Neither iMessage nor FaceTime working since upgrade on MBP Early 2013

Question

Level 1

0 points

Neither iMessage nor FaceTime working since upgrade on MBP Early 2013

I have tried 2 different Apple IDs and both have the same issues. On iMessage, it will neither send nor receive messages. It will allow me to sign in, and it will allow me to type a message, but the message never gets sent (it shows it as a bubble, but never says delivered and eventually fails). It also does not receive any messages. On Facetime, it will not receive calls and when I try to make a call it just says call failed.

Both apps allow me to sign in and show all the available e-mail addresses and my cell phone number, but neither works properly. Also, when I sign in using the same account that I have on my iPhone and iPad, those devices show that I'm using a MacBook Pro, but it still does not work in OS X Mavericks.

I have tried several proposed solutions on the boards including using Terminal to enter 'defaults delete com.apple.ichat' and 'killall imagent'. I have also signed out of all accounts in iMessage and Facetime and signed back in. I also signed out of my Apple ID on all of my devices and signed in one at a time. I have also deleted the encryption keys in Keychain and signed out and signed back in. I have restarted countless times while trying these other fixes as well. Nothing works.

MacBook Pro (15-inch 2.4/2.2 GHz), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 7:54 PM

Reply

Answer 1

calacour Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2013 8:41 PM in response to calacour

Update: Facetime on my MBP will now show an incoming call, but when I attempt to answer it on my MBP, it says Facetime failed. I can still answer the call on my iPhone and/or iPad.

Reply

Answer 2

Miska_FL

Level 2

390 points

Oct 24, 2013 8:54 PM in response to calacour

Try guest account or create a test user. Let me know if it works there.

Reply

Answer 3

calacour Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2013 9:03 PM in response to Miska_FL

Yes, that does work! Is there anyway to repair the connection on my current user name so I don't have to start from scratch? Thanks!

Reply

Answer 4

Miska_FL

Level 2

390 points

Oct 24, 2013 9:08 PM in response to calacour

Great news, let's start moving some plists. ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.facetime.plist and com.apple.facetime.plistlocked. Make sure Facetime is not running.

Reply

Answer 5

calacour Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2013 9:15 PM in response to Miska_FL

OK - moved them to the desktop.

Reply

Answer 6

Oct 27, 2013 12:33 PM in response to calacour

Hi,

Does FaceTime work now ?

Basically the Restart of the app will recreate the .plist from Defaults.

Also check System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Firewall

If this is ON then check the Option Button.

Allow Signed Software should be ticked and the two apps plus IMAgent need to be in the list allowing Incoming data.

7:33 pm Sunday; October 27, 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

Reply

Answer 7

calacour Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 31, 2013 8:36 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

Neither works on my original User Account. I have deleted all plists for both iMessage and FaceTime and re-signed in using my correct Apple ID, but still nada. Also tried the Firewall settings - even turned the firewall competely off, but no change.

Reply

Answer 8

Oct 31, 2013 9:01 AM in response to calacour

I solved my problem by removing all the "Entrust.net Certification Authority (2048)" that where duplicated.

This is how my certificates look now. One in the login keychain, the other in the system keychain and the other one in the System Roots.

NOTE: BE CAREFULL! Allways backup the certificates before removing them!! And DON'T touch the System Roots Certificate!

I still don't know if this is a permanent fix but now I have iMessage, Facetime and Find My Mac working.

Reply

Answer 9

Oct 31, 2013 1:59 PM in response to calacour

Hi,

I would consider opening KeyChain Access and deleting the two Auth Tokens for FaceTime and iMessages

Other than that I can only suggest migrating all your current User info to the new "test" account.

This is obviously a very clunky "fix"

8:59 pm Thursday; October 31, 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

Reply

Answer 10

Oct 31, 2013 2:26 PM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

I've tried that before. A new account doesn't fix it. Trust me. I've done all the solutions presented in the interwebs and some of my own and nothing worked. I've been contacted by Apple and my trial and errors have been sent to the engineers that are investigating this problem.

There are different causes for a similar simptom so try everything (with backups done first!) or wait for an official fix from Apple. They are working on it. Trust me.

Reply

Answer 11

Drewbee

Level 1

8 points

Nov 4, 2013 3:56 AM in response to Paulo Carrasco

I finally brought my iMac into the Apple Store and the guy at the Genius Bar was able to enter my (previously missing) serial number onto the motherboard. From there, everything worked fine. iMessage and Face Time now work.

BTW, my AppleCare had long expired, but they did this for free.

Good luck!

Reply

Answer 12

Nov 6, 2013 10:26 PM in response to Paulo Carrasco

I have the same two certificates and interestingly one of them is Daylight Savings Time, the other one is Standard Time. Some users have reported fixing the problem by changing their time zone. This is an interesting lead to investigate.

Edit: Nevermind, that is the expiry date which has nothing to do with iMessage. Deleting one of them did not solve my problem but as mentionned above, deleting the Auth Token fixed it. Its name is [your apple id]-AuthToken in your keychain.

Reply

Answer 13

srissett

Level 1

0 points

Dec 1, 2013 7:54 PM in response to calacour

Were you able to fix your problem? I am also currently having this issue, its driving me crazy!

Reply

Answer 14

Dec 2, 2013 12:31 AM in response to srissett

I've been checking in on the forums periodically and no answer found yet. It's driving me nuts too, I need iMessage on my mac.

Reply

Answer 15

Dec 2, 2013 1:50 AM in response to calacour

Well after my last post, iMessage and Facetime worked for a few days and then they stopped working again.

Solved it with a clean install. Don't do a full Time Machine restore. Install and recover only data and clean install all your apps.

Done that and now everything works 100% well. And as a benefit, I've "lost" all those old settings acumulated since Snow Leopard. I never did a clean install and upgraded 3 OS X generations: Snow Leopard -> Lion -> Mountain Lion -> Mavericks.

Reply