Q: Cannot log into iMessage in 10.8 Messages.app
Hi folks,
Messages.app 7.0.1 (3314) on OS X 10.8.2 refuses to sign into my iMessage account. iMessage works fine on my iOS devices, and worked on this Mac with Messages.app until a couple months ago (more on that evolution below the step-by-step).
Here's the play-by-play:
1. Launch Messages. All IM accounts sign on normally, except iMessage. Under Messages > Accounts… iMessage is unchecked.
2. Messages > Preferences > Accounts > iMessage (inactive)
3. Enter Apple ID: user name prefilled, password field blank. Enter the password correctly, press Sign In.
4. The pane switches to the next state, as if the password was accepted, but is grayed out. Just as the spinner starts, below the heading "Apple ID: [user name]", next to "Enable this account" a dialog box appears…
5. The box reads "iMessage Password" "Please enter your password for [Apple user ID here] Password field is blank. Remember this password in my keychain is checked.
6. Enter the password, click Log In, and enter an endless loop of failure, where this box just reappears, time after time—though the delay is long, like 7-8 seconds. The only way out is to click cancel.
7. Click cancel. "Could not sign in to iMessage. Registration was cancelled." [OK]
The long story:
At some point after upgrading my MacBook Air to Mountain Lion, probably a few months ago, Messages.app stopped being able to log into the iMessage service.
I suspect it has to do with stored credentials or encryption keys. I say this because I have two keychains on this system. One from a previous MBP, that I migrated *manually* to this system. So I have the MBA's keychain, and then I have one which comes from the prior system. This all worked fine for months. Then I wanted to combine them because I got sick of Messages requiring me to unlock the MBP's keychain at start up, when the system keychain was already open. I did a little research and could not find a way to merge the two keychains. I wanted to do it manually, but that's a lot of work. At this point, I suspect I nuked something from the keychain unwittingly, and that Messages is *still* looking for it and I am somehow unable to recreate, perhaps because it thinks it's there when it's not (or maybe corrupt?) I ran a keychain first aid on all my keychains, and they report back healthy.
I've done the usual suspects, nuking plists, preferences, keychain entries for all accounts in hopes they get rebuilt. They do, but the problem remains. Permission repairs and Disk First Aid, too, of course.
I searched on this across the forums before, but came up empty handed? Anyone have any fresh ideas?
Thanks,
~brian
Posted on Mar 27, 2013 5:58 PM
Linc, thanks for kicking my memory into gear and getting me to test if it was a user-based or system-wide issue. It was user-based, as I was able to sign into iMessage from a new user.
That lead me to the new user's keychain, which was virgin other than I had enabled Messages.app, and it had written all the requisite keys and application passwords to the otherwise blank keychain. I took a screenshot of the keychain items, threw it in my Shared directory, then popped back into my main user to compare.
In my main user keychain(s), the iMessage Encryption Key, Signing Key and AuthToken were all missing. If this were normally the case, signing in would retrieve new copies from Apple, but this had not been happening. I suspected this was where my trouble with having the old keychain around was coming in. So I locked it up, and when I signed into iMessage, Messages.app kept asking to unlock my old keychain. I said no about six times in a row. Then it stopped asking. Then it logged in. It had finally given up, and written the new items into the new Mac's unlocked keychain.
Problem solved!
I should add that this behavior was identical in Facetime.app, as well. Just so happens the fix was the same as well. This time I counted and it was exactly 6 times I had to say not to unlocking my old keychain.
For anyone searching, this is the list of items I found on a new user's virgin keychain after signing into only iMessage (no other IM services) with Messages.app:
<key> public key
<key> private key
Apple Persistent State Encryption - application password
com.apple.facetime: registrationV1 - application password
ids: identity-rsa-key-pair-signature-v1 - application password
ids: identity-rsa-private-key application - password
ids: identity-rsa-public-key application - password
iMessage Encryption Key - private key
iMessage Signing Key - private key
iMessage: [your-Apple-ID-here]-AuthToken - application password
*Note, Facetime.app had not been launched on this system, yet there's an item with "Facetime" in its title.
If you have the troubles I've had, I'd look at these items as ones to possibly remove and rebuild by signing in. (Your mileage may vary. Don't blame me if you make your problem worse. Worked for me.)
Posted on Mar 28, 2013 7:07 PM

