The server encountered an error processing registration. Please try again later.

Can anyone confirm that FaceTime still works in 10.7.5?

I've just done clean 10.7.5 installation on MacBook, late 2007, and old Mac Mini and can't get it work.

Always getting "The server encountered an error processing registration. Please try again later. " message.

Tried different Apple ID's. Nothing helps.

They still sell FaceTime for 10.6 in AppStore. Does it work? May be I have to buy FaceTime for 10.7.5?

Apple KB says FaceTime must work on 10.6 and above. But in 10.7.5 it does not.

I've been using this forum for a couple of months now, and I do find that this problem seems to relate to MacBooks in partticular. Also, it appears that Lion users seem to have more problems than Snow Leopard users.

I have 10.6.8 here, and Facetime works very well for me.

In general, I have found the registration and setup for FT to be quite ambiguous, but was able to muddle through it and got it to work favorably.

This problem that you're having is a frustrating one, and it seems there are various and sundry answers to solving this issue. The bottom line is that I think that it's a software issue. You've already gone through a reasonable course of problem solving, so at this point you should think of using another video chat service such as Skype.

One last comment; there were a number of FT server problems Apple was having recently, so you may find that your difficulty will disappear all by itself. In any case, Good Luck.

I had the same issue and just got it resolved to simply by correcting my Time from AM to PM. I understand you have this feature set to AUTO, you might want to double check to the last minute and time of the day.

Hope you get it resolved

Thank you soooo much for that little piece of info! I was literally searching for over an hour on how to resolve this problem and you did it in five seconds 🙂

I've been trying to get an answer to this problem for MONTHS. I upgraded both my iMac and my MacBook Pro to Mountain Lion, and ever since, FaceTime and iMessage stopped working. I got the "Server encountered an error . . ." So, I called Apple "support" and they claimed they haven't heard of this issue. I said I find it hard to believe since it's apparently a huge problem for tons of users and is all over the Apple forums. After spending an hour on the phone with "support", they said they had to pass i on to a senior engineer and they'd call me back within 2 days with an answer. After waiting a week, I decided to go to the place where I should have gone before, the place where all questions can be answered, even those too advanced for Apple, that place . . . YouTube.

Fixing the time issue didn't work for me, nor did any other solution that has been posted on the boards. Yet after watching a 1:24 video on YouTube, both FaceTime and iMessage now work for me.

Here's the solution which WILL work.

1. You do need to first make sure your date/time settings are correct and set to adjust automatically. But doing just this step will not fix the problem.
2. Open Finder, click on "Go" at the top menu, then select "Go To Folder"
3. Type in /etc and hit enter
4. You'll see a file called "hosts". Drag that file to your desktop.
5. Right click on that file and open with Text Edit
6. Select all the text in that file, delete it and replace it with the text below, exactly as it is below. Then save the new hosts file (just exiting will save it). And then drag that new hosts file back into the /etc folder to replace the old one. After that, your FaceTime and iMessage will work, no thanks to Apple.

##

# 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

Cheers Todd worked a treat! Do you know if there is a way of syncing the history with other devices e.g. iPad & iPhone?

Wow! Another fix provided by helpful people in the community. I recently started to use Apple products and the community has been THE spot for help. Was almost ready to give up and go back to Windows.....

hi there. i have the same issues as everyone here. i checked my clock, seems right from what i can tell. I checked my info in terminal, it already says :

127.0.0.1 localhost

255.255.255.255 broadcasthost

::1 localhost

fe80::1%lo0 localhost

and nothing else. im not sure what the problem could still be ..

😟

I followed toddwest24's instructions to the letter and it fixed the problem right away.

hmmm, did you have any other entries befor you fixed it? mine is exactly as what he suggested we try already. is it worth it to try anyways? im not good with computers, im kinda dangerous really, so i want to make sure its ok befor i try .. thanks very much by the way, i appreciate all input!!🙂

I followed your instructions to the letter, but NO success!

What should be tried next?

Brilliant - cheers! It worked perfectly for me, too.

@Jeffer74 - at first my hosts file looked right, too, but actually cutting and pasting the text toddwest24 provides - then saving and replacing the original file - worked for me, even though the result looked nearly identical. Worked without a reboot, too!

Whoops, celebrated too early. After reboot, Messages prompted me to sign in again ⚠ and then the error reappeared. 😠

This worked for me as well. Thank you for posting this solution!

Thanks toddwest24... that worked.

In case anyone else is wondering, if you have entries in your host file (I have some things blocked myself), you don't necessarily need to delete everything. In my case there was an erroneous line. I had a line break in the file and that must have been the issue. The file is exactly the same, minus the line break... and BAM, FaceTime logs right in.

Thanks for the awesome clue... really helped me solve the problem.

-D