basically ignored the problem (used my iphone). After El Capitan, I was not able to access iTunes or iCloud at all.
I did notice that I was missing a serial number on my computer (from Finder, go to About This Mac). Somehow my serial number got wiped when I took my Mac in for a hard drive exchange (recalled under warranty).
This webpage showed me how to reinitialize the serial number (etched onto the footplate of the Mac chassis). It's moderate difficulty, but not impossible. The trickiest part was getting disk utility to actually burn the Blank Board Serializer to CD. After that, very simple and after restart, everything works!
http://rogersm.net/icloud-problems-mountain-lion-serial-number
Hope this helps anyone missing a serial number!
Can't log in to iCloud system preferences
