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App Store won't let me sign in

There is but one problem. When asked to log into App Store, in my case to download some updates for my Macbook, the username and password dialog box already have a username written in – and it's greyed out, so I can't change it.


Now here's the twist: It's not my username that is greyed out.


In fact, after trying several times, I realise the dialog box only gives me two options, switching between two e-mail addresses I don't own. Surprisingly enough though, I know who owns one of the e-mail addresses, and it's a close friend of mine. I'm a 100 % positive this isn't something he has done on purpose. But the problem still remains, and none of us know why.


So I got an idea, that if my friend could log into his account, and then log out afterwards, the App Store dialog box would allow me to write my own username. I tried that, and it worked great – until I was rejected in the same way as before, after having rebooted the Macbook.


I have searched many apple forums for the answer to this, but it seems I am alone with this. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!


Here's a photo of the dialog box, with a greyed out apple ID field.
User uploaded file

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), App Store

Posted on Jan 7, 2014 8:54 AM

Reply
5 replies

Jan 7, 2014 11:58 AM in response to Exsulator

You installed a hacked app, originally from the Mac App Store. It contains the receipt for a different app, downloaded using an account that you don't control. You need to identify and remove the hacked app.

Important: The app you need to remove is not necessarily the one named in the App Store alert. For example, if the App Store says you need to update "Twitter," the hacked app may be "Angry Birds," or something else entirely. Don't make any assumptions about which app you're looking for. To find it, you have to carry out a systematic search with Spotlight.

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

kMDItemAppStoreHasReceipt=1

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

In the Finder, press command-F to open a search window, or select

File Find

from the menu bar. In the search window, select

Search: This Mac

from the row of tokens below the toolbar. Below that is a popup menu of search criteria, initially showing Kind. From that menu, select

Other...

A sheet will drop down. In that sheet, select

Raw Query

as the criterion, then click OK or press return.

Now there will be a text box to the right of the menu of search criteria. That's where you enter the raw search query. Click in that box and paste the text you copied earlier by pressing command-V.

The search window will now show all the App Store products that are installed. Compare those search results with the list of your purchases from the App Store. To see the complete list, you may need to unhide hidden purchases. If any apps were download from the App Store using other Apple ID accounts that you control, sign in to the store under each of those ID's and check the purchases.

At least one of the apps in the search results is not among your purchases in the App Store. Move each such item to the Trash, after quitting it if it's running. You may be prompted for your administrator password. Empty the Trash.

Quit and relaunch the App Store. Test.

Jan 7, 2014 12:24 PM in response to Exsulator

I see this differently than Linc because you state that this Apple ID is that of a friend. So I would guess one of two options, either way back when you first got this Mac it was your friend who used his Apple ID to set the Mac up for you and it is the two iLife apps (as well as the Mac and it's OS) that are registered to him. Or he signed into his account and installed Free Memory Pro for you at some time.

Jan 8, 2014 1:49 AM in response to Dah•veed

Could be.


The history goes like this: In 2011 I got a Macbook Pro with OS X Snow Leopard installed. Later, last year (2013), I got a new Macbook with OS X Lion (or was it MT Lion?) installed, but I did a Time Machine back-up from the Snow Leopard version. Afterwards I installed OS X Mavericks myself. During all this time, I can not remember involving my friend with any Apple ID related business (or Apple installation and the like, for that matter). Also, to support this, the other e-mail address (which is the one on the picture) is one of which I don't have a clue to who is.


I do, however, have a theory: If one of the e-mail addresses is from a close friend of mine (which have been involved on different matters regarding my old Macbook), then the other e-mail, which has a distinctively Norwegian sound to it (it would be translated to happycake@gmail.com), is also someone who has been involved with the Mac (both the old, and the new one). Therefore I suspect the other e-mail address belongs to the ICT department at the school I go to (Information and Communication Technology, perhaps aka IT), because they're the ones that ordered it for me, and installed some Adobe and Office programs.

Jan 8, 2014 2:19 AM in response to Linc Davis

I realise now that my friend once download Free Memory Pro (as Dah•veed suggested), but I never used it, and I doubt he signed into his own account to do it. But then again, maybe.


I tried to open Free Memory Pro, and App Store confirmed to me that this probably is the problem, because it displayed the following picture...User uploaded file

… and asked me to sign into my friends apple ID. If this is the problem, can it then be solved simply by uninstalling all the "hacked apps"?



The other e-mail I don't know about, may have been someone at my schools IT department, since they were the ones to order the Macbook Pro, and install some Adobe and Office programs.


But in my list of purchased apps, there is only Mavericks. The unhide hidden purchases guide didn't help, since there were no such options when I tried it. (Maybe that is since I don't have any hidden purchases, but there isn't an option for unhiding them anyways.)


What I don't understand though, is that if I haven't downloaded Free Memory Pro myself, and that is why I can't sign in with my username, then why does all the other apps (se picture from your search method below) work seamlessly? Garageband, for example?

User uploaded file


But anyway, is there a way to find all the programs I should uninstall, other than finding them in the "unhide"-place in App Store?

Jan 8, 2014 5:47 AM in response to Exsulator

Delete Free Memory Pro (drag & drop it into the Trash) and that should solve the issue with your friend's Apple ID. Then reindex your Mac's HDD and get back to us on what happens after the reindexing and trying to update the remaining apps.


If the university acquired the Mac for you and initially set it up, then unfortunately the Mac, the shipped version of OS X and the iLife apps are likely registered to the Apple ID used to first set up the new Mac.


Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes -

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

App Store won't let me sign in

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