could not sign in to iMessage

Back up all data.

Take the steps suggested in this support article:

FaceTime, Game Center, Messages: "There was an error processing registration" when signing in

The time zone must be correct for your location.

Make sure you know your ID (an email address) and password. The password should be in your keychain, which you access in the Keychain Access application.

Sign out of iMessage:

Messages ▹ Preferences ▹ Accounts ▹ Sign out

Then sign back in with your verified credentials.

Open the "System Information" utility on your system, and then see if you see an entry for "Serial Number (system):" listed in the "Hardware" sectio. Dont post the serial number here, but if one is not showing then it may be a cause for why iMessage is not connecting.

If this is the case then the fix will require you to take the system in for servicing.

Read this whole message before doing anything.

Back up all data.

Quit Messages if it’s running.

Step 1

Hold down the option key and select

Go ▹ Library

from the Finder menu bar. Delete the following items from the Library folder (either may not exist):

• Caches/com.apple.Messages
• Caches/com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent

Leave the Library folder open. Log out and log back in. Try Messages again. If it works now, stop here. Close the Library folder.

Step 2

If you still have problems, quit Messages again. Go back to the Finder and move the following item from the open Library folder to the Desktop:

Messages

Note: you are not moving the Messages application. You’re moving a folder named “Messages.”

Test. If Messages now works, delete the Messages folder on the Desktop. Otherwise, quit Messages again. Put back the folder you moved, overwriting the newer one that may have been created in its place, and continue.

Step 3

In the Preferences subfolder, there may be several files having names that begin with "com.apple.iChat". There should also be one with the name "com.apple.imagent.plist". Move them all to the Desktop.

Also in the Preferences folder, there's a subfolder named "ByHost". Open it and do the same thing.

Log out and log back in. Test again. This time Messages should perform normally, but your settings will be lost. You may be able to put back some of the "com.apple.iChat" files you moved to the Desktop in this step. Relaunch and test after each one. Eventually you should find one or more that causes Messages to malfunction. Delete those files and recreate whatever settings they contained. Don't put back the "com.apple.imagent.plist" file.

If the issue is still not resolved, quit Messages again and put all the items you moved to the Desktop back where they were. You don’t need to replace the files you deleted in step 1. Stop here and post again.

If you later decide that you don’t like the results of steps 2 and 3, you can undo them completely by quitting Messages and restoring the items you deleted in those steps from your backup.

Hi,

So, Date and Time including Time Zone are correct in the System Preferences and in your router ?

You have added a Public DNS server (or two) to System Preference > Network > Advanced Button > DNS tab ?

IF the Serial Number is Present I would try a PRAM reset

Shut down the computer.

Restart it holding down Apple/CMD ( or ⌘)+ALT( ⌥)+P+R Keys until you have heard three Start Up Bongs.

(That is fours keys held down at once - the two to the left of the Space Bar plus the P and R keys).

10:02 PM Tuesday; January 15, 2013

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 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,

for the Points

9:08 PM Wednesday; January 16, 2013

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 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

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

HI,

On the 15th Jan 2013 Linc Davis posted a Link to an Apple Docucument about that precise thing

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3970?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

To Quote

Symptoms

When you try to sign in to FaceTime, Game Center, or Messages with your Apple ID, "There was an error processing registration" may appear, prompting you to try again later.

Resolution

• If third-party firewall software is installed, it needs to be configured to allow connections from apple.com and verisign.com.
• If you have edited your /private/etc/hosts file, you should remove or comment out any entries containing apple.com or verisign.com. To comment them out, put a "#" character (without quotes) and a space at the start of any line containing apple.com or verisign.com. Note: Some third-party software installers may modify the hosts file without alerting you.
• FaceTime, Game Center and Messages require an accurate date and time to communicate with the registration server. Make sure the date and time are set correctly on your computer in the Date and Time preference pane. You should enable (check) "Set date and time automatically" in the preference pane to automatically keep this information accurate.
• This issue might happen if you have an email address associated with more than one Apple ID. Be sure your email address is associated with only one Apple ID; log in to appleid.apple.com and confirm that your AppleID seems to be verified.

It is fair to say that this still only works for some people.

The same is true of adding a Public DNS server to System Preference > Network

Or making sure the Date and Time including Time Zone of correct on the Mac and on the router.

Using Activity Monitor to Force Quit IMAgent has used be some with some success (mainly before OS X 10.8.2)

Checking Ownership of the Keychain and .plists has seemd important for some.

7:35 PM Wednesday; January 23, 2013

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 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

It has worked perfectly. This is a real fix, i was struggling with apple support regarding this issue, but used this method and voila! worked like a charm!

I have tried EVERYTHING on here

- date and time (on the date & time tab it is set to auto, on the time zone tab i can't set to auto though)

- /etc/hosts

- plists

- deleting imessage keychain certs

- DNS

- PRAM reset

- serial number present

and nothing works.

The problem first started when I deleted some keychain entries, i deleted everything accidently rather than the one I wanted to delete. I've tried restoring keychain from TM as well, to no avail.

Anyone have any other ideas or else I think tomorrow I'll just try a factory reset

Other stuff peculiar to my problem

- facetime still works

- app store does not : i get the 'cannot connect to app store, an internet connection is required'

i've spent about 5 hours on this now....urggh

Hi,

The Automatic Date and Time setting is based the Time Zone setting.

As it can be tricky trying to find out what you have deleted from the Keychain I would have though a "restore" of the whole Keychain would have been the way to go.

In Mountain Lion you would have to go to the Finder > Go Menu > Go to Folder and enter ~/Library/Keychains and then invoke the Time Machine icon to be able to look in the backup version of that folder.

7:40 PM Wednesday; February 27, 2013

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

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.2)
 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